GIMME THAT OLD TIME ROCK & ROLL!

“Hell, what do I know. I’ve been dead thirty years and still sell records.”

Kass sent over this report. It does, however, emanate from Fox Noise so there may be more to the slant. The same report was also heavily down on Britney Spears Blackout CD that has now shown up in the Billboard charts at #1.
"Clear Channel seems to have sent a clear message to other radio outlets that at age 58, Springsteen simply is too old to be played on rock stations. This completely absurd notion is one of many ways Clear Channel has done more to destroy the music business than downloading over the last 10 years. It’s certainly what’s helped create satellite radio, where Springsteen is a staple and even has his own channel on Sirius. It’s not just Springsteen. There is no sign at major radio stations of new albums by John Fogerty or Annie Lennox, either. The same stations that should be playing Santana’s new singles with Chad Kroeger or Tina Turner are avoiding them, too.”

I’m not certain that it’s just a matter of simple ageism. Clear Channel is essentially run by corporate suits who know little about music, and like to keep it that way. They also hate the whole idea of diversity because its untidy and unpredictable, and only really want to be assured that they have a universal and standardized formula that will attract what they believe is the crucial 18-45 (or whatever) key demographic. With Clear Channel one also has to look for an underlying political motive and, in this instance, I think they would rather see the whole 1960s-70s generation with its independent thinking and pinko-socialist ideas just fuck off and die because, philosophically, they are just too noisy and high maintenance. But we won’t, fuck, it. On the other hand, does anyone really want to do like The bloody Eagles and sell a million and some units exclusively through Wal-Mart.

The secret word is Fluff

And this is Elvis