From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tif
Newsgroups: net.music
Title: Re: Most Requested Rock
Article-I.D.: unc.3955
Posted: Sat Sep 11 21:50:22 1982
Received: Sun Sep 12 03:18:59 1982

I was not surprised that all of the most requested songs were
old and long. Indeed, it would have been surprising if such
were not the case. Consider: What songs are most likely to be
*requested* - meaning, what songs will inspire actual exertion
(a rare thhing indeed!) from the listening public? Answer: songs
that are not likely to be played, otherwise.

This leads to the bias towards older, longer music. Radio stations
exist to squeeze as many ads into an hour as they possibly can.
They are not going to play "Stairway To Heaven" (duration:7:52)
if they can instead run "Think I'm In Love" and three important
announcements about acne medicine. Thus, if Zepplin's opus is
going to be played at all, it requires outside initiative. By the
same token (profits), stations will play new music to exhaustion
unless they have a reason not to. New music, by and large, is what
the majority of the public wants to hear (and is, naturally, what
the record companies want the stations to play). It WILL BE PLAYED.
"Layla", on the other hand, has not been in the public eye for
ten years or so. "Eye Of The Tiger" will be heard, even if you
dont WANT to hear it. Not so with "Layla" (does anyone know what
happened to Derick and The Dominoes?).

Thus, I dont think that these are the only records that will be
requested in the future. As songs currently being hawked fade
from the record playlists, they will become more requested. I
hope so, anyway; I for one do not think that those oldies are any
better than current songs. Time will tell.