NAME THAT TUNE? YOU’LL BE LUCKY

02-05-2007

Radio DJs often give the impression that they are more important than the music they play. Now Ros Dodd has the proof.

Now, first things first: I’m a real philistine when it comes to contemporary music.

Let me give you an example: some years ago, when I was Women’s Editor on The Birmingham Post, I picked up the phone one day to a publicist for the band Prodigy. Would I, they asked, go on a radio show to discuss whether the song Smack My Bitch Up was offensive to women? I’d never heard of the band and my response was “what is Prodigy”? Unsurprisingly, the publicist quickly withdrew the invitation.

I never understood what “garage” music was, couldn’t identify “grunge” if it hit me in the face and haven’t a clue about “hip-hop” or “indie”.

Pleb though I am, I’m constantly on the lookout for bands or singers who will engage me more than Simply Red or George Michael. Whenever I’m in the car I put on Heart FM (switching from the mind boggling boredom of Radio 4 that my husband favours) and enjoy the mix of old and new tunes.

But what I find hugely frustrating is that Heart, along with most other radio stations, almost never identifies the song title they’ve just played or who sung it. Consequently, I loved songs by the Scissors Sisters, Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight long before I found out what they were called and who the artists were.

More recently, I found myself captivated by a song that I only discovered was by Mika when I saw an advert for a compilation CD on television, and identified the track (Grace Kelly) only by Googling Mika.

Why, I wonder, have radio stations (even Radio 2 is guilty of this) stopped announcing the title of tracks and the artists when they play a song? What’s the point of playing music for people to enjoy if they don’t them what they’re listening to? How can people rush out and buy a CD unless they know what to ask for?

Come on radio stations, do your job properly and help to educate the musically uninitiated like me about the current music scene. Otherwise we’ll just keep on playing Barry Manilow.