From: gifford@krang.vis.citri.edu.au (Jonathan Gifford)
Subject: Re: CHART: Top 10 singles -> Australia.
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Distribution: aus
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 05:48:49 GMT

rdb147t@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Joel Hynoski) writes:

>In article <1992Aug30.072430.11001@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> mvc@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Min Vui Chan) writes:
>>jamie@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Jamie Scuglia) writes:
>>
>>: 1. ( 1) AMIGOS PARA SIEMPRE - Jose Carreras and Sarah Brightman
>>:         (FRIENDS FOR LIFE)                      [3 weeks at #1]
>>: 
>>: (1)---> For the third week in a row, Jose Carreras and Sarah Brightman
>>: are the proud owners of the number one single in Australia - AMIGOS
>>: PARA SIEMPRE (FRIENDS FOR LIFE).  While this single is selling by the
>>: truck-loads here, most (if not all) radio stations in Australia
>>: refuse to play the single - even though it is at number one.  And
>>: countdown shows like TAKE 40 AUSTRALIA and THE ROCK 40 COUNTDOWN
>>: refuse to play more than 15 seconds of the biggest selling song
>>: of the week.  I have never seen such prejudice by radio to a number
>>: one song - excluding it from countdowns is really ridiculous, considering
>>: how popular the song is internationally due to the Olympics at Barcelona.
>>: It is not an "offensive" song, it does not contain explicit lyrics,
>>: and its video is not X-rated, hence the song should not be ignored
>>: due to the fact that it is a bit opera-orientated.  Jose's current
>>: album, FRIENDS FOR LIFE, is one of the biggest selling albums of the week,
>>: and he has also topped the albums charts before, so there are a lot
>>: of people out there that like his work.  The soundtrack to Phantom Of The Opera
>>: (featuring Sarah Brightman) has also sold well, so radio should realize
>>: that there is support for this single and the artists involved.
>>: While I am NOT a big fan of opera myself, I do like AMIGOS PARA SIEMPRE -
>>: and I believe that it *DOES* have wide-spread appeal.  It really
>>: disappoints me to see music like that ignored by radio, to such an extent
>>: that even countdown shows will not play it.
>>: 
>>Ain't that the truth!!! Stuff the radio stations! We'll show them!
>>

>While I have no objection to operatic-type songs, in fact I enjoy much
>Classical music (and have studied same), this song is pretty much trash, 
>simply spurred on by the fact that (a) It was the Olympics Theme song
>(b) Jose Carreras & Sarah Brightman, two phenomenally successful singers due
>to their operas and of course, Phantom and (c) Andrew Lloyd Webber *ugh* wrote
>it and the Phantom/Evita/Jesus Christ Superstar/Cats/Starlight Express success
>lingers on. 

>Other than this, the song is mule puke. Andrew Lloyd Webber is the whore
>of the music industry, and is prostituting both popular and opera styles.

It occurs to me that some people don't realise what charts actually
measure, and what radio actually is. Sure, a record might happen to be
No1 for some obscure reason, but that doesn't mean that the *ANY* of
the people who listen to the station that happens to have the chart
show have ever heard it, or are even vaguely interested in hearing it.
Jamie seems to exist in some wierd little world where musical quality
is judged by a chart ranking, which seems to reflect some kind of
absolute value scale for him. How many people actually buy a cd or
tape every week, as a percentage of the enitire population? If every
single NWA fan went out next week and bought the same NWA cd, it would
go to number one, but how many people listening to MMM would want to
hear it? Radio stations make decisions on what songs to play based on
*who listens to their station* not on what the most popular song over
the entire population is! This aint prejudice, this is marketing, and
its something radio is pretty damn good at. If it wasn't, I wouldn't
be able to hang shit on people who listen to MMM, cos they'd be being
as fucked off at listening to decent music as I would be at having to
their dross on the 5 identically schizophrenic stations we'd have
instead. You can go out and buy the goddamned cd, if your favorite
radio station won't play it - that will be a lot easier than trying to
talk them into playing it.

jon (from the same place as Brian May - 
     watch out Jamie, we're coming to get you...)
-- 
Jonathan Gifford        gifford@vis.citri.EDU.AU        gifford@cs.mu.OZ.AU
--- CITRI, 723 Swanston St, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia  +61 3 2822475 ---
  Eating animals acts as mirror and representation of patriarchal values
Newsgroups: aus.music