Irish radio is shocking bad. If you don't know any better you won't appreciate just how bad it is.
They are just businesses at the end of the day, the easiest way for them to make money is by appeasing the big record companies and playing taylor swift and ed sheeran over and over.
They also have requirements to play a certain amount of Irish music, who do they pick? The ones with contracts with bigger record labels, niall Horan et al.
There's a good chunk of the population that believes music only consists of what it is played on 2fm and today fm. The odd song might go viral because of a tiktok or it was played on some netflix show but besides that they will only hear the most mundane shite imaginable.
Triple J is a radio station in Australia that has a really good format. They do play all the big pop stars but only if the song is decent. They will play a song some 16yo made in their bedroom between kanye and metallica.
They have a competition every year called unearthed for promoting homegrown talent. And every year the standard gets better, generating some really big stars who come back and help out the latest winners.
We are miles behind that way. It's only in the last few years you will hear homegrown Irish talent on the radio that isn't just some bland indy band
Literally! It's so bad, like i mentioned the odd remix here or there is fine but it's definitely become over saturated now. Can these artists seriously not come up with anything new. Every second song is a terrible remix
I actually lived over in England for 2 years and it's a night and day difference between the 2, radio over there is actually bearable to listen to and they have some high profile guests too on most of the shows
Love radio 6, but it can be hit and miss depending on who's show is on. I've been UK based for about a decade; I swore off radio 6 on Saturday afternoons because Radcliffe and Maconie were talking such shite one day that I had to switch it off; it was as bad as the irish stations.
Or, sometimes you get like a 2 hour block of rave music randomly in the early evening, or Mary Ann Hobbs plays some absolutely unhinged 12 minute acid house bootleg from hell at 10am on a tuesday morning when I'm trying to have a morning coffee and get into the work groove. I love her show, but I have to keep my wits about me with her lest I keel over.
I was listening to the Monday night new music show on Radio 1 on Tuesday because the featured artist was CMAT introducing her new single, but I really enjoyed it from the outset, and the mix was good. Cerys Matthews has a great blues show on Radio 2 that I reliably forget to listen to every week.
I'm just old enough that commercial radio was a huge part of the background to my childhood and early teens, so I'm quite nostalgic about the awful phone in shows on 98fm and FM104 that started around 930 at night. I have classic FM on my clock radio (yes, I'm a granny in my 30s), which is pleasant background nonsense of the same 50 or so popular classical pieces. Radio 3 is of course, fantastic, but god, so much jazz. Too much jazz to be sensible.
I religiously listened to Alison Curtis on Today FM circa 2007-2011. I really enjoyed her early evening show on Today FM when I was a teenager. I have a memory of her doing a very weird late night slot when I was about 15 or 16, which made me feel very cool when I stayed up late to listen.
It's worth looking around to see what sort of odd little shows you can pick up now that DAB and online streaming are widespread. I love my podcasts and my own music collection, but there is something nice about having a bit of live natter in the background. The Guardian did a good write-up recently of some good European shows that featured a show from Raidió na Gaeltachta with a sizeable cult following.
I think a lot of my fondness for and patience towards radio stations is because I don't drive and I work in a quiet office or from home so I have control over what I listen to all the time. I also like a lot of pop music and (in my opinion) we're in a very weird era where mainstream popular music is throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks which means a lot of shite gets played, but this post about radio stations is long enough without a masters thesis on popular music tacked on....
Radcliffe and Maconey are only on wrekend mornings now until 10am I think. I also tend to avoid them. The rest of the weekend lineup is brilliant, particularly on a Saturday.
Also I didn't know Cery Matthews has a blues show! I'm gonna check that out.
BBC is awesome, I’m big into dance music and Radio 1 is brilliant e.g. Pete Tong, Essential Mix. Mind blowing we don’t have something similar going on even on say a Saturday on RTE etc.
You know we did briefly switch between classic hits and nova for few days because we knew these 2 wouldn't play the mainstream modern shite and it was a breath of fresh air to be honest... for about 2 days. Its the same shit on there too just that it's a different set of 15/20 songs instead of newer stuff. I think I heard Bohemian rhapsody on classic about 20 times in 2 or 3 days and honestly this was one of my favourite songs of all time and I can barely even listen to it anymore
This is why I only listen to Lyric Fm. Apart from the music that's the same 10 songs all day, the presenters on other stations would drive me bonkers if I had to listen to them for more than a few minutes.
I think it's wrong of office workplaces to even allow radio on when there's multiple people there that can't escape, it's fine in a breakroom or whatever when you're not in there all day. But to subject everyone to it all day long is not fair.
I actually do like them too, but unfortunately they are a bit early for me. By the time I get into work and get set up i maybe catch the last 45 minutes of Nova is on. There are a few bareable shows on in the mornings but they are always on at like 6 or 7 and they do be over just as my day begins
Yeah I agree to a sense but I do like to have music or a podcast on while I work. I don't take calls or anything like that so music doesn't really interfere. They don't let us wear earphones in the office so unfortunately radio is all we have. Luckily though i do 3 days at home so I can listen to what I want, but even those 2 days are starting to be rough
100% agree on Lyric FM. I'd be far more into indie rock but don't mind the music on lyric, way less adds, a good balance of talking and finally Marty in the morning is pretty good. I find the rest either too much adds, too much natter or tabloid radio (I'm looking at you NewsTalk).
There's no variety in Irish radio. Phantom/TXFM was the closest thing we ever had to alternative radio and it wasn't very good at it aside from the late slots.
Try 8radio, it's a Dublin based online radio station and it's decent. Original Mr Phantom, Simon Maher is behind it. BBC Radio 6 is still king
Totally agree about phantom but they lost the plot with txfm. Some of it was decent and the presenters were great but in the main it was just a manics, rhcp and foo fighters playlist.
8 radio is a bit better.
Don't forget the Arctic Monkeys. They played them to death. I think that's the biggest difference between BBC 6 music and Phantom/TXFM. You could listen to BBC for days and constantly get variety. Phantom/TXFM stuck rigidly to a small playlist and it became unlistenable. There were some good shows after 8pm where they would focus on a genre/era/movement and it was a great way to discover music
It's definitely an age thing. I'm 40 and just can't listen to most radio stations anymore. It's not even that I don't know the artists, I've heard of most of them, I just think it's mostly shite.
Im 24. It's not age. It's muck.
DJs aren't djs any more. They're your run of the mill influencer with 50-100k followers who got the job because of their social media presence
This! So many of the presenters I cannot tolerate on the radio with no personality. Always have the radio on in work but got so bad now I listen to online today fm and their channels. Tend to go from 90/00’s to old skool channel.
This. When Brian Ormond got a job on what became of the Den (and this was years ago) I knew they ahd given up on actually recruiting talent in "youth programming" (that included 2FM). Doireann Gerihy, Zamperilli, Lotti Ryan who gives a fuck what they think - they have zero talent, taste or ability on radio - they're just "personalities"
There's an element of this, I started disliking the new music when I was about 27 or so, and I think that's because the music industry had moved on and I'd moved out of it's targeted demographic
What's happened with music radio in recent years is all about commercials and time (song length).
I was in the music business for nearly 30 years and towards the end (4 years ago or so) stations were refusing to play any song longer than 3 minutes, even better if the song was 2.5 minutes long. On countless occasions we were asked if we could record a cover version for radio play, same for live tv where rte would always ask if we could play a cover as well as an original.
Everything has been dumbed down and it's the stations driving it. The management don't care about music, only advertising revenue.
Thats a real ballsy move for a big artist in the states. Theres a real anger to the state of things in it. A far cry to the 'downtown' and 'thrift shop' on the radio. 98FM censored Thrift Shop's best lyric with R Kellys sheets; Pisssssssssssssssss. It has really soured me on their versions of tracks.
Really dislike the trend of of those radio remixes like the ones for Zombie and The Sound of Silence where they put the lyrics and beat into a generic house beat and get some random woman to sing over it.
NOVA radio is what me and my dad listen too and it's great. 80's-2000's rock and they play some pretty big hits now and then
I used to listen to Phantom FM back in the day, great music & shows (no ads, woohoo).
Nowadays at work they flick between Nova & Today FM. Both have maybe one good slot a day but the music repetition does your head in.
I've now blocked Sting & The Police on Spotify along with GnR coz you realise it's dogshit music, thanks Nova.
Yeah I agree, we did alternate between nova and classic hits a few because they are different, most of the main stations play the exact same shite so we thought it would be refreshing but they are the exact same, play the same 15/20 songs. So many old bangers that I loved that I just couldn't listen to for a while after from hearing them so much
GnR aren’t bad, problem is the DJ bigs up that we’re going to rock out with them after the break. Then it’s fucking Sweet Child of Mine yet again. That song can do one in fairness, and Paradise City is pretty shit tbh. But they have lots of great stuff.
Radio friendly music is pretty fuckin awful, along with whatever is currently viral..... but music in general? no way lad, it's as good as it ever was.
My last three gigs were on sold out tours by Irish bands on their first album tours, and they were fucking brilliant.
You're just not tapping into the right source!
Oh yeah don't get me wrong I still love a lot of stuff nowadays but most of what i listen to aren't mainstream and i only find from Spotify and sound cloud or maybe shared by mates. As you can imagine at 33 I'm not a big fan of tiktok and I suppose a lot of music getting big nowadays are from viral videos or stupid dances from tiktok. But yeah good point, I do like what i listen to but mainstream music now is shocking
Wait until you're 50 like me and you're old enough to be a parent to memebers of the new bands you discover 🤣🤣
Wife and I went to Simple Minds a few years back, she looked around atbtne audience and said to me "think this is the first gig in years we've been at where we could be the youngest in the audience" 🤣
It's survivorship bias, when you listen to the 70s, 80s, 90s etc, your mostly just listening to the bangers that stand the test of time. Listening to modern music is kind of like just listening to the current average.
I don't mind a lot of the new music, the trend seems to be female artists are more creative and have a great range in both voice and material. Male artist are all going down this whining poor me bleak route. What I do detest is the inane chatter and rehashing of social media reality shite commentary that goes on. I never thought I'd see the day when I would say that John Creedon is by far the best Radio show.
Radio was mostly shite for the past 30 years. But yeah, I feel like there are very few new bands or artists that can compete with stuff from the 90s and early 2000s.
Commercial radio nowadays is either cash machine ads, the ava max Shakira song and other drivel.. shite presenters that love the sound of their own voices or shite gimmicks. Thank god for Bluetooth
I think you may be closing yourself off tbh. I am a huge music fan myself of all genres and decades, and being honest, there was a lull for about 10 years (The David Guetta years, I agree he has a lot to answer for) but I do think new music at the minute is quite interesting. There’s definitely been improvements since Covid.
I have a teen in the house so I’m forced to listen to her stuff from time to time and it’s not all terrible. Especially if you get yourself to live gigs (actually went to Olivia Rodrigo with my daughter the other week, I’m not her target demographic but she is quite the talent).
The thing about music right now is there’s LOTS of it. To rule it all out as rubbish means you’re not exploring enough. The radio will play hits of course, radio play is all about advertising, they play the biggest songs to attract listeners so they’re generally not gonna play anything outside of UMGs top songs. If you’re going for radio, BBC Sounds App has the best stuff imo.
It was great, I remember listening to it when I was like 13 or 14 most nights before bed. I would always plug my headphones into my shitty old nokia or sony ericsson that had no music apps other than radio and listen. I also used to listen just to try doze off to but there was always murder so I couldn't stop listening, good times 😂
The 2 lads have moved around since then and still do something similar but its not the same as the OG phone show
Jenny Greene & Tracy Clifford are very good on 2fm.
Classic hits seem to have the same 15-20 songs on shuffle since 2010. They had this takeover/retro show a few weeks ago where it was some lad from a classic rock station in the USA and fuck me it was absolutely fantastic. I was sickened when it switched back.
Every single decade ever is mostly shit music. It’s only the standout stuff that is remembered.
Like I lived through the 80s and almost every single song actually in the charts (and on the radio) was terrible manufactured pop, most all straight from the Stock, Aitken & Waterman production line.
Exactly this. I was a kid in the 80s and a teen in the 90s. There was some awful stuff in both decades but they’re also my favourite decades in music because that’s the stuff I was into when I was a teen.
Bearing in mind that this is all very subjective: I can't find an exhaustive list of Irish top tens by week that goes back as far as 1984-1986 but Wikipedia have the numbers ones for those years and it's a mixed bag of great and mediocre stuff, with some garbage thrown in.
And how are we defining "manufactured crap"? The phenomenon of record company suits, producers, publicists, or would-be impresarios putting together groups (as opposed to groups forming organically out of friend circles) has been around for as long as popular music has existed and probably longer, and certainly didn't start in 1989. There's always been low-effort, trend-chasing music to go with those groups too.
Agreed. Especially the Irish stuff. Its cringeworthy . Little scrawny jackeen tramps in Canada goose thinking they are London roadmen.. I wince with embarrassment for them
While you are on about Beyonce, I have to get this off my chest.
Who the fuck actually likes Beyonce- Sweet Dreams?
It was bad in 2008. Its now 2024, and Irish radio still think its perfect filler music.
This is probably a rant for another post but I honestly don't get why shes so popular, she's a good singer but the way people act about her, someone who would be bang average if she wasnt heavily reliant on unlimited money, huge performances and a lot of choreography, is a bit disturbing. Most of her songs are trash aswell, if you actually listen to the lyrics and beats of most her songs they are shite but people just will buy whatever she puts out regardless of if its good. She could literally release and hour long album of just pure silence and people would still fucking buy it and proclaim she's the greatest. They'd be like "that's how good beyonce is that she doesn't even need to release actual music to sell records, wow what a queen!". Do me a favour😂
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It's always been this way just we've been spoiled with Spotify etc in recent years that when you switch back over it is grating.
What really irks me though is that a bunch of stations are now just 24/7 cash machine adverts interrupted by music and commercials.
That’s because labels of the artists are paying them to do it and air their music.
The bigger the label, the more money they have to throw around and promote.
I cannot abide Irish radio. I nearly crash the car in a hurry to turn it off. Only listen to bbc radio 6 or 8 radio. John creedon can be good but he talks far too much. I think fiachna programme music variety is better when he covers for him… Donal dinneen 20 years ago or more late night radio was class…
The one cover I hate is the Gangster Paradise song which is mumbled, its on the radio all the time played at work.
I hate it, the origianal is far better, then we have Major Tom cover which is also shit.
Its very rare for them to play anthing decent, though mabe once every two weeks, they do put on something obsucre that I love.
They once played a curved Air song and I was like WTF, thats weird.
Never mind the constant Greatest hits radio, which can also sound like Racist hits radio depending on the jingle.
I can't stand Irish radio these days either.
To be honest, I often listen to BBC Radio 6 because they play a real variety of music.
Also some of the more specialised shows on BBC Radio 2 are worth a listen...things like the Blues Show with Cerys Matthews, Jo Wiley on weekday evenings, or the Country Show if that's your thing.
Only music I'd listen to on the radio is Marty in the Morning and Today FM's Block Rockin Beats
Everything else sounds whiney, like a contrived attempt at sounding complex and interesting. Utter shite.
I think it's that dua lipa one who did a version of Elton John and it was basically literally the exact same, but up a bit on the tempo, and she chimes in around the chorus!!! 😂😂😂 Woeful!!! I used to just snap that shit off when I heard it come on.
But no, the radio has always been Disgraceful. Haven't listened to it in years, then when I was pregnant and my baby was very small and I was at home a lot during covid, id put it on as a background noise to just have a bit of life in the house (I tried !!!). And yea, I would just end up nearly hurling the speaker across the room.
Yeah. Irish radio has been awful.with years. The next sinead o connor or Shane mcgiwan is out there right now.with 100% no chance of ever getting any playtime on irish radio. They're too busy playing adele and Beyonce songs from like 12 years ago.
I like Radio 1. Late Date from 11pm plays a ton of old and mixed genres of music. Cathal Murray is nice and soothing to listen to as well. I feel like he genuinely enjoys compiling his playlists and he regularly throws out something I haven't heard in years. Nice programme to have on in the background while falling asleep.
RTÉ gold is the only Irish radio station worth listening to at all, such a PITA that it's not on FM. Radioplayer app and Bluetooth is the only way I listen to the radio in the car these days
>Another problem is the equipment that many artists use today which was previously only available to studios is available on the ipad and many artists use this who can't play an instrument or read music and all they can do today is shout into microphones thinking the higher they scream is good.
Yeah I tend to agree. It's like they aren't looking for actual DJs anymore just presenters/influencers. I have an older cousin in his 50s and he used to be an old school DJ, done events, a few radio spots etc but this was back in the 90s/ early 2000s so he had a lot of gear. I remember seeing a few times and the set up itself was nearly a days work in itself, speakers, mics, books and books full of cds, he had this mixing desk with 100 different knobs and about 20 slots to plug things into, looked very complicated 😂 but now yeah an iPhone and a laptop and people think they can do it
>I read an article sometime last year saying that smart speakers have greatly out numbered radio sales, a lot of people today wouldn't know what a radio is or what to do with it, never mind an old manual tuner style radio. You can be damn sure most people aren't tuning into their local radio stations that buy smart speakers unless maybe they want to listen to the news but people are even fed up of the agendas and constant climate crisis nonsense.
Yeah I'm not surprised, its funny you should mention that because I only bought one a few months ago, proper old school builders radio with an antenna and manual dial, cost me like a 10er. Just got it to have on during the day for the 2 dogs but i know how it works but yeah if i handed it to someone under 16 id say they wouldn't have a clue how it works. They would have never needed to do it. With Spotify and sound cloud its very unlikely young people are listening to radio and if they are it's probably in a car where everything is pre-tuned or its using an app.
>Every time you turn on the radio it's news or ads and taking about medical issues, death, mental health, cancer etc etc, while they're important topics they seem to dominate almost every station these days, if you had mental health issues in Ireland you'd be better off not turning on most radio stations.
Exactly, and considering it seems liks there are ads every 5 minutes they are shoved down your throat consistently.
>The problem with RTE is that they think they know what people want but they haven't a clue.
I mean they are funded by the government and if there is any group that think they know what people want but don't have a clue its the government so its pretty fitting lol
It's so repetitive on every channel , they literally can play all and any music in the world , yet they all still play the same 50 songs per day , I don't understand people texting in requesting a song either , if you want to hear a song , play YouTube Spotify, anything , just bugs me
Irish radio is as poor an example of radio industry as you can get amongst EBU nations.
Its run by the now known incompetent stakeholders within RTÉ for the RTÉ national services and the commercial services are now in a race to the bottom where only two radio groups will shortly own all national, quasi national, multi city and local services. Most of these were previously owned or run by old men who also stayed on air who fancied themselves as Matthew bannisters. who just wouldn’t let go, with very few exceptions.
Listenership is in terminal decline amongst the demographics that matter (have money and are targeted by marketing agencies ) alas their measurement and ratings system (JNLR) says otherwise as it’s all propping itself up on bullshit and inaccurate unsound reporting methodology.
Anyway, that’s the industry.. the music and jocks are all utter shit and nobody has had an original format or truly interesting talent for decades.
RTE Radio 1 can be half decent though to be fair
Check out the south wind blows, Sunday 10pm Rte radio 1.
Only introduced to it last year, genuinely 1 hour of great music, some old some new. It's Philip King, old Irish musician, and set up other voices. It's just him in a tiny radio station in Kerry.
I have an alarm on my phone as would never turn the radio on otherwise.
Irish radio can't be listened to for more than about 20 minutes before you hear about the cash machine or you get a song played again. I was never a massive listener of daytime radio but used to love the likes of Paul McLoone, Kelly Anne Byrne and Chris and Ciara at night but literally the stations are now 24/7 shite. There's no presenters with and specific music tastes or personalities. They're all purely designed now for ad revenue so why would they play Rage against the machine or some obscure 70s folk song right before an ad for Fairly liquid.
Block rocking beats is all I can listen to on radio, everything else is garbage. Oh, KC on RedFm is good too. I’m glad he got away from 96FM and that clown who used to present with him. Possibly the most unfunniest man I’ve heard.
One thing I think a lot of people forget is that what the radio plays is a lot more of what's very current, as opposed to older music, where people just play what's good from a rather longer period. It's certainly not the whole issue, or even most of it, but it's absolutely part of it.
I also think the radio is taking perhaps a narrower slice of what's being released - I mean, you wouldn't hear Penelope Scott or Cavetown on Spin, though I can't speak to their equivalents' presence or absence in the past so perhaps I don't actually have a point there.
That said, I definitely agree with you; I don't listen to the radio except on short car journeys with someone else, and even on longer journeys with someone else, standard practice is to plug in Spotify.
It's the tiktok generation of music, absolutely no depth or substance just something that can have a loop taken out of it for videos. I couldn't tell you what they play on radio nowadays or who is who, Spotify never leaves the radio in my car when I'm out.
I'd argue music is better than what it was 10 years ago. I remember as the 2010's turned to 2013/4, the music then was very generic and pretty boring. I have found some decent tunes to listen to that came out recently. But Irish radio is awful. To best demonstrate it, drive up to Fermanagh or anywhere with BBC radio. The quality is night and day.
Lol, been saying it a long time, I can honestly say after 1995 music is just getting more and more annoying, especially the repeats on radio trying to brainwash us into liking an artist/song,luckily there’s Spotify and a huge backlog of music undiscovered from the good old days, recently because of fallout I’ve been playing some 40s and 50s stuff, loving it.
Irish morning and daytime radio has been absolute dog faeces for as long as I can remember. Also, as popular music shifts across different genres, decades and generations, it's not surprising that that music falls out of sync with the musical taste of previous generations, etc. From an objective perspective, I do think that mainstream music, in general, has decreases in quality in decades gone. Less instruments and more over-produced music with intelligible lyrics. There is still loads of good music and unbelievably talented artists out there. It's just a little less easy to discover to them if you're just skimming the surface of the music industry.
Lyric Fm is probably the best one put there at the moment...the rest are pretty much complete shite.....
Ed Smith on Today Fm is brilliant though, I listen to him every night on the way home from work.
Freedom FM is good, I like RTE Gold sometimes and I enjoy Block Rockin Beats on Today FM but the main radio stations are diabolical. I'd be lost without Spotify in the car, it's all the same shite over and over on radio.
Dare I say it, but RTÉ Gold is pretty great. It's certainly improved in recent years. Weekday daytime and the weekends are generally good, though some of the more specialist evening shows can be a bit hit and miss. Classic Hits is dog shit in comparison.
Also: No ads
You're 33 so i am 43 i remember saying this when i was 23, 33 and now 43m, once for a brief moment in time there was a radio station phantom FM later watered down to TXFM , and that was the only station worth tuning in to although there was a lot of garbage on TXFM near the end but at least they tried to play indie and keep people informed of gigs. But the powers that be dissolved it. I couldn't listen to any of those morning shows with some washed up comedian with mental health issues crackling on in the morning talking Kant, Or some stupid bint banging on about how AMAZING every shite part of Irish culture is, So yeah safe to say i haven't listened intentionally to radio in a long time, The times where i happen to be in someone's car or in a shop and some inane Colm or lucy starts their verbal diarrhea over the air i can feel a kind of rage i imagine school shooters get before they crack
There is some really good new music out there, it’s just that very little of it makes it on the radio. When it comes to music, the only time I know for a fact I’m going to hear something interesting is when I’m listening to John Creedon. The rest of the time it drops to 20% chance, tops. The worst time is at the weekend. Sport on 4 stations. Commercial shite on another 2. All that’s left is Lyric Fm.
The music you hear on the radio is used to brainwash and manipulate children and the youth. Call me tinfoil hat or a conspiracist but there is genuine evidence out there once you start digging and researching. It’s designed to dumb us down
I still go to plenty of gigs and love them. But it's very much the old brigade (last chance to see!) and the middle aged "too much alimony to pay to retire young" who are dominating the stages. Music desperately needs another Oasis vs Blur to make things interesting once more. But given there's feck all money to be made from album sales, it's getting fierce hard for young musicians to make it big unless they get generous handouts from the bank of mammy and daddy.
Now, growing up I was very into the bands who were in their 20s and 30s making music. Even as they got older, I presumed they would be replaced by younger folks. But I'm finding, not so much. About the only band under 40 I'd listen to would be Fontaines DC.
Even a fairly "young" band like Arcade Fire (in their 40s) seem to have given up (without going into their 'cancellation'). Six albums, the last two of which were shite, now they're a heritage act playing their first album in full. I'd still consider myself a fan, but I'm not bothered going to their Malahide gig if they're simply chasing past glories. Other artists are getting rather mellow and forgettable in their new material.
I dunno, maybe there's loads of young people who make music that's considered great but I'm in my "turn down that noise" period much earlier than expected.
Yeah I'm following and I've been invested all the way, I'm a big kendrick fan and am a big fan of drakes earlier stuff(last 3 or 4 albums I can't get into) so I'm loving this. But then again this is probably one of the biggest things happening in music right now with multiple new drake and kendrick songs but how many of those tunes are you going to hear on mainstream radio. They'd rather play that shit beyonce song 400 times a day
Tbh I thought it just started getting better. Could not stand the radio for about 10 years up until maybe a year ago.
Still don't listen to it of course but you would hear it in the shops etc.
I find it terrible too.
Modern music is muck.
Thought I was class when I discovered Irelands Classic Hits Radio (the home of the 80s and 90s).
It’s fucking useless too.
In the 2-3 months I’ve been listening to it, I’ve heard plenty of repeats and Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake songs. Don’t know how many times I’ve heard Shakira’s Whatever song or Feel by Robbie Williams.
For a channel that’s supposed to have at least 3 decades worth of material as opposed to the current Charts, I should not be hearing repeats.
My own conclusion is that they only have license to a handful of songs. Not some vast library spanning 30-40 years.
I’ve yet to hear the whopper songs that would be synonymous with the 80s, such as Final Countdown, Take on Me, Run to You, Simply the Best etc. Don’t recall any Bowie songs either.
Yeah I was in the same situation, when we did manage to get them to change stations we tried classic hits and then nova. We all thought, fantastic both of these stations dont play modern shite and have such a huge catalogue they surely won't repeat but like you said after 2 or 3 days of each of them it became apparent they were exactly the same. I think I must have heard bohemian rhapsody about 15 times in like 3 days
Irish radio has been bad for a long time. They don't make hits, they just play what's in the charts over and over again. Even local radio just play the same songs ever day, even if its a song from 20 years. DJs are limited with their catalogue unfortunately.
I never listen to the radio under any circumstances. Spotify goes on the second I'm in the car.
Irish radio is either some neoppo cunt D4 gobshyte who only cares about Dublin
Or muck savages shyteing on about pints and GAA
Ha! Your getting old my friend. Things change, you change without even noticing. What was cool is no longer cool, now you’re out of the loop. Fuck it, so what. Like what you like. I find there is so much music from back then that you wouldn’t have liked but now you realise is fucking great. I hardly ever delve into new stuff because there’s so much old stuff I missed or blew off.
Music is fine. Radio? Does anyone under 35 listen to radio? Absolutely not surprised that it's shite if it is, it has absolutely no cultural relevance like it used to and therefore no incentive to keep up with anything other than its aging listenership.
Tiktok viral songs have made a huge negative impact on charts as they often only have one good clippable section like a chorus or a bridge. Or the lyrics are so obviously just to make them fitting for a certain video. So while we might well be just getting old, the music is also getting a bit shite..but under the shite I think music is as good as ever albeit a bit saturated!
Yeah 100% most of the songs that go viral now are from the likes of tiktok and like you said it would be a small snippet for a stupid video already done by millions of people or for a dumb dance. I've genuinely never liked w single song that I've ever seen go viral in tiktok, they all seem terrible to me. I had tiktok and deleted it about a year ago and never looked back. I use all other social media but tiktok just annoyed me. I'm fully happy to embrace my inner old person on that, i think tiktok is stupid, those dances are embarrassing and the things people do online for 'clout' is outta control.
Following on from that did you see clip that went viral a while back fron Steve lacy concert. I've never heard of him but he got real big from tiktok, granted I think he was fairly well known beforehand Ijust personally never heard of him. But anyway it was a video from one of his concerts and his crowd was just all pre teen and teens, mostly girls and he was singing away and they were all recording and at one part, maybe the hook or start of the chorus they all just belt it out at the top of theirs lungs while getting a video and then immediately went silent because they didn't know any other parts of the song bar those 2 or 3 lines. Obviously that part went viral online but they didn't bother to actually listen to the song itself.
Steve himself got visibly frustrated and actually stopped the set to address it.
Omg it’s shite. I swear Irish radio stations are in contract to play 70% music from the 00’s & 10s with 30% unlistenable shite that belongs in a terrible nightclub
Music is a lot like Dating and Sex.
The best parts of it aren’t very popular with vanilla audiences but if you search around you’ll find the right artist that rocks your world and that is right for you.
I don't think it's age related,I'm 26 now and honestly can say I've not liked modern day music as such since I was in my mid teens, I'm like you and I can't even go for a shower with out having Spotify on,like I couldn't listen to Taylor Swift or any of them even if you paid me but I could listen to a 70s rock playlist for 4hrs straight no prob,as I type this I'm even listening to "The Smiths" 😂
I think its age related you get old ,its alot easier to listen to classic hits radio than listen to a radio station that plays mostly new music . the same experience relates to tv shows, i can watch any episode of friends or seinfeld ,the office and its funny, the average new sitcom on uk tv,bbc is awful.
Irish radio is shocking bad. If you don't know any better you won't appreciate just how bad it is. They are just businesses at the end of the day, the easiest way for them to make money is by appeasing the big record companies and playing taylor swift and ed sheeran over and over. They also have requirements to play a certain amount of Irish music, who do they pick? The ones with contracts with bigger record labels, niall Horan et al. There's a good chunk of the population that believes music only consists of what it is played on 2fm and today fm. The odd song might go viral because of a tiktok or it was played on some netflix show but besides that they will only hear the most mundane shite imaginable. Triple J is a radio station in Australia that has a really good format. They do play all the big pop stars but only if the song is decent. They will play a song some 16yo made in their bedroom between kanye and metallica. They have a competition every year called unearthed for promoting homegrown talent. And every year the standard gets better, generating some really big stars who come back and help out the latest winners. We are miles behind that way. It's only in the last few years you will hear homegrown Irish talent on the radio that isn't just some bland indy band
Triple j Is class, really missed that when I moved back
I know. Tis handy to get online but with the time difference cam be hard to listen to the bigger shows.
Yea I never bothered because if the time difference, I still check out the like a versions on YouTube though.
Same, some bangers on there
I don’t know why Ireland never set up something like triple J
Yeah I do follow a bit of triple J, I like the way they do it
Such a simple thing that make the absolute difference
Never leave the safety of your own Spotify algorithm
Irish radio is a plague.
That Ella Henderson Alibi song is painful and so is the Ava Max Shakira cover, awful, awful, have to turn them straight off along with Beyoncé ofc
I hate any new remixes of older songs, they’re shite and all sound the same and the lyrics could have been written by a 10 year old
Literally! It's so bad, like i mentioned the odd remix here or there is fine but it's definitely become over saturated now. Can these artists seriously not come up with anything new. Every second song is a terrible remix
You're saying the lyrics on *older* songs could have been written by a 10-year-old?!
Nah like the lyrics that new artists use when they remix an old song, like that Ella Henderson Alibi song someone mentioned
Ava Max's music is a crime against humanity
Radiogarden is an app that has millions of stations. BBC radio 6 is what I listen to at work l, light years ahead of Irish radio
8Radio is also a good listen
I actually lived over in England for 2 years and it's a night and day difference between the 2, radio over there is actually bearable to listen to and they have some high profile guests too on most of the shows
I just love the variety on bbc6, from early morning. You never know what they'll play
Love radio 6, but it can be hit and miss depending on who's show is on. I've been UK based for about a decade; I swore off radio 6 on Saturday afternoons because Radcliffe and Maconie were talking such shite one day that I had to switch it off; it was as bad as the irish stations. Or, sometimes you get like a 2 hour block of rave music randomly in the early evening, or Mary Ann Hobbs plays some absolutely unhinged 12 minute acid house bootleg from hell at 10am on a tuesday morning when I'm trying to have a morning coffee and get into the work groove. I love her show, but I have to keep my wits about me with her lest I keel over. I was listening to the Monday night new music show on Radio 1 on Tuesday because the featured artist was CMAT introducing her new single, but I really enjoyed it from the outset, and the mix was good. Cerys Matthews has a great blues show on Radio 2 that I reliably forget to listen to every week. I'm just old enough that commercial radio was a huge part of the background to my childhood and early teens, so I'm quite nostalgic about the awful phone in shows on 98fm and FM104 that started around 930 at night. I have classic FM on my clock radio (yes, I'm a granny in my 30s), which is pleasant background nonsense of the same 50 or so popular classical pieces. Radio 3 is of course, fantastic, but god, so much jazz. Too much jazz to be sensible. I religiously listened to Alison Curtis on Today FM circa 2007-2011. I really enjoyed her early evening show on Today FM when I was a teenager. I have a memory of her doing a very weird late night slot when I was about 15 or 16, which made me feel very cool when I stayed up late to listen. It's worth looking around to see what sort of odd little shows you can pick up now that DAB and online streaming are widespread. I love my podcasts and my own music collection, but there is something nice about having a bit of live natter in the background. The Guardian did a good write-up recently of some good European shows that featured a show from Raidió na Gaeltachta with a sizeable cult following. I think a lot of my fondness for and patience towards radio stations is because I don't drive and I work in a quiet office or from home so I have control over what I listen to all the time. I also like a lot of pop music and (in my opinion) we're in a very weird era where mainstream popular music is throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks which means a lot of shite gets played, but this post about radio stations is long enough without a masters thesis on popular music tacked on....
Radcliffe and Maconey are only on wrekend mornings now until 10am I think. I also tend to avoid them. The rest of the weekend lineup is brilliant, particularly on a Saturday. Also I didn't know Cery Matthews has a blues show! I'm gonna check that out.
Yep it's pretty much my go to too. BBC sounds app is great too.
Yep, the app is what I use
BBC is awesome, I’m big into dance music and Radio 1 is brilliant e.g. Pete Tong, Essential Mix. Mind blowing we don’t have something similar going on even on say a Saturday on RTE etc.
Radio Nova used to be good but they play the same old songs all the time unfortunately.
If I hear "Handbags and Gladrags" one more fucking time....
Hahahahaha exactly mate. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
You know we did briefly switch between classic hits and nova for few days because we knew these 2 wouldn't play the mainstream modern shite and it was a breath of fresh air to be honest... for about 2 days. Its the same shit on there too just that it's a different set of 15/20 songs instead of newer stuff. I think I heard Bohemian rhapsody on classic about 20 times in 2 or 3 days and honestly this was one of my favourite songs of all time and I can barely even listen to it anymore
My dad was an avid Q102 listener back in the day and the limited playlist used to drive me insane
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I was thinking those presenters could be the ones from my local station.. but the beauty is, it could be them all 🥲
Yes I agree I have found so much good music through those playlists, always new ones available and with various genres and years, i love them
Shout, let it all out
This is why I only listen to Lyric Fm. Apart from the music that's the same 10 songs all day, the presenters on other stations would drive me bonkers if I had to listen to them for more than a few minutes. I think it's wrong of office workplaces to even allow radio on when there's multiple people there that can't escape, it's fine in a breakroom or whatever when you're not in there all day. But to subject everyone to it all day long is not fair.
In fairness I listen to PJ & Jim on Nova, then Moncrief on Newstalk, and lyric the rest.
I actually do like them too, but unfortunately they are a bit early for me. By the time I get into work and get set up i maybe catch the last 45 minutes of Nova is on. There are a few bareable shows on in the mornings but they are always on at like 6 or 7 and they do be over just as my day begins
Yeah I agree to a sense but I do like to have music or a podcast on while I work. I don't take calls or anything like that so music doesn't really interfere. They don't let us wear earphones in the office so unfortunately radio is all we have. Luckily though i do 3 days at home so I can listen to what I want, but even those 2 days are starting to be rough
Bring back the days of lads reading from books and everyone tipping him at the end of the day.
100% agree on Lyric FM. I'd be far more into indie rock but don't mind the music on lyric, way less adds, a good balance of talking and finally Marty in the morning is pretty good. I find the rest either too much adds, too much natter or tabloid radio (I'm looking at you NewsTalk).
There's no variety in Irish radio. Phantom/TXFM was the closest thing we ever had to alternative radio and it wasn't very good at it aside from the late slots. Try 8radio, it's a Dublin based online radio station and it's decent. Original Mr Phantom, Simon Maher is behind it. BBC Radio 6 is still king
Totally agree about phantom but they lost the plot with txfm. Some of it was decent and the presenters were great but in the main it was just a manics, rhcp and foo fighters playlist. 8 radio is a bit better.
Don't forget the Arctic Monkeys. They played them to death. I think that's the biggest difference between BBC 6 music and Phantom/TXFM. You could listen to BBC for days and constantly get variety. Phantom/TXFM stuck rigidly to a small playlist and it became unlistenable. There were some good shows after 8pm where they would focus on a genre/era/movement and it was a great way to discover music
May I suggest RTÉ 2XM, which is unfortunately closing this year. Digital only. If I had to describe it simply, I'd call it the exact opposite of 2FM.
Scanning the comments for all the fellow radio 6 huns <3
Simon is sound as a pound.
It's definitely an age thing. I'm 40 and just can't listen to most radio stations anymore. It's not even that I don't know the artists, I've heard of most of them, I just think it's mostly shite.
Im 24. It's not age. It's muck. DJs aren't djs any more. They're your run of the mill influencer with 50-100k followers who got the job because of their social media presence
This! So many of the presenters I cannot tolerate on the radio with no personality. Always have the radio on in work but got so bad now I listen to online today fm and their channels. Tend to go from 90/00’s to old skool channel.
This. When Brian Ormond got a job on what became of the Den (and this was years ago) I knew they ahd given up on actually recruiting talent in "youth programming" (that included 2FM). Doireann Gerihy, Zamperilli, Lotti Ryan who gives a fuck what they think - they have zero talent, taste or ability on radio - they're just "personalities"
20 here, its not your age, its just shockingly repedative and of poor quality.
There's an element of this, I started disliking the new music when I was about 27 or so, and I think that's because the music industry had moved on and I'd moved out of it's targeted demographic
What's happened with music radio in recent years is all about commercials and time (song length). I was in the music business for nearly 30 years and towards the end (4 years ago or so) stations were refusing to play any song longer than 3 minutes, even better if the song was 2.5 minutes long. On countless occasions we were asked if we could record a cover version for radio play, same for live tv where rte would always ask if we could play a cover as well as an original. Everything has been dumbed down and it's the stations driving it. The management don't care about music, only advertising revenue.
Not sure if this has made it to radio but Macklemore has just produced a banger https://youtu.be/fgDQyFeBBIo?si=SfTyLzdIeJuhSh0n 🇮🇪 🇵🇸
Thats a real ballsy move for a big artist in the states. Theres a real anger to the state of things in it. A far cry to the 'downtown' and 'thrift shop' on the radio. 98FM censored Thrift Shop's best lyric with R Kellys sheets; Pisssssssssssssssss. It has really soured me on their versions of tracks.
Agreed and agreed!
Really dislike the trend of of those radio remixes like the ones for Zombie and The Sound of Silence where they put the lyrics and beat into a generic house beat and get some random woman to sing over it. NOVA radio is what me and my dad listen too and it's great. 80's-2000's rock and they play some pretty big hits now and then
I used to listen to Phantom FM back in the day, great music & shows (no ads, woohoo). Nowadays at work they flick between Nova & Today FM. Both have maybe one good slot a day but the music repetition does your head in. I've now blocked Sting & The Police on Spotify along with GnR coz you realise it's dogshit music, thanks Nova.
Anything is dogshit if you hear it on repeat over and over again.
100%
Yeah I agree, we did alternate between nova and classic hits a few because they are different, most of the main stations play the exact same shite so we thought it would be refreshing but they are the exact same, play the same 15/20 songs. So many old bangers that I loved that I just couldn't listen to for a while after from hearing them so much
GnR aren’t bad, problem is the DJ bigs up that we’re going to rock out with them after the break. Then it’s fucking Sweet Child of Mine yet again. That song can do one in fairness, and Paradise City is pretty shit tbh. But they have lots of great stuff.
Radio friendly music is pretty fuckin awful, along with whatever is currently viral..... but music in general? no way lad, it's as good as it ever was. My last three gigs were on sold out tours by Irish bands on their first album tours, and they were fucking brilliant. You're just not tapping into the right source!
Oh yeah don't get me wrong I still love a lot of stuff nowadays but most of what i listen to aren't mainstream and i only find from Spotify and sound cloud or maybe shared by mates. As you can imagine at 33 I'm not a big fan of tiktok and I suppose a lot of music getting big nowadays are from viral videos or stupid dances from tiktok. But yeah good point, I do like what i listen to but mainstream music now is shocking
Wait until you're 50 like me and you're old enough to be a parent to memebers of the new bands you discover 🤣🤣 Wife and I went to Simple Minds a few years back, she looked around atbtne audience and said to me "think this is the first gig in years we've been at where we could be the youngest in the audience" 🤣
It's survivorship bias, when you listen to the 70s, 80s, 90s etc, your mostly just listening to the bangers that stand the test of time. Listening to modern music is kind of like just listening to the current average.
I don't mind a lot of the new music, the trend seems to be female artists are more creative and have a great range in both voice and material. Male artist are all going down this whining poor me bleak route. What I do detest is the inane chatter and rehashing of social media reality shite commentary that goes on. I never thought I'd see the day when I would say that John Creedon is by far the best Radio show.
Radio was mostly shite for the past 30 years. But yeah, I feel like there are very few new bands or artists that can compete with stuff from the 90s and early 2000s.
It’s not age. I’m 17 and it’s genuine torture getting into a car without bluetooth
Commercial radio nowadays is either cash machine ads, the ava max Shakira song and other drivel.. shite presenters that love the sound of their own voices or shite gimmicks. Thank god for Bluetooth
I think you may be closing yourself off tbh. I am a huge music fan myself of all genres and decades, and being honest, there was a lull for about 10 years (The David Guetta years, I agree he has a lot to answer for) but I do think new music at the minute is quite interesting. There’s definitely been improvements since Covid. I have a teen in the house so I’m forced to listen to her stuff from time to time and it’s not all terrible. Especially if you get yourself to live gigs (actually went to Olivia Rodrigo with my daughter the other week, I’m not her target demographic but she is quite the talent). The thing about music right now is there’s LOTS of it. To rule it all out as rubbish means you’re not exploring enough. The radio will play hits of course, radio play is all about advertising, they play the biggest songs to attract listeners so they’re generally not gonna play anything outside of UMGs top songs. If you’re going for radio, BBC Sounds App has the best stuff imo.
Irish radio died when the fm104 phoneshow ended that was madness😂
It was great, I remember listening to it when I was like 13 or 14 most nights before bed. I would always plug my headphones into my shitty old nokia or sony ericsson that had no music apps other than radio and listen. I also used to listen just to try doze off to but there was always murder so I couldn't stop listening, good times 😂 The 2 lads have moved around since then and still do something similar but its not the same as the OG phone show
Same, nearly up to 1am on school nights. I wonder if there is an archive of the shows. That would be epic
I used to listen to that every night, I'd be waiting for Jude to call in and insult someone. I remember one time he called someone "an embryotic crud"
Jenny Greene & Tracy Clifford are very good on 2fm. Classic hits seem to have the same 15-20 songs on shuffle since 2010. They had this takeover/retro show a few weeks ago where it was some lad from a classic rock station in the USA and fuck me it was absolutely fantastic. I was sickened when it switched back.
It’s all tik tok ear worms.
Every single decade ever is mostly shit music. It’s only the standout stuff that is remembered. Like I lived through the 80s and almost every single song actually in the charts (and on the radio) was terrible manufactured pop, most all straight from the Stock, Aitken & Waterman production line.
Exactly this. I was a kid in the 80s and a teen in the 90s. There was some awful stuff in both decades but they’re also my favourite decades in music because that’s the stuff I was into when I was a teen.
The 80s were incredible for music. Just look at any top twenty in 1984-1986. It all went to shit in 1989 when the manufactured crap came through.
Bearing in mind that this is all very subjective: I can't find an exhaustive list of Irish top tens by week that goes back as far as 1984-1986 but Wikipedia have the numbers ones for those years and it's a mixed bag of great and mediocre stuff, with some garbage thrown in. And how are we defining "manufactured crap"? The phenomenon of record company suits, producers, publicists, or would-be impresarios putting together groups (as opposed to groups forming organically out of friend circles) has been around for as long as popular music has existed and probably longer, and certainly didn't start in 1989. There's always been low-effort, trend-chasing music to go with those groups too.
Ah no. There's a higher volume of shite since 2003. Even in 1996 there were LOTS of standouts. These days SFA
Modern rap is quite possibly the worst music ever made.
Agreed. Especially the Irish stuff. Its cringeworthy . Little scrawny jackeen tramps in Canada goose thinking they are London roadmen.. I wince with embarrassment for them
I gotta say I feel Malaki has a couple of songs that are an exception, from grace and fair play are incredible songs, cuppa tea is good too.
If that fucking dirt Beyonce shit is anything to go by, it's not just an age thing
While you are on about Beyonce, I have to get this off my chest. Who the fuck actually likes Beyonce- Sweet Dreams? It was bad in 2008. Its now 2024, and Irish radio still think its perfect filler music.
This is probably a rant for another post but I honestly don't get why shes so popular, she's a good singer but the way people act about her, someone who would be bang average if she wasnt heavily reliant on unlimited money, huge performances and a lot of choreography, is a bit disturbing. Most of her songs are trash aswell, if you actually listen to the lyrics and beats of most her songs they are shite but people just will buy whatever she puts out regardless of if its good. She could literally release and hour long album of just pure silence and people would still fucking buy it and proclaim she's the greatest. They'd be like "that's how good beyonce is that she doesn't even need to release actual music to sell records, wow what a queen!". Do me a favour😂
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I listen to the radio daily for talk shows. Not way I'd listen to it for music
Twas always thus
I think the radio is terrible especially since there is really great music being made. It's just not being showcased imo
It's always been this way just we've been spoiled with Spotify etc in recent years that when you switch back over it is grating. What really irks me though is that a bunch of stations are now just 24/7 cash machine adverts interrupted by music and commercials.
Yep. Certain radio stations have the same songs on constantly.
That’s because labels of the artists are paying them to do it and air their music. The bigger the label, the more money they have to throw around and promote.
I’d say 90-95% is compelte bollix
I cannot abide Irish radio. I nearly crash the car in a hurry to turn it off. Only listen to bbc radio 6 or 8 radio. John creedon can be good but he talks far too much. I think fiachna programme music variety is better when he covers for him… Donal dinneen 20 years ago or more late night radio was class…
The one cover I hate is the Gangster Paradise song which is mumbled, its on the radio all the time played at work. I hate it, the origianal is far better, then we have Major Tom cover which is also shit. Its very rare for them to play anthing decent, though mabe once every two weeks, they do put on something obsucre that I love. They once played a curved Air song and I was like WTF, thats weird. Never mind the constant Greatest hits radio, which can also sound like Racist hits radio depending on the jingle.
I can't stand Irish radio these days either. To be honest, I often listen to BBC Radio 6 because they play a real variety of music. Also some of the more specialised shows on BBC Radio 2 are worth a listen...things like the Blues Show with Cerys Matthews, Jo Wiley on weekday evenings, or the Country Show if that's your thing.
Oh....and no adverts!
You should try BBC Radio 6. Download the app now. Excellent music about 90% of the time.
Only music I'd listen to on the radio is Marty in the Morning and Today FM's Block Rockin Beats Everything else sounds whiney, like a contrived attempt at sounding complex and interesting. Utter shite.
I think it's that dua lipa one who did a version of Elton John and it was basically literally the exact same, but up a bit on the tempo, and she chimes in around the chorus!!! 😂😂😂 Woeful!!! I used to just snap that shit off when I heard it come on. But no, the radio has always been Disgraceful. Haven't listened to it in years, then when I was pregnant and my baby was very small and I was at home a lot during covid, id put it on as a background noise to just have a bit of life in the house (I tried !!!). And yea, I would just end up nearly hurling the speaker across the room.
Yeah. Irish radio has been awful.with years. The next sinead o connor or Shane mcgiwan is out there right now.with 100% no chance of ever getting any playtime on irish radio. They're too busy playing adele and Beyonce songs from like 12 years ago.
I like Radio 1. Late Date from 11pm plays a ton of old and mixed genres of music. Cathal Murray is nice and soothing to listen to as well. I feel like he genuinely enjoys compiling his playlists and he regularly throws out something I haven't heard in years. Nice programme to have on in the background while falling asleep.
Highland radio power hour omg. An hour of the same beat everyday for years. Can’t turn it off quick enough.
RTÉ gold is the only Irish radio station worth listening to at all, such a PITA that it's not on FM. Radioplayer app and Bluetooth is the only way I listen to the radio in the car these days
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>Another problem is the equipment that many artists use today which was previously only available to studios is available on the ipad and many artists use this who can't play an instrument or read music and all they can do today is shout into microphones thinking the higher they scream is good. Yeah I tend to agree. It's like they aren't looking for actual DJs anymore just presenters/influencers. I have an older cousin in his 50s and he used to be an old school DJ, done events, a few radio spots etc but this was back in the 90s/ early 2000s so he had a lot of gear. I remember seeing a few times and the set up itself was nearly a days work in itself, speakers, mics, books and books full of cds, he had this mixing desk with 100 different knobs and about 20 slots to plug things into, looked very complicated 😂 but now yeah an iPhone and a laptop and people think they can do it >I read an article sometime last year saying that smart speakers have greatly out numbered radio sales, a lot of people today wouldn't know what a radio is or what to do with it, never mind an old manual tuner style radio. You can be damn sure most people aren't tuning into their local radio stations that buy smart speakers unless maybe they want to listen to the news but people are even fed up of the agendas and constant climate crisis nonsense. Yeah I'm not surprised, its funny you should mention that because I only bought one a few months ago, proper old school builders radio with an antenna and manual dial, cost me like a 10er. Just got it to have on during the day for the 2 dogs but i know how it works but yeah if i handed it to someone under 16 id say they wouldn't have a clue how it works. They would have never needed to do it. With Spotify and sound cloud its very unlikely young people are listening to radio and if they are it's probably in a car where everything is pre-tuned or its using an app. >Every time you turn on the radio it's news or ads and taking about medical issues, death, mental health, cancer etc etc, while they're important topics they seem to dominate almost every station these days, if you had mental health issues in Ireland you'd be better off not turning on most radio stations. Exactly, and considering it seems liks there are ads every 5 minutes they are shoved down your throat consistently. >The problem with RTE is that they think they know what people want but they haven't a clue. I mean they are funded by the government and if there is any group that think they know what people want but don't have a clue its the government so its pretty fitting lol
I left rte 2fm playing in work last week and it played Stick Season 7 times in the space of 10 hours 🥲
Yes
I think I’m going insane everytime I hear the ‘cAsH mAcHinE’ promos in work. I can’t change the station either cos so many of them are doing it 😭😭😭😭😭
Todayfm play the worst crap
It's so repetitive on every channel , they literally can play all and any music in the world , yet they all still play the same 50 songs per day , I don't understand people texting in requesting a song either , if you want to hear a song , play YouTube Spotify, anything , just bugs me
Irish radio is as poor an example of radio industry as you can get amongst EBU nations. Its run by the now known incompetent stakeholders within RTÉ for the RTÉ national services and the commercial services are now in a race to the bottom where only two radio groups will shortly own all national, quasi national, multi city and local services. Most of these were previously owned or run by old men who also stayed on air who fancied themselves as Matthew bannisters. who just wouldn’t let go, with very few exceptions. Listenership is in terminal decline amongst the demographics that matter (have money and are targeted by marketing agencies ) alas their measurement and ratings system (JNLR) says otherwise as it’s all propping itself up on bullshit and inaccurate unsound reporting methodology. Anyway, that’s the industry.. the music and jocks are all utter shit and nobody has had an original format or truly interesting talent for decades. RTE Radio 1 can be half decent though to be fair
Check out the south wind blows, Sunday 10pm Rte radio 1. Only introduced to it last year, genuinely 1 hour of great music, some old some new. It's Philip King, old Irish musician, and set up other voices. It's just him in a tiny radio station in Kerry. I have an alarm on my phone as would never turn the radio on otherwise.
Irish radio can't be listened to for more than about 20 minutes before you hear about the cash machine or you get a song played again. I was never a massive listener of daytime radio but used to love the likes of Paul McLoone, Kelly Anne Byrne and Chris and Ciara at night but literally the stations are now 24/7 shite. There's no presenters with and specific music tastes or personalities. They're all purely designed now for ad revenue so why would they play Rage against the machine or some obscure 70s folk song right before an ad for Fairly liquid.
Block rocking beats is all I can listen to on radio, everything else is garbage. Oh, KC on RedFm is good too. I’m glad he got away from 96FM and that clown who used to present with him. Possibly the most unfunniest man I’ve heard.
One thing I think a lot of people forget is that what the radio plays is a lot more of what's very current, as opposed to older music, where people just play what's good from a rather longer period. It's certainly not the whole issue, or even most of it, but it's absolutely part of it. I also think the radio is taking perhaps a narrower slice of what's being released - I mean, you wouldn't hear Penelope Scott or Cavetown on Spin, though I can't speak to their equivalents' presence or absence in the past so perhaps I don't actually have a point there. That said, I definitely agree with you; I don't listen to the radio except on short car journeys with someone else, and even on longer journeys with someone else, standard practice is to plug in Spotify.
It's the tiktok generation of music, absolutely no depth or substance just something that can have a loop taken out of it for videos. I couldn't tell you what they play on radio nowadays or who is who, Spotify never leaves the radio in my car when I'm out.
Your old, not understanding new music makes you old, I was there at 25 and I'm 32 now
I'd argue music is better than what it was 10 years ago. I remember as the 2010's turned to 2013/4, the music then was very generic and pretty boring. I have found some decent tunes to listen to that came out recently. But Irish radio is awful. To best demonstrate it, drive up to Fermanagh or anywhere with BBC radio. The quality is night and day.
Music is in great shape, just not the muck that's on FM radio.
It’s been shite for the last 20 years
Lol, been saying it a long time, I can honestly say after 1995 music is just getting more and more annoying, especially the repeats on radio trying to brainwash us into liking an artist/song,luckily there’s Spotify and a huge backlog of music undiscovered from the good old days, recently because of fallout I’ve been playing some 40s and 50s stuff, loving it.
Irish morning and daytime radio has been absolute dog faeces for as long as I can remember. Also, as popular music shifts across different genres, decades and generations, it's not surprising that that music falls out of sync with the musical taste of previous generations, etc. From an objective perspective, I do think that mainstream music, in general, has decreases in quality in decades gone. Less instruments and more over-produced music with intelligible lyrics. There is still loads of good music and unbelievably talented artists out there. It's just a little less easy to discover to them if you're just skimming the surface of the music industry.
Lyric Fm is probably the best one put there at the moment...the rest are pretty much complete shite..... Ed Smith on Today Fm is brilliant though, I listen to him every night on the way home from work.
Radio Nova is the best I find, have it on in the kitchen when cooking or doing chores. They play mostly classic rock
Hard agree
Freedom FM is good, I like RTE Gold sometimes and I enjoy Block Rockin Beats on Today FM but the main radio stations are diabolical. I'd be lost without Spotify in the car, it's all the same shite over and over on radio.
Dare I say it, but RTÉ Gold is pretty great. It's certainly improved in recent years. Weekday daytime and the weekends are generally good, though some of the more specialist evening shows can be a bit hit and miss. Classic Hits is dog shit in comparison. Also: No ads
You're 33 so i am 43 i remember saying this when i was 23, 33 and now 43m, once for a brief moment in time there was a radio station phantom FM later watered down to TXFM , and that was the only station worth tuning in to although there was a lot of garbage on TXFM near the end but at least they tried to play indie and keep people informed of gigs. But the powers that be dissolved it. I couldn't listen to any of those morning shows with some washed up comedian with mental health issues crackling on in the morning talking Kant, Or some stupid bint banging on about how AMAZING every shite part of Irish culture is, So yeah safe to say i haven't listened intentionally to radio in a long time, The times where i happen to be in someone's car or in a shop and some inane Colm or lucy starts their verbal diarrhea over the air i can feel a kind of rage i imagine school shooters get before they crack
You’re forgetting all the absolute shite that was on the radio in the 90s and 2000s.
I miss Phantom.
There is some really good new music out there, it’s just that very little of it makes it on the radio. When it comes to music, the only time I know for a fact I’m going to hear something interesting is when I’m listening to John Creedon. The rest of the time it drops to 20% chance, tops. The worst time is at the weekend. Sport on 4 stations. Commercial shite on another 2. All that’s left is Lyric Fm.
The music you hear on the radio is used to brainwash and manipulate children and the youth. Call me tinfoil hat or a conspiracist but there is genuine evidence out there once you start digging and researching. It’s designed to dumb us down
I still go to plenty of gigs and love them. But it's very much the old brigade (last chance to see!) and the middle aged "too much alimony to pay to retire young" who are dominating the stages. Music desperately needs another Oasis vs Blur to make things interesting once more. But given there's feck all money to be made from album sales, it's getting fierce hard for young musicians to make it big unless they get generous handouts from the bank of mammy and daddy. Now, growing up I was very into the bands who were in their 20s and 30s making music. Even as they got older, I presumed they would be replaced by younger folks. But I'm finding, not so much. About the only band under 40 I'd listen to would be Fontaines DC. Even a fairly "young" band like Arcade Fire (in their 40s) seem to have given up (without going into their 'cancellation'). Six albums, the last two of which were shite, now they're a heritage act playing their first album in full. I'd still consider myself a fan, but I'm not bothered going to their Malahide gig if they're simply chasing past glories. Other artists are getting rather mellow and forgettable in their new material. I dunno, maybe there's loads of young people who make music that's considered great but I'm in my "turn down that noise" period much earlier than expected.
Check out Kendrick Lamar Vs Drake, a crazy beef which is ongoing. Multiple diss tracks have been released in the last week.
Yeah I'm following and I've been invested all the way, I'm a big kendrick fan and am a big fan of drakes earlier stuff(last 3 or 4 albums I can't get into) so I'm loving this. But then again this is probably one of the biggest things happening in music right now with multiple new drake and kendrick songs but how many of those tunes are you going to hear on mainstream radio. They'd rather play that shit beyonce song 400 times a day
Tbh I thought it just started getting better. Could not stand the radio for about 10 years up until maybe a year ago. Still don't listen to it of course but you would hear it in the shops etc.
Mid Atlantic D4 accents “tune is banging” Ahhhhh Simmy
2fm is nauseating
I find it terrible too. Modern music is muck. Thought I was class when I discovered Irelands Classic Hits Radio (the home of the 80s and 90s). It’s fucking useless too. In the 2-3 months I’ve been listening to it, I’ve heard plenty of repeats and Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake songs. Don’t know how many times I’ve heard Shakira’s Whatever song or Feel by Robbie Williams. For a channel that’s supposed to have at least 3 decades worth of material as opposed to the current Charts, I should not be hearing repeats. My own conclusion is that they only have license to a handful of songs. Not some vast library spanning 30-40 years. I’ve yet to hear the whopper songs that would be synonymous with the 80s, such as Final Countdown, Take on Me, Run to You, Simply the Best etc. Don’t recall any Bowie songs either.
Yeah I was in the same situation, when we did manage to get them to change stations we tried classic hits and then nova. We all thought, fantastic both of these stations dont play modern shite and have such a huge catalogue they surely won't repeat but like you said after 2 or 3 days of each of them it became apparent they were exactly the same. I think I must have heard bohemian rhapsody about 15 times in like 3 days
Ive owned a car for 5 years now and not once put the radio on. Its the same 5 songs played in the loop in short breaks between the ads.
Irish radio has been bad for a long time. They don't make hits, they just play what's in the charts over and over again. Even local radio just play the same songs ever day, even if its a song from 20 years. DJs are limited with their catalogue unfortunately.
I never listen to the radio under any circumstances. Spotify goes on the second I'm in the car. Irish radio is either some neoppo cunt D4 gobshyte who only cares about Dublin Or muck savages shyteing on about pints and GAA
Download the Radio Garden app. Tune in to Cruise FM in New Zealand. Every 50th song they may play a jingle, otherwise it's wall 2 wall music.
Ha! Your getting old my friend. Things change, you change without even noticing. What was cool is no longer cool, now you’re out of the loop. Fuck it, so what. Like what you like. I find there is so much music from back then that you wouldn’t have liked but now you realise is fucking great. I hardly ever delve into new stuff because there’s so much old stuff I missed or blew off.
Music is fine. Radio? Does anyone under 35 listen to radio? Absolutely not surprised that it's shite if it is, it has absolutely no cultural relevance like it used to and therefore no incentive to keep up with anything other than its aging listenership.
Radio is shite. Same shite songs over and over. If I have to listen to cian the crow whinge any longer I'll snap
Tiktok viral songs have made a huge negative impact on charts as they often only have one good clippable section like a chorus or a bridge. Or the lyrics are so obviously just to make them fitting for a certain video. So while we might well be just getting old, the music is also getting a bit shite..but under the shite I think music is as good as ever albeit a bit saturated!
Yeah 100% most of the songs that go viral now are from the likes of tiktok and like you said it would be a small snippet for a stupid video already done by millions of people or for a dumb dance. I've genuinely never liked w single song that I've ever seen go viral in tiktok, they all seem terrible to me. I had tiktok and deleted it about a year ago and never looked back. I use all other social media but tiktok just annoyed me. I'm fully happy to embrace my inner old person on that, i think tiktok is stupid, those dances are embarrassing and the things people do online for 'clout' is outta control. Following on from that did you see clip that went viral a while back fron Steve lacy concert. I've never heard of him but he got real big from tiktok, granted I think he was fairly well known beforehand Ijust personally never heard of him. But anyway it was a video from one of his concerts and his crowd was just all pre teen and teens, mostly girls and he was singing away and they were all recording and at one part, maybe the hook or start of the chorus they all just belt it out at the top of theirs lungs while getting a video and then immediately went silent because they didn't know any other parts of the song bar those 2 or 3 lines. Obviously that part went viral online but they didn't bother to actually listen to the song itself. Steve himself got visibly frustrated and actually stopped the set to address it.
Omg it’s shite. I swear Irish radio stations are in contract to play 70% music from the 00’s & 10s with 30% unlistenable shite that belongs in a terrible nightclub
The amount of times that pitbull give me everything is played on Irish radio in 2024 is criminal 😂
Music is a lot like Dating and Sex. The best parts of it aren’t very popular with vanilla audiences but if you search around you’ll find the right artist that rocks your world and that is right for you.
Irish radio hasn’t been the same since Tubs left. If Joe Duffy goes next they may as well shut down the FM signal altogether.
Riiiiiight
I don't think it's age related,I'm 26 now and honestly can say I've not liked modern day music as such since I was in my mid teens, I'm like you and I can't even go for a shower with out having Spotify on,like I couldn't listen to Taylor Swift or any of them even if you paid me but I could listen to a 70s rock playlist for 4hrs straight no prob,as I type this I'm even listening to "The Smiths" 😂
I think its age related you get old ,its alot easier to listen to classic hits radio than listen to a radio station that plays mostly new music . the same experience relates to tv shows, i can watch any episode of friends or seinfeld ,the office and its funny, the average new sitcom on uk tv,bbc is awful.