Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (03/19/87)
Really-From: <DSR@CRNLNS.BITNET> Pulled out the CD of HOL yesterday (after returning from jury duty), set the player to loop starting at 2:19 in "Watching you...", recorded the secret message a few times on cassette, and transferred the cassette to my 4-track cassette machine. After trying both directions at a variety of speeds with various equalizations, I'm clueless. I did, however, discover why Kate has never achieved the enormous popularity in the US she so obviously deserves. Let me explain. At one point I tried an EQ setting drastically peaked in the midrange to try and enhance the vocals, with the track switched to mono. Sounded a lot like a cheap AM radio with a 3" speaker. Sounded absolutely awful, too. At which point, it struck: Kate isn't popular in the US because she doesn't mix for cheap AM radios. Any sensible "artist" KNOWS that a mix which sounds good on cheap AM radios is an absolute necessity for commercial success in the US (I'm told, in fact, that Peter Gabriel recorded most of Security through a cheap radio shack amplifier with a 5" speaker just to get that sound). Maybe somebody should tell Kate. But be sure to break it to her gently... -Dan Riley (dsr@crnlns.bitnet) (currently absolutely elated at finally having acquired The Dreaming on CD)
Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (03/20/87)
Really-From: Paul Benjamin <Benjamin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
Really-From: <DSR@CRNLNS.BITNET>
Any sensible "artist" KNOWS that a mix which sounds good on cheap AM
radios is an absolute necessity for commercial success in the US...
-Dan Riley (dsr@crnlns.bitnet)
I am surprised to hear that. In the market that I am familiar with,
Phoenix, Arizona, there is very little music of any kind on AM. The
major radio stations of all parts of the spectrum (Top 40, AOR, MOR,
"classic rock", "progressive" rock, "new music", country, hispanic,
classical, jazz) are all FM stations. The only AM stations to speak of
that play music are either simulcasts of FM stations (contributing a
small fraction to the FM side's Arbitron numbers) or limited interest
such as Big Band or Urban Contemporary (the latter having a much smaller
following here than in most metropolitan areas). The AM band here is
dominated by news, talk, sports and religion.
There was an experiment in 1980 with a "new wave" -- the term was a bit
more in vogue then -- AM station. The "all-modern-all-mono K15 -- your
AM radio is no longer obsolete" it's promos said, but it died a quiet
death after a memorable summer.