I'm proud that I've never been a tool of the radio. However, I've actually been turned on to mainstream bands with it. don't forget that flip-side.

Many of my favorite bands have never ever been heard on radio, or very seldomly. I've also never cared about it. It's sad that they aren't promoted, but I also realize something: the vast majority of the population won't like them, no matter how much I do! I write music reviews for my college paper. I wrote a 5/5 star review for the debut album of Abandon Jalopy (check it out). I really doubt anyone went out to hear that one, even though I had front page of the reviews section. If I had been reviewing a mainstream act, maybe it'd be different.

The nature of most record buyers (early teenagers) is to listen to something catchy. Sometimes they'll buy that highly played album and find out that that catchy tune is unrepresentative of the rest of the album and they won't listen to it anymore (case in point: Blind Melon).

I don't know. It's hard to say what deserves airplay and insane promotion. If everything were promoted equally, there would be far too much stuff out there for people to choose from. The sad thing is that it seems there are only two levels of promotion hyped and shushed.

I totally agree about the radio thing, though. Every station sounds so familiar. I'm from around D.C., and have switched from WHFS to DC101 and heard the same song at the exact same time. I think it's a conspiracy.