Songs That Need No Introduction?
Written Mar. 17, 2008 by Sean Ross in Content with 1 Comment
Saw this yesterday in "Monday Morning Update," the newsletter that SupeRadio's "Open House Party" host John Garabedian sends out to affiliates:
"Radio has been pleading with labels for at least 25 years to stop putting out singles with no 'intro time.' After our constantly whining about this, we have this week gotten a commitment the top level at BMG that all their singles in the future will have "lead-ins" (record company term) so radio has a place to identify and intro the song. To other labels reading this, any PD choosing one song add from three otherwise equal new releases will instinctively avoid adding the one with zero intro time because it means extra work. Thank you BMG!"
If this indeed transpires, I'm happy to see it. Songs that start cold, not because that's the best way to start the song but because the intro is loaded up with the producer's shout-outs to himself, have driven me crazy, too. Garabedian's contention that this would be an issue for most PDs surprises me however. Some Top 40 stations like WHTZ (Z100) New York go out of their way to create intros where they don't exist. (For Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend," it sure sounded like they spliced on a piece of "Mickey.") Most don't seem to care about such mundane matters. They'll let a jock stop the music before an :02 intro and play a two-second drop over the :23 intro of the next song.
In principle, I believe that the trademark murmurings that keep most jocks from talking over the intros have become a cliché -- helping to reinforce any sense that music has become generic and failing to help brand songs or artists in any way that would stop pop and R&B music's sales slide. How can you know or care what a song is when every song now begins with "you know what this is"? (There are exceptions: the "one-two-three-four" that starts Mario's "Cryin' Out For Me" is a great moment -- even if it seems to belong to a different record.)
Sadly, as radio becomes increasingly jockless, what will really end up over those newly-created intros is probably going to be nothing. While I consider the long faux-radio intro and ending of Chris Brown's "Kiss Kiss" completely extraneous, it's ironic that they're longer DJ breaks than exist on most of the stations that play it.
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
Having worked for several years at a radio station that was one of OHP's first affiliates, I must say that I respect John Garabedian as a broadcaster, and that he's very insightful and personable when he wants to be.
However, he sometimes talks out of his ass. This is one of these times. If the people who run radio stations know so much about the best way to make a record, why do they make a fraction of what record producers make? Seriously, who has the more successful career, Timbaland, or the PD of a small-market OHP affiliate?
If you need a song to have an intro badly enough, make an edit. But the aforementioned station for which I worked has an annoying habit of playing the edits with the intros in non-talk postions. No need to play a mix of "Stronger" or "Rockstar" with a :10 intro when the jock isn't talking over it! Play the :00 edit!