The Most Influential Records You've Never Heard On The Radio
Written Oct. 2, 2008 by Sean Ross in Content with 2 Comments
It's always interesting how a given sound goes from being too weird or aggressive for the radio to being heard everywhere, and which artists end up making it possible. Recently, we had the slew of Timbaland-associated hits that sounded like the early '00s underground "electroclash" movement, but my favorite example comes from the late '80s when Samantha Fox's "I Wanna Have Some Fun" beat out many more "credible" dance songs to become the first real example of the Chicago house sound on the radio. Usually the lag time between underground and ubiquitous is about two years.
So it's worth a nod here to Goldfrapp, whose 2006 single "Ooh La La," which got European airplay but never made it to the radio mainstream here, has trace elements in no less than four current singles: Britney Spears' "Womanizer," Christina Aguilera's "Keeps Getting Better," Shiny Toy Guns' "Ricochet," and Fall Out Boy's "I Don't Care" (which also sounds a little like Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus").
You can find various other blog entries comparing each or a few of these songs to Goldfrapp, but I don't think anybody has yet cited all four of them in the same place. It's not news that you can find a lot of songs with a similar feel on radio at any given time -- I first read about it in the early '80s in relation to all the songs that sounded like Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins -- but there's often a common producer or collaborator involved.
Then there's Jason Mraz's fast-breaking "I'm Yours," which has a similar appeal to another song that many people have heard, but not on the radio.
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Here's a suggestion-F.R. David's song "Words Don't Come Easy." It was #1 in many European countries and Japan, but it conked out on the charts here in the USA and Canada.
I can think of one station that plays Iz's song: 98.5 KWXY in Palm Springs. Every morning at 530am when they sign on they play 3 songs: The Lord's Prayer, The national anthem, and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
Of course listening to KWXY is like taking a time warp back to 1966 - I think it is one the last stations still programming a Beautiful Music format.