Sylvan Esso Takes a Shot at Radio Programmers
Getting a song on the radio is still the best way to reach a mass audience in the most cost-effective away. But as any artist will tell you, getting on the radio is hard by design. If you want your song played in between the best the world has to offer, it had better be damn great. Sylvan Esso, the indie-pop duo from North Carolina, has a slightly different opinion.
Would be nice to go back to programmer/DJs who gave a shit and knew their stuff. Bonus points for eclecticism.
And no, it’s not nostalgia towards FM in the 70s.
The best “radio” these days (Radio Paradise, Soma, Beats 1, KCRW, Giles Peterson’s Global Rhythms, CBC’s The Signal… all the way to Sirius bs branded channels and Pandora) has a human that knows his stuff behind it. Not an algorithm (as good as those can be, see Matt Ogle). When bean-counters decided hard drives on shuffle playing the same dozen tunes over and over were the best option we all lost.
-G.