Classic Alternatives To Coolness

The New York-area Christian radio station WFME, 94.7 on the FM dial, was recently sold to Cumulus Media, the second largest owner and operator of radio stations in the U.S., and there is a guessing game as to what the station's format will be when the deal is completed by the end of December.  Some New York-area rock fans are hoping that the new year will bring a new alternative rock radio station to complement Cumulus-owned New York  pop station WPLJ-FM, but I have a feeling the chances for an alternative rock format on WFME are 94.7 percent against it.  The most popular radio stations in the New York area play rap and disco, and so it's hard to deny that New York is a "rhythm town."  At least that's what the demographic studies and market analyses bear out.  Play that funky music!  

I know that when WRXP-FM came back on the air in July, many listeners griped about how its DJs from its earlier stint on the air, such as Matt Pinfield, were gone, and how the music being played was alternative rock only, not the free-form mix of modern rock acts, classic rockers, and local bands that WRXP played in its first iteration.  In fact, the records being played on WRXP Mark Two were being played not out of New York but from some central office a thousand miles away.  But what we got was better than what we had before and what we now have again - nothing - and many of us hoped that WRXP would regain its footing once it re-established itself with local on-air personalities.  That never happened, of course, as Merlin Media decided to sell the station to another conglomerate with even less interest in broadcasting rock and roll than Merlin itself.  

And, as painfully noted earlier, rock music is being marginalized even as more hip-hop, dance, and pure pop acts take over the charts.  What current rock bands hang on today aren't big enough for arenas like the rock bands of yore, and this is especially true in New York.  Sure, the Black Keys can perform at Madison Square Garden, but other current bands like Muse and the Heavy are pretty much consigned to smaller venues, including venues not too many people have heard of. The Heavy, for example, are going to be performing a show at the Paper Box. The What? The Paper Box.  It's a venue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Other rock acts are likely to be found at the Beacon Theatre, the City Winery (yes, it's a wine shop as well as a concert venue), and - HORRORS! - suburban theaters like the Wellmont in Montclair, New Jersey.  Suburban theaters are where you play when you're either on your way down or if you're too unhip for the city.

So, today's rockers are simply not fashionable.  Maybe it's true that it's a great time for alternative rock, as the founder of a "Save WRXP" page on Facebook insists, but it's the single-named divas and their hip-hop entrepreneur benefactors who sell millions of records nationwide and tens of thousands of concert tickets in Greater New York alone.  (The number of followers of the "Save WRXP" Facebook page? 45.)  By contrast, classic rock is thriving, based on a reliable source for cursory evidence - teenagers' T-shirts.  Whenever I go out in warm weather, I see these teenage kids young enough to be my sons or daughters wearing Beatles T-shirts, Pink Floyd T-shirts, Doors T-shirts . . . and they're too young to remember Kurt Cobain, never mind John Lennon, Syd Barrett, or Jim Morrison.  And yes, I've seen some of them wear Nirvana T-shirts too.  Young people - well, young white people - clearly love rock music.  But it's not the new bands they listen to.  They're into bands like the Rolling Stones, and they'll likely show up at the Stones' golden anniversary concerts.   It's a pity that the new generation of classic rock fans will never see most of their idols perform, since many of those acts are either disbanded or dead.  Why aren't they into new rock bands? Well, it's hard to be into new rock when there aren't that many outlets for it.

So there's rock and roll in the twenty-first century for you - artists who are current but not cool (new rockers) and artists who are cool but not current (classic rockers). If you want to be cool and current, as I've been told, you listen to Beyoncé. Sure, classic rock will survive, even if today's rock is gone literally by tomorrow. But if you want to be hip and up to date, lay down the boogie, white boy, and play that funky music 'til you die.

There's (no pun intended) no alternative.