OT: Songs that'll never get airplay: Radiohead's "No Surprises"

[Just Plain Horse]

Every once in a while I get the urge to speak about the things that are purposefully ignored by the generalized media... and while I know satellite radio is available- for those who feel like buying their way out of the wasteland convention radio has become- I am unwilling to run away from the it and embrace what Howard stern tells me is the promised land.

To that end, and judging from the response I got on my previous article (AMC who? I'm kidding.) I felt inspired after revisiting a few old Radiohead CDs to comment on how- to the best of my admittedly limited knoweledge- that despite the numerous good/ great/ excellent songs this band has been releasing for some time, "Creep" is still the only one you'll ever hear on the radio. I couldn't help but think anyone "in charge" listening to even a few of their other songs would decide even something as inoccuous, almost pseudo-cutesy as "No Surprises" is just too controversial to get airplay.

"No alarms and no suprises"

Rappers crudely referring to women's body parts hurts no corporations, endangers no political agendas, harms no theocracies. Hearing an ex-American Idol member's bad recordings puts no extremely militant conserative in jeopardy, no Ivy League presidental flunkee in fear for his career.

"No alarms and no surprises, please."

Dumb it down, right into the ground. Dig out old Cheech & Chong albums at Christmas. Let Madonna remake "American Pie", boo the Dixie Chicks until they relent...

"No alarms and no surprises no alarms and no surprises, please."

[odinn7]

Uhh...

[Just Plain Horse]

I did say it was off topic...

[odinn7]

I know you did.

[Vermin Boy]

Honestly, I doubt that song's lack of airplay has as much to do with its content as with how the music industry works. Off any given album, the distributors usually pick one to three songs as singles for radio stations to add to their playlists. I might be wrong, but "No Surprises" probably just wasn't sent as a single, or at least not a leading one. It's still a pretty crappy state of affairs that borders on payola, but it has less to do with social conservatism than it does with corporate pansyism.

Also, "Creep" isn't the only Radiohead song on the radio-- "Karma Police" gets pretty steady airplay, at least around these parts, and I'm pretty sure I've heard "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "Paranoid Android" more than a few times.

[Just Plain Horse]

Good to know... I've heard musical snatches from "Paranoid Android" gracing various things, but that's all for me. I was curious to see what kind of a response I'd get with this one... Sometimes I just test people by posting random things that come to my mind, sort of as experimentation.

[Fearless Freep]

Hey, very little of the music I listen to gets any airplay...

New Rush, new Yes, plus  lot of jazz and jazz-fusion., plus some Christian Prog-Rock

[nobody]

None of the music I listen to gets airplay... at least not on terrestrial Arizona radio. And even if it did, I wouldn't listen to that station. I'd rather listen to a CD than hear the same three songs over and over and over again. Vermin Boy is right- the reason for the repetition on the radio is the fault of the music industry, not the radio stations.