Paul Simon - Kodachrome

Todd Ireland wrote: Nowadays, Top 40 radio will freely play just about any crap regardless of how vulgar the lyrical content. Even though censoring the word "crap" may seem excessive by today's standards, I yearn for the days when radio stations exercised some basic standards of decency and good taste and took into consideration that young children are part of the listening audience, especially during the daytime.

Let's not blame radio for this one...we're talking about a cultural change over the years, what's on the radio is merely a reflection of this. Broadcast radio is losing ground to other media that allows for more explicit expression...being seen as too "milk & cookies" will only accelerate this.
I don't appreciate vulgarity either, but let's not shoot the messenger.

Just saw a report on Radio & Records yesterday about a study done on youth culture and listening habits of 8-30 year olds.

Trends ran the gambit from the use of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and that the younger demos are gravitating toward what's being called "nu-retro." 80's and 90's pop culture being rediscovered, youth discovering groups like Nirvana and Aerosmith for the first time, in part due to games like Guitar Hero.

Usage of those surveyed from 21-30 year old and what they enjoyed about radio: 5% said they like learning about new music, 7% said they liked not knowing what the next song would be, 7% said they liked hearing old favorites, and only 1% said they liked hearing the top 10 songs. It's interesting to note that 22% enjoy getting their news (world/national/local) and current events from the radio, and 9% listen to NPR, with 20% tuned in to talk radio. Howard Stern on Sirius, however, only scored 1% of these listeners' time.

Other stats on what these young radio listeners thought was missing from radio programming. A whopping 52% said diversity in music, and 16% miss "funny and smart" personalities.

Interesting.

Not the same song, Doug.

I too, am disappointed by the "in your face" culture life has turned into. Sometimes I miss the days of the '70s and '80s when it seemed people were more polite to each other, and TV and radio were more "innocent".

Having said that, the radio station I usually listen to (WTSS Buffalo) is a "hot AC" station, and usually they'll play the censored versions of hit songs. For example, when they played "Rockstar" by Nickelback, just about every other word in the chorus was cut out. They must have been playing it from a promo CD single which took out all of the (possibly) offensive words. I guess they know they're audience!

Oh...and "I Kissed a Girl" is the 1000th No. 1 single since "Rock Around the Clock". (At least back then you could actually BUY a hit song on a single...)

Its a rather pathetic time we're living in "musically" when a song like that goes number one.
The times I see the exploration of cassette singles on this site it makes me think of how disposable music has become.
I can't imagine there will be much nostalgia for this potential one hit wonder.
Yes it is a novelty tune, but none the less thank goodness for all who are on this site who preserve the past.