by ghosty » Wed Jun 09, 2010 12:49 pm
[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>I think its about audience demographics and age. Morrissey puts out great material, but my guess is that the radio stations (and Arbitron) don't promote him because his core audience is in the 40 - 50 age range (an audience whose media entertainment budget drops significantly). The radio stations and record companies push product that appeals to younger audiences, ideally artists which have major growth potential and weak licensing/royalty contracts with their labels.
[/quote]
Sally is absolutely correct. While Morrissey may have a following of fanatical twenty-somethings, his crowd is nowhere near as large as someone young and current like Lady GaGa's or even as large as an older act's like Green Day. Not to mention the fact that Morrissey (and The Smiths) never broke through on a mainstream level the way a band like U2 did (both U2 and Morrissey are heritage acts at this point, except U2 are obviously much bigger).
Even mainstream radio stations that play heritage acts or "rock oldies" ignore Morrissey because he's too fringe for them. Classic Rock Radio has been very cold to alternative artists from the 80's because they don't fit in with a format based around Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. Can you imagine a Morrissey song segueing into REO Speedwagon? Even when a band like The Rolling Stones put out a new record, the single only gets a few courtesy spins and then is never heard from again.
As far as mainstream radio is concerned, you might hear Morrissey on two types of commercial FM stations. What I call the "Starbucks stations" i.e. stations aimed at listeners 40+ and feature singer/songwriters with a handful of mellow Indie artists and the occasional curveball (which would be where Morrissey comes in) or "Rock in a blender stations", where a station plays a mix of popular Indie, classic rock, 90's rock and a few 80's New Wave/Alternative hits (and even then it would probably be one of about 4 songs from The Smiths and not anything current from Morrissey)..
Also all these stations, regardless of format, are all owned by about 4 companies and cutting through the corporate bullshit, especially when it dictates what the entire country hears, to get some decent music played is pretty tough going.