Funk Radio

To be noticed, you have to do something different. Be the same as everyone else and no one cares. There are already a plethora of singer/songwriters out there, tons of rock bands, and a God-awful number of country singers in the world. If you fall into a category like that, why do we need you? You can be good, but you have to be great to stick out. Those that stick out get word-of-mouth and hopefully can break into some new markets that way. If I see someone that blows me away or hear something that puts me in a daze, I talk about them. It’ll either be through this blog or simply word-of-mouth. Not that you necessarily want me promoting your music, but you want to have this effect on at least someone.

Now as I’m sure I’ve posted before, I am an avid climber. I prefer climbing outdoors, but since Reading Rocks is on my way home from work, I have a membership there and frequent their climbing gym. It’s a great place.

One of the few things that bug me about it is the music selection. It’s all the same. It’s either a top 40 station or a classic rock station. I’ve heard all of it a thousand times. And if, by chance, it’s something I haven’t heard before, then it sounds like everything else. There is nothing exciting or noteworthy of this.

And not that there is anything noteworthy of most radio stations, but Tuesday night was a bit different. After things cleared out to just be regulars, someone decided to change the station – a welcome change. Now I know that some of the kids there are into rap and a few are into hardcore, so I thought I had an idea of what may come next. Something generic (sorry, I don’t value too many people’s musical opinions).

False. Not generic. Not ordinary. Instead of monotony, the next two hours were…

Funk.

A funk station? I’m not sure, but at the very least it was a funk themed show. Now I can’t say that the songs played weren’t generic funk because I don’t listen to funk. What it was for me, was something completely different; something completely refreshing.

There were funk jams and hip-hop infused vocals and the instrumentation and the spontaneity and the dynamic and the... and the… and the…

It was music. It had depth and feeling. Unlike the formulated top 40, the energy in these cuts made you feel like you were there, not like you were listening to a recording. Recordings are stiff and regimented. People don’t open up in the studio like they do on a stage. The entirety of this funk show was wide open and in your face.

At one point, while trying to figure out what was going on, I asked what we were listening to, thinking it was an ipod gone mad. Kelly replied, “It sounds like something you would listen to.”

And it made me want to listen to more. It’s a strange feeling to be derived from the radio.

And I totally didn’t catch what station or whose show it was :facepalm: