Updated (2x): Happy Father's Day; also XM Kids Musings
One of the few downsides to prerecording is that I tend to forget things like holidays, etc. (For instance, we've already recorded this Saturday's show, which I realize now should have been solsticey. Alas.) And so yesterday's show wasn't at all Father's Day themed. So: Happy father's day, all!
But we had a very nice one. Church, violin, then a Father's Day lunch at Osaka. (What, is sushi not traditional Father's Day fare?) And I took a nap. The kids (with some help from Dena) got me a nice Tintin watch. (I haven't had a functional watch for nine months or so and I'm too cheap to get myself a nice one, or, apparently, any one.)
Also: I napped.
Anyway, Yosi has been doing a great series of interviews with various dads in indie kids' music in honor of Father's Day. The chat with John Boydston (Daddy-A-Go-Go) caught my eye, as it included a topic John and I have discussed previously and I've been meaning to note -- that is, the evident shift in programming at XM Kids:
But lately I've noticed a broader regressive trend back to two types of kids music, either toddler-oriented stuff, something that I have never tried to do, or music for 'tweens.' It seems like increasingly what gets all attention these days are either Wiggle's type acts or Naked Brothers band wanna bees. Have you've noticed XMKids playlist lately? They used to play a whole range of kids music....indies and all. But recently they've gone 90-percent toddler music.
We don't have XM, so I don't have a ton of exposure, but I've had two fairly lengthy samplings -- one during last year's Austin City Limits festival (the friends we stayed with have XM and listen to XM Kids a lot) and one on our trip out to Portland, Oregon (listened to it on our Jet Blue flight both ways). And the contrast was significant. Last year, there was a lot of quirky indie stuff -- Spankers, CandyBand, ScribbleMonster, Hipwaders, Lunch Money, Uncle Rock and the like. (I'm not positive I heard those specific bands -- but it's a representative list.)
Then on the trip to and from Oregon, it was a lot more Naked Brothers, Alvin & the Chipmunks, and so on. Don't get me wrong -- there was still some great stuff (and I see that on their report card this week, there's still TMBG, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Gunnar Madsen, and so on). But it was very heavy with movie soundtrack and TV songs (and this week I see Transformers, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Naked Brothers, and something called iCarly). Overall, it seems a lot less, well, interesting than it was. You can take a look at their top 13 going back to December 2007 here (thanks, Gwyneth!) -- again, there's some great stuff there, but I think John's right about the shift.
Did I just hit a weird sampling on our cross-country trips? Or has there in fact been a real shift at XM, perhaps in anticipation of the merger with Sirius? And if there is a shift, is it a bad one? (Maybe it's because of demand. I know that requests do play a big part there...)
Update: Stefan disagrees, while listener Gwyneth (who does the XM Kids Fans blog) and Hipwader Tito agree in the comments below.
And what Stefan says is certainly accurate, but I don't think undermines the point -- and here I think not being a regular listener probably helps, in that a gradual shift is not as noticeable if you're listening regularly. (Frog in boiling water and all that.) To that extent, I think my two days every eight months or so is actually a better way to evaluate it. No, bands aren't being frozen out entirely (as indeed I noted above), and yes, good stuff is still getting played (ditto), but it's a discernible shift.
Another update: Stefan's posted in the comments below too, suggesting that there may be less good new stuff than a year ago. Possibly, but I don't think so, or at least I don't think it fully explains the shift. I went back and looked at the March and April releases I pitched to Parenting -- things that I had in hand in I believe November, which is a lot less than actually came out in March and April -- and there was Princess Katie & Racer Steve, Brady Rymer, Daddy-A-Go-Go himself, Harmonica Pocket, and Thaddeus Rex. I don't remember hearing a one of those when I was on a plane in March.
In March, we played, along with some of those bands, new or newish Astrograss, Gunnar Madsen, Big Bang Boom, Randy Kaplan, Hank Hooper, Mr. Leebot, Bari Koral. (Some of those may be a little older than I remember.) I don't remember hearing any of those on the plane; I know Gunnar Madsen has gotten some play and maybe Bari Koral; I don't think any of the rest have gotten much (though I haven't searched).
I thought about titling or introducing the post with a quote from The Dead Milkmen's The Big Sleazy, something like "Some of us remember back when XMK was good" (the original was about Philly's legendary XPN). But that wouldn't have been fair -- XM Kids is still very good in many ways, choosing some terrific stuff and supporting some out-of-the-mainstream music. But the more I look and think about it, the more certain I am that there has been a shift, more or less as I describe it.
Permanent link • Posted at 7:40 PM
7 comment(s)
7 Comment(s):
We've noticed a shift too and are listening less and less. Too bad.
We still do hear the bands that we really like, but not as much as we used to....
Osaka, huh? We had some Japanese food yesterday too :)
While it's not surprising that XM is turning towards a more "toddler/tween" playlist, it is surprising they're wasting no time to match the ultra-restrictive playlist of Sirius prior to their merger. Just another sad reality of the effects of media mergers in this country. All the more reason for the indie acts out there to keep making music for grade school- aged kids. Unfortunately, it's gonna be harder for the kids to hear it.
I actually thought of the frog in boiling water analogy myself, so I'm aware that it's possible with me.
I also think (and I'm about to make this point in my own post) that it's possible there was just more good *new* stuff out a year ago.
By the way, the iCarly song is pretty good, actually. Nothing really "kids music" about it, but a decent pop song.
I actually heard Harmonica Pocket's "One Tree Said" last night... Bari Koral did get a bunch of play last year. The rest, I agree, haven't received much play (if any). To what extent that's XM's fault as opposed to the artists' (you can't play what you haven't received) is unclear.
But what about Mr. Saxophone? Anita Renfro? Rocknoceros? Adam and the Couch Potatoes? Deep Fried Pickle Project? They've all received XM airplay, and I could count more. The Jimmies -- man, they play the Jimmies all the time.
The one change I could potentially see is perhaps the indie music isn't getting the level of airplay it did -- meaning, there haven't been as many "breakout" indie hits that would get airplay 3x a day. I have no way of quantifying that, but that's an issue of listener interest. XM's DJs aren't going to press that issue.
In the end, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I view XM as somewhat mainstream anyway; they're not going to be Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW.
That's your job, Bill and Ella. ;-)
Quantity was my point from the start; as I noted in the initial post, lots of good stuff is still getting played, and not much got cut out entirely. But I disagree with the idea that it's all listener-driven -- while XM is clearly more request-driven than most commercial radio (which if it claims to be playing a request, it's almost always lying), I am skeptical about the extent of it.
I think of the transition as similar to the transition to the various ABC/Disney-owned stations that followed Rev-105 in the Twin Cities -- Zone 105, Drive 105, and I think there maybe was one other one. They were good solid alt-rock/AAA stations, I listened to them, enjoyed them, etc. But they paled in comparison to the original. I was very surprised at how eclectic the playlists were a year or two ago on XM; now I think they're merely quite good.
(As an aside, I'd be really surprised if there are many artists who send us stuff who don't also send it to XM. Really, really surprised.)
I love XMKids. More importantly, my kids love it. They just played "Chocolate Milk" as I type this (where's the camera?). XMKids has a huge catalog of songs and I think they do a great job of mixing things up. They are very request driven and I don't think it should be a big surprise that kids are going to ask for Sponge Bob, the Jonas Brothers, Hanna Montana and other stuff they know from television or movies. That's the power of television. I would say that XMK probably receives just as many requests for independent songs and that only comes from them spinning the independent stuff before anyone asks for it. It's very democratic. If someone makes a request, they'll play it. We've had XM a few years now and I believe they have always done a great job supporting independent music. Sure, there are lots of songs both independent and corporate that I could be happy never hearing again (I'm guessing the DJs feel the same - "not that Chocolate Milk song again") but they're giving the people what they want. Maybe you notice more TV & Movie stuff of late because there is more TV & Movie stuff being made now? Personally, I appreciate the exposure XM (and in all fairness, Sirius) has given us. Before they played us, no one outside the Chicago area heard us. If people come for High School Musical and leave with ScribbleMonster, I'm good with that.
I also have to note that the DJs on XMKids are pretty fantastic themselves. Each has their own unique feel and flavor to their slots and my kids (and I) enjoy their personalities as much as the music. There's something very old-school and cool about the DJs being your friends, having silly fun and playing whatever you want to hear. That being said, I love mornings when Kenny's not in (no offense, Kenny). The reason being that there are no kids calling in since there's no one to take requests, and they always spin a great variety of good music (I don't know if Kenny sets that up or if it's on auto-pilot, but I tend to notice great stuff when he's out more than the others). Those days, evenings and weekends especially show the strength of their catalog and maybe the downside of taking so many requests. We get to hear live concerts, earlier this week we were cracking up with a 25 minute Bill Harley story. Who else does that? Obviously, nothing will be perfect for everyone. XMKids has always impressed me and my feeling is that it would be awfully difficult for anyone to do much better.
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