MusicMaster Blog

We’re excited to bring you a new blog feature, a flashback to the past and your high school prom! Whether you sported the ultra-shiny pastel prom garb of the eighties or your prom queen balanced her tiara atop a fifties beehive, we’ll do our best to provide the soundtrack to your prom memories.

Today, we’re taking you back to 1959. The gymnasium is decked out with blue and green streamers and white balloons bob underfoot. Cut-outs of glitter-coated fish hang from the ceiling – the theme of the night, after all, is “Sea of Love”. There’s not a male head in the house that hasn’t been coated with half a jar of Brylcreem. The girls are lovely in satin dresses with full skirts, and have spent the better part of the day pinning and setting their hair to acheive that “natural wave.” The excitement in the air is electric – this bash is sure to be a blast. A juke in the corner is stacked up with the playlist of the evening, a mix of dance-worthy rock ‘n roll and the all-important slow dance ballads. Tonight’s young lovers may have a chance to sneak a kiss while the chaperones are busy refilling the punch bowl.

Our music for the evening begins with the prom’s theme, “Sea of Love” by Phil Phillips. Couples pair up, wall-flowers hit their posts. But when “La Bamba” begins to play, the tight formations come apart into a sea of hep teens swaying and jiving American Bandstand style. Now we’re cookin’! So don’t be a party pooper. Put on your dancing shoes, grab your dream lover, and follow along on a musical journey through Prom Night 1959…

Create your own free playlist at Playlist.com.

On January 18, 2008, Pete Seeger joined Bruce Springsteen and grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger to honor President Barack Obama in the finale of his Inaugural concert. With this patriotic gesture, Seeger celebrated a new chapter in American history and closed a chapter in his own. Out of the millions that watched his performance, few might have recalled that fifty years back, Seeger had been labeled anti-American and banned from public performances and radio airplay.

Sixty years before Seeger took the stage in Washington DC, he and three other musicians calling themselves The Weavers landed their first gig in the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. Shortly after, the group had landed a contract with Decca Records and by 1949 had a hit song with Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene”. Over the next decade, Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman popularized traditional folk songs, inspiring the “folk boom” that followed in the 50’s and 60’s which included The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary. Hit songs included labor songs and folk classics like “On Top of Old Smoky” “The Wreck of the John B” “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Pay Me My Money Down.” Their inspirational performances were typically sing-alongs, with Seeger shouting out the lyrics before each line.

Led by the witch hunts of Senator Joe McCarthy, the Red Scare of the 1950’s included the investigation and blacklisting of many performing artists suspected of touting anti-American believes. As the Weavers had a history of singing protest songs and folk songs with a leftist and pro-Union slant, they soon came under scrutiny. When the group shied away from their more controversial material, they were criticized by the left-wing press for selling out. Meanwhile, right-wing and anti-Communist groups protested at their performances. Soon, the Weavers had found themselves under FBI surveillance and were blacklisted by the entertainment industry. No longer able to play large venues or get radio airplay, the Weavers lost fans. In 1953, Decca terminated their recording contract and deleted their songs from its catalog.

In 1955, the group reunited to perform a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. As a result, the Weavers were signed by the independent Vanguard Records and a recording of the concert was released. By this point in time, folk music was gaining popularity and the effect of McCarthy’s extremism was fading. While the Weavers found renewed success, however, Seeger left in bad terms. After the group was hired to provide the vocals for a cigarette commercial, Seeger – who was opposed to tobacco – left the group after fulfilling his commitments in 1958. Seeger went on to have a fulfilling solo career.

Given McCarthy’s history of exaggerating his accusations, it’s difficult to condemn Seeger and The Weavers. Though Seeger had become a member of the Young Communist League at the age of 17, he had drifted away from the Party after the war. While with The Almanac Singers, Seeger sang: “Now, Mr. President (Roosevelt)/We haven’t always agreed in the past, I know/But that ain’t at all important now/What is important is what we go to do/We got to lick Mr. Hitler and until we do/Other things can wait.”

Seeger spent a lifetime merging music and political activism and despite differences in opinion, he honored the American system by exercising the right to free speech. Whether or not Americans have become more or less forgiving of the uncommon viewpoint half a century later, today’s controversial artists are undeniably free from political persecution. Artists with agendas (think of recent statements by Eminem and Kayne) will continue to enjoy the freedom to strike a chord with some and discord with others. And a man who was once marked as a political enemy can play the stage at the inauguration of a president.

The Weavers were honored for their struggles during the 2006 Grammys. After receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, group member Fred Hellerman recounted the persecution for the crowd, declaring: “If you can exist, and stay the course — not a course of blind obstinacy and faulty conception — but one of decency and good sense, you can outlast your enemies with your honor and integrity intact.”

Just a little sampling of the artists that have been looping on our iPods this week…

1. Apollo’s Child
This yet-to-be-official young phenome first hooked me with one of his cover songs posted on YouTube, a heartfelt rendition of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” In that moment, nineteen-year old Sean Ryan had earned another fan for his solo project. He calls himself “Apollo’s Child” and is responsible for, as he writes, “everything you hear.” Ryan, who describes his music as a mesh between rock and electronica, has found his way into the modern fanbase by spreading his music across sites such as Myspace, PureVolume, YouTube and Last.fm. Ryan was born into a musical family, inspired by his father’s love for The Beatles and by singing alongside his mother in the choir. Throughout his childhood and early teen years, Ryan perfected his musical talents, learning the arts of both performance and production. Using Apple Garageband, Ryan put together his first multi-track album, titled Masquerade of Aspersions. Though it was originally intended for friends and family only, Ryan later offered the music for free download online. Currently, Ryan is working from the ‘home studio’ in his bedroom to develop vocal tracks and collaboration projects for his upcoming album.

I recommend:
“Let’s Be Honest” – well-produced toe-tapping electronica
“Better Left Unsaid” – you don’t want to miss this meditation-worthy multi-part harmony

2. Bon Iver
Following a helpful suggestion from iTunes, I was fortunate enough to discover the “Blood Bank” EP from Bon Iver. What set these tracks apart from all the rest was the astonishing variability – each song off the EP could be in a different genre of music altogether. Bon Iver is the brainchild of indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. The band’s debut album “For Emma, Forever Ago” was released in 2007. Much of it was recorded during Vernon’s three month stay in a cabin in Northern Wisconsin, a frigid experience which ultimately led to the band’s name – a translation from the French for ‘good winter.’ Bon Iver’s debut album has been highly reviewed in publications such as The Village Voice and The A.V. Club and its tracks have been featured on TV shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House.” Rolling Stone ranked the debut as number 29 on the Top 50 Albums of 2008 and on January 26 2009, album track “Skinny Love” was announced as the #21 song of the year by Australian national radio station “Triple J.” “Blood Bank,” the new EP that iTunes brought to our iDoorstep, was just released on January 20 of this year. From what I’ve heard from these four little gems, I’m very much looking forward to what’s coming from Bon Iver this year.

I recommend:
“Woods” – a rich harmony of synchronized vocals that is masterfully a cappella
“Beach Baby” – the kind of music Dr. Meredith Grey and company would think to

3. Gonzales
Thanks once again to iTunes, a thirty-second sample of Gonzales’ piano soloing made the leap from my earbuds to my brain and got absolutely stuck in there. I have to admit, I wasn’t going to spend the money. But for some reason, I kept coming back. The music would not rest until it was tucked away on my iPod, and I think it’s because there something incredibly unique about this music. It’s hauntingly simple – just a solo piano against a fuzzy silence. But it feels as though Gonzales is discovering each track as he plays, showing me the beauty of something so casual as a well-placed triplet.

Gonzales, whose real name is Jason Charles Beck, is about as unbelievably unique as his music. Suffice it to say, despite being a gifted pianist who made his performing career as a jazz virtuoso, Gonzales is best known for his mic-jockeying and electronic albums. He has authored musicals, enjoyed a pop career in the nineties as the leader of alt-rock band “Son”, won an Emmy for soundtrack composition and then moved to East Berlin to become a “Jewish supervillain” as a lyric-spitting mic-jockey. His subsequent rap albums featured several instrumental tracks which highlighted his keyboarding skills, and in 2004 he crafted his first solo piano album (aptly titled “Solo Piano”) – which became his bestselling, and of course, the album I’m digging this week.

In 2008, having re-signed under Mercury Records, Gonzales shifted once again and returned to his pop vocal style. That is in addition, of course, to his continued role in the Berlin-based hip-hop band Puppetmastaz. (Seriously, I’m not making this up.)

I recommend from “Solo Piano”:
“Gogol” – if this were a movie soundtrack, someone would be sneaking around in the shadows
“Armellodie” – a slightly dark melodic exploration in the style of Schumann

Gonzales’ performance of “Gogol”

In 1967, rock musical Hair opened with a line that would bring the New Age movement of the 1960’s to the attention of audiences worldwide: “This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.” The opening song, written by James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt Macdermot, was soon combined in a medley with another track from the musical (“The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)” ) and released by The Fifth Dimension. This 1969 single held the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks and was certified Platinum. Yet while this song has been listed 57th in the Billboard’s Greatest Songs of all time, it earned this ranking for more than just its musicality. Rather, it is a telling portrait of a cultural era in American history when young people celebrated hope for a time of peace. But the concepts of an “Aquarian Age” have been explored for centuries before the Haight-Ashbury District emerged from the salt marsh of pre-colonized California. Historians have found the concept of this coming age to be a universally accepted belief among ancient cultures, including those of Maya and Egypt and in the practices of early Islam and Christianity. The modern age has widely interpreted these prophecies as spiritual lore and mythology. There is, however, an emerging buzz in the scientific world regarding an escalation in destructive natural events which fall in line with many of these ancient predictions. The new “Y2K” is 2012 – December 21 of that year, to be more specific. We’re not suggesting that on Christmas morning 2012 we should all except to find coal in our stockings and, for that matter, everywhere else. Still, the saga of Aquarius is undeniably a compelling piece of our cultural heritage which offers insight into how and why we embrace these myths of our demise.

For centuries, the alleged knowledge of the Age of Aquarius and warnings of Earth’s destruction have been passed down through both secret societies and accepted religious works. A common element is the marking of great lengths of time using the cycles of the zodiac, or ancient interpretations of real astronomical phenomena. The view of the night sky from Earth changes as the planet wobbles on its turning axis, an occurrence known as precession. Each year, we mark the spring or vernal equinox by the moment when the sun is directly above the earth’s equator, typically occurring on March 21. But the ancient astrologers were looking not at the sun, but instead at the constellations appearing behind it at that point in time. Strictly speaking, the night sky behind the March 21st sun should be the same each year. However, due to precession, there is a gradual shifting in the night sky (The motto of one 2012 doomsday group is “shift happens”). As a result, all twelve of the zodiac constellations eventually pass into this position, tracing a circle that rotates at a speed of one degree every 72 years and is complete in roughly 26,000 years. As each constellation falls close to the equinox position, a new astrological age is recorded. Currently, the vernal equinox occurs closest to the constellation of Pisces. While it may take hundreds of years to shift into the next age (that of Aquarius), there is a critical midpoint occurring between the two ages when the Earth’s equatorial plane aligns exactly with the the center of the galaxy (“galactic alignment”). This galactic alignment will occur on December 21, 2012.

The year 2012 holds even greater significance when considering the Mayan calendar. Notably, the Mayans marked the “The Great Year” as a period of 26,000 years, indicating advanced knowledge of the precession cycle. The Great Year is divided into five periods of varying years, each representing a different “age” of society. Currently, we are in the fourth – which, incidentally, began in 3113 BC and will end in 2012 AD. New Age theorists have looked to Mayan art and writings to predict that the passing from one age to another will bring great upheaval and change. The writers of Hair and its followers believed this change would bring peace and harmony among mankind. But a new popular opinion is that 2012 will mark the destruction of mankind. And like Y2K, the speculation has gone beyond the realm of conspiracy theory and overtaken the mainstream media. A Google search of “2012” brings a wealth of related media from sources such as ABC, MSNBC and Fox News, many of which you will find on the official 2012 site.

Michel de Nostredame (or Nostradamus) is one particularly well-known doomsday prophet. A French apothecary born in 1503, Nostradamus wrote a collection of prophecies that was first printed in 1555. While conspiracy theorists and even the popular press have credited Nostradamus’s for predicting major world events, the accepted belief is that these after-the-fact speculations are a result of misinterpretation of the writings – perhaps, even deliberate re-wording to make the events fit the prophecies. However, with the surge of 2012 speculation, the media has again begun looking towards Nostradamus.

More specifically, the interest is in Nostradamus’ seeming predictions of cataclysmic weather events. Though science has its roots in the practice of magic and astrology, modern science disregards the supernatural. Scientists do admit, however, that the global climate is changing beyond our comprehension. And just as the gravitational pulls of the sun and moon can affect such things as the ocean’s tides, the positions of the stars and planetary bodies interpreted by astrologers also may have an effect on our natural world. December 21, 2012 may be a date generated from myth, but it also the date of a real astronomic occurrence. It is at least scientifically possible that a galactic alignment could affect our climate.

Nostradamus focuses heavily on “great roaring storms” and “flames” as marking the end of our era, leading to correlations to increasingly deadly natural events. One of Nostradamus’ poetic verses predicts “The great city of the maritime ocean surrounded by a swamp of crystal, in the winter solstice and the spring, will be tried by a terrible wind.” Some believe this refers to Hurricane Katrina, claiming Nostradamus saw the glass-windowed skyscrapers of downtown New Orleans and interpreted them as giant crystals. Some have tied his predictions to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunamis and the emergence of a subterranean supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park.

A further surge in doomsday speculation has arisen with natural occurrences we seem unable to explain or control. All over the world, scientists are struggling to understand the mysterious condition which is wiping away the honeybee populations. Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees were to disappear, man would follow only a few years later. Plant life is reliant on the insects for pollination. A decline could lead to failure of crops, resulting in a shortage of food and the destruction of our livestock population. It is predicted that if the United States has a food shortage, the hundred or so nations that rely on our exports will suffer famine. Malnutrition will lead to increased susceptibility to disease, and the resulting plagues will halt these nations’ own production of food.

All of this adds up to what some in the media call “Apocalypse 2012.” Looking at the breadth of history, one might say that this doomsday panic is no different than the hundreds of others that have come and gone unfulfilled. Nevertheless, it’s a theory that is gaining remarkable popularity. Director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla) has even centered his latest disaster flick around the subject. Credible news programs have even freely joined the speculation. With a doomsday countdown clock on screen, a straight-faced Geraldo Rivera interviewed a survival expert who spoke of spending Earth’s last days traveling and trying to find a place that we could start our civilization over from scratch.

Ultimately, however, Nostradamus’ prediction was never meant to be so grim. December 21, 2012 may be the end of an era, but it may not be the end of the last era. And never, in all of the historical mythical record, does it predict that there will be a single calamity on this date which will destroy us. Indeed, Nostradamus always included the element of choice in his prophecies, even giving his king two predicted futures – one where he was glorified in battle, and one where he dies in a jousting accident. It would be the king’s decisions that would decide his fate. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: “The fault is not in the stars, dear Brutus, but in ourselves.”
The lyrics of Aquarius speak of the power of man to usher in a more peaceful age, where the lessons of both science and spirituality can guide our society to make choices that lead to the greater good. It is said that more has happened in the 20th century than in all the previous nineteen combined. Progress is speeding up and with it, resources are being increasingly depleted. Man will be forced in the 21st century to solve these challenges. Even if our doomsday predictions turn out to be purely fictional, they still provide a telling picture of our fears as a society. We accept that warfare could escalate to worldwide proportions. We know that our dependence on depleting resources could halt our civilization. Perhaps late 2012 will be the beginning of an era when we stop speculating about the many ways we may be annihilated, but collectively trying to understand why these things still threaten us. Enlightened with that knowledge, the Age of Aquarius may just in fact be something to sing about.

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
Angelic illumination
Rising fiery constellation
Travelling our starry courses
Guided by the cosmic forces
Oh, care for us; Aquarius

Whether or not you’ve managed to catch Tokio Hotel’s track “Monsoon” on the airwaves or rocked out to it via plastic guitar in the new release of Guitar Hero World Tour, you may be in for a surprise. Tokio Hotel is a German band found in 2001 by 12 year old identical twins, singer Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz. The band also features drummer Gustav Shafer and bassist Georg Listing and is Europe’s answer to the Jonas Brothers. Bill’s prepubescent vocals and wild “hair band” looks, along with the band’s catchy tunes and suprisingly mature musicality has made them into a teen sensation in Germany, where they have sold nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs. Their first album, Schrei, was released in 2005 on Island Records and sold a half a million copies worldwide, while earning four top five singles in Germany and Austria. Two years later, the band released a second German album, Zimmer 483, along with an English album Scream. Together, the albums have sold over a million copies worldwide, charting in the top slots in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Canada before reaching the United States. Since then, the band has won best InterAct at the MTV Europe Music Awards and Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards, beating out such greats as Metallica and Linkin Park.

The first hit single known in the U.S. as “Monsoon” is titled “Durch den Monsun” on the band’s first album “Schrei.” The original version of the track can be found on the U.S. album release of “Scream” along with the contemporary English version of the song. Notably, the original track is several keys higher, suiting Kaulitz’ then pre-pubescent vocals. Kaulitz’ voice has since deepened, though the members of Tokio Hotel have maintained the boyishness which has given them icon status among teens worldwide. Singer Kaulitz has even been immortalized in wax at the Madame Tussauds Berlin. At 19 years old, he is the youngest person featured in this museum.

Tokio Hotel has since returned to their studio in Hamburg, Germany, where they are working on a new album set to be released in both German and English in March or April of next year. Eager fans, however, can anticipate a behind-the-scenes DVD release “Tokio Hotel TV – Caught On Camera” to be released before the holidays.

For more, visit the bands official website.

Music video of the original: Durch Den Monsum (“Monsoon”) by Tokio Hotel

As a new feature, we’d like to bring you a “secret single” from a recent album release – one of those great radio-worthy gems that hasn’t been mined yet for airplay, but really should be. For our first undiscovered potential hit, we’d like to consider a track from the long awaited ‘Glass Passenger’ album, just released by Jack’s Mannequin.

Some months ago, we brought you a teaser of the new Jack’s Mannequin album ‘The Glass Passenger.’ The album, which Alternative Press had called one of the most anticipated of the year, was finally released on September 30, 2008, and debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200.

Band frontrunner Andrew McMahon has infused his uniquely soulful style into the album’s tracks. In the three years it took McMahon to perfect the album, each song became richly layered with instrumentation and personalized with McMahon’s poetic and emotionally charged lyrics. A highlight on the album is the song “Caves,” which chronicles McMahon’s battle with cancer. With voice ranging from raw-power to near-tearful, he sings of his darkest hours and eventual salvation.

Prior to the album release, the band put out the first two singles on an EP called The Ghost Overground: “Bloodshot” and “The Resolution,” the latter of which peaked at number 1 on Billboards Hot Tracks. While the early EP release highlighted two tracks that could fit nicely into a mainstream radio playlist, we’d also like to take bets on “Spinning,” a track that boasts the sort of catchy chorus and dance-worthy beats that have Top 40 audiences turning up the volume, bouncing in the drivers seat and banging a rhythm on the steering wheel. Admit it, we’ve all been there haven’t we?

Check out the full-length ‘Spinning’ track below and tell us what you think!

Technology has come a long way in the past half a century. Today, MusicMaster comes to you on a thin piece of plastic which contains all the instructions needed for your hardware to work it’s magic and bring you an interactive music programming environment. The programming language that we use to build MusicMaster gets translated into machine language that your microprocessor can understand. There, groups of binary numbers are manipulated. In binary language, 1’s and 0’s are the only letters of the alphabet, which when combined form words that physically change the circuitry of the computer to produce an effect. The process is quite complicated, but suffice it to say that “1” means a transistor should be on and “0” means off. An integrated circuit is made up of many transistors and working together, the combination of positive or negative electric pulse lead to things like Grand Theft Auto IV, Excel and – of course – MusicMaster.

But software wasn’t always so abstract. In fact, back in the days when NASA engineers were programming the guidance computers for the first flights to the moon, software was a new concept. And to carry software to the moon on Apollo, engineers turned not to plastic discs and integrated circuits, but to a textile mill and a group of elderly women who were expert weavers! The Apollo programs were contained in ropes that were packed full of thin wires running in or out of magnetic cores (pictured at right). If a wire went through a particular code, it represented a “1” in binary, while a wire that went around the core reprensented a “0.” Of course, a single wire could go through one core, skip two, go through one more, skip three, and so on. To build such a system, engineers essentially needed a weaving machine. At a texile manufacturing plant in Waltham, Massachusetts, older female workers – referred to as “little old ladies” or “LOLs” by the engineers, nimbly wove thousands of wires in and out of cores to create the ropes that made up the Apollo programs. To assist them, the United Shoe Machinery Company created a machine that held a rack of cores. The programmers inserted a paper tape with the code into a machine which controlled a needle eyehole which moved to the appropriate core given the instructions. The LOL would weave her wire through that core, and then the machine would reposition the cores so she could weave her wire back through the next appropriate core, and so on. Of course, this was not an easy process. It took many weeks to create the program ropes, and once they were done it was very hard to go back and make any changes in the code. Programmers had to be sure that their code was going to work for the mission, because up to four months prior to launch, no more changes could be made – no matter what.

Thankfully, it’s much easier to write and manipulate code for software today. Over the years, MusicMaster has changed to meet users’ needs in a changing world, and our users have enjoyed manipulating an interactive interface without needing to reweave wires. We’re not at an age yet where computers will understand casual human speech (“Computer, locate Mr. Spock”), but while we can say that programmers today must still dedicate time to learning the “ropes” of their programming language, it’s not in the literal sense of the word.

Today, on 08-08-08, the Olypmics began in Beijing, China. While millions around the world would tune in to watch the opening ceremony, viewers in China itself would fall victim to a last-minute government restrictions. Only those outdoor venues sanctioned by the government would broadcast the ceremony. This measure is only a part of a long-standing censorship in free media in China, sparked by fears that non-sanctioned or foreign reporters would broadcast anti-government content that would reach the ears of Chinese citizens and perhaps create dissidence. As a result of strict censorship, foreign correspondants in China have been hassled in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. Behind the Great Firewall of China, the government has taken back a promise to offer uncensored internet to foreign journalists in China, including blog-hosting sites used by both news corporations and individuals.

The censorship has incited a protest by a French group known as Radio Without Borders (or RSF for Radio Sans Frontieres). Using miniature antennas, RSF began a broadcast at 08:08 am local time in French, English and Mandarin, which was heard on 104.4 FM in different districts of Beijing. The twenty minute program featured RSF secretary general Robert Menard and several Chinese human rights activists urging the Chinese government to free imprisoned Chinese activists and private correspondants and stop jamming international frequencies. This program, according to the RSF, “is the first non-state radio station to have broadcast in China since the Communist Party took power in 1949. Only international Chinese-language radio stations broadcasting on the short wave would be able to break this news and information monopoly, but they are jammed by the authorities.”

RSF has planned protests throughout the Olympic ceremony and urges individuals on its website to cyber-demonstrate. RSF’s twenty minute broadcast may not have been enough to influence change, but it succeeded in it’s mission to be an embarassment to the Chinese government just 12 hours before the opening ceremony. The broadcast said: “It’s our way of saying to them: Despite everything you do, here are the voices of people you want to silence.”

Somewhere between 6 and 8am each weekday morning, nearly all of us are stumbling through a morning routine. The lucky ones among us are able to hop out of bed with enviable vigor to enjoy a quick workout and a bowl of Wheaties. The rest of us spend some time exercising our right to “snooze” and then perform some acrobatic combination of getting dressed, brushing teeth, and eating breakfast all while walking out to the car. As we pull out into the highway, however, the great majority of us then face the daunting task of the morning commute – and the even greater challenge of choosing a radio morning show that will have us walking into work wide-awake and well-informed. But for as many cars as there are pouring through the intersection through which we’d like to turn left, there are just as many preferences for the perfect morning show. How can a radio station tailor its morning content to deliver a fresh angle that’ll satisfy the majority of the jam?

Here at MusicMaster, we wanted to find out what the word was on the streets. We surveyed individuals aged 18 to 60 and simply asked them what they like and don’t like about their morning show of choice. Here’s what they had to say…

– 37.5% of them noted that they wished their morning show featured more music. One individual pointed out: “I listen to FM radio. If I wanted a lot of talk I would switch to an AM talk morning show.” Some of these respondents noted that while they do enjoy what the morning personalities have to offer, they would like to hear a few more songs in a row, rather than – as one put it – “all about what their kids did last night.”

– To that point, 50% noted that they did not like it when the morning radio personalities went on about their personal lives. While these topics can add to the liveliness and humor of the program, many of the listeners found that if they did not relate, they weren’t all that interested.

– Another 50% said they listen to the morning show specifically to hear news, weather and traffic. Some of these replied that they prefer news topics that are of general pop culture appeal or are offbeat, to give them “something to talk about with coworkers during lunch.” While half of these respondents specifically listened to an AM news talk radio stations, the other half listened to FM radio. Yet many of these FM listeners noted that by listening to this brand of news, their “IQ lowers by several points” based on the topics covered and the comedic slant.

– Despite this, 37.5% wrote that they do appreciate the humor of the radio personalities. Some preferred it in small doses mixed in with the meat and potatoes, while others tuned into their morning station specifically for the humor. One listener wrote: “their conversation (however pointless it may be) keeps me engaged and awake during my drowsy commute” while another wrote: “I want something that will keep me up to date on news, sports, weather, traffic, and celebrities, but in a way that really gets me pumped for the day ahead.”

In general, it seems that listeners who prefer hard core news will tune in to that brand of station, while the listeners who turn to their favorite FM stations – top 40, country, rock, urban, or whatever the case may be – are divided on whether or not they want talk or music. But nearly all of the listeners who got their news or entertainment from the personalities’ discussions wished that this talk covered topics of broader interest and in a manner that was witty and engaging, rather than mindless and repetitive. After all, with triple Venti lattes churning in the stomachs of stressed out nine-to-fivers, it’s not hard to find inane conversation and incessant guffaws to cause a bit of morning sickness.