Why Your Favorite Underground Artist Can’t Get Radio Play

Above: My YouTube music video for “Obama, Obama,” a remake of Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli” that’s currently getting radio station play throughout the country.

Aside from being a blog fanatic, I am also a studier of musical trends.  I make my own music, and I also pay close attention to what artists are popular in the mainstream and why they are able to succeed while others cannot.

One of the gripes many up-and-coming artists have is, they can’t understand how what they considered to be “watered-down” music - hip-hop, R&B, pop-rock, etc. - is able to get on the radio.  They feel like the stuff they’re creating is more “real” (then again, don’t ALL artists feel that way??), and are baffled when they take their songs to radio stations, only to hear the words “yeah, your song is great… but we can’t put it into our rotation.”

If only these artists were able to get a grasp of the WHOLE picture.

The radio aspect of the music industry has never been about playing what’s “real” to you, or what could be considered “conscious, thought-provoking” music.  It’s about one thing: selling advertisements on the air. 

The songs that play around these ads are the “bait” used by radio stations to get people to listen to on-air sponsors.  The money these sponsers spend at these radio stations help them generate enough revenue to keep their doors open.  However, in order to get these sponsers to want to spend their money in the first place, they have to make sure the music they are playing gives them a big enough audience to warrent doing business with.

So, let’s look at it from a radio station’s perspective, shall we? 

New songs by Usher, Lil’ Wayne or Mariah Carey come out on the same day.  These artists are well-known enough that a radio station doesn’t give a second thought to playing their songs on the air.  They are constantly in the media, and generate high enough interest that people will listen to their song when it comes on the radio. 

The result?  The potential consumer will keep their dial on whatever radio station is playing one of those songs, giving said ad company a better shot at having their ad heard.

But then, an unknown artist walks into the radio station and says, “Hey, everybody, check it out - I have a song that’s WAY better than any of those OTHER artist, and it has a message, too!”  The radio programmer agrees to listen to your song, fully expecting to hate it.  Turns out, he actually likes the song, but he still decides not to play it.

The artist thinks to himself: “But… I THOUGHT he liked it!! Why won’t they play it??”

The answer: they haven’t generated enough interest outside of themself or the programmer to warrent them playing the song on radio.  This new artist is untested, and there’s a chance that if their song is put into rotation, potential customers who listen to the station will hear the first line of the song, and say: “Hey… who is this person?? I wanted to hear that new Usher!!”

Next thing you know, they flip over to another radio station, while the one they just turned from loses potential earnings from an ad the person will now miss.

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Now, is this fair?  Not really - but who said the world is a fair place?

The reality is, radio stations exist to make money.  If you or your favorite underground artists aren’t being played on the radio, it’s because there isn’t enough interest built in what you’re doing for stations to consider you a ”safe bet,” i.e. a money-generating artist.

Part of the fault lies on artists themselves.  Many of them like to act like being a commercial artists means creating crappy dumb-downed music so it can appeal to the masses.  That’s not the case.  Being a commercial artists simply means that an extremely large group of people like your stuff. Eminem and DMX are great examples of two artists who came out not really trying to conform to what was considered “safe” and “normal” music standards, yet sold millions of records.

In both their cases, even though their music topics may have not been safe, the way in which they presented their material was VERY radio ready.  Eminem had sing-songy choruses, while DMX had songs you could easily turn into a chant.  If you think back to that potential consumer listening to the radio, these types of songs are very easy for them to sing along to.  A person is more likely to listen to a song they can connect with via sing along verses a more meaningful song that they can’t understand.

Think about it: it took artists like Common and Talib Kweli YEARS to even sell gold, yet Kanye West and Soulja Boy went platinum with their first album.  The difference?  The first two artists were so focused on sounding “deep” with their fast-delivery rhymes and out-of-the-box concepts, they forgot that people outside of rap might need a song they can say the words to.  Consequently, they didn’t get much radio play.

On the other hand, the latter two artists’ first song releases were sing-songy, could be easily duplicated, and had snappy lines and/or dance moves associated with them that made people feel good. Consequently, they both had #1 singles that helped their albums sell over a million or more.

If you’re a new artist, it’s already going to be tough breaking your song out on radio.  The last thing you need to do is hurt your chances even more by going against the mainstream, or not knowing how to structure your songs OR market yourself.  It’s okay to be different, but there’s a difference between being different and just plain WEIRD.

As 50 Cent once said, music is made to be shared with others.  If you’re not making your music for others to listen to, keep it in your basement.  Otherwise, how else do you expect it to play on radio?  Try and create songs that others will find enjoyable.  Then, go to clubs and perform it, get DJs to play it, post a video for the songs on video-sharing sites, and, once you’ve generated some interest, try and go back to the radio station and get it played. 

But don’t “dare to be different” and then get all mad when your local station doesn’t want to play you.  If you aren’t helping them get money, they really have no reason to play your song.  Even though you consider yourself an “artist,” you must always keep one thing in mind:

In the world of radio, it’s business, not personal.

-Aaron P. Taylor