You crack me up mate , but you preach the absolute truth ! I grew up on 70’s rock , I got into the punk & grunge but after that I was lost / bewildered and went back to the vinyl of the 70’s and my grunge cd’s and have stayed there ever since like a grumpy old dinosaur 😂😂🦖I probably need to leave the cave and check out the new music . I really enjoyed your post . Thanks & Cheers
I am so glad I wasn't the only one that hated all that late 90s garbage. I also thought to myself "is this good? Should I be listening to this? Why dont I like this?" Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Around '97 I think there was a mandate that the song "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia be played 30 times a day for 8 or 9 months straight on every radio station. Remember???
'Shit, you know me!' and very happy that I do. Brilliant video! Would love more insights into your life in radio if you ever feel so inclined to share. Thanks for a great half an hour!
I remember when my favorite radio station (Rev 105 in Minneapolis circa 1995) got taken over by some corporate operation. Never really listened to commercial radio after that. Love what you do. Creed and the Chipmunks…incredible stories.
As soon as you said that your approach was going to be records that changed your life not necessarily for the better, I was hooked. Thanks for the humor, and for sharing your first-hand experiences. By the way, I like the New Jersey album, but I get where you're coming from 😅!!
I was a 1960s-1970s kid, but some of our experiences were similar. Seeing LP shapes under the Christmas tree, writing down the radio Top 40. I gotta hand it to you working in radio in the 1990s. I can't imagine. By that time I was long done with radio playlists and went my own way with roots rock/alt country.
I appreciate very much this take on the concept because if I think about "life-changing" albums, they wouldn't all necessarily be albums that I think particularly highly of anymore. One that comes to mind is Emerson Lake & Palmer's 'Works, Volume 1' - maybe the ultimate in British 'art-rock' pretentiousness. But at the time I discovered it (circa 1983), it knocked me out. I was expanding my horizons beyond the radio at the time - not that everything on the radio was bad, back then you could still hear the Beatles on AOR stations - and I was discovering how much there was out there. So saying it was "life-changing" is not the same thing at all as saying I think it's one of the greatest albums ever made. Rush's 'Moving Pictures' would probably top my list because it was the first rock album I owned and I became a Rush fanatic for several years thereafter - but today, though I still like the album very much, it wouldn't go with me to the proverbial desert island.
This was one of the best video's you ve done as far as information on the 'entertainment'" world we live in.! Everyone age 20 to 60 should watch and study this video! Thank you.
1. Blue Oyster Cult --Agents of Fortune 2. Ultravox -Vienna 3. Elvis Costello and the Attractions--Armed Forces 4. Pulp--Different Class 5. Ladytron --Witching Hour Those be mine And 6. The Smithereens---Especially for You
You're absolutely right about music in the mid to late 90's. It's like all the record companies dropped only giant steaming piles of shit! I hear some people complain about how theres no good music being released today and dont disagree with them. There is a lot of great music being made but you have to actively seek it out because you will never hear it on commercial radio.
Have to agree. It ended with Creed. I heard that and cried. I knew it was finally over for all of us, and then I saw a kid wearing a Limp Bizkit t-shirt and knew there was no going back. I solely got into working Classic Rock radio from that moment on and haven't looked back.
This was great! One of my first records was actually Chipmunk Punk, except I actually liked it.🤷♂️ Thanks for the heads up on the Shake Your Money Maker vinyl. I had it on my list of wants, but I guess I will stick with the cd.
Yarling: Cher on a 45 slowed to 33.3 lol perfect. Funny and educational. Nice twist on the topic👍🏻 Luckily we had a good alternative station here that did not play Creed etc. 95X was right across from my house and I would hang out at the station when I was bored. Cool people that ran that station then! But yeah by 97/99 even that place was playing crap.
That was a great, great video!! Hilarious, educational, and heartwarming. (I'm just a few years younger than you, but also midwest dude - I remember local indianapolis based radio changing way for the worst around 95/96; in 93 or 94 you might hear Liz Phair or Material Issue randomly to just Korn and Limp Biscuit non stop.)
OMG. I was 8 when the Beatles were on Sullivan and I wanted Meet the Beatles so bad, but the parents said no and compromised with that Chipmunks Lp. My intro to them ! I feel your pain. I still have mine, my kids loved it.
Hey you need to re-think your opinion on that Chimunks album. Their re-working of Beatle hits making them their own. Hendrix's tried to copy their sound while recording "All Along The Watch Tower". Great harmonies, unique time signatures, arpeggios, like no others, the coda on "She Loves You". Maybe you're forgetting that the R.I.A.A. had to start a new category for children's music after this was released and due to the phenomenal sales this was the first album to earn the prestigious "Tin" award. How dare you dismiss this record. Hell the next thing you know you'll say is "Pet Sounds" is junk.
You're always original Robert and a breath of fresh air in a crowded field. Rock criticism has lost some of its cutting edge and there's an awful lot of terrible music out there deserving of your scalpel. Thanks for the entertainment while you wielded the knife ! All the best.
I got an album that change my life. Queensryche operation mindcrime. That’s when I learned that buying albums that are an hour long and crammed onto one vinyl makes for a bad listening experience 😂
Thanks man. I look forward to your video's. The 5 albums that changed my life are. 1) Beatles White Album 2) YES Fragile 3) Wings over America & Frampton comes alive 4) Pink Floyd The Wall 5) Tom Petty Full Moon Fever. I could rally do up to 20 albums that changed my life. But these 5 have and still do change the way I listen to music these days. Thanks again man, Peace and Love......
Surprise twist of an enlightening post-mortem of what-the-heck happened to music late 90's forward. You connected all the dots and ,yeah it all DID change our listening lives. It DID send us all looking elsewhere, backwards, & I just switched off radio forever. Growing up it was ALWAYS playing-The car, the house, backyard, walkman ...then, yeah no thanks. The 80's eclectic pop phenomenon is unrepeatable. You may not like every flavor of ice cream, but it's great to have options beyond vanilla or poop.
Hi, another very entertaining video from you and a completely unique take on the "5 records that changed my life" thread. I`ve often heard you mention about your experiences being a radio DJ and often having to play music that was forced on you because of commercial reasons. It made realize how lucky we are in Britain having the BBC and many other independent radio stations. The thing that sets the BBC apart from any other radio broadcaster is they are funded by the licence fee. Part of their contract with the government is that because they are funded by a public licence fee they have to make content that caters to both a commercial audience and small niche audiences in equal measure. And they have to be politically neutral. They have no commercial adverts and can produce programmes that make no commercial profit. It`s service not a business. So when it comes to BBC radio programmes you can often hear an eclectic mix of music on one show. When i was a kid and used i to listen to the BBC RADIO 1 breakfast or afternoon shows i could hear tracks by Queen next to a Fall track or a B52`s track. The BBC now has a dedicated music channel BBC SIX MUSIC that plays 24 hours a day the most eclectic music out there. The breakfast show will play non commercial Indie , Rap, Reggae , Folk, Classics, Pop , Techno , etc. At night they have a show named THE FREAK ZONE where they play everything from Nuggets compilation Psyche , The Stooges , latest releases too obscure electronic music. They have guest musicians and actors do hour long shows where they can play any music of their choice. The lead singer from Elbow has his own show so does IGGY POP. It really is the most democratic radio station in Britain. It`s a pity you didn`t have such a Broadcaster in the U.S that you could have worked for back in the 1990`s because you would have had free reign to find your time slot and play whatever you wanted. Thanks from England.
Wow Robert, this video hit the nail on the head so many times! You described perfectly how I was feeling there for a while relating to that 1990s era of corporate mandated music that literally made me sick. I was so turned off that I literally did not listen, and I still don't today, to FM radio after maybe 1995. I didn't even listen to much studio music between a year or two before that and I got into collecting and trading bootlegs for 25 plus years almost exclusively. I'm not talking about a bootleg or copy of a studio release. I didn't even have much that I was learning about or interested in or hearing when it came to current or new music during that era up until maybe 2009/2010 or so. I spent my musical endeavor time on finding the audience, soundboards, etc recordings of the artists I liked and grew up listening to. I came across two or three modern artists that I really did like during that time frame and I checked out their music. But as far as listening to FM radio stations to find something new I might like went, I had quit back probably after 1994. I still had all of my studio released tapes and CDs and my records were back in Houston. But I seldom listened to any of those officially released products because I had been listening to them for years. I didn't want to hear the same thing over and over. And when you are collecting the live shows and material like that, you get to hear different renditions of the music you like night after night and tour after tour. It is repetitious in one sense but it's not exactly the same recording over and over. I'm just glad that I still would come across and buy some LPs during those years even though I didn't have a working turntable and I wasn't really seeking one again just yet. But by the time (and I knew the time would come because I always loved a records the most) that I got a new turntable and started back collecting almost exclusively vinyl again, things that were hard to find and not easily available for so many decades we're starting to be reissued or repressed once again. I had no idea there was a vinyl revolution that had started up around 2010 because I wasn't buying any music or even looking for it. I'm just glad that I jumped in and started back when I did because I started seeing some music I liked, it wasn't bootleg shows, and I could get some good deals in places like record stores or even stores that started getting vinyl LPs again. I needed to replace a lot of my earlier LPs and I was able to find them once again. But that whole bootleg era was what saved me I feel like from the mid 1990s up until the last five or six years ago I feel like. I know these are long run on paragraphs and sentences and I'm using Google Voice to Text since I can't see well. So I'll wrap this up because I'm not going to be able to do a lot of proof reading right now and correct things. But your description of how the record labels and radio, AKA FM giants, we're taking us into a dark abyss was spot on from what I remember and what I felt like for so long. It's just a shame it's still on this path today. But you described in your video how you felt exactly how I was feeling being a listener of what was being put out. I couldn't even imagine the burnout You must have felt having to play it every few hours. Again, there was some good stuff no doubt. But man was it rare and I had to wait years until I was even willing to give some other styles or bands/music a chance to see if it was something I could listen to. I could go on for hours talking about how I feel the record labels and radio stations have repeatedly ruined things for the artists and consumers, but I won't. I've always thought that if they could see what people listening could see they would realize they were killing their own industries. But I have a strange feeling nowadays that they knew and didn't care. They were just going after the immediate cash grab knowing that they were destroying the industry. If I were to turn on the classic rock station here in the DFW area today and listen to it, I'd be hearing the same exact songs over and over that they were playing in the 1970s and 1980s. And it would be only those songs over, and over, and over once again. Gone are the days of playing album sides, live concerts from a venue, or even having the programs like the King Biscuit Flower Hour. People don't call in and request new songs they want to hear because they know it's a waste of time. The days of FM radio being the king and people enjoying listening to what was on it have disappeared. Not too many people want to be told what songs or music they are going to like and then only hearing one or two songs off of an album and never getting to see how the rest of the album sounds. Okay, I'm going to shut up here. Like I said, I could go on and on... But I'm not :-) Anyway, I'm going to quit rambling on here. I just wanted to let you know this video and it's topics hit home with me and you were spot on for what my perspective was during this time frame just being a listener 🎂 Brian in Fort Worth, 🎶
Thanks for the great comments. FM radio was once the cool kids, but I think that time is long gone. I put it into perspective getting a haircut. Whenever I would get my hair cut, the stylist would always ask if I was off work today or what I did for work. (They must teach that at barber school because they all ask it.) I remember in the early days, when I said I worked in radio and was on the air, their interest would perk up and they would start asking questions about it. In the later years, when I said I worked in radio, they would apologize and say they don't listen to radio, they have Spotify or something similar. Not the cool, interesting job anymore.
@@RobertFithen I hear you Robert... sad but true. I remember in the 1980s enjoying the drive into work and listening to the banter and morning shows the FM rock stations had going. The DJs would show up at various events promoting them and they were really a kind of rock star in and of themselves too. The good old days of rock and roll radio :-)
We had a similar upbringing...My father once bought me, when I was very young, the Best of Bobby Vinton...I was, like you a huge Beatles fan, and he heard me say that I couldn't stand things like Bobby Vinton, so he made it his mission to buy me something he knew I didn't like.And this was simply because he wanted to call me an ungrateful child.....mission accomplished....And I agree on your take: Doesn't have to be positive to be life changing....I was certainly ready for the new sounds of '77 because I couldn't have hated Led Zeppelin or corporate rock more....Peace and Love,Terry Tutor
That terrible late '90s stuff that you discuss, I used to call that "false grunge." Candlebox, Puddle Of Mudd, stuff like that. And the singers with the "Vedder-syndrome," so awful. Now I know why they were always on the radio; they were forced on us basically - yuck!
great video, laughed hard. That Chipmunks/Beatles record man I feel your pain. Excellent point you made about the consolidation of ownership in radio. Also good observation about the nineties. I always think of how great the nineties were but really it was the first half of the nineties that I like. Seventies is much the same.
I have the 2021 pressing of the black crowes album. It has a 30th anniversary sticker on it. It sounds fine to me. I've had this album on cassette originally and still have it on cd.
This guy is hilarious! Here’s mine. Big Country The Crossing, Rush 2112, Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust, Michael Hedges Live on the Double Planet, INXS Kick
@@RobertFithen This puts a twist on the "albums that changed my life" subject, not something other channels explored. I'm with you on the dislike of the copycat grunge bands and nu metal. Depressing stuff that all sounded a like after awhile. BTW, I had the Chipmunks plays The Beatles on 8 track! 🙂
My very first album I ever got was Chipmumk Punk. Sadly I have to admit that I was the one who wanted it at the time. Funny that I found it again in a record store a couple years ago. And yep. I simply had to have it for nostalgia reasons. I played it and got through about three songs before it drove me crazy and then back in the record shelves it went.
I think you're absolutely right regarding the political aspect of music. Heck, you could even argue that companies started "censoring" back in the early '70s. The Vietnam Era had musical groups that wrote songs against the war. Eventually, new types of music were promoted to get your mind off the war ... think soft rock and disco.
*Sees Robert with a Creed CD in the thumbnail. Me: "Fasten yer seatbelts, this is gonna be good..." Limp Bizkit is kind of "so bad it's good" in my book. As for Nu Metal, I think Deftones were exceptional. They don't even really call themselves that. They were a pretty creative lot. I think their music was not just "all for the nookie." (And I know Creed were not Nu Metal, but Nu Metal was mentioned.)
I was glad when I started earning my own money to buy records. Imagine a 14 year old girl who loves rock n roll getting Art Garfunkel and Judy Collins for her birthday and Christmas 😆 life changing indeed!
Hey Robert...I agree wholeheartedly with you about vinyl releases of albums created with the cd format in mind - I'll keep my 90s and early 2000s music as they were intended;- but I have a few questions as to, 1. What year "they" really began to make music FOR vinyl again? - not counting reissues of older records (8-10-12 songs versus 14-16-20 songs); and, 2, What year was vinyl the dominant medium again? Knowing this will help inform my future purchases. I have heard that by 2006, we were officially back to vinyl, though I have also heard that not everybody was releasing their music on vinyl by that time...I have also heard that it was actually more like 2014 - 2016. Thanks in advance! Great video, as always.
Different artists did it at different times, I don't think you can pinpoint it to one year specifically. But, 2015 seems about right. In 2006, it was more about streaming.
You make that vocal style sound like mr.ed. lol. Alot of country artists use this style now too. Ever heard the term cookie monster metal? That heavy metal where they basically gargle.
I don't blame you for not listening to the crap you had to play to keep your job. It says a lot about you that you quit because of it. - good things I don't think any music actually changed my life. I was a bubblegummer - if that's a word - until I heard 'The Doors Strange Days' in '67 that for me was a whole new realm of music. Got to admit I was 17 in 1967 - OK on with my life - When I was still inside my mom I listened to her play the violin and her father played the piano. So I was strangely drawn to classical music especially the violin - I did not know why until mom told me about what I heard before I was born. - and so I go on and on - you keep up the good work good news good life
this is a very good explanation. i think the same thing happened to me in 99. so i stuck with my man Beck who kept making great stuff that defied format
My personal 5 life-changing album disappointments were Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle" (1994), the "Armageddon" soundtrack (1998), Britney Spear's "...Baby One More Time" (1999), U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004), and Guns'n' Roses' "The Spaghetti Incident" (1993).
Among my friends group I was the only one who said Creed sucked when they fist came out. Even at 10 or 11 years old I knew they sucked ass, and all my friends at the time made fun of me for not liking them. We were in the back of my friend's uncle's work van (no seat belts, or seats) after making $10 each for cleaning up a construction site. Creed came on the alternative station and they all sang along. I made a face, protested and made my dissent known. I'm glad I stuck to my guns and in the long run it turns out I was right. Now I'm a vinyl collecting pompous asshole music snob and proud of it!
This feels so true, i grew up in the 90s, while i also was listening to my dads 70s stuff and my brothers 80s stuff. I got into post grunge by the likes of Silverchair and Foo fighters. Then came nu metal offcourse. Still i like some of the outings by those bands, a lot of other music just started to grate on me quick. I Remember hearing nickelback with how you remind me and thought it was a perfect song, then i heard it 20 times a day and now i never want to hear that song ever again. I also hated most of the "yarl" bands, here in the Netherlands we had Kane, a sort of Creed knock off, dont look it up, just dont.
Hey Robert, Being from st. louis whats your opinion of kdhx? The days before the internet kdhx was a great way to hear new and different types of music since they played so many types of music that you would never hear on commercial radio. And what's your opinion about what's going on over at kdhx these days?
Excellent film! I agree with the opinion that after 1988 music changed and stopped fascinating me so much. The grunge of the early 90s of the twentieth century disappeared too quickly. I also appreciate the hits from 1983 (Genesis, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, The Police). Did you work in the radio? In the 80s, it was my dream. Well, then everything changed and I stopped listening to the radio. Fortunately, there is an infinite amount of great unknown new music hidden on various records.
I started out buying that shit . It was a social bond with radio and my "so called " friends".I loved Elton John,and when he said he was gay,radio dropped him like a hot potato . After years of buying every fuckin thing (Boston,Fleetwood Mac, shit-I even bought Olivia Newton John , the Fuckin Eagles,Doobies,Steely Dan-Help ! ) THEN THERE WAS.....elvis costello,& within a couple yrs I thru out all the shit ( including elton) and aquired taste and discretion . Now I listen to bird calls , tapp dancing and cats fucking,thank god !
A little off topic, but when you mentioned The Black Crowes horrible sounding vinyl record I immediately thought of a review of the latest Billie Eilish record by Michael of the In Groove. That was one of the funniest reviews I've heard, and he wasn't trying to be funny. As an audiophile, he was angry!! Its worth a watch....he just put it up in the last couple of weeks. And I'm happy to say there was no Chipmunks sing the Songs of The Beatles for me (although there was the Chipmunk Christmas album....perhaps just as bad!!) I enjoy your channel!!
I jumped off the bon Jovi wagon after slippery when wet came out. My sister would play my slippery when wet and 5150 records till the grooves wore off. Used to come home and those two albums were always on my turntable and out of their sleeves because my sister pirated my turntable when I wasn't around. (I still listen to 5150 although I prefer dave era VH).
Bon Jovi New Jersey is an absolute masterpiece. On the song "stick to your guns" it has some of the most beautiful acoustic guitar mixed in with electric guitar.
Days of the New does get a bad rap. I used to think they were just another late 90's pearl jam wannabe band but they rock. 1st and 3rd albums are so good. Dirty Road, man goosebumps every time.
You mentioned Woodstock '94...It's interesting that Woodstock in '69 in the moment, felt like a triumphant victory and reason to believe more crazy creative stuff would come, but it really marked the END of a great era. The same can be said about Woodstock '94...maybe not the absolute end, that would be summer '95. Woodstock '94 = Cool (but the end of an era). Woodstock '99 = Lame
My mom bought me the Swan She Loves You so I wore that out then she got me the Chipmunks/Beatles and that’s how I learned the other Beatles songs. I loved it and still have it. Fair condition at best. Lana Del Rey is on a major label but she definitely isn’t commercial corporate pop. She’s alt pop imo. I think of her as a popular indie artist 🧑🎨
YARLING!!!! At LAST there is a term for this! I knew somebody who referred to that stuff as "farm rock", which is hilarious, but a proper term is most welcome.
Yamo wanna know # 5 now...Shall I venture a (most likely wrong) guess? Sure, why not. Here 'tis: Steve Miller Band-Children O' The Future...How'd I do?
![Finesse2Tymes & Og Boo Dirty - Real Recognize Real [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3xb4bl5PWF8/mqdefault.jpg)
Entertaining, educational, funny , inspiring, inteligent so real and with no ego to feed.
It's videos like this that made me a subscriber to your channel. Funny...and informative. Excellent!
Thanks!! I appreciate that.
You crack me up mate , but you preach the absolute truth ! I grew up on 70’s rock , I got into the punk & grunge but after that I was lost / bewildered and went back to the vinyl of the 70’s and my grunge cd’s and have stayed there ever since like a grumpy old dinosaur 😂😂🦖I probably need to leave the cave and check out the new music . I really enjoyed your post . Thanks & Cheers
I always called it Peanut Butter Music.🥜
It sounds like the lead singer just ate a big ol spoon of peanut butter before hitting the stage!
Wildly entertaining, Robert! Thank you so much!
Whenever you see "180g vinyl" on a hype sticker, it's like when DVDs has no features and just promotes the "interactive menu."
Yes!
You bring such great perspective and context to our American rock music history. Always interesting...and much of it hysterical! Keep it up!
I am so glad I wasn't the only one that hated all that late 90s garbage. I also thought to myself "is this good? Should I be listening to this? Why dont I like this?" Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Around '97 I think there was a mandate that the song "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia be played 30 times a day for 8 or 9 months straight on every radio station. Remember???
Laughed so hard during this rant. You should take this out on the road!! Brilliant!😂
'Shit, you know me!' and very happy that I do. Brilliant video! Would love more insights into your life in radio if you ever feel so inclined to share. Thanks for a great half an hour!
HI Robert, Please do a video about late 90s rock and bands changing their sounds within this period.
Love your content!
Ah ! That,s it ! Cher ! I always thought they were just constipated !
The chipmunks story is classic, it's funny yet so sad, lol. I can relate!
I remember when my favorite radio station (Rev 105 in Minneapolis circa 1995) got taken over by some corporate operation. Never really listened to commercial radio after that. Love what you do. Creed and the Chipmunks…incredible stories.
21:03 damn you made me spill my drink.
A good spin on this thread! One of your best videos, Robert. Thanks.
As soon as you said that your approach was going to be records that changed your life not necessarily for the better, I was hooked. Thanks for the humor, and for sharing your first-hand experiences. By the way, I like the New Jersey album, but I get where you're coming from 😅!!
I knew when I saw the thumbnail this was going to be great. Loved it! 🤩
I was a 1960s-1970s kid, but some of our experiences were similar. Seeing LP shapes under the Christmas tree, writing down the radio Top 40. I gotta hand it to you working in radio in the 1990s. I can't imagine. By that time I was long done with radio playlists and went my own way with roots rock/alt country.
I appreciate very much this take on the concept because if I think about "life-changing" albums, they wouldn't all necessarily be albums that I think particularly highly of anymore. One that comes to mind is Emerson Lake & Palmer's 'Works, Volume 1' - maybe the ultimate in British 'art-rock' pretentiousness. But at the time I discovered it (circa 1983), it knocked me out. I was expanding my horizons beyond the radio at the time - not that everything on the radio was bad, back then you could still hear the Beatles on AOR stations - and I was discovering how much there was out there. So saying it was "life-changing" is not the same thing at all as saying I think it's one of the greatest albums ever made. Rush's 'Moving Pictures' would probably top my list because it was the first rock album I owned and I became a Rush fanatic for several years thereafter - but today, though I still like the album very much, it wouldn't go with me to the proverbial desert island.
My boy had PTSD after the chipmunks album 😂
This was one of the best video's you ve done as far as information on the 'entertainment'" world we live in.! Everyone age 20 to 60 should watch and study this video! Thank you.
1. Blue Oyster Cult --Agents of Fortune
2. Ultravox -Vienna
3. Elvis Costello and the Attractions--Armed Forces
4. Pulp--Different Class
5. Ladytron --Witching Hour
Those be mine
And 6. The Smithereens---Especially for You
You're absolutely right about music in the mid to late 90's. It's like all the record companies dropped only giant steaming piles of shit! I hear some people complain about how theres no good music being released today and dont disagree with them. There is a lot of great music being made but you have to actively seek it out because you will never hear it on commercial radio.
That's one reason I watch RUclips videos with real music fans giving tips on new music.
Have to agree. It ended with Creed. I heard that and cried. I knew it was finally over for all of us, and then I saw a kid wearing a Limp Bizkit t-shirt and knew there was no going back. I solely got into working Classic Rock radio from that moment on and haven't looked back.
Your impression of Aaron Lewis is spot on! The first Days of the New record is great though.
This was just perfect. So well done. Hilarious! 😂
Thanks!!
This was great! One of my first records was actually Chipmunk Punk, except I actually liked it.🤷♂️
Thanks for the heads up on the Shake Your Money Maker vinyl. I had it on my list of wants, but I guess I will stick with the cd.
I think it's been reissued again and the newer one supposedly sounds better.
Darn I was hoping a k tel would be on your list. Great video. It's JJ after recovery I changed my handle.
Sure KTel was around when record companies wouldn't put out compilations like KTel did.
Dude..."Chipmunks play the Beatles hits" had me howling 😂
What a fantastic video rovert rovert Robert have a wonderful day also happy first day of June ❤😊
Absolutely loved this video and love the channel - Northern New Jersey loves you :)
Thanks!!
Hilarious but truthful. Keep ‘em coming! 😅
Yarling: Cher on a 45 slowed to 33.3
lol perfect. Funny and educational. Nice twist on the topic👍🏻
Luckily we had a good alternative station here that did not play Creed etc. 95X was right across from my house and I would hang out at the station when I was bored. Cool people that ran that station then! But yeah by 97/99 even that place was playing crap.
Outside! The video… “I’m feeling those lighters.”😂
lol. That's perfect!
😂👍🏻 very funny and interesting! … and good singing, think i would sign you
That was a great, great video!! Hilarious, educational, and heartwarming.
(I'm just a few years younger than you, but also midwest dude - I remember local indianapolis based radio changing way for the worst around 95/96; in 93 or 94 you might hear Liz Phair or Material Issue randomly to just Korn and Limp Biscuit non stop.)
Good Grief you’ve disparaged the name of my childhood bands…..but I’ll be thinking of you when I’m watching creed and three doors down in November 😅
OMG. I was 8 when the Beatles were on Sullivan and I wanted Meet the Beatles so bad, but the parents said no and compromised with that Chipmunks Lp. My intro to them ! I feel your pain. I still have mine, my kids loved it.
Remember “Chipmunk Punk”? It was brutal… their version of “Refugee” was brutal. Of course, I bought it.
So, you're saying you won't be attending the Winger, Creed, 3 Doors Down, Puddle of Mudd concert in St. Louis this weekend? 😮😂😔
The other thing about the early 90s...bands like REM, U2, The Cure, etc. were still pretty cool. Heck even Megadeth was good in the early 90s.
that was a good one.
Hey you need to re-think your opinion on that Chimunks album. Their re-working of Beatle hits making them their own. Hendrix's tried to copy their sound while recording "All Along The Watch Tower". Great harmonies, unique time signatures, arpeggios, like no others, the coda on "She Loves You". Maybe you're forgetting that the R.I.A.A. had to start a new category for children's music after this was released and due to the phenomenal sales this was the first album to earn the prestigious "Tin" award. How dare you dismiss this record. Hell the next thing you know you'll say is "Pet Sounds" is junk.
You're always original Robert and a breath of fresh air in a crowded field. Rock criticism has lost some of its cutting edge and there's an awful lot of terrible music out there deserving of your scalpel. Thanks for the entertainment while you wielded the knife ! All the best.
Thanks!! I appreciate that.
😂 Always entertaining. I gotta say though, late 90's music was a goldmine compared to the absolute trash that's popular nowadays. 😬😜
I got an album that change my life. Queensryche operation mindcrime. That’s when I learned that buying albums that are an hour long and crammed onto one vinyl makes for a bad listening experience 😂
My friends and I would call the late 90s faux-vedder vocalizing " MUHFERBER"...
My parents got me Chipmunks In Low Places cassette one year 😂 And I'll tell ya, I plagued that thing until the wheels came off.
That was one of the first CDs I ever got. Liked it at the time, but then I was like 12 years old.
Thanks man. I look forward to your video's. The 5 albums that changed my life are. 1) Beatles White Album 2) YES Fragile 3) Wings over America & Frampton comes alive 4) Pink Floyd The Wall 5) Tom Petty Full Moon Fever. I could rally do up to 20 albums that changed my life. But these 5 have and still do change the way I listen to music these days. Thanks again man, Peace and Love......
That's an interesting harmonica contraption on the Chipmunks album cover.
And the guitar shapes are pretty futuristic, too.
5:25 OMG😂😂😂😂😂
Yep. I tuned out in the Late 90’s and went back hunting music from the 70’s
Surprise twist of an enlightening post-mortem of what-the-heck happened to music late 90's forward. You connected all the dots and ,yeah it all DID change our listening lives. It DID send us all looking elsewhere, backwards, & I just switched off radio forever. Growing up it was ALWAYS playing-The car, the house, backyard, walkman ...then, yeah no thanks. The 80's eclectic pop phenomenon is unrepeatable. You may not like every flavor of ice cream, but it's great to have options beyond vanilla or poop.
Exactly! Someday, I'll do a video more in depth.
Hi, another very entertaining video from you and a completely unique take on the "5 records that changed my life" thread.
I`ve often heard you mention about your experiences being a radio DJ and often having to play music that was forced on you because of commercial reasons. It made realize how lucky we are in Britain having the BBC and many other independent radio stations. The thing that sets the BBC apart from any other radio broadcaster is they are funded by the licence fee.
Part of their contract with the government is that because they are funded by a public licence fee they have to make content that caters to both a commercial audience and small niche audiences in equal measure. And they have to be politically neutral. They have no commercial adverts and can produce programmes that make no commercial profit. It`s service not a business.
So when it comes to BBC radio programmes you can often hear an eclectic mix of music on one show. When i was a kid and used i to listen to the BBC RADIO 1 breakfast or afternoon shows i could hear tracks by Queen next to a Fall track or a B52`s track.
The BBC now has a dedicated music channel BBC SIX MUSIC that plays 24 hours a day the most eclectic music out there. The breakfast show will play non commercial Indie , Rap, Reggae , Folk, Classics, Pop , Techno , etc. At night they have a show named THE FREAK ZONE where they play everything from Nuggets compilation Psyche , The Stooges , latest releases too obscure electronic music.
They have guest musicians and actors do hour long shows where they can play any music of their choice. The lead singer from Elbow has his own show so does IGGY POP. It really is the most democratic radio station in Britain.
It`s a pity you didn`t have such a Broadcaster in the U.S that you could have worked for back in the 1990`s because you would have had free reign to find your time slot and play whatever you wanted.
Thanks from England.
Wow Robert, this video hit the nail on the head so many times! You described perfectly how I was feeling there for a while relating to that 1990s era of corporate mandated music that literally made me sick. I was so turned off that I literally did not listen, and I still don't today, to FM radio after maybe 1995. I didn't even listen to much studio music between a year or two before that and I got into collecting and trading bootlegs for 25 plus years almost exclusively. I'm not talking about a bootleg or copy of a studio release. I didn't even have much that I was learning about or interested in or hearing when it came to current or new music during that era up until maybe 2009/2010 or so. I spent my musical endeavor time on finding the audience, soundboards, etc recordings of the artists I liked and grew up listening to. I came across two or three modern artists that I really did like during that time frame and I checked out their music. But as far as listening to FM radio stations to find something new I might like went, I had quit back probably after 1994. I still had all of my studio released tapes and CDs and my records were back in Houston. But I seldom listened to any of those officially released products because I had been listening to them for years. I didn't want to hear the same thing over and over. And when you are collecting the live shows and material like that, you get to hear different renditions of the music you like night after night and tour after tour. It is repetitious in one sense but it's not exactly the same recording over and over. I'm just glad that I still would come across and buy some LPs during those years even though I didn't have a working turntable and I wasn't really seeking one again just yet. But by the time (and I knew the time would come because I always loved a records the most) that I got a new turntable and started back collecting almost exclusively vinyl again, things that were hard to find and not easily available for so many decades we're starting to be reissued or repressed once again. I had no idea there was a vinyl revolution that had started up around 2010 because I wasn't buying any music or even looking for it. I'm just glad that I jumped in and started back when I did because I started seeing some music I liked, it wasn't bootleg shows, and I could get some good deals in places like record stores or even stores that started getting vinyl LPs again. I needed to replace a lot of my earlier LPs and I was able to find them once again. But that whole bootleg era was what saved me I feel like from the mid 1990s up until the last five or six years ago I feel like.
I know these are long run on paragraphs and sentences and I'm using Google Voice to Text since I can't see well. So I'll wrap this up because I'm not going to be able to do a lot of proof reading right now and correct things. But your description of how the record labels and radio, AKA FM giants, we're taking us into a dark abyss was spot on from what I remember and what I felt like for so long. It's just a shame it's still on this path today. But you described in your video how you felt exactly how I was feeling being a listener of what was being put out. I couldn't even imagine the burnout You must have felt having to play it every few hours. Again, there was some good stuff no doubt. But man was it rare and I had to wait years until I was even willing to give some other styles or bands/music a chance to see if it was something I could listen to. I could go on for hours talking about how I feel the record labels and radio stations have repeatedly ruined things for the artists and consumers, but I won't. I've always thought that if they could see what people listening could see they would realize they were killing their own industries. But I have a strange feeling nowadays that they knew and didn't care. They were just going after the immediate cash grab knowing that they were destroying the industry. If I were to turn on the classic rock station here in the DFW area today and listen to it, I'd be hearing the same exact songs over and over that they were playing in the 1970s and 1980s. And it would be only those songs over, and over, and over once again. Gone are the days of playing album sides, live concerts from a venue, or even having the programs like the King Biscuit Flower Hour. People don't call in and request new songs they want to hear because they know it's a waste of time. The days of FM radio being the king and people enjoying listening to what was on it have disappeared. Not too many people want to be told what songs or music they are going to like and then only hearing one or two songs off of an album and never getting to see how the rest of the album sounds. Okay, I'm going to shut up here. Like I said, I could go on and on... But I'm not :-)
Anyway, I'm going to quit rambling on here. I just wanted to let you know this video and it's topics hit home with me and you were spot on for what my perspective was during this time frame just being a listener 🎂
Brian in Fort Worth, 🎶
Thanks for the great comments. FM radio was once the cool kids, but I think that time is long gone. I put it into perspective getting a haircut. Whenever I would get my hair cut, the stylist would always ask if I was off work today or what I did for work. (They must teach that at barber school because they all ask it.) I remember in the early days, when I said I worked in radio and was on the air, their interest would perk up and they would start asking questions about it. In the later years, when I said I worked in radio, they would apologize and say they don't listen to radio, they have Spotify or something similar. Not the cool, interesting job anymore.
@@RobertFithen I hear you Robert... sad but true. I remember in the 1980s enjoying the drive into work and listening to the banter and morning shows the FM rock stations had going. The DJs would show up at various events promoting them and they were really a kind of rock star in and of themselves too. The good old days of rock and roll radio :-)
We had a similar upbringing...My father once bought me, when I was very young, the Best of Bobby Vinton...I was, like you a huge Beatles fan, and he heard me say that I couldn't stand things like Bobby Vinton, so he made it his mission to buy me something he knew I didn't like.And this was simply because he wanted to call me an ungrateful child.....mission accomplished....And I agree on your take: Doesn't have to be positive to be life changing....I was certainly ready for the new sounds of '77 because I couldn't have hated Led Zeppelin or corporate rock more....Peace and Love,Terry Tutor
Buying something I don't like just to able to call me an ungrateful child..... that's very relatable.
My favorite band is the Beatles. Though I don't think I would have liked the Chipmunks singing there songs.
Thanks for your Storytelling, I loved it. 🎉
18:25 Cher a la Creed has entirely changed my perspective of popular music. Thank you, I think...😅😂😂
That terrible late '90s stuff that you discuss, I used to call that "false grunge." Candlebox, Puddle Of Mudd, stuff like that. And the singers with the "Vedder-syndrome," so awful. Now I know why they were always on the radio; they were forced on us basically - yuck!
great video, laughed hard. That Chipmunks/Beatles record man I feel your pain. Excellent point you made about the consolidation of ownership in radio. Also good observation about the nineties. I always think of how great the nineties were but really it was the first half of the nineties that I like. Seventies is much the same.
I have the 2021 pressing of the black crowes album. It has a 30th anniversary sticker on it. It sounds fine to me. I've had this album on cassette originally and still have it on cd.
This guy is hilarious! Here’s mine. Big Country The Crossing, Rush 2112, Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust, Michael Hedges Live on the Double Planet, INXS Kick
Your best videos are the comedic ones.😆
I like the sad ones too. lol
@@RobertFithen This puts a twist on the "albums that changed my life" subject, not something other channels explored. I'm with you on the dislike of the copycat grunge bands and nu metal. Depressing stuff that all sounded a like after awhile.
BTW, I had the Chipmunks plays The Beatles on 8 track! 🙂
My very first album I ever got was Chipmumk Punk. Sadly I have to admit that I was the one who wanted it at the time. Funny that I found it again in a record store a couple years ago. And yep. I simply had to have it for nostalgia reasons. I played it and got through about three songs before it drove me crazy and then back in the record shelves it went.
3:23 was it Stretch Armstrong???😂😂😂😂
That was one of them.
I think you're absolutely right regarding the political aspect of music. Heck, you could even argue that companies started "censoring" back in the early '70s. The Vietnam Era had musical groups that wrote songs against the war. Eventually, new types of music were promoted to get your mind off the war ... think soft rock and disco.
You should totally do a full video on late 90s butt rock
*Sees Robert with a Creed CD in the thumbnail.
Me: "Fasten yer seatbelts, this is gonna be good..."
Limp Bizkit is kind of "so bad it's good" in my book. As for Nu Metal, I think Deftones were exceptional. They don't even really call themselves that. They were a pretty creative lot. I think their music was not just "all for the nookie." (And I know Creed were not Nu Metal, but Nu Metal was mentioned.)
Deftones were an exception, they were more melodic. Also, they weren't a corporate concoction.
I was glad when I started earning my own money to buy records. Imagine a 14 year old girl who loves rock n roll getting Art Garfunkel and Judy Collins for her birthday and Christmas 😆 life changing indeed!
Hey Robert...I agree wholeheartedly with you about vinyl releases of albums created with the cd format in mind - I'll keep my 90s and early 2000s music as they were intended;- but I have a few questions as to,
1. What year "they" really began to make music FOR vinyl again? - not counting reissues of older records (8-10-12 songs versus 14-16-20 songs); and, 2, What year was vinyl the dominant medium again? Knowing this will help inform my future purchases.
I have heard that by 2006, we were officially back to vinyl, though I have also heard that not everybody was releasing their music on vinyl by that time...I have also heard that it was actually more like 2014 - 2016.
Thanks in advance! Great video, as always.
Different artists did it at different times, I don't think you can pinpoint it to one year specifically. But, 2015 seems about right. In 2006, it was more about streaming.
You make that vocal style sound like mr.ed. lol. Alot of country artists use this style now too. Ever heard the term cookie monster metal? That heavy metal where they basically gargle.
Yes, it just sounds comical.
I don't blame you for not listening to the crap you had to play to keep your job. It says a lot about you that you quit because of it. - good things
I don't think any music actually changed my life. I was a bubblegummer - if that's a word - until I heard 'The Doors Strange Days' in '67 that for me was a whole new realm of music.
Got to admit I was 17 in 1967 - OK on with my life - When I was still inside my mom I listened to her play the violin and her father played the piano. So I was strangely drawn to classical music especially the violin - I did not know why until mom told me about what I heard before I was born. - and so I go on and on - you keep up the good work good news good life
I can hear Alvin singing Yesterday already!
Girlfriend and Superunknown are my life changing ones.
this is a very good explanation. i think the same thing happened to me in 99. so i stuck with my man Beck who kept making great stuff that defied format
at work we renamed a table the Nickleback conference room. the table you used when all other choices were taken
Outta curiosity, when you temporarily left radio and went back to school…. What was the plan? What was the replacement career gonna be?
I was thinking about website design.
@@RobertFithen ahhhh ok… well then you chose wisely to return.
My personal 5 life-changing album disappointments were Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle" (1994), the "Armageddon" soundtrack (1998), Britney Spear's "...Baby One More Time" (1999), U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004), and Guns'n' Roses' "The Spaghetti Incident" (1993).
Among my friends group I was the only one who said Creed sucked when they fist came out. Even at 10 or 11 years old I knew they sucked ass, and all my friends at the time made fun of me for not liking them. We were in the back of my friend's uncle's work van (no seat belts, or seats) after making $10 each for cleaning up a construction site. Creed came on the alternative station and they all sang along. I made a face, protested and made my dissent known. I'm glad I stuck to my guns and in the long run it turns out I was right. Now I'm a vinyl collecting pompous asshole music snob and proud of it!
Me too!
This feels so true, i grew up in the 90s, while i also was listening to my dads 70s stuff and my brothers 80s stuff. I got into post grunge by the likes of Silverchair and Foo fighters. Then came nu metal offcourse. Still i like some of the outings by those bands, a lot of other music just started to grate on me quick. I Remember hearing nickelback with how you remind me and thought it was a perfect song, then i heard it 20 times a day and now i never want to hear that song ever again.
I also hated most of the "yarl" bands, here in the Netherlands we had Kane, a sort of Creed knock off, dont look it up, just dont.
Agreed, 1997- the year the music died.
Man, I had Urban Chipmunk. Might have been the first time I heard Luckenbach Texas 😂
Hey Robert, Being from st. louis whats your opinion of kdhx? The days before the internet kdhx was a great way to hear new and different types of music since they played so many types of music that you would never hear on commercial radio. And what's your opinion about what's going on over at kdhx these days?
I used to listen to KDHX in the early 90s but then I moved to Springfield to start a radio career. What going on there now is a travesty
:51 same!!!!
Excellent film! I agree with the opinion that after 1988 music changed and stopped fascinating me so much. The grunge of the early 90s of the twentieth century disappeared too quickly. I also appreciate the hits from 1983 (Genesis, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, The Police). Did you work in the radio? In the 80s, it was my dream. Well, then everything changed and I stopped listening to the radio. Fortunately, there is an infinite amount of great unknown new music hidden on various records.
I started in radio in 1995 and was in it for 30 years.
11:44 how about "Nookie" and "Break Stuff"???
They're a novelty act and should have never been treated as anything but that.
I started out buying that shit . It was a social bond with radio and my "so called " friends".I loved Elton John,and when he said he was gay,radio dropped him like a hot potato . After years of buying every fuckin thing (Boston,Fleetwood Mac, shit-I even bought Olivia Newton John , the Fuckin Eagles,Doobies,Steely Dan-Help ! ) THEN THERE WAS.....elvis costello,& within a couple yrs I thru out all the shit ( including elton) and aquired taste and discretion . Now I listen to bird calls , tapp dancing and cats fucking,thank god !
A little off topic, but when you mentioned The Black Crowes horrible sounding vinyl record I immediately thought of a review of the latest Billie Eilish record by Michael of the In Groove. That was one of the funniest reviews I've heard, and he wasn't trying to be funny. As an audiophile, he was angry!! Its worth a watch....he just put it up in the last couple of weeks. And I'm happy to say there was no Chipmunks sing the Songs of The Beatles for me (although there was the Chipmunk Christmas album....perhaps just as bad!!) I enjoy your channel!!
I jumped off the bon Jovi wagon after slippery when wet came out. My sister would play my slippery when wet and 5150 records till the grooves wore off. Used to come home and those two albums were always on my turntable and out of their sleeves because my sister pirated my turntable when I wasn't around. (I still listen to 5150 although I prefer dave era VH).
Bon Jovi New Jersey is an absolute masterpiece. On the song "stick to your guns" it has some of the most beautiful acoustic guitar mixed in with electric guitar.
Days of the New does get a bad rap. I used to think they were just another late 90's pearl jam wannabe band but they rock. 1st and 3rd albums are so good. Dirty Road, man goosebumps every time.
13:15 Believe it or not, WKRP in Cincinnati predicted that in one of their episodes
I've seen it a few times. It centered around automation, too.
7:42 my thoughts exactly! Early 90s got better but anything from 1997 on is just scrap IMO.
Hey Robert. You showed some Beat Farmers albums in a recent episode. Would you be willing to sell?
I live 2 miles from Riverbend Records.
I'm not sure, I havent' had a chance to hear them yet.
@RobertFithen they are terrible 😁
Bon Jovi sounded so hardcore to me in 1988, granted I was only 8. I thought they were 'Punk'
You were 8. You get a pass. Lol
You mentioned Woodstock '94...It's interesting that Woodstock in '69 in the moment, felt like a triumphant victory and reason to believe more crazy creative stuff would come, but it really marked the END of a great era. The same can be said about Woodstock '94...maybe not the absolute end, that would be summer '95. Woodstock '94 = Cool (but the end of an era). Woodstock '99 = Lame
My mom bought me the Swan She Loves You so I wore that out then she got me the Chipmunks/Beatles and that’s how I learned the other Beatles songs. I loved it and still have it. Fair condition at best.
Lana Del Rey is on a major label but she definitely isn’t commercial corporate pop. She’s alt pop imo. I think of her as a popular indie artist 🧑🎨
YARLING!!!! At LAST there is a term for this! I knew somebody who referred to that stuff as "farm rock", which is hilarious, but a proper term is most welcome.
I've heard it called "butt rock" too.
Yamo wanna know # 5 now...Shall I venture a (most likely wrong) guess? Sure, why not. Here 'tis: Steve Miller Band-Children O' The Future...How'd I do?
I've had that album for years.
That Bon Jovi album is like bad medicine. There ain't no doctor that can cure its disease.