How we choose the music we play on the station.
So, with four months of this year essentially wiped out due to lockdown, we are steadily emerging into a new world. New-ish, at least.
Perhaps our initial hopes of people learning deep and essential lessons from this experience faded rather quickly in the beer soaked reverie of the pubs and bars opening again, but still some hope remains that some important things have been learnt.
Looking back it seems that even the infamous Mancunian rain went into lockdown for the best part, only for it too to ironically return in time to slightly dampen even the most enthusiastic of post-lockdown revellers.
It's been a strange time indeed overall, and the future feels anything but certain too. David Gilmour possibly summed it up best in the Pink Floyd song Time, when he described, “hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way”.
We do that very well. For better, or for worse.
While building The Buzz this week, we’ve been having some interesting, and relentlessly ongoing, discussions about our playlist and the overall music selection. The conversations often go something like this,
“What would happen if you were listening to the station and The Smiths followed after Public Enemy?"
“I would love it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
"Hmmm. Interesting."
This is often followed by a lot of head-scratching and chin holding, and on many occasions the phrase 'let's just play devil's advocate' precedes yet another weird potential musical conundrum.
We agreed to disagree on many, many things.
One thing we decided upon, which helped us with everything thereafter, was an analogy that gave us a clearer sense of purpose when selecting what music was suitable for the station. We started to consider our playlist as if it was a physical vinyl record collection, and our thought process was ‘Would we be happy and proud for anybody to rifle through that vinyl collection and be confident that there was nothing in there to feel sheepish about?’ If the answer was yes then it was considered acceptable for the station playlist. End of.
With music, we believe the best philosophy is to keep an open mind and never to consider yourself an expert. We want to discover new music through you, re-discover old classics we might have forgotten about, and learn about versions and mixes of songs we might have missed.
The joy of discovery is one of the greatest thrills that music offers. Hearing something for the first time that you know will be a part of your life forevermore; or the almost physical pain of nostalgia when a song transports you back in time to a very specific place or moment in your life.
The other thing we are most excited about with building the station is the sense of community that has come with it already. So many people have got in touch offering encouragement and support and expressing the need for the city to have a radio station that makes them feel like they belong to something again.
We truly know people want something to feel connected to, and the isolation of lockdown has seemed to affirm this idea more than ever before.
So, please, get in touch.
We want to hear from you.
Tell us about the music that shaped your life.
Tell us what radio meant to you.
We would love to hear your radio and musical stories.