09/08: Random Thoughts on the Road, 1
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Recently my wife and I took a trip to Georgia to see the son in the Navy. This post and others to follow will offer random thoughts from our travel.
American radio is too homogenized. FM radio from Oklahoma to Georgia and back was pretty much the same. "Country" stations played the same stuff in Tennessee and South Carolina. "Urban" stations all sounded alike. "Classic Rock" (aka Geezer Rock) played the same rotations. Depressing. Coming into Memphis on the first night I vainly scanned the FM dial for some "Memphis Music;" you know, blues or even Rockabilly. No luck. AM radio has some regional variety: usually I could find one AM station playing music I associated with its locality--"Mountain Music" in the hills, older Country near Nashville, etc.
In only a couple of short stretches could I pick up no Spanish-language radio.
Along the Interstate we had to look for regional cuisine amid the McDonald's and Arby's and Flying J's. We were able to find local, independent places, but had to look for them.
When did we begin the process of eroding regional cultures in America? With the Sears & Roebuck catalog or the A&P Grocery? Later with the radio networds? Earlier as we developed from a nation of states into a nation-state? I am not so foolishly romantic as to wish for regional cultures to come back in all their details, but I think we are losing something.
I did find that regional accents remain. Tennessee has at least three. Viva localism.
American radio is too homogenized. FM radio from Oklahoma to Georgia and back was pretty much the same. "Country" stations played the same stuff in Tennessee and South Carolina. "Urban" stations all sounded alike. "Classic Rock" (aka Geezer Rock) played the same rotations. Depressing. Coming into Memphis on the first night I vainly scanned the FM dial for some "Memphis Music;" you know, blues or even Rockabilly. No luck. AM radio has some regional variety: usually I could find one AM station playing music I associated with its locality--"Mountain Music" in the hills, older Country near Nashville, etc.
In only a couple of short stretches could I pick up no Spanish-language radio.
Along the Interstate we had to look for regional cuisine amid the McDonald's and Arby's and Flying J's. We were able to find local, independent places, but had to look for them.
When did we begin the process of eroding regional cultures in America? With the Sears & Roebuck catalog or the A&P Grocery? Later with the radio networds? Earlier as we developed from a nation of states into a nation-state? I am not so foolishly romantic as to wish for regional cultures to come back in all their details, but I think we are losing something.
I did find that regional accents remain. Tennessee has at least three. Viva localism.
bornarebel wrote:
http://www.AllMemphisMusic.com
Now there's a Memphis station for ya.