"What normally happens in the music industry is that everything depends on radio playing the single.
In fairness, you could imagine virtually everything here on Radio 1, but too much sounds like the stuff you hear on Radio 1 and then struggle to remember a thing about the second it's over.
After "Nevermind" came out, a revolution took place: Nirvana sounded like nothing on the radio, and then, all of a sudden, everything on the radio sounded like Nirvana.
Bob Lefsetz, author of The LefsetzLetter music blog, was skeptical at first but canceled his dinner plans one night to see Dawes after he heard their song "A Little Bit of Everything" on the radio.
The other day we were driving in the car, listening to one of Los Angeles's top 40 stations, and I turned to my wife and asked: "How come everything on the radio sounds like a peak-hour tune from Ibiza?" All these smash hits have the Auto-Tuned big-chorus bolted on top.
Suddenly, everything on the radio sounded worse than it normally does.
No one would credit Top 40 for being innovative, but there's a difference between "everything on the radio sounds the same" and "beyotch stole my track".
During an interview, Knowles further spoke about her decision to release the song as the first single from the album, saying, "it was soulful and had a lot of horns, it just felt good, and it didn't sound like everything on the radio.
On everything from radio shows to record-label-sanctioned conference calls simulcast on the Internet, the pattern has been pretty much the same: Mr. West speaks until he is done, and only then does someone ask another question.
Over on Radio 4, everything was gearing up for a more intellectual game: a day-long performance of James Joyce's Ulysses, live from Dublin, yesterday (too late for me to review) – 16 June is the day on which Ulysses takes place.
