Pop on the News

[ardcarp]

Is it my imagination? Is it becoming a 'thing' to have an item of pop towards the end of News Programmes...often playing out to it?
Maybe broadcasters think the population needs cheering up. Needless to say it doesn't have any beneficial effect on me.

I detest Muzak in pubs and restaurants. Not just because it's usually pop, but because it's too loud. I wouldn't want the Classics belted out either during my plat du jour. However Mrs A and I did spend a night at the Wykeham Arms in Winchester, and for the evening meal they had Classic FM on really quietly. You couldn't even hear the adverts.

Off topic, but I'm sure many know the Church of St Cross at Winchester. Almshouses for 'The Noble Poor'. Ahem. £7.50 each to go and see the church. If you read the small-print you can claim 'the dole'. It's a micron of bread and a few ml of beer. Nice tradition, but I doubt it would sustain the ignoble poor for very long.

[kernelbogey]

Off topic, but I'm sure many know the Church of St Cross at Winchester. Almshouses for 'The Noble Poor'. Ahem. £7.50 each to go and see the church. If you read the small-print you can claim 'the dole'. It's a micron of bread and a few ml of beer. Nice tradition, but I doubt it would sustain the ignoble poor for very long.

I didn't know they'd started charging. But entry may be 'free' on Sundays as I believe Winchester Cathedral is.

I believe wayfarers in past centuries would have had a decent hunk of bread and a mug of small beer.

[kernelbogey]

Is it my imagination? Is it becoming a 'thing' to have an item of pop towards the end of News Programmes...often playing out to it?

Was this Meat Loaf? His death has been widely covered. (And I agree, playing a bit of the work of a deceased artist seems to have become a thing.)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Is it my imagination? Is it becoming a 'thing' to have an item of pop towards the end of News Programmes...often playing out to it?
Maybe broadcasters think the population needs cheering up. Needless to say it doesn't have any beneficial effect on me.

I detest Muzak in pubs and restaurants. Not just because it's usually pop, but because it's too loud. I wouldn't want the Classics belted out either during my plat du jour. However Mrs A and I did spend a night at the Wickham Arms in Winchester, and for the evening meal they had Classic FM on really quietly. You couldn't even hear the adverts.

Off topic, but I'm sure many know the Church of St Cross at Winchester. Almshouses for 'The Noble Poor'. Ahem. £7.50 each to go and see the church. If you read the small-print you can claim 'the dole'. It's a micron of bread and a few ml of beer. Nice tradition, but I doubt it would sustain the ignoble poor for very long.

Don’t like it when they have a pop item on the Radio 3 news - for obvious reasons.
I tended to seek alms at the Wykeham Arms when in Winchester - sadly not done on a charitable basis….

[jayne lee wilson]

Pop Music by any definition is not Muzak - a long way away stylistically, culturally and functionally. Almost the opposite of Pop really.

Not a fan of either, but Meat Loaf meant a lot to many people (Bat Out of Hell stills sells many 1000s every year); just as Adele does - hence them being in the News so much recently....yes there is overkill - which applies to many news items almost every day.

But - a death and a last-minute, major residency cancellation? Neither story was a particularly cheerful one, was it?

[cloughie]

Pop Music by any definition is not Muzak - a long way away stylistically, culturally and functionally. Almost the opposite of Pop really.

Not a fan of either, but Meat Loaf meant a lot to many people (Bat Out of Hell stills sells many 1000s every year); just as Adele does - hence them being in the News so much recently....yes there is overkill - which applies to many news items almost every day.

But - a death and a last-minute, major residency cancellation? Neither story was a particularly cheerful one, was it?

Pop music is the new muzak and unfortunately ubiquitous!

[Serial_Apologist]

It's a micron of bread and a few ml of beer.

Blimey - I wouldn't be going there!

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Jaws dropped in our household other day when with Russian troops heading towards Ukraine, shenanigans ongoing at No 10 and the so-called government going soft on Covid 'guidance', the first item on the news was the death of an ageing rocker. Even if it was Radio 5, which I'm not sure about; it may have been 3 or 4...

[french frank]

Jaws dropped in our household other day when with Russian troops heading towards Ukraine, shenanigans ongoing at No 10 and the so-called government going soft on Covid 'guidance', the first item on the news was the death of an ageing rocker. Even if it was Radio 5, which I'm not sure about; it may have been 3 or 4...

Isn't it part of the Public Service = 'Give People What They Want/Are Interested In' school of thought? Even Ofcom has moved over to saying that if people are paying for it you must give them what interests them.

[kernelbogey]

Blimey - I wouldn't be going there!

If you walk there from sarf London, Serial, they might relent, and give you a larger helping!

[LHC]

Isn't it part of the Public Service = 'Give People What They Want/Are Interested In' school of thought? Even Ofcom has moved over to saying that if people are paying for it you must give them what interests them.

I think it also possibly reflects the tastes and background of the people editing the news. Meat Loaf would probably have been in a big star in their youth, and so his death was, for them, a big news item which warranted blanket coverage. I suspect this is also why the deaths of classical musicians tend to get less coverage now, as those editing the news programmes and news website have little interest in classical music and won't have heard of the singers, conductors, soloists and other musicians despite their fame within the music world.

For example, in recent years the death of a guitarist or drummer in a relatively minor band will be featured on the BBC news website almost immediately after their death is announced, but that of a major classical musician won't appear on the site until someone notices it has been covered by other news organisations such as the Guardian, and they realise that the person might have been famous.

[french frank]

Yes, of course! Tempora mutantur, extremely quickly these days. And I'm not sure even the Guardian is the place I would go for the latest news on classical musicians. Jaw-grindingly, the Classic FM website is probably better.

As a close follower of the news for many, many years, I knew (almost) exactly who Meat Loaf was, but had never listened to any of his music and had no inclination to do so (I have now watched the Youtube vid of Bat out of Hell) and part of the interview he gave with Dan Rather, just to get a more informed view . From my own personal point of view, I can't say I was wrong to ignore him, but this is the point: I'm not the average person even in age!).

I think it also possibly reflects the tastes and background of the people editing the news. Meat Loaf would probably have been in a big star in their youth, and so his death was, for them, a big news item which warranted blanket coverage. I suspect this is also why the deaths of classical musicians tend to get less coverage now, as those editing the news programmes and news website have little interest in classical music and won't have heard of the singers, conductors, soloists and other musicians despite their fame within the music world.

For example, in recent years the death of a guitarist or drummer in a relatively minor band will be featured on the BBC news website almost immediately after their death is announced, but that of a major classical musician won't appear on the site until someone notices it has been covered by other news organisations such as the Guardian, and they realise that the person might have been famous.

[jayne lee wilson]

AS I said in #5, Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell still sells in its 1000s every year, so it isn't just nostalgia. A classic album but still alive. And he produced a generous handful of classic singles - I'll do anything for l Love but I won't do that (***), Two out of Three, You Took the Words etc etc...

His Pop-Metal style blended heavy rock with an almost Broadway-type melodrama and catchy melody.........
A word too, for his producer & chief creative collaborator Jim Steinman, who also brought Bonnie Tyler her biggest chart successes with Total Eclipse of the Heart....

(***)Meat Loaf always refused to specify exactly what ....that was left to the listeners.... cool move ....)

[cloughie]

Yes, of course! Tempora mutantur, extremely quickly these days. And I'm not sure even the Guardian is the place I would go for the latest news on classical musicians. Jaw-grindingly, the Classic FM website is probably better.

As a close follower of the news for many, many years, I knew (almost) exactly who Meat Loaf was, but had never listened to any of his music and had no inclination to do so (I have now watched the Youtube vid of Bat out of Hell) and part of the interview he gave with Dan Rather, just to get a more informed view . From my own personal point of view, I can't say I was wrong to ignore him, but this is the point: I'm not the average person even in age!).

R3 Breakfast is usually quite good at reporting classical demisers. Maybe views on the extent of reporting deaths, particularly in the pop / non-classical world, will depend on how much you liked the person concerned and what degree of ‘overkill’ for want of a better term you feel is being given!

[french frank]

AS I said in #5, Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell still sells in its 1000s every year, so it isn't just nostalgia. A classic album but still alive. And he produced a generous handful of classic singles.....but enough from me.

Isn't this just the point being made? If you look at the Wikipedia page on Bat out of Hell (not Meat Loaf, just that album), it is hugely longer, more detailed, than the pages of some of the 'greatest' classical composers, still less any of their works. Meat Loaf was a popular musician, and that's what the phrase entails; and why his death receives so much coverage. From a purely comparative point of view, ours not to wonder why?