I don't know if this 1978 song by Declan ("Elvis Costello") McManus was ever released as a single, but it seems like the kind of song one would expect to find on a "45". I could even picture a song of this kind getting brief AM radio play during the early '70s.
The song starts out with the listener trying to change stations and the tuning knob breaks, upon which he hears the aftercomments the announcers and staff ordinarily make when they think their listeners have turned their station off.
During this bout of "media metaphysicalism" they brag about how they program their station to toy with the minds of their listeners, how they engage various psyopic ploys and other propaganda techniques to, along with the programming format itself, influence their listeners into a collective compliance with the social systems and institutions.
That the rock and roll stations are actually not this bastion of "creativity", "free thinking", or "defiance".
That all media are, essentially, primarily commercial ventures, and that even rock and roll radio is a lot more conservative, conformist, and in cahoots with the establishment than most would be willing to admit or accept. That the rock n'rollers are not so "cool" after all.
The gist of this song is the feeling of betrayal the idealistic rock n'roll worshipper feels upon learning this inconvenient fact of life.
The song starts out with the listener trying to change stations and the tuning knob breaks, upon which he hears the aftercomments the announcers and staff ordinarily make when they think their listeners have turned their station off.
During this bout of "media metaphysicalism" they brag about how they program their station to toy with the minds of their listeners, how they engage various psyopic ploys and other propaganda techniques to, along with the programming format itself, influence their listeners into a collective compliance with the social systems and institutions.
That the rock and roll stations are actually not this bastion of "creativity", "free thinking", or "defiance".
That all media are, essentially, primarily commercial ventures, and that even rock and roll radio is a lot more conservative, conformist, and in cahoots with the establishment than most would be willing to admit or accept. That the rock n'rollers are not so "cool" after all.
The gist of this song is the feeling of betrayal the idealistic rock n'roll worshipper feels upon learning this inconvenient fact of life.
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