Classic FM

[smiller]

Classic FM has lost the plot, AFAIC.

Back in 2002?? I was in a car being driven by a work colleague who had "relaxing classics a 2" on the radio, and I thought, "bloody hell, that's nice". Since then, I've been a classical convert.

Yet.

Things have started going tits up at CFM lately. There's that blithering idiot Simon Bates of a morning with his inane ramblings. Jamie Crick, who I am sure is a nice bloke, inviting listeners to request "the theme from harry potter", or, "the theme from Superman", or, "that tune to the rugby world cup". To rub salt into the wounds, Relaxing Classics at Two is no longer.

Maybe R3 is the answer?

Does 100.4 JazzFM still broadcast?

[Rob-C]

Big problem with both those stations was always the ad breaks.

Because they tended to play longer pieces of music compared with normal commercial stations, the ad breaks had to be longer too. Especially annoying on jazz FM because they only had about five or six advertisers, so you got the same ads over and over...

Classic FM has always been aimed at the kind of listener who lists "The Planets" as their favourite classical piece...

BBC R3 is too far the other way IMHO - playing some obscure piece and analysing it to the far end of a fart.

Didn't Jazz FM morph into Smooth FM a while back and become a bit shit?

[RobM77]

I agree with both posts. I find some of Classic FM's principles an insult to music to be honest - kind of like someone that plays Radiohead or Tori Amos at really low volume because it 'sounds nice', when in fact the music has had someone's heart and soul poured into it. There seems to be a general tendency, mostly eminating from Classic FM, to belittle classical music as something relaxing and not very meaningful - not proper music in many ways. Equally, Radio 3 can often be stuffy and put across an elitist attitude, as well as, ironically for this comparison with Classic FM, concentrating on inoffensive classical music that old people tend to like (you, know the sort of grey haired people that like Haydn, find Beethoven a bit edgy and wouldn't dream of listening to Shostakovich).

We desperately need a decent classical music station that boldly plays classical music to music fans - the sort of people who want to sit down and actually listen to classical music. The presenters also need a radical shake up. I don't want to hear some gushing woman with Nigellaesque tones that sounds like she's been smoking pot all morning (Classic FM), or some stuffy rambling man trying to string together long words to make himself sound important (Radio 3). Any of the panel off BBC's 'Classical Star' programme would do, or indeed the host himself. Intelligent, clearly spoken people playing intelligent and interesting music.

[agent006]

I listen to the radio to hear things i've not heard before. Every time i listen to Classic FM, i hear something i've heard before. I want rousing classics, not relaxing classics.
The biggest shame is that for a lot of people, it's the only classical music they hear.

[RobM77]

agent006 said:

I listen to the radio to hear things i've not heard before. Every time i listen to Classic FM, i hear something i've heard before. I want rousing classics, not relaxing classics.
The biggest shame is that for a lot of people, it's the only classical music they hear.

I feel very passionately about this, because I absolutely love music and it annoys me that classical music is so unloved. One of the main reasons is because of what people are exposed to. To "get people into" classical music, most radio stations and school music teachers play comical pieces that have no depth or intelligence in them at all. It's no surprise that people stick to other music that has more genuine emotion. What they don't realise is that they've been hearing the classical equivalent of a Rick Astley song, and plenty of classical music has genuine emotion in it. Personally, if I wanted to open up my fellow metal/rock/clubbing fans into classical music, I'd put on a Shostakovich string quartet or something! I tried this with one friend and he went straight out and bought the CD..

I saw an interesting scene from Classical Star on BBC2 the other week where the young musicians had to play to a bunch of teenagers who hated classical music. The teenagers, unsurprisingly, didn't take to the jokey stuff at all. The second something meaty and emotional came on they were absolutely hooked.

[smiller]

RobM77 said:

I agree with both posts. I find some of Classic FM's principles an insult to music to be honest - kind of like someone that plays Radiohead or Tori Amos at really low volume because it 'sounds nice', when in fact the music has had someone's heart and soul poured into it. There seems to be a general tendency, mostly eminating from Classic FM, to belittle classical music as something relaxing and not very meaningful - not proper music in many ways. Equally, Radio 3 can often be stuffy and put across an elitist attitude, as well as, ironically for this comparison with Classic FM, concentrating on inoffensive classical music that old people tend to like (you, know the sort of grey haired people that like Haydn, find Beethoven a bit edgy and wouldn't dream of listening to Shostakovich).

We desperately need a decent classical music station that boldly plays classical music to music fans - the sort of people who want to sit down and actually listen to classical music. The presenters also need a radical shake up. I don't want to hear some gushing woman with Nigellaesque tones that sounds like she's been smoking pot all morning (Classic FM), or some stuffy rambling man trying to string together long words to make himself sound important (Radio 3). Any of the panel off BBC's 'Classical Star' programme would do, or indeed the host himself. Intelligent, clearly spoken people playing intelligent and interesting music.

Too right.

I tuned in to R3 for the first time this morning (just to test the water, so to speak), and yes, it played some good music. But, god's teeth, it's like the aural equivalent of a Victorian smoking room! It's better than CFM with it's fascination with "the star wars theme" at 8.10 in the morning (can someone please put Bates in a skip), but at the same time I'm not convinced by an obscure recital of a forgotten Janacek quartet by Russian musicians.

[RobM77]

smiller said:

RobM77 said:

I agree with both posts. I find some of Classic FM's principles an insult to music to be honest - kind of like someone that plays Radiohead or Tori Amos at really low volume because it 'sounds nice', when in fact the music has had someone's heart and soul poured into it. There seems to be a general tendency, mostly eminating from Classic FM, to belittle classical music as something relaxing and not very meaningful - not proper music in many ways. Equally, Radio 3 can often be stuffy and put across an elitist attitude, as well as, ironically for this comparison with Classic FM, concentrating on inoffensive classical music that old people tend to like (you, know the sort of grey haired people that like Haydn, find Beethoven a bit edgy and wouldn't dream of listening to Shostakovich).

We desperately need a decent classical music station that boldly plays classical music to music fans - the sort of people who want to sit down and actually listen to classical music. The presenters also need a radical shake up. I don't want to hear some gushing woman with Nigellaesque tones that sounds like she's been smoking pot all morning (Classic FM), or some stuffy rambling man trying to string together long words to make himself sound important (Radio 3). Any of the panel off BBC's 'Classical Star' programme would do, or indeed the host himself. Intelligent, clearly spoken people playing intelligent and interesting music.

Too right.

I tuned in to R3 for the first time this morning (just to test the water, so to speak), and yes, it played some good music. But, god's teeth, it's like the aural equivalent of a Victorian smoking room! It's better than CFM with it's fascination with "the star wars theme" at 8.10 in the morning (can someone please put Bates in a skip), but at the same time I'm not convinced by an obscure recital of a forgotten Janacek quartet by Russian musicians.

Oh, and that's one of my other pet hates - innapropriate morning music/chat In the mornings, I'd expect to here something like - well, "morning" by Grieg from Peer Gynt Something peaceful! Instead Classic FM seem to blast out stuff like the Star Wars theme As for the other stations (Radio 1 and local radio), they just have a group of three people chatting in excitable voices - not what you want when you've just woken up. Strange!

[Jinx]

I quite like Classic FM though I am up too early for the likes of Simon Bates (already left for work by the time he appears) .

[tank slapper]

Classic FM really annoys me, not only because they play the populist pap, but because funnily enough, you just happen to be able to buy their latest hatchet job CD of it. They never play the complete piece - the 'well known' bit gets done to death, but there isn't much point when it's totally out of context. eg the 4th movement of Mahler 5 - very well known, but after that I want to hear that absolutely storming 5th movement. I also get really annoyed with their obsession with endlessly promoting the darling-14-year-old-violinist-whos-just-learnt-to-play of the day. There are so many other fantastic musicians who never get a look in, but that's OK because there is a cute girl who looks nice on the front of the CD. And it's always bloody string players as well.

Oops. That turned into a bit of a rant. Nevertheless, there is definately a need for a channel that plays classical music without dumbing it down into nice tunes, or turning it into an intellectual wankfest. Some explanation and background is fine, but I'm a musician and I find much of that tedious if I just want to listen. If I want to analyse it I can do it myself.

PS - for those who use Pandora, they have just started adding classical music to their selection. Try typing in the name of a composer. It is quite limited at the moment, but I expect it will expand in time.