Rockabilly Resurgence Rocks Fans, But Not Radio

American corporate radio has been treating rockabilly music like a black sheep distant cousin who's spent time in prison and just showed up at the family reunion.

American corporate radio has been treating rockabilly music like a black sheep distant cousin who's spent time in prison and just showed up at the family reunion. You can only imagine the conversations going on behind closed doors.

Route 66 Rockabilly (http://www.Route66Rockabilly.com) chronicles the recent dramatic rise of rockabilly music with its Internet site devoted to the more than 2,000 bands and vendors worldwide, local music events and regional festivals, the unique clothing styles worn by fans, hot rods, Route 66 nostalgia and retro collectibles.

Radio formats have grown increasingly narrow, particularly with consolidation of radio properties into fewer and fewer corporate hands. You will hear the same twenty songs being played on the air in Memphis that you will in Austin, Boston and Seattle. The culprit is research.

Radio programmers will not make a move without research. The fear is that one mistake in airing a song will cause listeners to switch stations, and they won't hear the next commercial. Disc jockeys no longer have the authority to have free-form shows where listeners dictate the play list. That determination is all done at the corporate level, which makes for a very bland musical stew.

Rockabilly music has surged to unprecedented levels of fan interest recently, even more than during its 1950-55 heyday. Tens of thousands of fans journeyed to rockabilly and roots music festivals all over the world in 2002, but the music is nowhere to be heard on radio.

Country music fans have similar complaints. The soundtrack from the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou" won the top album award at this year's Grammys, much to the shock of corporate radio, which had not played any of the roots music. "O Brother" producer T Bone Burnette was quoted widely as saying, "Radio has been strangling music for about 20 years now." It took sales of 5 million copies to get radios attention. 5 million people paid $15.00 per album to hear music that is not played on radio.

There are hundreds of rockabilly bands worldwide, from St. Petersburg, Florida to St. Petersburg, Russia, playing at local clubs and dance halls to hordes of adoring fans. Just this summer alone, rockabilly music festivals were jammed with fans clamoring for the sounds. The Roots-Rockabilly Fest played Lincoln Center in New York City on Aug. 10. Oneida Casino produced the Rockin '50s Fest in Green Bay, Wisconsin, July 7-13. Heavy Rebel Weekender in Winston-Salem, North Carolina over July 4th weekend drew fans from all over the south. Indianapolis was home to Rockabilly Rebel Weekend from June 5-8. Viva Las Vegas drew fans from Japan and Europe, as well as the U.S., to its four-day fest over Easter weekend.

Musicians and fans alike all ask the same question: What will it take to make radio get in tune with the people?

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