Do I Sound Like a Broken Record?

Abstract

Radio is all about intimacy and words (Balsebre, 1994). Since radio’s significant shift from verbal to musical content, songs have been able to create a special bond between broadcasters and audiences across the world. Nevertheless, selecting songs is far from being an innocent choice; it is part of a cultural framework (Ala-Fossi, 2005; Gjerdingen & Perrott 2008). Recently, scholars explained radio’s alliances with the music industry and the adaptation to audiences’ preferences (Kaplan, 2013; Uimonen, 2017), thus arguing that the music in radios’ playlists is far from diverse, especially on stations owned by the private sector. This article draws upon the premise that a more comprehensive approach towards this topic is needed. Inspired by previous studies on commercial radio musical policies (Uimonen, 2011; Hellman & Vikko 2019), this research makes use of a methodological tool to characterize music diversity in the two most popular Portuguese commercial radio broadcasters. After two weeks of observation, in March 2020, the authors of this article analysed 2366 song entries, concluding that the general policies for the playlists seem to be similar: a typical predominance of international singers/bands, male artists and English-spoken songs, including the overwhelming presence of worldwide labels associated to the majority of the songs. However, these national broadcasting stations seem to have their own set of artists, especially when it comes to Portuguese singers/bands. Future research should aim at analysing artists’ and broadcasters’ views on this cultural framework, as a way to expand the possibilities of understanding this complex and decisive topic within radio broadcasting and music industries.