Hexenherz posted... I wonder what the radio was like back then.
I listen to it now but even on the "variety" stations that span decades you end up hearing the same song multiple times in one day and they only play one or two older songs from artists (like good luck hearing anything from Offspring that's not... idk, "You're gonna go far, kid").
Was there more variety back in the day?
Variety was always limited to popular radio hits and leaned more towards what was newest and most popular at the time. We probably have MORE variety now at least on Sirius/XM radio because we have the entire catalogue of a lot of these bands to choose from so even if they only have 1 to 3 hits per album, if they had say a run of like 5 great albums you might have a solid dozen songs to choose from where as at the time they only had maybe 2 albums out and a few hits.
I mean in your Offspring example like when they hit it big with their album Smash in 1994 right before I graduated the only songs you heard were Come Out and Play, Self Esteem, and Gotta Get Away with most of the plays being Come Out and Play. Now we have those and the 4 big hits off Americana and a sprinkling of others. I hear about 10 different songs from them on Lithium channel 34 that focuses on the 90's.
I look at people I liked over multiple decades like Tom Petty. The guy has a monster catalogue of hits with his band and a couple solo albums. At the time in the 80's you did hear some of this 70's hit but they mostly focused on his current 80's stuff at the time, and at the time a bunch of his stuff hadn't even been made yet. Where as today when I hear Tom Petty on Satellite radio it could be any one of like 25 different songs from the 70's, 80's, or 90's
We also have channels like "Deep Cuts" that focus on the more non radio hits that is pretty awesome. So honestly I feel like radio is better these days as far as Satellite radio goes when it comes to focusing on music from the 60's through the 90's. I can't speak much for more modern stuff as I pretty much stay stuck in the past and don't listen to much after 2000. But when it comes to this older stuff where you have a large catalogue to choose from and you aren't focused on being current because it is no longer hot, it really opens up the variety.