Nothing on but the radio

A couple of years ago I enjoyed quoting a stat concerning the greatest selling artists of all time. 

Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and the Beatles would be in the top three slots depending on who you talked to but number four was almost always a surprise—a country mega star by the name of Garth Brooks whose popularity remains such that he performed at the Obama Inaugural Concert—yup he was the guy in the cowboy hat you had probably never heard of.  Even so, most of the adult contemporary stations in SA have placed his songs ‘The River’ and ‘Into the fire’ in their Top 10 at some point in time. 

The commercial reality though is that Elvis Presley became far more popular in death, as did the Beatles after the assassination of John Lennon, than they ever were in life. 

The same will probably be said for the King of Pop himself Michael Jackson and, although I never did a moonwalk myself, as an 80’s teenager I cannot remember a party or night club that didn’t include an ‘eek’ or a ‘ooh’ by him or his Jackson Five brothers.

One of the greatest influences Garth Brooks had though was that he realised that it was possible to be a cross over artist—country to pop—which would increase an artist’s commerciality. 

He set the scene for artists like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Leanne Rhymes and more recently Taylor Swift. 

Someone like Ronan Keating (or Ronan Cheating as I call him) simply took hits from the country charts and repackaged them for Pop.  ’If tomorrow never comes’ was a hit for Alison Krausse and  the  Union Station six years before it was for him. 

Looking at the back to back coverage that Michael Jackson’s death received on everything from Sky and eTV to CNN and Al Jazeera I am struck by how inadequate TV is. 

Yes it can place the reporters on scene and you have the same screen shot of a coroner’s van leaving the LA County Coroner’s office 20 times over but to get a real sense of Michael Jackson the artist you have to switch on the radio.  

Michael Jackson lives in our minds—each song brings back a memory that plays an important role in our lives be it ‘Beat it’ or ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Heal the world’ or the spookiness of ‘Thriller’.

Gary Allen, another hot country star right now, has a song I enjoy no end—it’s called ‘Nothing on but the radio’ – imagine the play on words. One moment he is thinking about having dinner with the love of his life with ‘Nothing on but the radio’ and in another … well you get the picture. 

If we were looking for a radio anthem I couldn’t think of anything better than ‘Nothing on but the radio’. 

Can you? 

Now imagine if the only memory we had of Michael Jackson was what we heard him sing on the radio?  No tabloid stories, no LA County Court House shots. 

Nothing on but the radio. 

Stephen Covey asks each of us to think about the eulogy we would like people to deliver at our funeral one day.  His point is we should live our lives the way we would like to be remembered. 

Good point. Have a great week.