01.31.2006, 3:53 pm - ben
The Best Channels on Sirius
1. Left of Center2. Chill
Now, I haven't listened to all the channels. This is a terribly genre-biased pick, of course. However, my taste in music is pretty broad among the Alternative/Indie/Rock/Hip Hop/Techno spectrum, and I have given all the available channels of this kind their chance. If you are interested in the best country, pop, news, whatever, then please move along.
Left of Center is certainly part of the music industry pipeline, although it clearly has the freedom to go wherever it pleases from time to time. I'm actually not a huge fan of a lot of the music I'm hearing that's "new alternative" — so much of it just sounds the same to me. Regardless, the DJ's on Left of Center seem more than anyone else to understand the idea that there are no commercials. There are very few Big Radio Voices to be heard and there is also none of that college radio irreverance that some might find charming and others might just get bored with. It's consistent, still somewhat radio-like, and always plays a few gems every hour that either introduce you to a new band to love or remind you about a band you still love but haven't heard in far too long.
Chill is hard to describe as a genre, since it isn't technically, but it's approach to broadcasting is rock solid. Essentially, they made Groove Salad look like the little repetitive bitch that they are. Very little DJ presence... just music music music. Almost every track is consistently good and I've heard very few repeats. There might be some sort of music industry influence, but it's hard to tell. "Chill" is a term that really stretches my understanding of classifying music, but I'm amazed how so many songs just fall into this... category with ease. There are certain requirements for being played on Chill, such as a maximum BPM and amusingly creative band/song names. So many great albums over the past decade might have one or two slowish songs, from the Chemical Brothers to Beck — it's nice that they all now have a home.
Postscript: After experiencing vertical broadcasting like this for a while, I can't help but be somewhat in awe of the technology. I'm driving around connected to a space vehicle sending me high quality music data... welcome to the future.
Tags: sirius
Comments:
Music
02.01.2006 | 05:35 pm
posted by: Melissa
Yea, I listen to Sirrus as well. I love both stations plus the dance and rock stations as well. Just wish they had just a 90's Alt. rock channel.
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