RADIO APOV: Vandalizing the mainstream at home and abroad since 1998

In many ways the manner in which mainstream thoughts spread from person to person, unrestrained by gender, race or tax brackets, resemble the way in which all other patterns emerge and advance across our planet. Ideas are exchanged in local coffee shops just as disinformation propagates through media and the Internet. Religious ideologies spread through communities as pop tunes spread through popular consciousness. Genetic evolution advances species as it spreads through populations. Together, these patterns of propagation, dissemination, and repetition are the warp and woof of our life, our minds, and our culture.

Gathered under the RADIO APOV banner, we recognize such a pattern not only in mainstream radio, but all other mediums that collectively form a shameful, lucrative monopoly named “the music industry”. Presumably, most of you have some sort of cynical rejoinder for such an obvious statement: “yeah, thanks fucking Sherlock, we hadn’t quite noticed that five out of seven cars driving by has the exact same shit blasting out of their second hand Infinity 4-way speakers”. We address such cynicism in the same way we soothe the frustration that arises during our discussions of the current, deplorable state of ‘popular music’.

First, it’s necessary, no matter how basic it seems, to note that all these different patterns are responsible for reducing the singles and blockbuster albums of ‘mass music’ to: sophomoric synth and guitar structures, album covers that look more like soft porn than a David Hasselhoff calendar, recycled hooks, lyrics infected with empty rhetoric, artists who reach multiplatinum status but who lack even the most basic grasp of the language they use, and the list continues. In short, mainstream music – what can be heard everywhere at any time- is being manufactured, branded and advertised in the same way that Coca-Cola would sell a can of soda or Marlboro a pack of cigarettes. The recipe? Slap a funny and/or utopian message on an updated version of the same product, use symbols you’ve blatantly stolen from the subculture, make it easy to swallow, make it the only thing to swallow, and repeat.

Second, coming back to the topic of cynicism, it seems clear to us that feeling indifferent too often results in the dulling of our senses and suffocates our ability to think critically. We miss the significance of the ostracizing nature of mainstream reality because, for all practical purposes, we’ve never known any alternative. In a sense this is why we are compelled to encourage audiences, promoters, DJ’s, MC’s, Bookers, independent collectives, radio management, and all others involved in the process of disseminating music, to consciously acknowledge that all mainstream marketing is just carefully orchestrated campaign directed by major record labels and their subsidiaries at the expense of their artists. The supporting videos, the farcical award shows, and their glossy magazines are just tools at their disposal. Ultimately these patterns are propagated by most FM radio stations regardless of the musical genre they’re pushing, by television stations willing to join any party for further ad revenue, and by collaborative corporations that pull the monetary strings, ensuring they have yet another outlet to sell their intellectual and creative garbage.

Overall, the effort for a consumer lies in admitting these patterns are interwoven, invasive, and universal. This, in turn, entails that we are involved and responsible for either opposing or perpetuating these patterns, even if we attempt to remain indifferent. Acknowledging this situation has resulted in the creation of Radio Apov and its first broadcast, The Pinch.

Off course we are all fed up with the commercial gimmicks that program the masses via eardrum and iris; off course we are aware that these “major” labels are owned by aging Caucasian who’s last purchases were Nelly’s new album, 50 years of Sinatra - 8th Classic Finesse Edition, The Passion Limited Edition DVD with a 3 hour extended version of the incident on the cross, and special glue for his dentures; off course we know that these same music giants have always suffocated the creation of sincere, conscious, artful, and intellectually enhancing music.

Most people involved in Radio Apov have finally come to the realization that part of the solution is hidden within the patterns of resistance, namely the sort of patterns that we can create in response to the media machine. Being unsatisfied is indeed a step forward, but providing an accountable, independent alternative is a leap forward.

Pervasive as they are, patterns of corporate control are often overlooked because they exist in spatial, temporal, and informational domains to which our sensory systems are not tuned. If you take the time to ask around you will become aware that few are conscious of the fact their senses are gradually being enslaved to a mode and pace of consumption that favors immediate acceptance over critical evaluation. Often they are unwilling to admit it even when they are confronted with irrefutable evidence. The purpose of this audio collective is to make these phenomena visible. Our intention is to build an ‘audio macroscope’ that can be used to isolate and evaluate what seems destructive, to examine what seems neutral, and provide what we consider essential.

Music is a by far one of the most beautiful human expressions; old, new, modern, classic, organic, digital, it doesn’t really matter as long as it is sincere and soulful. We don’t intend to discard one type of music for another, or to pass judgments on this or that artist or trend. Instead, we wish to expose our listeners to music they might not know. If after patiently listening to Roy Ayers or The Grouch they decide to go out and buy Jah Rule’s new album, that’s fine since there’s not much we can do for individuals who choose to remain blind and fucking ignorant to the shallowness of such mainstream products. We will always have more reverence for the person who decides to be stupid than we will for the person who is completely oblivious.

Why will we ride live-Internet radio followed by complete uploads? Independence, for one. And because our radio space –whether it originates from transistors built onto your car system or from the sound card in your laptop- is every place where our radio is heard. Unlike other mediums, radio happens where it is heard and not in the production studio. Using radio makes our task relatively simple and streaming our broadcast seems like the easiest way of getting people to listen to it whenever are able.

Michael Keith, author of Voices in the Purple Haze, describes underground radio in the Sixties: "It had a completely different approach: You didn't have the screaming DJs, the silly jingles and, most of all, you had more sophisticated, even provocative music which went beyond the strict two-minutes-and-out formula. Underground radio provided a venue for artists like Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and the Doors, who were getting short shrift on the Top-40 stations, and brought them to a far wider audience.”

Yet, the story of underground radio's peak period, which Keith identifies as 1967-72, appears to me to be rife with insincerity. Although the term "underground" suggests a surreptitious, unauthorized operation, Keith points out that these mostly FM stations were largely owned and operated by larger AM stations, which themselves were often property of major corporations interested, for a change, in making shit loads of cash. “Once the success and popularity of the underground format became evident”, he says, “the industry sought to assimilate it and eventually the FM stations became part of the mainstream they had once eschewed.” The same phenomenon is taking place today and has been forming since the days described by the author. Thing is, now it’s organized in a more subtle and yet much more irresponsible way. Music the way we know it, when channeled through MTV or the FM frequencies, has ceased to be a platform for change. This shit they dare label as music is not there to be innovative, to educate or to form new bonds of consciousness. Those peddling the mainstream could care less about your expectations, much less your needs. Instead, they make sure that children, teenagers and (so called) adults keep listening to the prescribed flavor of the month; they make consumers feel like they have a choice even though the channels are all owned by the same conglomerate; and they make sure that consumers keep dropping their well earned dimes so that Rupert Murdock and the like can keep covering payments on million-dollar villas and 100-foot yachts.

We don’t appreciate or accept their destructive, suggestive patterns.

We feel enough is enough.

We acknowledge that change must begin somewhere and with someone.

We say: overdose on the pills you ingested while “getting down” to the new Columbia Records release; catch your favorite STD while humping the chick that barely took off her new Sean John sweater; choke to death while drinking your low-in-carbs pink Sprite remix that glows in the dark like Chernobyl lettuce; finally, enjoy being crushed by a Hummer while driving around your new Scion that’s fresher than your mom’s dinner. In the meantime, we will take pleasure in responsibly playing tunes for the people who need them as much as we do.

Please join in the effort, acoustically yours, Radio Apov collective, a subdivision of the Apov Consortium.

Ratified for the Apov Consortium by Robin Torres-Gouzerh, 2004.
Edited and reviewed by Mike Cutlip and Julie Hearne, 2005.