MU
Whenever there is music that isn't getting played on the BBC or on commercial radio stations, pirate radio comes into play. That's the whole reason that Radio 1 exists, it was the governments answer to all the pirates in the 60s.
It's gotten stale now though, as it never kept up with the newer music that came along. Also, it never catered for forms of music that existed but were not widely popular, such as reggae and soul. Specialist shows on Radio1 are always scheduled according to the popularity of the music that these shows intend to play, so you still find that the reggae show on radio1 and the drum and bass show are quite late at night. Reggae and DnB are hardly ever played on Radio1 during the day. Whatever Radio 1 plays, it's only a tiny slice of what's out there.
So, more pirates sprang up. These have set the stage for 1xtra and Asian Network, as they were set up by people from these 2 communities to serve the communities seperately. There are also pirates that play newer forms of music, mainly the various sub-genres of dance music, and it's these stations that helped UK Garage become popular originally (before it became the horrible mixture of RnB and Ragga sped-up that cluttered the charts a couple of years back.)
Now, they are trying to do with 1xtra and Asian Network what they did with Radio1, ie get rid of the pirates by giving a legal alternative. The BBC see it as being about supplying a demand from just 2 communities, which is the flaw in the plan. They should've realised that there are 3, not 2 communities to serve. There is the black community, the Asian Community and the Dance Community. 6 Music caters for the more underground rock stuff, and that is seen as 'white peoples music' I suppose.
What they really need to do now, is launch a dance station, move the drum and bass shows to the dance station from 1xtra, and make Radio1 more diverse, playing less chart poop and more good quality music. Who needs Radio 1 to play all that music you hear on kids saturday morning tv, when the ILR stations do that anyway?
They also need to keep on top of the trends in music more instead of leaving it 20 years before they start to cater for something properly, then there would be less pirates. Pirates will never go away completely though, because of regional needs and the fact that anything really new needs to come from the streets and build up slowly.
It's gotten stale now though, as it never kept up with the newer music that came along. Also, it never catered for forms of music that existed but were not widely popular, such as reggae and soul. Specialist shows on Radio1 are always scheduled according to the popularity of the music that these shows intend to play, so you still find that the reggae show on radio1 and the drum and bass show are quite late at night. Reggae and DnB are hardly ever played on Radio1 during the day. Whatever Radio 1 plays, it's only a tiny slice of what's out there.
So, more pirates sprang up. These have set the stage for 1xtra and Asian Network, as they were set up by people from these 2 communities to serve the communities seperately. There are also pirates that play newer forms of music, mainly the various sub-genres of dance music, and it's these stations that helped UK Garage become popular originally (before it became the horrible mixture of RnB and Ragga sped-up that cluttered the charts a couple of years back.)
Now, they are trying to do with 1xtra and Asian Network what they did with Radio1, ie get rid of the pirates by giving a legal alternative. The BBC see it as being about supplying a demand from just 2 communities, which is the flaw in the plan. They should've realised that there are 3, not 2 communities to serve. There is the black community, the Asian Community and the Dance Community. 6 Music caters for the more underground rock stuff, and that is seen as 'white peoples music' I suppose.
What they really need to do now, is launch a dance station, move the drum and bass shows to the dance station from 1xtra, and make Radio1 more diverse, playing less chart poop and more good quality music. Who needs Radio 1 to play all that music you hear on kids saturday morning tv, when the ILR stations do that anyway?
They also need to keep on top of the trends in music more instead of leaving it 20 years before they start to cater for something properly, then there would be less pirates. Pirates will never go away completely though, because of regional needs and the fact that anything really new needs to come from the streets and build up slowly.