I have been an avid radio listener for almost a decade now and just last night I solved a mystery that I have been wondering about for about have that time. Well, not solved it so much as officially discovered. I have not ever been keen on listening to radio commercials. Especially when I am keyed up and I am using the radio to wind down. For me, radio commercials only cause more agitation. So I have ten radio stations that I listen to and about five that are favorites. Then on top of all of that there are at least four of the stations that play the same genre of another one of my favorites.
So now that we have all of the background information, here's my point.
106.1 Kiss FM has always bugged the crap out of me by playing their songs just a half beat faster than they were recorded. I used to notice this and ask people if they heard it as well. The answer was usually no. I am the type of person who sings along as closely as I can get to the artist. I like to know the phrasing, breathe when they breathe, and hold the note for exactly the same amount of time with the same level of power. So, if I have "trained" myself up on a song on a different station and then I listen to the same song on Kiss FM I immediately feel the difference.
When I first started to listen to Kiss FM I was also heavily into R&B. That was when I first noticed the modified speed on all of the songs with black artist. I even went so far as to think that it was a racial issue. Well, last night I found out that I was wrong.
I am a fan of P!nk. I have been since she busted on the scene with "Get the Party Started." It appealed to my immature taste at that point of my musical fanhood. Recently I acquired her newest CD, Funhouse, and fell in love with it. Everything about it plays on my interest: the way the music paints the image of her being in a Funhouse (on that track anyway), the double meanings in her lyrics, the stories that she tells. It's a fantastic CD. P!nk just released her second single off of her Funhouse CD, one of my favorites "Sober." It came on the Kiss FM and I felt almost immediately that the timing is off. Of course, then I realize that it is the station speeding up songs again. But as usual there was no one around to listen for this flaw with me, so I decided to see for myself if I am imagining it or if this is actually happening. I went to get my iPod and found the song and listened. I was trying to see if the timing would be noticeable if it was played side by side with the original speed. I couldn't get it directly aligned, so I settled for being a little ahead of the radio. While I was still trying to discern the difference of the lengths of pauses and held notes the radio answered my question. As I was listening the radio caught up with my iPod, ran about three beats in sync, then continued on ahead.
EUREKA!!!! Now I want to get in touch with the station and know why it is that they play the songs faster. That is my next mission.
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This is known as the difference between the full album version of a song and a radio-cut version of a song. They've been doing it for quite some time. I'd say it is done to 98% of the songs on the radio. Most people are only likely to listen to 90 second songs so radio hosts and disc jockeys will edit (shorten or speed up) songs to become a radio edit. Radio stations want listeners to stay "tuned in." So, they have to pack in as much music as they can between the advertisements that fund their station.
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