Fusing Musical Archaeology And Time-Travel With Radiooooo

Radiooooo, started in 2012, is a website and app that lets listeners click on a place, from a certain decade (if it's available), and listen to period-specific music with the convenient distinction of choosing whether or not what comes out will be "fast", "slow" or "weird". I've been listening to it quite a lot in recent years, having first discovered it in 2015 or so, although at that time, the selection was much more limited. I'd venture to say that it is still pretty limited, relatively speaking, but in fairness, one can only find so much music from 1930s Mongolia, for instance, in their spare time.

It has been extremely useful to have this resource, but also at times equally thrilling and frustrating. I love being able to listen to music from different periods of time-- especially 1970s India, 1930s Egypt, and basically any period of time throughout Asia, starting with 1980s Japan. I'm fond of the quirkiness behind certain aspects of the site. For instance, since Valentine's Day has recently passed, the website's geographic (allegedly hand-drawn) interface was occupied by a temporary island with a striking resemblance to that of the ol' gluteus maximus. One could click on this mysterious butt-shaped mass to hear love songs, or otherwise erotically-themed music. It was a treasure.

Then there's the sunken Titanic icon in the middle of the ocean, which seems to have the same programming as what was played by the legendarily ill-fated ship's house band, who reportedly continued to play even as the ship sank. To top that off, if one looks around just west of Australia, they'll find an icon of a disheveled fish, where they can click to activate a water/fish-themed playlist, and a plea to stop pollution of the seas with plastic.

I've discovered a great deal of new and refreshing musical surprises this way, and as such, was motivated to contribute to their database. Listeners can contribute digital files, and be followed by other listeners who are prompted by what gets accepted, as they've heard it. Unfortunately, it's been said that nearly 90% of what is submitted will likely be rejected. This can be a tad frustrating and confounding to a person who listens regularly.

For instance, if you trot on over to Canada in the 1970s, you'll find that it seems Mort Garson's entire album Plantasia (which is great) has been included, so that one will likely hear 3-5 tracks from it per hour, since the catalog for that area seems to be relatively scant. With all due respect, when drifting into 1970s Canada, I've heard far too much Neil Young, Bruce Haack (I'm not complaining), and Gordon Lightfoot, but not a single track by Leonard Cohen. This is a travesty!

Similarly, I've had certain hours where I've heard The Beatles five times, although the site's facebook and reddit pages suggest that they try to avoid mainstream music. It's not just The Beatles of 1960s U.K., which often seems to air The Beatles for every 3rd song, but all of the Beatles covers there are. I've heard one in about every language there is now. For some reason, I've also heard so many different cover versions of the song House Of The Rising Sun, that I wonder if I ever need to hear it again. It's fine, but it's not exactly the kind of ethnomusicology I'm looking for, and I'm sure there are others with this sentiment.

In addition to that, 1930's Greece, for example, seems to have less than an hour's worth of material, yet I, as a fan of Rebetiko, was not able to get my submissions approved for a long time, and not without protest. In another instance, I was proud to share a few tracks from the 1960s Western Sahara, an area of space and time that is still, to this day, not occupied by a single piece of audio at this site. If Antarctica gets whale songs (or at least it did, the continent is gone entirely now), why can't The Western Sahara have gypsy bone flutes? I can't help but conclude that the site's admittedly subjective guidelines for accepting music submissions is biased in a way that, to a large extent, stunts its growth.

Which brings me to the "weird" part. When one activates the "weird" option exclusively, it's either not that weird, or barren with occasional novelty records or spoken word pieces on shuffle/repeat over and over. As a former freeform radio DJ, I can attest that there is a whole world of delightful and strange music out there! There is a massive amount of people who, like myself, tend to listen to older music if they listen to proper music at all, and this is only when they are not busy listening to WEIRD music! These are avenues that are largely unexplored with Radiooooo.com.

That said, the bedrock of this site is vital and important. What they've set into motion is crucial for culture as a whole, in my opinion, as we continue to plumb the depths of a world dominated by the internet. Maybe Radiooooo.com's administrators will slowly integrate more of a historian's view on music, rather than simply going with what is perceivably pleasant. There are periods of musical history here that are being advertised, but sorely neglected.

I know it's not their intention to host a comprehensive library of every song ever written, but in my humble opinion, the overarching theme presented here is a tad too biased, in the direction of neglecting a great deal of history prior to 1950. I've rarely visited any location that had more than an hour or material. It was more often the same few songs on shuffle. This is understandable in 1920s Libya, but less so for Finland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, and much of Europe.

The site's founder, Benjamin Moreau, was said to have conceived of the idea for Radiooooo.com whilst driving a vintage automobile, but apparently that car wasn't made before the 1950s, because it doesn't appear to be a big priority to populate those areas of time with many audio relics. It would appear that the criteria is too tight, or there aren't enough people with deeper musical backgrounds involved.

I'll continue to listen, enjoy, and be thankful for what Radiooooo.com has done. They're not just exploiting free audio from listeners, they claim to be giving royalties to the artists who get airplay, partially from the funds they receive when a listener "joins their club". I'm not sure entirely what the benefits of joining are, beyond being able to skip songs, play full tracks from playlists, and make playlists, but while I haven't gone down that road yet, I'm sure it's at least somewhat worth it.

Radiooooo.com has taken it a next step further beyond other sites who simply tap into radio stations from around the world, or focus heavily on one period of time, and stream music from that period nonstop. They have prompted a call to historical music preservation, but after almost nine years, they've still yet to really step up in that department. I'm looking forward to the day when they do, and in the meantime, there are definitely opportunities, for those who are inclined, to start their own site like this. I can see things getting competitive in this department, and as long as there's so much room to improve on this concept, I'd say it will be a good thing.