When we get to listen to the radio at work, we usually listen to Gen-X Radio. There are many worse stations to listen to, but it's still not good to listen to on a daily basis. If you're not familiar with the Gen-X Radio format, here's a link to the playlist. I always liked the concept, but thought the execution was way off. Here are some of my gripes.
1.Hair bands, especially Bon Jovi and Poison. If you think of Generation X as being an entire age group, then including Hair Bands kind of makes sense. When I think of Generation X, I think less of an entire age group and more of a subculture within the age group who usually listened to more Alternative forms of music, whether it was Indie Rock, Techno, or even some harder or left-of-center kinds of Metal. The rise of Alternative Rock in the early '90s had a lot to do with people being sick of Hair Bands being the dominant form of Rock on the radio, which is why I don't think Hair Bands belong on a Gen-X themed station. In fact, this is closer to what I think of as a proper Gen-X station.
2.Too much Gen-Y crap. The logical ending cut off point for a Gen-X station in my opinion would be 2000, or maybe 1999 so we wouldn't have to put up with Kid Rock. They play way too much Nickelback, Puddle Of Mudd, Evanescence, Trapt, Linkin Park, Nelly, Kelly Clarkson, 3 Doors Down, Staind, and some stuff that's only 3 or 4 years old. Part of the fun of Gen-X Radio is hearing stuff that hadn't gotten played much in years, but the crap I just mentioned have been staples of Rock and Hot A.C. stations during the past ten years, so we haven't even had a chance to "miss" these songs yet. These songs are evidently getting too "old", and it's like Clear Channel is trying to find a place to dump them so they can make room for newer songs on their other stations.
3.On a similar note, most of the '90s Rock/MOR (Middle Of the Road) portion of the Gen-X Radio playlist were permanent staples of the Rock and Hot A.C. stations for the past 20 years! That's even more music that we haven't had a chance to miss yet.
4.Lots of really odd edits, like whole portions of songs getting cut. I think they do this to make more time for commercials.
5.They don't seem to know shit about genres on their commercials. Recently, I heard them describe "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" by The Offspring as Grunge, and "Rhythm Is A Dancer" by Snap! as Hip Hop. Really?
6.The last gripe (for now) is the same gripe I have about every other god damned commercial station out there: the playlist. If you listen to it during the work day every day, you'll hear the same songs, just shuffled around. And if you hear one Prince song, it will most likely be "Kiss". If you hear a two Prince songs, it's going to be "Kiss" and a really odd sounding version of "7". Plus the combination of Nickelback, Bon Jovi, Poison, Kid Rock, and Puddle Of Mudd amounts to a Perfect Storm of shit.
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