American Graffiti and that AM Radio Quality

I watched the 1973 classic, American Graffiti, last night. The movie takes place over one night and a main feature of the film is the music and how it plays in the background throughout the whole movie. Every car and place of business is tuned to the same station with Wolfman Jack at the helm. There is something oddly fascinating about that as it’s such a far cry from our culture of option-overload. And though we may have more choices than ever, this made the music of the past utterly iconic to those who lived through it in a way I don’t believe music of the last 20 years will ever be.

Watching this also conjured up a lot of memories of my dad, the stories he would tell of his teen years, and the music he would play in the car when I would ride anywhere with him. He always had some AM oldies station on that would pump out hits from the 50s and 60s. He loved to tell me who each of the artists were and the year the song was released. Sometimes he was bluffing, but his confidence made it believable so I didn’t question him until I got older and began to accumulate some music knowledge of my own.

But thinking on these warm memories, I dug up an old plugin I have that transforms the music on your computer into an AM radio nostalgic delight. The experience is much like setting the stylus down on an old record and hearing that familiar snap, crackle, pop.

This got me wondering…does AM radio even play music anymore or is it only talk radio these days? One check on a little radio I own brought up nothing, but I’m curious if these stations even exist anymore and who might be listening. It seems most people hardly listen to music on FM radio like they used to, so it seems doubtful. But there is something inherently more chill-inducing about listening to these oldies in that decreased quality, as opposed to the remastered digital sound we’re accustomed to.