@sapphire @CleverMoniker @sickburnbro >your entire perception of music was shaped by your local radio DJ

Hard to overstate the importance of this at the time. This was prior to the deregulation that allowed a handful of companies to own all the radio stations, so A&R reps had to actually travel to Poughkeepsie to unload their payola (hookers and blow) to the local DJ.

It was a real thing back then. You could make or break a band by bribing tastemakers, and they did.

They still do a version of this, but it's much more, well, corporate. Tbh, if I had to choose between the two, I prefer the hookers and blow version.