Gerry Beckley Quotes

You still have Top 40 radio now, but it's 40 different stations. There aren't many hits that everybody knows, and there aren't many real superstars.

I really consider myself fortunate to have been of age during the musical revolution that came in the form of the Beatles. People don't realize that previous to the Beatles, there really was no such thing as an album artist. People made singles. Then they would put a bunch of those singles together and call it an album. And that was it.

I may just keep releasing singles 'til I run out of music, which is kind of cool in a way - as long as people don't go, 'Oh my God, not another one!'

I think 'pop' can be a bit of a dirty word. People are very cool in Australia. They don't like to admit that they like pop. There are people who listen to Triple J and cool stuff like that, but commercial radio is massive, and if you look at the sales of the pop songs every week, people love pop music.

Commercial music, for the most part, is popular music and you always have to keep that in mind.

Nobody wants to hear R&B. It's sad. If you want to be on the radio you got to stay young.

Music is always going to be only as sophisticated as the culture that consumes it.

There were a lot of times where there was a great deal of fodder recorded and played, because there was a market for it - just as there is today. And there were more bad bands than there were good bands - I think that should always be remembered.

I would rather put out two year-defining songs a year than flood the market with eight or nine songs.

In England, rock music very rarely infiltrates the charts, but country music even less so.

People's musical tastes are fickle, and music can be a fashion.

In general, people are comfortable sharing their music. There are two exceptions, though - Lady Gaga and Britney Spears.

America is tough for rock music. Rock n' roll used to be the main music for the youth, and it's not so much anymore. It's hip-hop and stuff.

Have you listened to the radio lately? Have you heard the canned, frozen and processed product being dished up to the world as American popular music today?

I think that music is still art, even if it's commercialised.

I would sell 2 million records, a million went to teenagers and a million went to the adults. So, when The Beatles became so popular, I lost a million to the teenagers, but I was still selling a million to the adults.

It used to be that creative music was most of the music that you heard back in the '30s and '40s, and now it's like 3 percent. So, its kind of a struggle getttin' it out there.

There's so much excellent new music around that I can't afford to buy it all and I haven't the time to review as much as I'd like. I can't remember a better time to be a musician or to listen to music!

I think that pop, and to some extent rock, are like sport and fashion industry in that they're about the exuberance of youth. That's the sort of subliminal ideology.

There's almost no popular music I listen to now. I'll hear it because it's everywhere... Music is ubiquitous now.

Mick Jagger's fans bought records with their allowances. Sinatra's people bought them out of wages.

I enjoy music that is commercial. I think that in order for music to be heard in a lot of different situations, you have to always consider that. Commercial music, for the most part, is popular music, and you always have to keep that in mind. It's not so much financial as making sure it gets the shot and is heard on the radio.

We should be able to write songs for a new album every six months. If you think about it, it's not a crazy amount of writing.

There's a tremendous audience out there for popular music. It's a bigger audience than for movies.

People don't necessarily expect singles from me. They expect full bodies of work.