Are you one of those music fans who wonders how mainstream commercial radio came to suck so badly? As many hardcore music fans know, Clear Channel is the company that has emerged as the lightning rod for fans complaining about bland repetition on their local radio dial.

For those who haven’t seen the film, one of its most compelling lessons revolves around Clear Channel’s history and business practices. While this is nothing new for many hardcore fans, we continue to hear from many music lovers that this portion of the film was indeed a revelation…finally an explanation for why they continuously hit the Seek button in a frustrated search for exciting new music. For those who weren’t up to speed on Clear Channel before seeing the film, they now understand why mainstream radio (with few notable exceptions) is such an empty, impersonal experience for so many fans.

Despite what some might assume, B4MD’s Clear Channel commentaries - and even it’s now famous “sexy pop star” segment – aren’t a rant against any particular type of music or taste (pop can be great too!). Instead, we think it’s important for people to understand the corporate forces that are steadily eliminating all but the safest material on mainstream music outlets.

What to do now that you’ve seen the truth? Follow this link: http://www.clearchannel.com/Radio/StationSearch.aspx and enter your city or zip code - Clear Channel will tell you which stations they own in your area. Many are being sold off as listeners increasingly vote with their call button selections… but Clear Channel is strengthening its presence in its “Top 100 Markets”. Check out those stations and listen for yourself… and think about your call button settings… have you really given your great local independent and college radio stations a chance? Listened to Internet or satellite radio? Explored the abundant music sites online? Visited the live music venue down the street in the last month or two? In this age of exploding access to great new music, know this concrete truth: you don’t have to settle for bad radio anymore…

As we’ve toured around the country with Before the Music Dies the past few weeks…and close in on 100 screening parties….some “audience favorites” have emerged. While everyone has their own favorite moments in the film — whether it’s Erykah Badu’s humor, Hubert Sumlin’s wisdom, or Calexico’s live performance — the biggest buzz seems to come from the “turning a model into a pop star” segment.  The filmmakers take a beautiful young model - Taylor Hannah - and have her record a song written on the spot by the talented and hilarious Steve Poltz (www.poltz.com).

Taylor may be beautiful, but her vocal is less than perfect.  Luckily, as Erykah Badu points out, “you don’t have to be able to sing, just move your mouth and shit… they’ll work that out.” With the magic of AutoTune, Taylor’s painful vocal is transformed into a catchy tune that would sound perfectly at home on mainstream pop radio…..

You’ll never look at Hillary, Ashlee, Paris and the rest of today’s pop stars in the same way again. As the first in a new series of B4MD sneak peeks… Ladies and gentlemen, the next pop superstar — our good friend (and great sport) Taylor Hannah!