Have you ever wondered why certain songs get played on the radio and on MTV over and over and over again until the very sound of them makes your ears bleed? Well, the recent ‘Payola scandal’ - that has “rocked the music industry" - shed some light on the subject and goes someway towards explaining why hacks like Jennifer Lopez dominate the airwaves in a hypnotizing, almost brainwashing manner. The Payola or ‘pay-for-play’ scandal revolves around huge record companies like Sony BMG and Warner Music paying radio stations and radio employees to play their artists’ songs a certain number of times a week. The US Federal Communications Commission launched a year-long investigation - headed by New York’s chief law officer, Attorney General Elliot Spitzer - into the practice commonly known as Payola or pay-for –play,. FCC officials are investigating the nine largest radio corporations in America, who they would not identify, and thousands of US radio stations have been subpoenaed for their Payola practices. “In addition to criminal prosecution, any broadcaster in clear violation could face severe sanctions and, in the most blatant cases, the loss of their broadcast licences" FCC officials told ABC News. Forget the advert breaks, the music has BECOME the adverts.

When you get the latest chart topping tune in your head you now have the dissatisfaction of knowing that someone may have very well paid thousands of dollars to get you singing along. Last year Sony BMG was forced to pay a $10 million, in court settlement for its part in the affair. Sony admitted that some employees had acted “wrongfully" and that they would initiate sweeping reforms to tackle the problem. They did not say whether any employees had been fired in the wake of the fiasco. In late 2005 Warner Music was also made to pay a court settlement for $5 million for its pay-for-play practices.

FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein told ABC News, “This is potentially the most widespread and flagrant violation of the FCC rules in the history of American broadcasting. We’ve never seen evidence of such systematic betrayal of the responsibility of broadcasters". Payola – which is a combination of the words pay and victrola (an old wind up record player) – has been common practice behind the scenes since the mid nineties, according to Terryl Brown Clemons, the NY Deputy Attorney General who is also dealing with the investigation. In 2003 Celine Dion made news headlines when her record company, SONY BMG’s Epic Records, was exposed as illegally promoting her 2003 album. Dion was about to make her Caesar’s Palace debut with her show A New Day and she hadn’t had a hit song for a few years. In order to boost interest in Dion Epic Records offered radio stations a bribe. They agreed to secretly finance competitions that radio listeners could supposedly enter and win trips to Las Vegas, rooms at Caesar’s, and tickets to Dion’s show if radio stations co-operated and played Dion’s two new tracks a certain number of times a week. After an investigation by Spitzer, reports emerged that the prizes didn’t even go to any real listeners and instead went straight to radio station employees in a scandalous double blow. Dion was even accused of being personally involved.

It all just seems so sinister. Like a tribute to how far consumerism has gone. The music industry has even been called a farce by some journalists - full of artificially created top 10 charts. According to Spitzer’s reports, some of the artists whose songs have become hits and topped the charts thanks to pay-for-play include; Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Maroon 5, Good Charlotte, Switchfoot, REM and even Scottish band Franz Ferdinand. Speaking in interview Franz Ferdinand’s manager Cerne Canning said, “Far worse goes on behind closed doors in the music industry. All companies pretty much do the same thing to gain an advantage". According to ABC News Spitzer said, “A lot of the major songs have been implicated in this and it shows how pervasive the payola infrastructure had become".

During the investigation into the matter emails from music company employees were obtained by the FCC. One email, from a promoter at Epic Records to a fellow Epic Records’ employee read; “2 weeks ago it cost us $4000 to get Franz on WKSE. That is what four trips to Miami and a hotel cost. At the end of the day David (Universal) added GC (Good Charlotte) and Gretchen Wilson and hit Alex up for another grand and they settled for $750. So, almost $5000 in two weeks for overnight airplay. He told me that Tommy really wanted him to do it. So he cut the deal". Another ominous email from an Epic Records employee to a Clear Channel programmer showed the clout that these big companies possess. It read, “What do I have to do to get Audioslave on WK55 this week?!!? Whatever you dream up, I can make it happen".

Spitzer offered a strong warning of resolve to any radio station involved in the scandal, also to ABC News “I can’t believe that radio stations are putting their licenses at risk. It seems to me that they thought the FCC was asleep and they shot someone in front of the policeman. The policeman is obliged to act when the evidence is so clear".

The real victims are the listeners that are deprived of any objectivity by the corruption of radio stations and the big music companies. Other victims are the artists without the financial clout to compete for airwaves with artists in on the payola scandal. This scandal, I’m sure, is not just limited to the US. It’s a globalised phenomenon and it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the top 10 charts are all pretty much the same. I don’t listen to the radio much, because there’s hardly any “real" music on. The Payola scandal just shows you what a farce popular music is. It’s a cut throat industry in which ‘artists’ are actually just products to move and sell. So, instead of just swallowing what the radio and MTV tells you to swallow, get out there and discover what music YOU really like. I promise you, it will be a much more rewarding experience. Perhaps you might even stumble across all the frighteningly under-represented and amazing local music South Africa has to offer.