German music quota? No, thanks!

Wolf Maahn, Ulla Meinecke, Reinhard Mey, Mieze (Band Mia), Xavier Naidoo, Wolfgang Niedecken, Moses Pelham, Pur, Rammstein, Achim Reichel, Smudo, Mousse T., Stefan Waggershausen, Joachim Witt, Frank Zander, Manfred Krug, Udo Lindenberg, Peter Maffay, Laith Al-Deen, and even 2Raumwohnung. They all signed a petition supported by more than 600 musicians and performers crying for a music quota on German radio.

Now you might think this is a bad April Fool's joke, but unfortunately, that's not the case. A parliamentary committee (!) has met yesterday discussing whether to recommend a quota of German language music to radio broadcasters. This move would be similar to France where a 40% quota for French language music was introduced more than 10 years ago.

I totally buy into the more general criticism that the German radio landscape sucks badly. In Hamburg, you basically have a choice between "the best of the 80s and 90s", "Top 40 charts around the clock", "the best of the 90s and Top 20 hits", "your favorite hits from the past 20 years" and "the best in rock and pop". I am not surprised that people get frustrated listening to the same crap songs all day and night, no matter what station you tune in to. Berlin has a slightly more diversified radio landscape, but the improvement seems marginal at best.

Thank God both politicians and broadcasters are opposing a German music quota - as "more German" wouldn't neccessarily mean "better music". Just looking at some of the names above is giving me goosebumps.

Applying a slightly different angle to this controversy, Germany has awarded artists like David Hasselhoff with top music awards and made him one of the country's biggest selling artists of the 90s. So maybe we just get what we deserve: more crappy music on the radio.