There was a time when radio in the United States was full of surprises -- a time when catchy, clever tunes were just a turn of the dial away. Pop music carried less baggage then, before marketing and demographics moved in and warped station programming into socio-economic formulas.
Scott Hoffman remembers those days when pop had universal appeal and Dolly Parton, Hall & Oates and The Cure could be played back-to-back on a single station. Now he believes the heyday is gone. "I've given up on radio," he says with a laugh.
His band, Scissor Sisters, can claim piano anthems, glam rock and disco as influences, but most people hear echoes of the radio of yore: solid musicianship, melodic hooks and witty lyrics that would stay with you well after the commercial break. So why aren't Scissor Sisters dominating American airwaves? "[U.S.] radio is so locked into a format now," says Hoffman, "and they just don't know what to do with us."