Social Atmosphere

It was the beginning of the 80’s. America was full swing in the Regan era. It was a conservative time, when people’s attitudes were geared towards mainstream culture. The mainstream music industry held a strong influence upon the American population and there was no crossover between popular music and underground. (Mitchell, pg.1)

It was in 1975 when Olympia’s music culture had the opportunity to loosen up from the grips of corprate culture. K.A.O.S., The Evergreen State College’s radio station, hired its first paid employee John Foster. Foster created The Lost Music Network, and implimented a green line policy that required 80% of off the music aired to be from independent record labels. At this time, the idea of airing underground music instead of mainstream was unheard of. (www.kpunk.com/FAQ/)

“ So it was a pretty radical concept at the time. . . . There were a lot of fights about it. Mostly with other communities because, people who were involved with radical politics in the sixties and seventies, and were still doing things that were sort of interesting like running non-commercial radio stations, well that was the music they were all interested in, was all on major labels.” --Calvin Johnson- (Mitchell, Pg.2)