An Alternative Top 10 That Top 40 Programmers Should Be Playing

Has Top 40 radio--epitomized in Los Angeles by stations like KIIS-FM and KPWR-FM--ever been worse?

Even more distressing than the answer--which is definitely no --is the fact that radio has leaned to safe, passive music for so long now that the question has lost its sting.

Few serious pop-rock fans even bother with Top 40 radio--the format that introduced audiences to such landmark figures as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

The punk revolution of the late ‘70s was, in part, a reaction to the tendency of pop-rock programmers in that decade to shy away from challenging or provocative music in favor of bland, conservative sounds aimed at attracting the widest possible listenership.

But the gains were slight and the stations are back to playing, for the most part, the same kind of aural wallpaper as in the ‘70s. The result is an increasing number of records--and artists--with virtually no individual personality or even a pretense of an original point of view.

The Alternative Top 10 is a periodic look at some of the records that Top 40 programmers should be playing--records that score high in the areas of individuality, craft or charm.

The list doesn’t automatically exclude records in the actual Billboard Top 10, but the emphasis is on singles or album tracks by new acts or by artists--from such fields as heavy metal, rap or country--that don’t normally break into the pop Top 40.

1. UB40’s “Breakfast in Bed,” featuring guest vocal by Chrissie Hynde--The fact that Hynde, arguably the most consistently appealing female singer ever in rock, has only made the national Top 40 charts with five songs from her four albums since 1980, is one sign of the failure of Top 40 radio to reflect the true vitality and imagination of pop music. Hynde teams here with UB40 on “Breakfast in Bed,” a strange, yet delicious tale of comfort and seduction. The track has already been a hit in England.

2. The Sugarcubes’ “Motorcrash” (Elektra)--This outstanding Icelandic band delights in mostly energetic songs that, like a well-crafted mystery story, are full of tantalizing clues that point to various solutions (or interpretations). The main character in this one: a young girl on a bicycle who always seems to turn up at the scene of an auto accident.

3. The Primitives’ “Crash” (RCA)--One of the most spirit-lifting tales of frustration since the Bangles’ “Manic Monday,” this debut single combines a bright, high-energy pulse with Tracey Tracey’s Blondie-esque vocals.

4. Guns n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine” (Geffen)--Don’t make the mistake of dismissing this Los Angeles band as one more in the parade of hollow, cliche-ridden hard rock/heavy metal entries (a la Ratt and Dokken). This single--about a girl on a most dangerous path--may well walk away with a Grammy in the new heavy metal category.

5. Hothouse Flowers’ “It’ll Be Easier in the Morning” (London/PolyGram)--This extraordinarily promising Irish band’s first single was released on U2’s own Mother label, but the sound here is closer to rock’s blues and country roots than U2’s pre-”Joshua Tree” work. The music combines some of the folk-accented Celtic rock of Van Morrison with the spiritually tinged idealism of the Waterboys.

6. K. D. Lang’s “I’m Down to My Last Cigarette” (Sire)--This Canadian singer with performance art instincts and country music tastes once worried that country audiences might mistrust her motives, but she’s becoming a big hit with country fans, while pop radio programmers turn out to be the ones debating whether she really “fits” into their format.

7. Public Enemy’s “Party for Your Right to Fight” (Def Jam)--The title may sound like simply a cute takeoff on the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right to Party,” but this statement of black pride is one of the hardest-hitting rap tracks since Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message.”

8. Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Kill Surf City” (Warner Bros.)--The Brothers Reid apply their dark but intoxicating blend of romanticism, Angst and unsettling feedback for a most unusual toast to one of America’s oldest and most endearing rock genres.

9. Shriekback’s “Go Bang” (Island)--Barry Andrews, the leader of this British band, has as much spring in his stage leaps as a kangaroo, a trait that isn’t all that useful on record. But this snappy dance-oriented tune--a wry reflection on contemporary attitudes--has an infectious energy of its own.

10. Camper Van Beethoven’s “Life Is Grand” (Virgin)--The darlings of college radio strike out at rock’s doom and gloom brigade by telling us that all is really well with the world--though they keep repeating the same lines over and over in a way that makes you wonder where the joke ends.

LIVE ACTION: Elton John will be at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 23-24 and Pacific Amphitheatre Sept. 27. Tickets go on sale Monday. . . . Tickets are on sale now for the MTV Video Awards (live performers include Depeche Mode, Guns N’ Roses and INXS at Universal Amphitheatre on Sept. 7. . . . Alabama and Merle Haggard will be at the Forum Sept. 23; tickets on sale Monday.