HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 12/7/14

HRD RADIO REPORT 

The HRD Radio Report showcases the weekly Active Rock Mediabase Charts (compiled by AllAccess.com), and appears every Tuesday on HardRockDaddy.com.  The HRD Radio Report digs deeper into the weekly Active Rock charts, providing commentary, reviews, recommendations and predictions.  It also features opinion pieces on chart action and the music business in general.

Many of the artists featured on the Active Rock charts have already been reviewed on HardRockDaddy.com.

Click on the hyperlinked song titles to read song reviews, and the hyperlinked artist names to read album reviews.

The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 12/7/14.  All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART POSITION THIS WEEK	CHART POSITION LAST WEEK	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO SPINS THIS WEEK
1	1	FOO FIGHTERS	“Something From Nothing”	2019
2	2	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Wrong Side Of Heaven”	1949
3	3	ROYAL BLOOD	“Figure It Out”	1752
4	5	SEETHER	“Same Damn Life”	1640
5	6	THREE DAYS GRACE	“I Am Machine”	1550
6	7	GODSMACK	“Something Different”	1405
7	5	SLIPKNOT	“The Devil In I”	1237
8	9	POP EVIL	“Beautiful”	1052
9	10	HELLYEAH	“Moth”	950
10	11	PAPA ROACH	“Face Everything And Rise”	944
11	12	IN THIS MOMENT	“Sick Like Me”	834
12	13	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Moving On”	808
13	17	LINKIN PARK	“Rebellion”	741
14	16	NOTHING MORE	“Mr. MTV”	725
15	14	BUSH	“The Only Way Out”	710
16	8	AC/DC	“Play Ball”	707
17	18	NONPOINT	“Breaking Skin”	634
18	19	CHEVELLE	“An Island”	627
19	21	YOUNG GUNS	“I Want Out”	580
20	20	SIXX A.M.	“Stars”	579
21	26	NICKELBACK	“Million Miles An Hour”	524
22	22	THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH	“Born This Way”	482
23	15	VOLBEAT	“Doc Holliday”	479
24	29	PRETTY RECKLESS	“Follow Me Down”	441
25	27	STARSET	“Carnivore”	417
26	28	MOTIONLESS IN WHITE	“Reincarnate”	398
27	23	NICKELBACK	“Edge Of A Revolution”	370
28	24	MASTODON	“The Motherload”	369
29	25	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Savages”	354
30	48	AC/DC	“Rock Or Bust”	349
31	31	LENNY KRAVITZ	“Dirty White Boots”	340
32	32	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“Dangerous”	298
33	30	BLACK KEYS	“Gotta Get Away”	290
34	34	SMASHING PUMPKINS	“One And All”	278
35	46	SLASH	“Bent To Fly”	255
36	35	OF MICE & MEN	“Feels Like Forever”	236
37	36	WEEZER	“Back To The Shack	232
38	33	LIVE	“Way Around Is Through”	232
39	37	3 YEARS HOLLOW	“For Life”	227
40	38	WE AS HUMAN	“Bring To Life”	222
41	40	RISE AGAINST	“Tragedy + Time”	220
42	39	LINKIN PARK	“Final Masquerade”	205
43	44	LIKE A STORM	“Wish You Hell”	198
44	43	ARCTIC MONKEYS	“R U Mine?”	194
45	42	BRING ME THE HORIZON	“Drown”	194
46	45	LETTERS FROM THE FIRE	“Zombies In The Sun”	180
47	41	ADELITA’S WAY	“Save The World”	179
48	55	BEARTOOTH	“Beaten In Lips”	128
49	51	AMARANTHE	“Drop Dead Cynical”	124
50	52	SAVING ABEL	“Blood Stained Revolution”	113

 

PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK by Adam Waldman

AMARANTHE – “Drop Dead Cynical”

Amaranthe does a masterful job of blurring the lines between genres to create something unique, while still managing to capture the attention of Active Rock radio programmers and listeners.  “Drop Dead Cynical” has been steadily climbing up the Octane Big ‘Uns Countdown (currently at #4), and this week, cracked the Top 50 Active Rock chart.

These Swedish/Danish rockers are proving that you don’t have to fit neatly into an active rock box to make an impact at radio.  Active rock…modern melodic metal…power metal…the label doesn’t matter.

Amaranthe marches to the beat of their own drum (in a good way).  When you write great songs with infectious choruses, you can break from tradition and have three lead vocalists, blend multiple genres into one song, and still be embraced by hard rock music fans.  Check out “Drop Dead Cynical” below, and then enjoy the song as it plays in your head the rest of the day!

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless

KING OF THE HILL

Make it seven weeks at #1 on the Mediabase Active Rock airplay chart for the Foo Fighters (“Something From Nothing”), who weren’t quite ready to give up the top spot this week after all.  Or perhaps, radio programmers (and/or their consultants) just weren’t ready for the throne to be relinquished to Five Finger Death Punch, who saw “Wrong Side Of Heaven” lose momentum around the middle of the week.

Any of a half dozen songs could be next at the top (whenever a decision is finally made to move on that is), since none of the potential contenders showed particularly stronger growth than the next until you get down to the song currently at #10, “Face Everything And Rise”  by Papa Roach.

 

 

NOTABLE CHART ACTION

The curious case of the dueling Linkin Park singles continued this week as the abrupt decline of airplay for “Rebellion” leveled off (slightly reversing itself in fact), producing a climb up the chart as several songs in front of it declined.   Meanwhile the band’s more recent track “Final Masquerade,” leveled off in airplay just as abruptly, and actually fell down the chart a bit…

AC/DC’s second single, “Rock Or Bust,” took a big leap forward as early adopters doubled their action and twice as many stations climbed on board for the first time…

Three new arrivals in the Top 50 this week occupy the bottom three slots.  Not a splashy debut in the bunch, but that’s better than not arriving at all.

 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

MOVING UP

Papa Roach – “Face Everything And Rise”
Nickelback – “Million Miles An Hour”
AC/DC – “Rock Or Bust”

DROPPING DOWN

Slipknot – “The Devil In I”
AC/DC – “Play Ball”
Volbeat – “Doc Holliday”

 

 

JL’S PICK OF THE WEEK

THEORY OF A DEADMAN (featuring ALICE COOPER) – “Savages”

The often tongue-in-cheek active rock mainstays let a little of their dark side show on the title track off of their latest album, with a little help from Alice Cooper.  The change in tone takes just a little getting used to, but once you make the mental adjustment, this is actually a song with something to say and it does so in style.

 

 

I CALL B#LL$HIT!

Minimal change amongst the “Songs That Don’t Belong” this week, as roughly 1,000 spins on Active Rock stations were once again flushed away on tracks by Black Keys, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and Arctic Monkeys.  There has got to be something that is more deserving.  Time for programmers and decision-makers to get busy finding it!

 

 

 FUTURES REPORT

In the next HRD Radio Report we’ll look for the possibility of more songs rising up the chart due to declines of songs ahead of them (rather than any real growth of their own), see if there are any songs who try to get an early jump on 2015 with a last minute single release, and watch for the possibility of another punk-influenced song or two slipping in to fill the void for at least a short chart appearance.

 

 

WRAP-UP

That’s all for this week!  Tune in to HardRockDaddy.com every Tuesday for the HRD Radio Report. \m/