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 1/30/16. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:
TOP 50 ACTIVE ROCK SONGS (by spins) OF 2015
TOP 30 OCTANE BIG ‘UNS COUNTDOWN SONGS OF 2015
CHART | CHART | ARTIST | SONG TITLE | RADIO |
POSITION | POSITION | SPINS | ||
THIS WEEK | LAST WEEK | THIS WEEK | ||
1 | 2 | SHINEDOWN | “State Of My Head” | 2086 |
2 | 1 | FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH | “Wash It Away” | 1803 |
3 | 5 | POP EVIL | “Ways To Get High” | 1613 |
4 | 3 | DISTURBED | “The Light” | 1551 |
5 | 4 | SEETHER | “Save Today” | 1452 |
6 | 6 | FOO FIGHTERS | “Saint Cecilia” | 1253 |
7 | 7 | NOTHING MORE | “Here’s To The Heartache” | 1248 |
8 | 9 | HIGHLY SUSPECT | “Bloodfeather” | 1102 |
9 | 18 | 3 DOORS DOWN | “In The Dark” | 924 |
10 | 11 | MUSE | “Reapers” | 912 |
11 | 14 | CAGE THE ELEPHANT | “Mess Around” | 874 |
12 | 12 | TRIVIUM | “Until The World Goes Cold” | 862 |
13 | 8 | THREE DAYS GRACE | “Fallen Angel” | 715 |
14 | 15 | SAINT ASONIA | “Let Me Live My Life” | 702 |
15 | 17 | BRING ME THE HORIZON | “Happy Song” | 655 |
16 | 13 | THEORY OF A DEADMAN | “Blow” | 616 |
17 | 20 | FROM ASHES TO NEW | “Through It All” | 604 |
18 | 16 | PARKWAY DRIVE | “Vice Grip” | 567 |
19 | 23 | RED SUN RISING | “Emotionless” | 543 |
20 | 21 | SHAMAN’S HARVEST | “In Chains” | 531 |
21 | 19 | ARANDA | “We Are The Enemy” | 509 |
22 | 24 | PAPA ROACH | “Falling Apart” | 487 |
23 | 22 | ALL THAT REMAINS | “Victory Lap” | 457 |
24 | 30 | DISTURBED | “The Sound Of Silence” | 445 |
25 | 25 | ESCAPE THE FATE | “Alive” | 370 |
26 | 26 | THE STRUTS | “Kiss This” | 353 |
27 | 27 | ADELITA’S WAY | “Bad Reputation” | 324 |
28 | 28 | FAILURE ANTHEM | “Paralyzed” | 278 |
29 | 36 | SLIPKNOT | “Goodbye” | 275 |
30 | 29 | STITCHED UP HEART | “Finally Free” | 267 |
31 | 35 | DROWNING POOL | “By The Blood” | 242 |
32 | 34 | ANDREW WATT | “Ghost In My Head” | 229 |
33 | 37 | LACEY STURM | “Impossible” | 211 |
34 | 38 | MEGADETH | “Dystopia” | 209 |
35 | 32 | TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN | “Loaded Dice & Buried Money” | 207 |
36 | 31 | NATHANIEL RATELIFF / NIGHTSWEATS | “S.O.B.” | 200 |
37 | 33 | TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA | “Forget About The Blame” | 166 |
38 | 39 | PUSCIFIER | “The Remedy” | 157 |
39 | 54 | WOLFMOTHER | “Victorious” | 148 |
40 | 42 | WAYLAND | “Bloody Sunrise” | 125 |
41 | 51 | DEVOUR THE DAY | “Lightning In The Sky” | 123 |
42 | 47 | BARONESS | “Shock Me” | 105 |
43 | 46 | FOALS | “Mountain At My Gates” | 105 |
44 | 43 | FOO FIGHTERS | “Walk” | 100 |
45 | 56 | THROUGH FIRE | “Stronger” | 86 |
46 | 52 | ANTHRAX | “Breathing Lightning” | 85 |
47 | 44 | STONE SOUR (f. LZZY HALE) | “Gimme Shelter” | 85 |
48 | 45 | BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE | “Venom” | 80 |
49 | 41 | TWENTY ONE PILOTS | “Stressed Out” | 73 |
50 | 108 | BLACK STONE CHERRY | “In Our Dreams” | 69 |
PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (by Adam Waldman)
EVANS BLUE – “iGod”
With the relatively short attention span of people today, and a seemingly endless supply of new hard rock music, it’s somewhat risky to disappear from the public’s eye for an extended period of time. That is, of course, unless you come back with a vengeance, the way that Evans Blue has with their first new material in nearly four years with “iGod,” the lead single from their upcoming album, Letters From The Dead. The sound of Evans Blue continues to evolve, moving in a decidedly heavier direction than the single that gained the most traction last time around, “Warrior.” Many bands in the current Active Rock climate would have taken this heavy song over the top with angry growls/screams, but Evans Blue has a style that is all their own, and melody is a big part of it. The more that you peel back the layers of “iGod” (especially listening through headphones), the more that you discover that the song is clear fit for Active Rock, but also infuses influences of other sub-genres such as prog, thrash and metal. Frontman Dan Chandler delivers the thought-provoking lyrics dynamically as he shifts between rage and melody. While the inspiration for “iGod” is not stated, Chandler does reveal that the song “depicts our failure to recognize or consider a perspective other than our own.” Even if it is just a coincidence that the song was released during the height of election year strife, it seems fitting just the same. Regardless of the inspiration, it’s good to have Evans Blue back on the scene with another powerful single.
HRD SPIN CONTROL (by Adam Waldman and Jon Loveless)
Each week, we will share the songs that we think should be added to rotations, alongside the songs that we feel should be dropped from rotations, either because they are a bad fit for the format, or because they have run their course and it’s time for a new single from the artist.
SPIN IT…
EVANS BLUE – “iGod”
SMASHING SATELLITES – “Gamblin Man”
BOBAFLEX – “A Spider In The Dark”
SILVERTUNG – “Face The Music”
VEER UNION – “Defying Gravity”
HANDS LIKE HOUSES – “New Romantics”
UGLY KID JOE – “She’s Already Gone”
DROP IT…
Foals – “Mountain At My Gates”
Twenty One Pilots – “Stressed Out”
Nate Rateliff & The Nightsweats – “S.O.B.”
Cage The Elephant – “Mess Around”
The Struts – “Kiss This”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – “Forget About The Blame”
Three Days Grace – “Fallen Angel”
THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless
KING OF THE HILL
As expected, Shinedown claims the top spot on this week’s Mediabase Active Rock airplay chart with their latest single, “State Of My Head,” dethroning Five Finger Death Punch after just two weeks. Pop Evil easily leapfrogs over Disturbed to claim the #3 position, setting them up make a run at the top spot in the coming weeks.
NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT
Two songs crack the Top 10 this week, with the biggest splash coming from 3 Doors Down, as “In The Dark” continues to rocket up the chart…
Two songs reach the Top 20 for the first time, including “Emotionless,” the latest single from last year’s breakout artist Red Sun Rising…
New to the Top 30 this week is “Goodbye,” the latest from format mainstays Slipknot…
Wolfmother returns to the U.S. Top 40 after an extended absence (over five years I believe), joined by Wayland who are getting close to their highest chart position ever with “Bloody Sunrise”…
“At least” three songs make their Top 50 debut this week. I choose that phrasing because, once again, the published chart last week and the “last week” positions published this week fail to match up. The most notable of the discrepancies is the sudden appearance of a song by the Foo Fighters that was nowhere to be found in any published information a week ago, yet is now listed as having been #44.
THREE UP & THREE DOWN
MOVING UP
Pop Evil – “Ways To Get High”
3 Doors Down – “In The Dark”
Disturbed – “The Sound Of Silence”
DROPPING DOWN
Five Finger Death Punch – “Wash It All Away”
Disturbed – “The Light”
Three Days Grace – “Fallen Angel”
FUTURES REPORT
The obvious topic for this week is the sudden appearance of a song on the chart that shows a major discrepancy from last week to this week.
It’s hard to imagine that I’m the only one asking questions, but I guess it’s possible that I am. A lot of attention is paid to airplay and chart positions for promotional purposes, but given the frequency of discrepancies lately, it stands to reason that they aren’t viewed as crucially as they once were, at least in the eyes of those at the highest level of the industry.
The consolidation of radio ownership makes the charts easier to manipulate with concentrated “drops/adds” if someone was so inclined. The overall decline of airplay for current rock makes that possibility even greater.
There certainly seems to be a growing disconnect between radio success and financial success. Having a “hit” (or even a string of them for that matter) doesn’t guarantee anything in the way of sales. While there is still some benefit (both tangible and in terms of bragging rights), perhaps some of the bloom has fallen off of the rose where charts are concerned, taking with it some of the importance that the industry has traditionally attached to them.
WRAP-UP
That’s all for this week. Tune in to HardRockDaddy.com every Tuesday for the HRD Radio Report. \m/
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