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 2/6/16. 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 | 1 | SHINEDOWN | “State Of My Head” | 2163 |
| 2 | 3 | POP EVIL | “Ways To Get High” | 1732 |
| 3 | 6 | FOO FIGHTERS | “Saint Cecilia” | 1415 |
| 4 | 2 | FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH | “Wash It Away” | 1382 |
| 5 | 5 | SEETHER | “Save Today” | 1369 |
| 6 | 7 | NOTHING MORE | “Here’s To The Heartache” | 1333 |
| 7 | 8 | HIGHLY SUSPECT | “Bloodfeather” | 1252 |
| 8 | 4 | DISTURBED | “The Light” | 1183 |
| 9 | 10 | MUSE | “Reapers” | 1084 |
| 10 | 9 | 3 DOORS DOWN | “In The Dark” | 1062 |
| 11 | 11 | CAGE THE ELEPHANT | “Mess Around” | 997 |
| 12 | 12 | TRIVIUM | “Until The World Goes Cold” | 926 |
| 13 | 24 | DISTURBED | “The Sound Of Silence” | 811 |
| 14 | 15 | BRING ME THE HORIZON | “Happy Song” | 800 |
| 15 | 14 | SAINT ASONIA | “Let Me Live My Life” | 740 |
| 16 | 17 | FROM ASHES TO NEW | “Through It All” | 653 |
| 17 | 22 | PAPA ROACH | “Falling Apart” | 614 |
| 18 | 18 | PARKWAY DRIVE | “Vice Grip” | 566 |
| 19 | 20 | SHAMAN’S HARVEST | “In Chains” | 564 |
| 20 | 19 | RED SUN RISING | “Emotionless” | 564 |
| 21 | 21 | ARANDA | “We Are The Enemy” | 460 |
| 22 | 16 | THEORY OF A DEADMAN | “Blow” | 435 |
| 23 | 27 | ADELITA’S WAY | “Bad Reputation” | 391 |
| 24 | 23 | ALL THAT REMAINS | “Victory Lap” | 385 |
| 25 | 26 | THE STRUTS | “Kiss This” | 380 |
| 26 | 25 | ESCAPE THE FATE | “Alive” | 361 |
| 27 | 29 | SLIPKNOT | “Goodbye” | 345 |
| 28 | 30 | STITCHED UP HEART | “Finally Free” | 325 |
| 29 | 28 | FAILURE ANTHEM | “Paralyzed” | 296 |
| 30 | 33 | LACEY STURM | “Impossible” | 264 |
| 31 | 31 | DROWNING POOL | “By The Blood” | 258 |
| 32 | 32 | ANDREW WATT | “Ghost In My Head” | 255 |
| 33 | 34 | MEGADETH | “Dystopia” | 245 |
| 34 | 39 | WOLFMOTHER | “Victorious” | 240 |
| 35 | 51 | ROB ZOMBIE | “Well, Everybody’s…in a UFO” | 233 |
| 36 | 41 | DEVOUR THE DAY | “Lightning In The Sky” | 194 |
| 37 | 36 | NATHANIEL RATELIFF / NIGHTSWEATS | “S.O.B.” | 186 |
| 38 | 35 | TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN | “Loaded Dice & Buried Money” | 167 |
| 39 | 37 | TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA | “Forget About The Blame” | 159 |
| 40 | 38 | PUSCIFIER | “The Remedy” | 155 |
| 41 | 43 | FOALS | “Mountain At My Gates” | 125 |
| 42 | 40 | WAYLAND | “Bloody Sunrise” | 115 |
| 43 | 78 | KILLSWITCH ENGAGE | “Hate By Design” | 114 |
| 44 | 42 | BARONESS | “Shock Me” | 112 |
| 45 | 45 | ANTHRAX | “Breathing Lightning” | 111 |
| 46 | 44 | THROUGH FIRE | “Stronger” | 108 |
| 47 | 49 | BLACK STONE CHERRY | “In Our Dreams” | 99 |
| 48 | 50 | CILVER | “I’m America” | 91 |
| 49 | 0 | DEFTONES | “Prayers/Triangles” | 80 |
| 50 | 0 | FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH | “My Nemesis” | 77 |
PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (by Adam Waldman)
SOTO – “FreakShow”
Whether you’re familiar with the vocal powerhouse that is Jeff Scott Soto or not, it’s not likely that you’ve experienced his previous work on an Active Rock radio station. With his latest band, SOTO, which features “a union of hotshot young musicians,” JSS has dialed it up a notch. Fulfilling a desire to return to his heavier roots (after playing with the likes of Journey and Yngwie Malmsteen), JSS has put together a band that is as formidable as any on the Active Rock music scene today. Following up SOTO’s debut album (Inside The Vertigo), the band is set to release their sophomore album (Divak) in April. Ahead of the album release, SOTO has dropped “FreakShow,” a powerful single that features a heavy groove, intense rhythm, and of course, the stellar vocals of JSS. Active Rock may not be the sandbox that Soto is known for playing in, but with this killer track, that should change. Don’t be mislead by a background that is decidedly more mainstream. “FreakShow” is in the wheelhouse of format heavyweights Sevendust. In fact, if Sevendust recorded this song, there’s no doubt that it would shoot up the charts. It’s time for the Active Rock world to discover what many others already know…JSS is a force to be reckoned with, and so are the rest of the musicians that make up SOTO.
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…
SOTO – “FreakShow”
EVANS BLUE – “iGod”
SMASHING SATELLITES – “Gamblin Man”
BOBAFLEX – “A Spider In The Dark”
VEER UNION – “Defying Gravity”
HANDS LIKE HOUSES – “New Romantics”
UGLY KID JOE – “Bad Seed”
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”
Pucifier – “The Remedy”
THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless
KING OF THE HILL
Shinedown retains in the top spot on this week’s Mediabase Active Rock airplay chart, and looks as though they may be safe for at least another week or two. Pop Evil made a small dent in the sizable gap between themselves and #1, but still lags nearly 20% behind the frontrunner in spins. Foo Fighters’ “Saint Cecilia” enjoyed a three-spot climb on more than 10% increased airplay, but still remains well behind the top two.
NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT
No new arrivals in the Top 10 this week, just some shuffling of the order, but that seems likely to change next week with three of the songs now falling…
Format powerhouses Disturbed and Papa Roach both reach the Top 20 with their latest singles…
Breaking into the Top 30 for the first time is “Impossible,” from Lacey Sturm’s solo effort…
Two songs are newly arrived in the Top 40, led by the debut of a NSFW (not safe for work) title from Rob Zombie that nearly quadrupled its total spins from the week before…
New to the Top 50 (compared to last week’s published chart) are four additional songs, the highest debut being “Hate By Design,” the latest from Killswitch Engage.
THREE UP & THREE DOWN
MOVING UP
Foo Fighters – “Ways To Get High”
Disturbed – “The Sound Of Silence”
Rob Zombie – “Well, Everybody’s…in a UFO”
DROPPING DOWN
Five Finger Death Punch – “Wash It All Away”
Disturbed – “The Light”
Theory Of A Deadman – “Blow”
TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
A small bit of “inside radio” to consider. The “Going For Adds” date is when labels and artists start to push for stations to add a particular song to their respective playlists. Coordinating the airplay creates the best opportunity for songs to achieve a critical mass of spins, which in turn produces the highest possible chart position. This also conveniently serves the real purpose for singles to exist – sales of albums and/or tickets.
In some respects, stations jumping the gun (and disregarding the “Going For Adds” date) is a plus for listeners, who get new music sooner because of the decision. On the other hand, it can turn into a drag if stations are reluctant to move on from a song because it remains on the chart or “keeps its bullet” (the terminology which indicates that a song is still climbing the chart/gaining airplay).
This week’s chart includes around a half dozen songs that first showed signs of U.S. airplay back in August of 2015. There are simply too many menu options for listeners to be fed the same lunch day after day after day. The “early adopters” need to realize that they should also be the first ones to move on from any song that they jump the gun on so that the songs don’t become “stale” to their listening audience, which ultimately hurts the artist more than it helps.
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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