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.
2016 Active Rock Radio / Octane Quarterly Report: Q1
The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 7/2/16. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:
| CHART | CHART | ARTIST | SONG TITLE | RADIO |
| POSITION | POSITION | SPINS | ||
| THIS WEEK | LAST WEEK | THIS WEEK | ||
| 1 | 1 | VOLBEAT | “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown” | 2134 |
| 2 | 2 | RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS | “Dark Necessities” | 2079 |
| 3 | 3 | SHINEDOWN | “Asking For It” | 1929 |
| 4 | 4 | CHEVELLE | “Joyride” | 1726 |
| 5 | 5 | GHOST | “From The Pinnacle To The Pit” | 1393 |
| 6 | 6 | POP EVIL | “Take It All” | 1127 |
| 7 | 8 | A DAY TO REMEMBER | “Paranoia” | 986 |
| 8 | 7 | HALESTORM | “Mayhem” | 965 |
| 9 | 9 | BLINK 182 | “Bored To Death” | 946 |
| 10 | 11 | ASKING ALEXANDRIA | “Here I Am” | 862 |
| 11 | 14 | KALEO | “No Good” | 752 |
| 12 | 15 | HOLY WHITE HOUNDS | “Switchblade” | 743 |
| 13 | 12 | SICK PUPPIES | “Stick To Your Guns” | 730 |
| 14 | 10 | SIXX: A.M. | “Rise” | 675 |
| 15 | 16 | ROB ZOMBIE | “Get High” | 670 |
| 16 | 17 | DEFTONES | “Phantom Bride” | 667 |
| 17 | 21 | 3 DOORS DOWN | “Still Alive” | 571 |
| 18 | 20 | BREAKING BENJAMIN | “Ashes Of Eden” | 539 |
| 19 | 19 | AVATAR | “The Eagle Has Landed” | 535 |
| 20 | 22 | SKILLET | “Feel Invincible” | 481 |
| 21 | 24 | HELLYEAH | “I Don’t Care Anymore” | 419 |
| 22 | 18 | HELLYEAH | “Human” | 390 |
| 23 | 23 | ESCAPE THE FATE | “Remember Every Scar” | 354 |
| 24 | 27 | THRICE | “Black Honey” | 326 |
| 25 | 26 | TRIVIUM | “Dead And Gone” | 310 |
| 26 | 25 | THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH | “Running With Giants” | 307 |
| 27 | 29 | STITCHED UP HEART | “Monster” | 280 |
| 28 | 30 | THROUGH FIRE | “Stronger” | 264 |
| 29 | 34 | FROM ASHES TO NEW | “Lost And Alone” | 255 |
| 30 | 31 | LIKE A STORM | “Break Free” | 249 |
| 31 | 32 | BEARTOOTH | “Aggressive” | 246 |
| 32 | 28 | SEVENDUST | “Death Dance” | 245 |
| 33 | 37 | ZAKK WYLDE (f. COREY TAYLOR) | “Sleeping Dogs” | 233 |
| 34 | 35 | CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN | “Soundcheck” | 206 |
| 35 | 53 | TWENTY ONE PILOTS | “Heathens” | 196 |
| 36 | 33 | ONE LESS REASON | “Where Were You?” | 196 |
| 37 | 36 | MEGADETH | “Post-American World” | 186 |
| 38 | 43 | NONPOINT | “Generation Idiot” | 181 |
| 39 | 42 | CITIZEN ZERO | “Go (Let Me Save You)” | 156 |
| 40 | 41 | DOROTHY | “Raise Hell” | 144 |
| 41 | 47 | PIERCE THE VEIL | “Circles” | 142 |
| 42 | 45 | FAILURE ANTHEM | “First World Problems” | 142 |
| 43 | 39 | CAGE THE ELEPHANT | “Trouble” | 142 |
| 44 | 50 | NOTHING BUT THIEVES | “Wake Up Call” | 134 |
| 45 | 44 | KONGOS | “Take It From Me” | 130 |
| 46 | 48 | VIMIC | “My Fate” | 120 |
| 47 | 49 | ARANDA | “Stay” | 119 |
| 48 | 46 | MACHINE HEAD | “Is There Anybody Out There?” | 110 |
| 49 | 40 | CHEAP TRICK | “When I Wake Up Tomorrow” | 109 |
| 50 | 51 | PUSCIFIER | “The Arsonist” | 108 |
PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (by Adam Waldman)
BRIDGE TO GRACE – “Left Inside”
It isn’t often that you think of Iron Maiden when you listen to most Active Rock artists. This is true of Bridge To Grace, although the beginning of “Left Inside” conjures up memories of another powerfully melodic vocal intro…Iron Maiden’s “Can I Play With Madness?” While the Maiden comparison ends there, the band’s latest single does infuse a modern sound with elements of melodic hard rock from the ’80s. If you’re a fan of catchy vocal harmonies, “Left Inside” will be right in your wheelhouse. Songs like this add a fresh and exciting change-of-pace from the “Active Rock sound,” a description that probably sounds vague to most. It’s kind of like when the government tried to describe “obscenity” back in the PMRC days. They couldn’t give specifics, but rather an approach of “I know it when I see it.” This may sound like the thoughts of someone who is nostalgic for the music of days gone by, but this thought was actually inspired by the young son of a melodic hard rock band who recently asked his father why they just played the same five songs in a row on an Active Rock station. You might be wondering what this anecdote has to do with “Left Inside.” It’s a sign of the times. The only way for this format to survive is to give band’s with a fresh sound like Bridge To Grace a fair amount of exposure. Once upon a time, no one thought that “hair metal” would ever go away, but it died a very quick death when it started to sound like a parody of itself. While Active Rock doesn’t suffer from the “cheese factor” that hair metal did around the time of its demise, it is suffering (at times) from a lack of diversity of sound.
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…
BRIDGE TO GRACE – “Left Inside”
SONS OF TEXAS – “Blameshift”
DEATH DIVISION – “The Truth”
CROBOT – “Not For Sale”
FIFTYWATT FREIGHT TRAIN – “Whiskey & Hate”
HUDSON – “Cast Out”
EVE TO ADAM – “Lucky”
SEPTEMBER MOURNING – “Eye Of The Storm”
DROP IT…
Twenty One Pilots – “Heathens”
Cage The Elephant – “Trouble”
Kongos – “Take It From Me”
Catfish And The Bottlemen – “Soundcheck”
Holy White Hounds – “Switchblade”
Nothing But Thieves – “Wake Up Call”
Deftones – “Phantom Bride”
Blink 182 – “Bored To Death”
THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless
KING OF THE HILL
Volbeat does it again, holding on atop the Mediabase Active Rock Airplay Chart for a ninth straight week. Red Hot Chili Peppers remain at #2, but are starting to see both Shinedown and Chevelle move into position to keep any stay at the top that they may enjoy a relatively short one (if they get there at all).
NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT
The order of the Top 6 songs remains unchanged. Asking Alexandria squeaks into the Top 10…
Three Doors Down and Skillet both reach the Top 20 this week …
From Ashes To New climbs into the Top 30, joined by Like A Storm (who returns to the tier after a week’s absence, despite a minor decline in airplay)…
A new Twenty One Pilots single leads four songs into the Top 40…
Pusicfer grabs the final spot on the published chart, returning after a one week absence.
THREE UP & THREE DOWN
MOVING UP
Chevelle – “Joyride”
Hellyeah – “I Don’t Care Anymore”
Twenty One Pilots – “Heathens”
DROPPING DOWN
Volbeat – “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown”
Sixx: A.M. – “Rise”
Hellyeah – “Human”
TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
If I did the math right, it looks as though the last time a song remained at the top of the airplay chart for nine straight weeks was almost three years ago, when Avenged Sevenfold had a great run with “Hail To The King.” Several songs have managed eight weeks at #1 during that time, either consecutively or cumulatively, but I found none that made it to nine. I’ll worry about the last one to get ten weeks if we get there, but I don’t see that happening this time. Worth noting however that this IS an unusual week for spins (due to holiday playlists), so songs that appear to have lost momentum on this chart could easily regain it next week when spin totals get back to normal.
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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