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.
JUST PUBLISHED!
TOP 100 HARD ROCK SONGS OF 2016
TOP 50 ACTIVE ROCK SONGS OF 2016 (by spins)
2016 Active Rock Radio / Octane Quarterly Report: Q4
The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 1/21/17. 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 | GHOST | “Square Hammer” | 1985 |
| 2 | 2 | HIGHLY SUSPECT | “My Name Is Human” | 1919 |
| 3 | 3 | GREEN DAY | “Still Breathing” | 1917 |
| 4 | 4 | METALLICA | “Atlas, Rise!” | 1817 |
| 5 | 6 | AVENGED SEVENFOLD | “The Stage” | 1544 |
| 6 | 7 | SHINEDOWN | “How Did You Love” | 1529 |
| 7 | 5 | VOLBEAT | “Seal The Deal” | 1496 |
| 8 | 8 | RED SUN RISING | “Amnesia” | 1267 |
| 9 | 9 | BREAKING BENJAMIN | “Never Again” | 1083 |
| 10 | 11 | BEARTOOTH | “Hated” | 939 |
| 11 | 12 | KORN | “Take Me” | 871 |
| 12 | 13 | CHEVELLE | “Door To Door Cannibals” | 844 |
| 13 | 14 | SIXX:A.M. | “We Will Not Go Quietly” | 789 |
| 14 | 16 | STARSET | “Monster” | 744 |
| 15 | 15 | IN FLAMES | “The Truth” | 724 |
| 16 | 19 | PRETTY RECKLESS | “Oh My God” | 708 |
| 17 | 18 | POP EVIL | “If Only For Now” | 677 |
| 18 | 23 | BLEEKER | “Highway” | 548 |
| 19 | 17 | A DAY TO REMEMBER | “Naivety” | 480 |
| 20 | 20 | KINGS OF LEON | “Waste A Moment” | 451 |
| 21 | 21 | RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS | “Go Robot” | 446 |
| 22 | 22 | METALLICA | “Moth Into Flame” | 395 |
| 23 | 26 | DEVOUR THE DAY | “The Bottom” | 375 |
| 24 | 24 | SICK PUPPIES | “Where Do I Begin” | 371 |
| 25 | 25 | THROUGH FIRE | “Breathe” | 370 |
| 26 | 27 | ADELITA’S WAY | “Ready For War (Pray For Peace)” | 339 |
| 27 | 28 | BLINK-182 | “She’s Out Of Her Mind” | 279 |
| 28 | 29 | FROM ASHES TO NEW | “Breaking Now” | 247 |
| 29 | 30 | ART OF ANARCHY | “The Madness” | 237 |
| 30 | 32 | AMITY AFFLICTION | “All Messed Up” | 227 |
| 31 | 31 | GOODBYE JUNE | “Oh No” | 218 |
| 32 | 35 | TWENTY ONE PILOTS | “Heavydirtysoul” | 208 |
| 33 | 34 | BADFLOWER | “Animal” | 204 |
| 34 | 40 | K.FLAY | “Blood In The Cut” | 162 |
| 35 | 33 | AVATAR | “Night Never Ending” | 138 |
| 36 | 59 | AVATAR | “New Land” | 133 |
| 37 | 64 | ALTER BRIDGE | “My Champion” | 121 |
| 38 | 39 | LAMB OF GOD | “The Duke” | 121 |
| 39 | 38 | CROWN THE EMPIRE | “Weight Of The World” | 121 |
| 40 | 56 | CITIZEN ZERO | “Lure And Persuade” | 113 |
| 41 | 49 | HALESTORM | “Still Of The Night” | 111 |
| 42 | 53 | SKILLET | “Back From The Dead” | 103 |
| 43 | 36 | 3 DOORS DOWN | “The Broken” | 102 |
| 44 | 42 | THREE DAYS GRACE | “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” | 88 |
| 45 | 41 | DOROTHY | “Dark Nights” | 86 |
| 46 | 44 | OTEP | “Royals” | 82 |
| 47 | 60 | LETTERS FROM THE FIRE | “Worth The Pain” | 80 |
| 48 | 45 | AFI | “White Offerings” | 79 |
| 49 | 78 | RADKEY | “Dark Black Makeup” | 78 |
| 50 | 47 | TWENTY ONE PILOTS | “Stressed Out” | 75 |
PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (By Adam Waldman)
SEPTEMBER MOURNING – “20 Below”
September Mourning is the type of visual band that would have been a big hit back in the MTV days. The video for “20 Below” is a cinematic experience that goes way beyond the song. This is not to say that the song doesn’t stand on its own; it absolutely does. Active Rock programmers would be wise to add this song into rotation immediately. Even without the video, the song has a theatrical vibe that makes it stand out amongst other female-fronted hard rock acts today. The sex appeal and mystique that September exudes in the video shines through in “20 Below” (even without visual aids). Her stirring vocals offer a nice blend of power and beauty. While September captures your attention most, the rest of the hard-hitting band creates an ideal canvas for her to paint mental images with her unique style. This is a band on the rise that should continue to build upon their dedicated fanbase as more rock music fans discover them.
PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (by Adam Waldman)
Ghost looks to be the victim of bad timing. The rise of “Square Hammer” to the top of the chart was delayed by the year-end freeze at radio. Now that they have finally reached the top, their reign is going to end next week when Green Day’s “Still Breathing” takes over. Also on the “rise” is “Atlas, Rise!” – the third single off of Metallica’s latest album. It looks like this duo is going to battle it out for at least the next several weeks for the #1 position.
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…
SEPTEMBER MOURNING – “20 Below”
AS LIONS – “Aftermath”
SEASONS AFTER – “Fighter”
ART OF DYING – “Torn Down”
SHALLOW SIDE – “Renegade”
CHRYSALIS – “My Eternity”
MEMPHIS MAY FIRE – “This Light I Hold”
FIT FOR RIVALS – “Novacaine”
DROP IT…
Twenty One Pilots – “Stressed Out”
Twenty One Pilots – “Heavydirtysoul”
K-Flay – “Blood In The Cut”
Kings Of Leon – “Waste A Moment”
Blink 182 – “She’s Out Of Her Mind”
Highly Suspect – “My Name Is Human”
Volbeat – “Seal The Deal”
A Day To Remember – “Naivety”
THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless
KING OF THE HILL
Despite slipping back a bit, Ghost holds on to the top spot of the Mediabase Active Rock Airplay chart for at least another week. Highly Suspect fell back almost the same number of spins, keeping the top two positions intact, while #3 Green Day was probably a couple days worth of increased spins short of jumping to the top.
NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT
Beartooth enjoys enough growth to reach the Top 10…
Bleeker benefits from being added nationwide by a major ownership group, and climbs strongly into the Top 20…
Amity Affliction has the only new entry in the Top 30 this week…
New singles from Avatar, Alter Bridge, and Citizen Zero all make their chart debut inside the Top 40…
Three additional songs are added to the Top 50 as well, with Skillet and Letters From The Fire being joined by newcomers, Radkey.
THREE UP & THREE DOWN
RISING
Green Day – “Still Breathing”
Pretty Reckless – “Oh My God”
Bleeker – “Highway”
FALLING
Volbeat – “Seal The Deal”
A Day To Remember – “Naivety”
Avatar – “Night Never Ending”
TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
No, I didn’t forget to update the three songs in the “Three Up & Three Down” section. The most notable gainers and losers last week are the same as the most notable this week. The format as a whole continues to struggle with moving off songs in a timely fashion, an issue that seems to really be taking hold as a permanent condition. I’m increasingly concerned that rock radio – what’s left of it – may be steadily moving toward the model that’s long been the case with the Country format, where singles frequently take six months to run their course.
WRAP-UP
That’s all for this week. Tune in to HardRockDaddy.com every Tuesday for the HRD Radio Report. \m/
These reports always leave me curious if HRD has insight into why stations like Octane play what they do. I listen to it quite a bit (probably 30+ hours a week) and have yet to hear Oh My God despite is being 16th on this list. I can understand more ballad-y tracks from Muse or whoever not making the playlist but that TPR song rocks. Or a band like Stitched Up Heart… Octane played the crap out of their first 2 singles and then as soon as their album came out they stopped playing them and completely ignored their 3rd single.
Interesting thoughts, Kevin. We don’t have any inside knowledge, so it’s hard to give you a definitive answer. That being said, it seems like Octane knows that they are the leaders in Active Rock and they march to the beat of their own drum. It’s fairly common for them to be playing one song from a band while a different song from the same artist is actually being promoted as the single to radio. Since there are a number of stations that get programmed by the same people, those songs will appear on this chart even if they are not being heard regularly on Octane. Because they are subscriber-based (not ratings-based), Octane takes more chances than terrestrial radio. This allows them to make changes faster than stations who rely on research to create their playlists. Again, this is all speculation though.