HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 4/14/18

HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 4/14/18

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. The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 4/14/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	1	THREE DAYS GRACE	“The Mountain”	2089
2	2	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	1822
3	6	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	1686
4	4	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1634
5	5	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1629
6	7	NOTHING MORE	“Do You Really Want It?”	1467
7	3	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	1460
8	9	RISE AGAINST	“House On Fire”	1095
9	8	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Safari Song”	1060
10	11	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	963
11	13	JONATHAN DAVIS	“What It Is”	928
12	12	FOZZY	“Painless”	906
13	14	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	850
14	18	PEARL JAM	“Can’t Deny Me”	760
15	17	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	756
16	16	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“TalkTalk”	709
17	20	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	533
18	19	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	472
19	21	A DAY TO REMEMBER	“Same About You”	447
20	28	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	426
21	23	ROYAL BLOOD	“Hole In Your Heart”	411
22	22	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	402
23	24	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	372
24	25	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	326
25	29	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Whatever It Takes”	254
26	30	TRIVIUM	“Endless Night”	251
27	33	UNDEROATH	“Rapture”	232
28	32	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Roll Me Under”	228
29	26	JUDAS PRIEST	“Lightning Strike”	227
30	34	MESSER	“Make This Life”	175
31	0	GHOST	“Rats”	160
32	44	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	156
33	40	THE OUTFIT	“Soldier Boy”	125
34	53	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	122
35	41	RED	“Gone”	120
36	36	VYCES	“Thin Luck”	110
37	42	JACOB CADE	“What’s Your Problem?!”	104
38	43	BLACKTOP MOJO	“Dream On”	103
39	31	OF MICE & MEN	“Money”	103
40	45	BLACK STONE CHERRY	“Bad Habit”	101
41	38	ZERO THEOREM	“Area”	100
42	59	STONE SOUR	“St. Marie”	71
43	51	NATHANIEL RATELIFF/NIGHTSWEATS	“You Worry Me”	55
44	50	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	54
45	47	WAYLAND	“Ghost”	53
46	48	THE DEAD DASIES	“Rise Up”	51
47	49	LIGHT THE TORCH	“Calm Before The Storm”	47
48	52	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	45
49	63	RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS	“On Becoming Willing”	43
50	58	FEVER 333	“Made An America”	41

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (By Adam Waldman)

TREMONTI – “Take You With Me”

It may seem counterintuitive to say this in a review featured on a radio report, but airplay is not all that it’s cracked up to be (at least not these days).  Does “Take You With Me” – off of Tremonti’s upcoming album (A Dying Machine) – deserve to be played on Active Rock radio?  Unequivocally…YES!  However, for reasons that I will never understand, Alter Bridge never gets the recognition that they deserve, and neither does the projects from its members.  In Tremonti’s case, getting deserved airplay for “Take You With Me” will simply be icing on the cake.  Allow me to explain…

Alter Bridge has built a cult-like following around the world, even with much less radio airplay than you would expect.  Fans of the band (and their other projects) don’t need radio to discover new music.  These days, you can crack the top 50 on the Active Rock chart with less than 50 spins.  Not exactly setting the world on fire, and certainly not enough to create any meaningful traction.  It’s more about bragging rights at this point.  What does this have to do with Tremonti’s latest single?

In less than two days, “Take You With Me” has already amassed around 100,000 views on YouTube.  News of the song’s release was covered by numerous outlets. I’ve seen the coverage shared on social media several times already.  Not surprisingly, “Take You With Me” is another in a long line of outstanding songs written by Mark Tremonti.

One of the most respected guitar players in rock today, Tremonti also happens to have one of the most distinct voices.  That signature vocal style is featured on “Take You With Me,” but it doesn’t kick in immediately.  If you didn’t know any better, you might think that this is a Foo Fighters single at the outset.  Showing a higher range than usual, Tremonti’s vocals bear a similarity to Dave Grohl at times. “Take You With Me” offers a side of Tremonti that is a bit divergent from his past work.  Aside from the Foo Fighters vibe, there is also a hint of Volbeat’s aggressive, upbeat, melodic style that has made the band a staple on Active Rock radio.

Alter Bridge…Foo Fighters…Volbeat.  If this isn’t a combination that is tailor-made for Active Rock radio, then I don’t know what is.  The format, which has shown in recent times that it is losing its way by giving spins to songs that clearly don’t belong, should be jumping all over “Take You With Me.”  Regardless of whether they do or not, Tremonti will be successful because of the worldwide contingent of diehard fans who appreciate his brilliance.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Just when you think that you have things figured out, everything goes sideways.  Last week, it looked like Five Finger Death Punch could climb to the top if Three Days Grace leveled out or dropped.  This week, both songs remained basically flat.  It happens.  What’s strange is the fact that all of the songs with momentum in the top 10 took a breather, with one exception…“Zombie” by Bad Wolves.  The song, which is arguably the hottest song of the year in Active Rock and has topped charts worldwide, may be destined to top yet another chart.  FFDP may still get to the top, but it’s possible that they’ve peaked at #2.  If Three Days Grace drops, Bad Wolves could climb all the way to the top as soon as next week.
 

 

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…

TREMONTI – “Take You With Me”

GRETA VAN FLEET – “Black Smoke Rising”

THE LAZYS – “Nothing But Trouble”

THE WILD! – “Another Bottle”

FACING FIRE – “Filthy Life”

BLACK VEIL BRIDES – “The Last One”

POP EVIL – “Be Legendary”

ONE BAD SON – “Hurricane”

 

DROP IT…

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”

Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

The Fever 333 – “Made An America”

Muse – “Thought Contagion”

Greta Van Fleet – “Safari Song”

Red – “Gone”

Pearl Jam – “Can’t Deny Me”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Red Sun Rising basically holds serve on spins for the week and reaches the Top 10 as an older song falls out of the chart…

The utterly inexplicable rise of Fever 333 continues, now in the Top 20…

Three new entries in the Top 30 this week, including Underoath, who may be enjoying the most mainstream rock radio airplay in their career…

The Top 40 features not one but two songs that make their chart debut in unusually high positions, part of six songs climbing into the tier this week.  Ghost and Escape The Fate are both enjoying excellent starts for their new singles…

Rounding out the bottom portion of the chart, five more songs make their debut this week, perhaps the most notable being the curious selection Stone Sour made for a single.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
From Ashes To New – “Crazy”
Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

 

FALLING
Greta Van Fleet – “Safari Song”
Of Mice & Men – “Money”
Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

This week’s chart is one of the most perplexing (and disturbing) that I can recall for fans of the Active Rock format.  “Active Rock” has always been somewhat loosely defined, but at this point, I’m not sure that the chart has more than a fleeting relationship with the genre it’s supposed to portray.   I would not be the least bit surprised if the chart (and format) were rebranded sooner rather than later.