HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 4/21/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 4/21/18

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 4/21/18. 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”	1967
2	2	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	1795
3	3	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	1788
4	4	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1772
5	5	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1738
6	6	NOTHING MORE	“Do You Really Want It?”	1411
7	7	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	1143
8	11	JONATHAN DAVIS	“What It Is”	1117
9	12	FOZZY	“Painless”	983
10	10	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	980
11	8	RISE AGAINST	“House On Fire”	928
12	14	PEARL JAM	“Can’t Deny Me”	861
13	13	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	850
14	15	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	767
15	16	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“TalkTalk”	666
16	31	GHOST	“Rats”	626
17	20	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	592
18	17	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	557
19	21	ROYAL BLOOD	“Hole In Your Heart”	520
20	18	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	467
21	19	A DAY TO REMEMBER	“Same About You”	438
22	22	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	392
23	23	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	378
24	24	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	354
25	25	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Whatever It Takes”	296
26	27	UNDEROATH	“Rapture”	292
27	28	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Roll Me Under”	266
28	26	TRIVIUM	“Endless Night”	259
29	34	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	212
30	32	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	201
31	30	MESSER	“Make This Life”	194
32	29	JUDAS PRIEST	“Lightning Strike”	159
33	42	STONE SOUR	“St. Marie”	136
34	35	RED	“Gone”	136
35	38	BLACKTOP MOJO	“Dream On”	132
36	33	THE OUTFIT	“Soldier Boy”	103
37	37	JACOB CADE	“What’s Your Problem?!”	100
38	36	VYCES	“Thin Luck”	97
39	40	BLACK STONE CHERRY	“Bad Habit”	87
40	44	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	84
41	52	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Black Smoke Rising”	69
42	84	TREMONTI	“Take You With Me”	67
43	46	THE DEAD DASIES	“Rise Up”	63
44	47	LIGHT THE TORCH	“Calm Before The Storm”	61
45	49	RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS	“On Becoming Willing”	54
46	48	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	54
47	45	WAYLAND	“Ghost”	49
48	43	NATHANIEL RATELIFF/NIGHTSWEATS	“You Worry Me”	43
49	50	FEVER 333	“Made An America”	42
50	58	LETTERS FROM THE FIRE	“Comfort You”	41

 

 

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

THE DEAD DAISIES – “Rise Up”

The Dead Daisies are one of the few “new” classic rock bands that has been embraced by modern radio (though they’re far from a household name to the masses).  This is band that never fails to deliver with ever incarnation of this revolving door supergroup.  Not only is “Rise Up” another stellar song (with musicianship to match), it also delivers an important message to the youth of today who have the most to lose if we continue down the path that we’re currently on in the United States.

There is always a risk when you take a strong political stance these days as an artist.  It’s kind of a double-edged sword.  While you may turn off a certain segment of fans, you are likely to gain new ones that agree with you if your message reaches them.  I’ve seen numerous people say that artists should just “shut up and play.”  I strongly disagree.  Rock and roll has never shied away from going against the establishment, so there is no reason that they should when the stakes have never been higher.

The only difference between the protest songs of the ‘60s and today is the fact that everyone has a soapbox to stand on because of social media.  The anonymity of the internet has emboldened anyone with a keyboard.  It doesn’t take guts to shout your opinion to the world when no one is listening.  When you’re an artist and you take a stand, the message is more powerful because there is skin in the game.

Even if “Rise Up” didn’t have strong lyrics, the song would still be one worth writing about.  It’s that good!  Hopefully, Active Rock programmers take the song at face value and let the listeners decide for themselves if they agree or disagree with the message.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

It isn’t often that Five Finger Death Punch comes up short of any achievement, especially on Active Rock radio, but it looks like “Gone Away” is about to be a prophetic title.  After dropping this week, it looks like FFDP’s latest single is going to peak at #2.  Three Days Grace dropped this week, but held on for one last run at the top.  They will be replaced next week.  It once seemed like Bad Wolves was destined to reach the top, but they will not get there easily.  They are currently in the #3 position, but both Godsmack and Shinedown are within spitting distance.  If the newcomers make it to the top with their cover of “Zombie,” it looks like their reign will be fairly short, which will allow both of their rivals to get their recognition before the next wave of songs rise to the top.
 

 

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…

THE DEAD DAISIES – “Rise Up”

THE LAZYS – “Nothing But Trouble”

THE WILD! – “Another Bottle”

FACING FIRE – “Filthy Life”

BLACK VEIL BRIDES – “The Last One”

SKINDRED – “That’s My Jam”

ROYAL BLISS – “Devil With Angel Eyes”

RADIOBLACK – “Into The Sky”

 

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”

Red – “Gone”

Pearl Jam – “Can’t Deny Me”

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – “On Becoming Willing”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

A significant jump in spins propels Jonathan Davis into the Top 10 with the lead single from his solo album,.  Fozzy enjoys a nice bump as well and also makes it two hit singles in a row…

Ghost almost triples their spin count and rockets into the Top 20 in their second week on the chart.  Royal Blood shows solid gains and moves up as well…

New to the Top 30 this week are the latest tracks from Escape The Fate and Bullet For My Valentine…

Brand recognition surely helps Stone Sour break into the Top 40.  Asking Alexandria moves into the tier as well…

The final segment of the chart is home to three debuting singles, including the third single from Greta Van Fleet.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Jonathan Davis – “What It Is”
Ghost – “Rats”
Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

 

FALLING
Rise Against – “House On Fire”
Judas Priest – “Lightning Strike”
Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

The steadily declining threshold for the number of spins needed to reach the Top 50 helps keep a second track from Fever 333 on the published chart, with what appears to be a song currently getting monitored airplay solely on SiriusXM’s Octane.   There are, give or take, between a half dozen and a dozen contributing stations that can – if they choose – put a song into their normal heavy rotation and make it a “nationally charting song” all by themselves.  By “normal,” I mean just commit to it at the same level as any other highest rotation song, no need to do anything extreme with it.  However, with great power comes great responsibility … here’s hoping that those stations will choose to exercise their opportunities wisely.