HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 8/4/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 8/4/18

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 8/4/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	1	GHOST	“Rats”	1877
2	3	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	1536
3	2	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1483
4	7	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Sham Pain”	1456
5	6	HALESTORM	“Uncomfortable”	1436
6	4	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	1308
7	8	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Torn In Two”	1246
8	9	THREE DAYS GRACE	“Infra-Red”	1194
9	10	POP EVIL	“A Crime To Remember”	1110
10	5	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1051
11	12	BADFLOWER	“Ghost”	964
12	11	ALICE IN CHAINS	“The One You Know”	938
13	17	GRETA VAN FLEET	“When The Curtain Falls”	844
14	15	NOTHING MORE	“Just Say When”	806
15	13	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	763
16	14	IN THIS MOMENT (f. Rob Halford)	“Black Wedding”	712
17	16	BAD WOLVES (f. DIAMANTE)	“Hear Me Now”	705
18	18	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	570
19	21	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	“Jumpsuit”	537
20	19	SEETHER	“Against The Wall”	514
21	46	SLASH F/MYLES KENNEDY	“Driving Rain”	444
22	20	LIKE A STORM	“The Devil Inside”	433
23	22	SKINDRED	“That’s My Jam”	412
24	25	THRICE	“The Grey”	357
25	27	GRANDSON	“Blood/Water”	339
26	26	THE RECORD COMPANY	“Life To Fix”	324
27	28	10 YEARS	“Burnout”	302
28	31	MOTIONLESS IN WHITE	“Voices”	250
29	23	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	246
30	35	SHIM	“Hallelujah”	240
31	30	KULICK	“Ghost”	240
32	32	LEDGER	“Not Dead Yet”	232
33	42	THE GLORIOUS SONS	“S.O.S.”	226
34	29	SMASHING PUMPKINS	“Solara”	219
35	33	THE STRUTS	“Body Talks”	204
36	24	GUNS N’ ROSES	“Shadow Of Your Love (2018)”	197
37	43	BEARTOOTH	“Disease”	195
38	45	FOZZY	“Burn Me Out”	191
39	40	NONPOINT	“Chaos And Earthquakes”	175
40	41	DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY	“No Way Out”	173
41	38	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Wicked Game”	153
42	44	ADELITAS WAY	“Still Hungry”	147
43	48	LIVE	“Love Lounge”	129
44	54	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Natural”	125
45	49	KOBRA AND THE LOTUS	“Velvet Roses”	104
46	55	ROYAL BLISS	“Devil With Angel Eyes”	88
47	51	COHEED AND CAMBRIA	“Unheavenly Creatures”	87
48	62	UNDEROATH	“ihateit”	85
49	53	GODSMACK	“When Legends Rise”	66
50	57	WILSON	“Like A Baller”	56

 

 

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

WILSON – “Like A Baller”

If there’s one thing missing from Active Rock artists, a sense of humor (in songs) is likely to top the list.  Outside of Steel Panther, whose humor is overt and over-the-top, there aren’t any other modern hard rock bands that come to mind when it comes to taking themselves less seriously.  Enter Wilson’s “Like A Baller” to step in and fill the void.  This song would have been perfect for the MTV era, but unfortunately, videos today just don’t have the same impact.  Still, Wilson does a nice job of entertaining on the video for “Like A Baller.”  The song itself takes the comedic aspects of Steel Panther, the swagger of Kid Rock, and the dreamer aspect of Nickelback’s “Rockstar,” and melds it into one fun, catchy song that will get stuck in your head long after the music fades.  “Like A Baller” is a tune that stands out from most Active Rock songs, providing a nice respite from the “same old same old.”

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Ghost’s reign is coming to an end, but it probably won’t be next week unless they have a swift drop in spins and Five Finger Death Punch has another big week.  Even if FFDP matches this week’s spin increase, they will only end up in the 1600-spin range.  That is not usually enough to top the chart, but stranger things have happened.  What’s most likely to happen is FFDP takes over the #1 spot in the next two or three weeks.  While Ghost dropping from the top is a virtual lock in the coming weeks, it’s still possible that Halestorm gains momentum and reaches the top next.  Regardless of whose next, you have to think that it’s likely that both of the powerhouse challengers will spend at least one week on top.  With Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace coming on strong, it looks like there will be a more frequent rotation at the top over the next month or so than there has been recently.
 

 

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…

AVATAR – “The King Welcomes You To Avatarland”

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH – “Blue On Black”

STONE HORSES – “End Of The World”

FAREWELL TO FEAR – “Underneath My Skin”

SILENT THEORY – “Watch Me Burn”

ARMORED DAWN – “Sail Away”

CROWN THE EMPIRE – “20/20”

THE PROTEST – “What Else You Got”

 

DROP IT…

Imagine Dragons – “Natural”

Twenty One Pilots – “Jumpsuit”

Grandson – “Blood/Water”

Smashing Pumpkins – “Solara”

Theory Of A Deadman – “Wicked Game”

Kulick – “Ghost”

Glorious Sons – “S.O.S.”

Foo Fighters – “The Line”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

No changes in the composition of the Top 10 this week…

The only change in the composition of the Top 20 is the arrival of Twenty One Pilots, now at #19…

Slash (f. Myles Kennedy) is the big mover of the week, tripling airplay to lead three songs into the Top 30 (more about one of those songs in my observations however)…

Four songs appear in the Top 40 that weren’t there last week, including Fozzy (on solid spin growth) and Dead Girls Academy despite being (like Nonpoint a week ago) essentially flat on airplay.

An almost astonishing SIX songs crack the Top 50 this week, five newcomers and a re-entry (from Royal Bliss).  Among the debuts, a definite change in style for Wilson and more mainstream success for Underoath (in the wake of formally abandoning their “Christian band” identity of two decades).
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Five Finger Death Punch – “Sham Pain”
Greta Van Fleet – “When The Curtain Falls”
Slash f. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators – “Driving Rain”

 

FALLING
Bullet For My Valentine – “Over It”
Shinedown – “DEVIL”
Guns N’ Roses – “Shadow Of Your Love”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

A week of (let’s call them) “mathematical curiosities” when you dig into the chart.  Motionless In White moves into the Top 30, with a seemingly solid +3 gain in positions, but do so with a +0 in spins.   In other words, “Voices”  performed exactly the same as it did a week prior, but still appears to be moving upward.   The gain, of course, comes from other songs slipping back and falling below them.  It’s not that uncommon a situation, but it caught my eye mostly because of how many times it happened this week.  In This Moment was +6 spins but lost two positions, Seether +19 but lost a spot, The Struts +4 but lost two spots on the chart.  Nonpoint (for the second week in a row) and Dead Girls Academy both move up despite having scarcely different airplay than the previous week.   And lest anyone think I’m picking on any band/song, I’ll note Godsmack “When Legends Rise”  making its chart debut at #49.  That’s probably one of my three favorite tracks to have gotten any U.S. airplay at all in 2018 to date, but it moves up from #53 to #49 and makes the published chart … despite having one spin less than it did last week.