HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 9/22/18

HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 9/22/18

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 9/22/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	4	DISTURBED	“Are You Ready”	1807
2	1	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Torn In Two”	1790
3	3	BADFLOWER	“Ghost”	1758
4	5	GRETA VAN FLEET	“When The Curtain Falls”	1658
5	2	THREE DAYS GRACE	“Infra-Red”	1561
6	7	BAD WOLVES (f. DIAMANTE)	“Hear Me Now”	1244
7	9	SLASH F/MYLES KENNEDY	“Driving Rain”	1123
8	6	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Sham Pain”	1120
9	11	SHINEDOWN	“Get Up”	1068
10	10	NOTHING MORE	“Just Say When”	954
11	12	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	889
12	8	HALESTORM	“Uncomfortable”	735
13	13	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	“Jumpsuit”	720
14	19	ALICE IN CHAINS	“Never Fade”	651
15	14	THE GLORIOUS SONS	“S.O.S.”	646
16	15	GRANDSON	“Blood/Water”	618
17	17	BEARTOOTH	“Disease”	588
18	16	THRICE	“The Grey”	578
19	20	BRING ME THE HORIZON	“MANTRA”	566
20	21	FOZZY	“Burn Me Out”	524
21	23	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Natural”	432
22	22	10 YEARS	“Burnout”	395
23	24	JONATHAN DAVIS	“Basic Needs”	392
24	27	UNDEROATH	“ihateit”	358
25	25	SHIM	“Hallelujah”	312
26	28	PARKWAY DRIVE	“Prey”	290
27	26	THE BLUE STONES	“Black Holes (Solid Ground)”	284
28	0	AVENGED SEVENFOLD	“Mad Hatter”	266
29	43	GODSMACK	“When Legends Rise”	259
30	30	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Letting You Go”	239
31	29	NONPOINT	“Chaos And Earthquakes”	230
32	34	RED SUN RISING	“Veins”	220
33	31	THE STRUTS	“Body Talks”	219
34	18	POP EVIL	“A Crime To Remember”	218
35	75	RIVAL SONS	“Do Your Worst”	211
36	39	FEVER 333	“Made An America”	194
37	33	DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY	“No Way Out”	180
38	42	SEVENDUST	“Unforgiven”	150
39	65	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Broken”	137
40	40	ADELITAS WAY	“Still Hungry”	134
41	41	AMITY AFFLICTION	“Feels Like I’m Dying”	132
42	35	WILSON	“Like A Baller”	131
43	49	ATREYU	“The Time Is Now”	124
44	44	COHEED AND CAMBRIA	“Unheavenly Creatures”	111
45	47	THE DEAD DAISIES	“Dead And Gone”	108
46	45	PRETTY VICIOUS	“Move”	99
47	46	MESSER	“Save Myself”	90
48	37	LIVE	“Love Lounge”	85
49	48	BLACK MOODS	“Bella Donna”	82
50	50	SYLAR	“All Or Nothing”	79

 

 

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

ELECTRIC REVOLUTION – “Burn It Down”

Now that Greta Van Fleet has established themselves as Active Rock favorites with a distinctly classic rock sound, it’s time for the format to embrace other great acts rooted in classic rock.  Enter Wisconsin rockers, Electric Revolution.  This four-piece unit does not closely resemble one particular legendary band, but you can hear the influences of a variety of artists on the band’s latest single, “Burn It Down.”

As you listen to the initial groove, you’re reminded of Van Halen’s “So This Is Love?” as well as White Lion’s cover of the Golden Earring classic, “Radar Love.”  You don’t hear this kind of groove very often these days, which is exactly why radio should embrace this song.  It will make people stand up and take notice when they hear it.  The groove may be rooted in classic rock, but Dave Lawson’s gritty, aggressive vocals have an edge that puts him in the company of Lemmy, David Draiman, and Ian Gillan’s more high octane vocals with Deep Purple.  Oh, and there’s a touch of David Coverdale thrown in for good measure.

You can slap whatever label you’d like to on Electric Revolution and “Burn It Down,” it doesn’t really matter.  The band and the song both embody what rock and roll is supposed to be about.  ER’s music harkens back to a time when bands wrote soulful music from the heart, not formulaic songs geared towards trying to get radio airplay.  From Billie Pulera’s foot stomping beats to Chad Imler’s heavy boogie grooves to Brock Betz’s old school, blues rock guitar playing, Electric Revolution is a force to be reckoned with.

Whether Active Rock programmers will have the balls to deviate from the norm and make a strong statement by adding this to the rotation remains to be seen.  Regardless, Electric Revolution is a band that must be on your radar.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Last week it was predicted that there was realistic chance of having a new #1 for the sixth consecutive week if Breaking Benjamin declined (which they did).  It looked like Badflower was well-positioned to take over the top spot if that happened, especially based on the trend, but Disturbed regained their momentum in a big way and leapfrogged all the way to the top from the #4 position.  It was predicted that Disturbed would get to #1 several weeks ago, so it’s not really much of a surprise.  Badflower showed a lot of strength this week, as did Greta Van Fleet.  The former is less than 50 spins from the top; the latter less than 150 spins.  It’s certainly possible that there will be a new #1 for the seventh consecutive time next week, but Disturbed looks like they have some room to run before yielding to one of the two up-and-comers.

 

 

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…

ELECTRIC REVOLUTION – “Burn It Down”

SUNFLOWER DEAD – “Victim”

ICE NINE KILLS – “Grave Mistake”

DEE SNIDER – “American Made”

ROYAL TUSK – “Aftermath”

JUDAS PRIEST – “No Surrender”

AVATAR – “The King Welcomes You To Avatarland”

MONSTER TRUCK – “Evolution”

 

DROP IT…

Fever 333 – “American Made”

Twenty One Pilots – “Jumpsuit”

Imagine Dragons – “Natural”

Grandson – “Blood/Water”

Glorious Sons – “S.O.S.”

The Struts – “Body Talks”

Amity Affliction – “Feels Like I’m Dying”

Pop Evil – “A Crime To Remember”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Shinedown “gets up” into the Top 10 this week…

The only new arrival in the Top 20 comes from Fozzy…

A pair of songs break into the Top 30, the latest single from Godsmack and the week’s highest debuting song from Avenged Sevenfold…

Another pair of debuts also premiere in the Top 40, new music from Rival Sons and the next single by From Ashes To New…

In a somewhat unusual situation, there are no other songs in the final portion of the Top 50.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Badflower – “Ghost”
Disturbed – “Are You Ready”
Alice In Chains – “Never Fade”

 

FALLING
Five Finger Death Punch – “Sham Pain”
Pop Evil – “A Crime To Remember”
Halestorm – “Uncomfortable”
 

 

TRENDS & OBSERVATIONS

The strong debuts for all three songs premiering on the chart this week in an indication of the fairly “feast or famine” nature of rock radio airplay right now.  There’s still hope, at least, that we could see another Judas Priest single (“Never Surrender”) finally get into the Top 50 after several weeks of airplay on a handful of stations, but thus far, it has been stuck just outside the published chart.