Week Of 1/28: Live!

Kryptonite

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A really heavy female caller called in and Fred started his Nicole Bass / Herman Munster impression.

Today's early highlight had to have been Beth O shot out of a cannon on a can of Red Bull backstage at the Ellen show. And yes, I know, I know...Beth O talk is a snooze...but this had me laughing. Usually a can of Monster is enough for me...Red Bull cans are teeny.
 

Kryptonite

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David Alan Grier was today's guest.

Howard totally sees the comparisons hetbetw Greta van Fleet and Led Zeppelin. He saw GvF on SNL last Saturday and expected Robert Plant to walk out.
 
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scotchandcigar

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Howard totally sees the comparisons hetbetw Greta van Fleet and Led Zeppelin. He saw GvF on SNL last Saturday and expected Robert Plant to walk out.
I'm glad he saw them and liked them, but what about his narrative that rock music is dead? How does he reconcile that?
 

Kryptonite

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I'm glad he saw them and liked them, but what about his narrative that rock music is dead? How does he reconcile that?

I thought he had a comment about pop music being a bunch of DJs on laptops. Rock may not be 100% dead, but what percentage of Top 40 is actual rock and/or played on rock radio?

It's like people saying "CDs are dead." They're not literally 100% obsolete, but everybody knows what is meant.
 

scotchandcigar

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I thought he had a comment about pop music being a bunch of DJs on laptops. Rock may not be 100% dead, but what percentage of Top 40 is actual rock and/or played on rock radio?

It's like people saying "CDs are dead." They're not literally 100% obsolete, but everybody knows what is meant.
Top 40 has always been pop, not rock. That's what "pop" is short for. Look at any 70s countdown. Nothing has changed.

That's why Sirius XM has a "pop" category and a "rock" category.
 

Kryptonite

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Top 40 has always been pop, not rock. That's what "pop" is short for. Look at any 70s countdown. Nothing has changed.

That's why Sirius XM has a "pop" category and a "rock" category.


You have to go back to forever ago, but Staind got play on Top 40 and rock. Twenty One Pilots also comes to mind...but yeah, most true "rock" wouldn't get airplay on radio stations geared towards females.
 

sadchild

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Generally the statement 'rock is dead' being made these days is that newer rock bands aren't getting as big as they did in the 60s 70s 80s & 90s. Even though some rock bands never had a top 40 crossover hit back in the day, or maybe one, they still filled arenas around the world. The biggest newer (real) rock band right now is Ghost. But are they as big as Motley Crue was? Nirvana? Bachman-Turner Overdrive? Bon Jovi? Pearl Jam? Not even close.

The statement also refers to the fact that these days, seeing a big rock crossover hit is very rare.

Rock songs that went pop chart top 10 (or close) in the 80s:
Fixx "One Thing Leads To Another"
Quiet Riot "Cum On Feel The Noize"
Billy Idol's cover of "Mony Mony"
Boston "Amanda"
Police "Every Little Thing She Does"
Rolling Stones "Start Me Up"
Guns N Roses "Welcome To The Jungle"
U2 "Desire"
Queen "Another One Bites The Dust"
Bruce Springsteen "Hungry Heart"
Pat Benatar "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
ZZ Top "Sleeping Bag"
Stray Cats "Rock This Town"
Def Leppard "Armageddon It"
Clash "Rock The Casbah"
... I mean the list could go on forever and ever. Same for the 70s and the 90s.

You just don't see that over the last ten years. When a song that even vaguely resembles rock (Coldplay, fun) makes the top 10, it's headline news and people mark it on their calendars.
 
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scotchandcigar

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Generally the statement 'rock is dead' being made these days is that newer rock bands aren't getting as big as they did in the 60s 70s 80s & 90s. Even though some rock bands never had a top 40 crossover hit back in the day, or maybe one, they still filled arenas around the world. The biggest newer (real) rock band right now is Ghost. But are they as big as Motley Crue was? Nirvana? Bachman-Turner Overdrive? Bon Jovi? Pearl Jam? Not even close.

The statement also refers to the fact that these days, seeing a big rock crossover hit is very rare.

Rock songs that went pop chart top 10 (or close) in the 80s:
Fixx "One Thing Leads To Another"
Quiet Riot "Cum On Feel The Noize"
Billy Idol's cover of "Mony Mony"
Boston "Amanda"
Police "Every Little Thing She Does"
Rolling Stones "Start Me Up"
Guns N Roses "Welcome To The Jungle"
U2 "Desire"
Queen "Another One Bites The Dust"
Bruce Springsteen "Hungry Heart"
Pat Benatar "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
ZZ Top "Sleeping Bag"
Stray Cats "Rock This Town"
Def Leppard "Armageddon It"
Clash "Rock The Casbah"
... I mean the list could go on forever and ever. Same for the 70s and the 90s.

You just don't see that over the last ten years. When a song that even vaguely resembles rock (Coldplay, fun) makes the top 10, it's headline news and people mark it on their calendars.
Being that I still have a job, I can't spend hours pulling-up supporting data on this. But a cursory review shows that Foo Fighters, U2, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Black Keys, Muse, and Radiohead - all of whom are still releasing new music - are among the top tours. When Smashing Pumpkins or Tame Impala or Royal Blood or Jack White tour, they sell-out everywhere they go.

There are as many rock bands today as there have always been. No, they don't generally get as big an audience as the pop acts, or the rock bands of old, but you can't compare a pre-internet/ pre-cable-TV/ pre-MP3 era to today.

Off the top of my head, bands like Imagine Dragons, Portugal the man, and Arcade Fire have appeared in the top 40. But I don't think the top 40 is very meaningful. Same with the awards shows, like the Grammys. Do you think that Taylor Swift is one of the most important and profound singer/songwriters of all time, as evidenced by her dozens of Grammys? I don't, and so my conclusion is not that her music is so important, but that the Grammys are so unimportant.
 

scotchandcigar

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Howard's career took him away from mainstream AOR radio. Today, he could easily just listen to Alt Nation, XMU, Spectrum, Faction etc on Sirius XM, but his career and lifestyle don't allow, and frankly, that ship has sailed a long time ago for him. So rather than admitting that he's not "up" on today's rock music and simply deferring to Gary, JD, Jason, Will (or even Fred), his ego requires that he perpetuate this narrative that says that rock music is dead, therefore he's not missing anything.
 

geosync

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The 101.1 channel here is mostly all pop music, including the pop rap era we're stuck in. The only rock, outside of country, is a mash up between alternative rock and classic 90's rock. 92.3 is classic rock all week. Outside of metal music who really still 'rocks' and makes a radio hit at the same time?

And CD's are not dead (well almost)!! In 2002 when vinyl was at the brink I was buying $10 records of music I already had. By the last few years the records are $25 and up. Screw that. Sold my player and gave my 'pieces' to a friend 10 years younger. There's 20 people searching for records at the stores here and I'm the only asshole searching for $1-$2 jems on cd, like I was one of a few non dj's still buying vinyl. I got a booming sound system, sweet mp3 player, and car setup. Vinyl has its pluses but I can't take it anywhere. Hell, you can buy a vinyl washing device and $20,000 tone arms for christ sake. Load up on cd's before it's too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

scotchandcigar

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The 101.1 channel here is mostly all pop music, including the pop rap era we're stuck in. The only rock, outside of country, is a mash up between alternative rock and classic 90's rock. 92.3 is classic rock all week. Outside of metal music who really still 'rocks' and makes a radio hit at the same time?
I listed several of them above, I could come up with 100 more if I spent the time to look through the archives. But my point is not that rock bands are still making the top 40 as before, it's that rock bands are as ever-present as before, and that the media world we live in has made the top 40 irrelevant.

I still listen to the FM radio for about half of my daily commute. I primarily flip between an adult contemporary/ AOR station, and a college-run rock/alt/indie station. There are also a couple of 90's alt rock stations that mix-in new music as well, all rock. But again, I'm not trying to prove that the FM radio scene is just like it was 30 years ago. I'm saying that rock is still there as always in some media form, and through live concert tours.
 

sadchild

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@scotchandcigar I have a shirt and hoodie that both read "Rock's Not Dead You Are!". I have a list of over 60 rock & metal songs from last year alone that I think are great. So for me personally, rock is very much alive. I disagree with the general idea that rock is dead. It definitely ain't dead to me, I listen to new rock artists all day long.

But, when the industry says "Rock Is Dead", they mean there's little-to-no money in it anymore. The kids aren't listening to new rock bands the way we did in the 80s and 90s.

All of the bands you listed as 'among the top tours' were already big before the year 2000 except for the Black Keys (who I believe are on hiatus). The 00s decade was the decline of rock. Bands like Nickelback, Godsmack, Disturbed, etc (the ones that began late 90s/early 2000s) are the last ones to experience truly getting HUGE like rock bands did in the 70s 80s & 90s. I can't think of any bands that didn't get big before around the year 2010 that have gotten as big as the ones you listed. The biggest now I think is Ghost, who can fill 2000-5000 seat houses. I love Royal Blood but they're only playing Fenway Park in Boston when they open for the Foos. Out on their own, they're playing the Paradise - which has a 900 capacity.

As for Imagine Dragons being a pop top 40 group who also tops the rock chart - since rock is 'dead', artists who aren't rock are being played on rock stations (between all of the classic rock tracks, which makes up 90% of 'active rock' these days). That's why songs that aren't rock songs are charting in rock, like Imagine Dragons. Another perfect example is Lorde, who topped the Rock Airplay chart twice with "Royals" and "Team" - two songs that don't sound like rock songs at all (IMO).

So when people tell me "Rock Is Dead", I respond with "No, it just went back to being cool and underground again".
 
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scotchandcigar

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I appreciate what you're saying. I just want to clarify a few things:

- Imagine Dragons have several hits that "rock" more than these:
Boston "Amanda"
Police "Every Little Thing She Does"
Pat Benatar "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Stray Cats "Rock This Town"

- Muse is a post-2000 band, based on their album releases. They exclusively play the largest stadiums and arenas.

- Other post-2000 big name rock acts:
Audioslave
Jet
Velvet Revolver
Seether
Paramore
Modest Mouse (didn't hit until 2000)
The Killers
The White Stripes
Queens of the Stone Age (from their first chart)
Evanescence
Jimmy Eat World (charted)
30 Seconds to Mars
Silversun Pickups
Cage the Elephant
The Black Keys
Arctic Monkeys
21 Pilots
The National
Wolfmother

Again, people make excuses for today's rock music, mostly because they grew-up in the classic rock era, and they're not interested in listening to new stuff. So they pretend it no longer exists.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson used to get huge ratings, back when TV was ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and VHF. Now there's a million things people do instead of watching the Tonight Show. And when classic rock was big, there was no internet, or 200 channels of cable TV, or 20 screen movie theaters, or on-demand, or music downloading/ streaming/ sharing.

Final thought: David Letterman wasn't up on the latest trends in music, but he relied on Paul Shaffer, who was. That's the difference between Dave and Howard.
 

Kryptonite

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The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson used to get huge ratings, back when TV was ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and VHF. Now there's a million things people do instead of watching the Tonight Show.

Heck, Simpsons episode used to get upwards of 20 million. At least one got in the neighborhood of 30 million.

You're right though... Shows used to canceled if they got 15 million viewers. Now, many are happy if they get 10 million.
 

sadchild

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@scotchandcigar Good conversation. I'm enjoying it. My follow up post isn't meant to be argumentative. I just want to explore the idea further.

Again, people make excuses for today's rock music, mostly because they grew-up in the classic rock era, and they're not interested in listening to new stuff. So they pretend it no longer exists.

I totally agree. I think 'post-grunge' bands like Nickelback, Creed and Staind were so formulaic and geared toward capitalizing on rock's mainstream success that they made rock uncool. Rock got VERY STALE in the early 2000s. I got dead sick of that effing 'yarling-rock' bullcrap. And it was everywhere. Pearl Jam photocopy bands (Nickelback, Theory Of A Deadman) and Nirvana photocopy bands (Silverchair, Bush) got old after 15 years of the same formula repeated over and over and over.

David Letterman wasn't up on the latest trends in music, but he relied on Paul Shaffer, who was. That's the difference between Dave and Howard.

Agreed. I forget how Howard stumbled on Royal Blood, but I'm glad he did. Because they're awesome. However, if it were 20 years ago, Royal Blood would be at the TD Garden playing for 9000 people, not at the Paradise Rock Club playing for 900.

Imagine Dragons have several hits that "rock" more than these

Just my opinion, but Imagine Dragons aren't a rock band nor rock music - they're alt pop. The Police, Boston and Stray Cats are 70s/80s rock bands. a-ha, Information Society, Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode are 80s alt pop. The Trews, Danko Jones and Billy Talent are 2010 rock bands. Imagine Dragons, Lorde and Owl City are 2010 alt pop.

Muse is a post-2000 band, based on their album releases. They exclusively play the largest stadiums and arenas.

They fit in the Disturbed/Godsmack 'made it in under the wire/early 2000s' category. Their first album dropped in 1999.

Other post-2000 big name rock acts...

Most of these fit into these four categories:

The first is at least one member was in a huge band from the 80s or 90s
(Rage/Soundgarden -> Audioslave, Slash -> Velvet Revolver).

The second is they're a pop-rock band, and have crossed over into pop (Paramore, Twenty One Pilots).
"Ain't It Fun" sounds like Bananarama. "Ride" sounds like Ace Of Base with Beck on vocals.

The third is they are in the 'made it in under the wire/early 2000s' group
(Evanescence - 2003, White Stripes - 1999, Seether - 2002).

The fourth is sure they are successful, but will never get as big as rock bands were able to in the 70s 80s & 90s
(Jet vs Guns N Roses, Arctic Monkeys vs Led Zeppelin, Silversun Pickups vs Van Halen, Black Keys vs Nirvana).

The whole 'Rock Is Dead' is a misnomer. But what the industry is saying, and is correct about, is that the potential isn't there anymore for new rock bands (with no members from previously successful bands) over the last 10+ years to get as big as today's pop artists like they used to. In the 80s, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard could rival Madonna and Michael Jackson. There are no new rock bands, actual rock and roll bands, that can rival Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.
 

HecticArt

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Interesting graphic. (I thought I posted this yesterday.)
30-years-of-music-sales-2.png


In terms of money, rock isn't making the record labels the hooker and blow dollars like it used to. It's pop crap like Swift and Gaga that are making them money for harassment lawsuits, lawsuits, and boner pills.

Look at the acoustic guitar thing going on with that ginger Ed guy, and a bunch of others. That's a throwback to the 60's and the Woodstock hippies.

I think it's just fashion. The trend will eventually swing back and we'll hear more rock guitars out there.
 

scotchandcigar

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@scotchandcigar Good conversation. I'm enjoying it. My follow up post isn't meant to be argumentative. I just want to explore the idea further.
Same here, I'm not arguing, but enjoying the conversation.

I think what you're saying is basically correct; that culture, society, and technology have combined to keep a group like the Black Keys from being as big as, say, Deep Purple. Where I disagree is with the comparison between (for example) Imagine Dragons and Bon Jovi. I think they're both pop-rock.

My older daughter's generation was into Coheed and Cambria (Richard Christy says "they're ma favorite"), and their fans are super loyal. To me, they sound a lot like prog rock, such as Rush. But they don't have the name recognition among the general population, as do the older bands.
I think it's just fashion. The trend will eventually swing back and we'll hear more rock guitars out there.
I think the way people get music today, has permanently changed the revenue structure. And I agree that we're in a dance/synth dominant music phase right now. Still plenty of awesome guitar-based music out there: the various Jack White projects, Stephen Malkmus, The Record Company, various Dan Auerbach projects, various Ty Segall bands, Tame Impala, Royal Blood, various Jim James projects etc. And I'm also okay with alt-rock being kind-of underground.
 

Kryptonite

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Howard got a little *too* worked up about the chances of Adam Levine or other "insiders" making absolute bank over some of the ridiculous Super Bowl bets.

He had a point, though. Any NFL player could bet $5000 on red Gatorade being poured on the winning coach. To them, it's a small bet...but if they win, BOOM!


1pm Friday on 101 is a live WUS from the Super Bowl with Robert Kraft, Patrick Mahomes, Dan Marino and other NFL celebrities. Howard was wondering if it would cost boff any money. Booie said "it wouldn't cost boff or boff'f company any money."
 

Bark

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Howard got a little *too* worked up about the chances of Adam Levine or other "insiders" making absolute bank over some of the ridiculous Super Bowl bets.

He had a point, though. Any NFL player could bet $5000 on red Gatorade being poured on the winning coach. To them, it's a small bet...but if they win, BOOM!


1pm Friday on 101 is a live WUS from the Super Bowl with Robert Kraft, Patrick Mahomes, Dan Marino and other NFL celebrities. Howard was wondering if it would cost boff any money. Booie said "it wouldn't cost boff or boff'f company any money."

I guarantee if any NFL player bets anything in regards to the NFL, even if it's the color of the Gatorade, there players in question will be banned from the NFL forever. Lest we forget, sports commissioners' primary job is to keep gambling out of sports.
 

geosync

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What's rock even mean? Is it something that requires a guitar? A lot of the singles we hear on the alt/rock channel is new material with some 90's sections. My wife who is a 90's baby and is disgusted at what's being made right now. I can't stand the same Coldplay woooo-ooooh style hook that so many tv ads implement. Rock doesn't 'rock' anymore and hasn't for some time. The artists these days are quite a bit less aggressive maybe. I can't talk about rock, I'm a hip hop guy. I have been loading up on 1 dollar 80's-90's rock cd's though, not much from the 2000's. 2004 was the year Perez Hilton/myspace/consistent web services got big so that's my demarcation line for many entertainment sectors. Things just changed yo.

Look what topped out, cassettes!!! I have about 30 with a sweet Nakamichi player that sounds sweet.