General Rock Discussion

[PrezSquid]

My spicy take as someone who doesn’t know how the industry works is that many songs were only stiffs due to not having much of a chance in the first place. If a station adds a song only for it to be shoved to late night play for most of its spins, no wonder it’s a failure. Maybe there’s a reasoning behind it but it just seems more like certain companies doing this by choice just to run the same 10 songs into the ground.

I feel like if certain artists who flopped hard this year with past successes (Kings of Leon, IDKHIW, MGMT, Vampire Weekend), were tried out by stations they’d probably reach all the way to the top of the charts. Instead the generic TikTok songs are the ones to usually make it or songs by staple acts.

In the end, it seems like many current songs are stiffs. When’s the last time you heard your local alt station play any songs from 2023 that weren’t Noah Kahan, Cannons, that Fall Out Boy cover or Foo Fighters?

[Daryl the Beryl]

Here's a comprehensive list of duds for the year. Let me know if I missed anything.

After a successful lead for his 2022 album, Amos Lee went back to peaking around the lower regions of the chart this year. Hold on Tight became his lowest peaking lead in some time.

It's a bit early to call, but it seems the new Avett Brothers era will be more forgotten than the previous, with regards to the follow-up at least. Orion's Belt is poised to be their lowest charting 2nd single for an era in some time unless you count the Magpie and the Dandelion era. Love of a Girl at least had a minor dent on Alt though, below the top 50.

Minor one for Billie Eilish, for Alt and only for Alt. LUNCH was a top 10 hit but it will be one of her less impactful top 10s, though in general she hasn't had the momentum she had in the early 2020s for Alt. The album was successful, though.

The Black Keys certainly fit this mould. Ohio Players flopped on the album charts, Beautiful People barely got to 20 weeks on both their core formats, and for a 2nd era in a row, they failed to get a top 10 alt follow-up.

Minor one, but Charley Crockett sort of lost the momentum he had with I'm Just a Clown. Both singles from his album failed to even reach as high as Trinity River did. He'll be fine though, and the album did better than his last album did, outside of radio.

Coldplay definitely fits this bill. They continued to play things very safe and consequently, feelslikeimfallinginlove became their least successful lead in sometime, maybe even ever.

Foster the People scored their lowest performing lead ever with Lost in Space. They'll remain around though, and their album got good ratings. Where they go on alt radio is another question.

girl in red failed to replicate the success of her 2021-2022 singles on alt this year as well. She’ll also be fine though, due to her big following.

Glass Animals got Portugal. The Man-ed with their current era. The lead vanished upon peaking (and is already in the bottom regions of the recurrent chart), and reviews for their album were underwhelming. We’ll see what happens with Airlock, but I doubt it does well.

There are fewer options for mainstream rock due to their tendencies of continually rewarding their staples regardless of what they put out, but Highly Suspect has to be on here. To the extent of the lead single doing worse than the single that ended their previous era. “Plastic Boxes” has fared a bit better, although it seems to have already hit a brick wall. We’ll see if it rebounds. Shame, because the songs were a sign of them going back to their roots. Also, the album did a bit better saleswise than the last one, but still failed to make the Billboard 200 nor Hard Rock Catalog Albums.

I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME faced a similar situation as girl in red, as WHAT LOVE? failed to perform as well as their last couple singles. It failed to even make the top 30, and there was no follow-up.

This was brought up earlier, but Imagine Dragons fits the bill too. Like Coldplay, it seems they stuck to their guns. Alt however, wasn’t as merciful and blocked this from the top spot and spending 20 weeks. The follow-up is also plateauing seemingly, buoyed by a horrid single choice, and the album became their first to miss the Billboard 200 top 10.

Back on the AAA side of things, Jade Bird’s “Burn the Hard Drive” EP era was kinda a flop. From a top 10, to not even making the top 30, what happened here? It may have to do with it being an EP and not an album, but it should have done better than this.

Quite timely to write this, as Jane’s Addiction have re-entered hiatus following Perry Farrell’s attempt to hit Dave Navarro last week, with the blame mostly being centered on Farrell. As for their first new material in over a decade? It’s struggling to even make the chart - in an era favorable to veterans, no less! Charting seems less likely given the events that unfolded last week. A self-release may have contributed to this, but it’s still quite the flop from a top 10 hit that made the year-end chart.

They’ve never had a huge hit as a main artist, but Joywave’s “Scared” recently became their weakest performing single, performing worse than their single that charted during the Audacy era.

KALEO released a song so boring, that even AAA had to reject “Lonely Cowboy”. It became their first lead to miss the top 10, and the first of their charters to not make the top 25.

Now that Kings of Leon moved to a different major label and without Kaplan’s hold on multiple stations, you would think their new lead would perform better right? Nope! “Mustang” became their fastest falling lead single since they broke out. (debatable on this as it peaked higher than “Supersoaker” on Alt) The more accessible follow-up only did slightly better than the last album follow-ups on AAA, but that’s about it, as the album became their lowest charting since Aha Shake Heartbreak. I maintain that the era would have done better if “Nowhere to Run” was the lead instead.

Despite the heavy push from NPR/World Cafe, Lo Moon’s “Water” will be their first lead to miss the AAA rankdown. Don’t let that distract you from listening to it, as it’s really good.

For the first time in his solo career, Marcus King failed to get any charting singles for his second album with Republic. (starting the era with a song with the F-bomb in the title didn’t help)

Another failed Alt comeback came from Mumford & Sons. The song quality also had to do with this, as the fans liked this less than their other stuff. It still did well at AAA, though.

Phosphorescent’s latest lead failed to do as much as his surprise top 10 “New Birth in New England”. It still got a good amount of non-comm love, so he’ll be fine, but it’s still quite a drop from that to peaking in the 30s.

This is more for a follow-up, but the Record Company’s “Roll with It” became their lowest charting single, and their first (among their BB charters) not to make the Mediabase published top 30.

Perhaps one of the biggest ones on AAA would be this new Snow Patrol era. Their last lead in 2018 peaked at #8. The most recent one? It failed to even chart. That’s how badly it did. Mark from Spectrum Pulse praised their new album, but he did like the song that flopped, so take that with a grain of salt. Their new album is poised to do well in the UK, so they’re still fine over there, but for AAA, their core format in the States? They have to release something better than “The Beginning” or heavily push it.

Vampire Weekend’s “Capricorn” became their weakest performing lead on Alt, and it’s unlikely that they get another charter on that format for this era. Their album did well critically, though not as well commercially, and Capricorn was still a hit at AAA.

Two artists that are too early to call, but we’ll find out more in the coming months, are Skillet and Starset on mainstream rock. Their bullets and positions aren’t too promising at the moment so I’m putting them here just in case, but there’s a chance they pick up.

This was brought up earlier, but I'm not counting MGMT considering their song became their first charter in over a decade on alt. That's saying something as compared to some of those artists coming off hits from their previous era.

EDIT: How did I forget Catfish and the Bottlemen

[macattack]

Sept 15, 2024 19:49:15 GMT -5 PrezSquid said:

My spicy take as someone who doesn’t know how the industry works is that many songs were only stiffs due to not having much of a chance in the first place. If a station adds a song only for it to be shoved to late night play for most of its spins, no wonder it’s a failure. Maybe there’s a reasoning behind it but it just seems more like certain companies doing this by choice just to run the same 10 songs into the ground.

I feel like if certain artists who flopped hard this year with past successes (Kings of Leon, IDKHIW, MGMT, Vampire Weekend), were tried out by stations they’d probably reach all the way to the top of the charts. Instead the generic TikTok songs are the ones to usually make it or songs by staple acts.

In the end, it seems like many current songs are stiffs. When’s the last time you heard your local alt station play any songs from 2023 that weren’t Noah Kahan, Cannons, that Fall Out Boy cover or Foo Fighters?

Two of the three Foo Fighters singles seem to be stiffs too. "Rescued" and "The Glass" are in the bottom half of the recurrent chart. The performance of "The Glass" seems to have convinced RCA to not send a fourth single either.

"Under You", however, is gold plated. A resilient and seemingly well-liked single near the top of the recurrent chart. 

[krissirge]

Now this seems to mean a two singer 3DG. Would certainly be interesting!

[boukemarten]

Some rock submissions for the Grammys I came across online. These are mostly major artists so it's just the tip of the iceberg:

BEST ROCK PERFORMANCE:
Lady Gaga - Sweet Sounds of Heaven
Megan Thee Stallion - Cobra
Hozier - Nobody's Soldier
Beabadoobee - Take a Bite
Vampire Weekend - Gen X-Cops
The Beatles - Now and Then
Twenty One Pilots - Overcompensate
Olivia Rodrigo - Obsessed
Paramore - Burning Down the House

BEST ROCK SONG:
Lady Gaga - Sweet Sounds of Heaven
Megan Thee Stallion - Cobra
Hozier - Nobody's Soldier
Beabadoobee - Take a Bite
Vampire Weekend - Gen X-Cops
The Beatles - Now and Then
Twenty One Pilots - Overcompensate
Olivia Rodrigo - Obsessed
Knocked Loose - Suffocate

BEST ROCK ALBUM:
Twenty One Pilots - Clancy
Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To

[zc777]

Does anyone here happen to have any opinions on the iHeart original Triple A station "Freeform Radio" or its predecessor "Eclectic Rock?" Freeform Radio has been on air for almost 2 years now, but it has its fair share of problems, in my opinion. There are many reccurent singles that have worn out their welcome and it's kind of hard to listen to the station because of that. Additionally, many new and high-charting singles take weeks to appear in rotation, but I kind of like the variety of the station's playlist - with a few small exceptions. Eclectic Rock Radio was better, but it had its own quirks. I liked the overall playlist more than Freeform and it faithfully held the Top 20 or so Triple A songs in rotation. Eclectic Rock had a better variety of '80s alternative goodies and their playlist went all the way back to the late '60s - Freeform is a little sparse with their songs from the '80s and earlier. Eclectic Rock never kept recurrent songs (with the exception of a few random recurrents from 2016-2017), but this was in 2018-2020 when I discovered it and was listening to it pretty frequently. Eclectic Rock radio eventually stopped being updated and was taken off the air sometime in 2021-2022, replaced by Freeform. Does anyone here happen to know how the iHeart original stations work? Do they have an actual staff/programmer or is it likely entirely automated?