Has the chart ever been this dead in recent years?

[oscillations.]

Don't worry, we can all discuss this objectively. I'm referring to numbers here!

Look at the Top 20:

Rank Mediabase Sortable Stats™ - Click any Blue Header Year Label Spins Aud.
/mill
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move
1 1 FOO FIGHTERS Long Road To Ruin 2007 RCA/RMG 1601 1828 -227 7.559
2 2 PUDDLE OF MUDD Psycho 2007 Geffen/Interscope 1501 1587 -86 6.976
7 3 ATREYU Falling Down 2007 Hollywood 1308 1250 58 4.610
3 4 LINKIN PARK Shadow Of The Day 2007 Warner Bros. 1306 1458 -152 7.344
5 5 BRAVERY Believe 2007 Island/IDJMG 1305 1288 17 7.683
9 6 SEETHER Rise Above This 2007 Wind-up 1262 1188 74 7.232
6 7 FOO FIGHTERS The Pretender 2007 RCA/RMG 1251 1271 -20 8.243
4 8 SEETHER Fake It 2007 Wind-up 1148 1324 -176 5.145
10 9 PANIC! AT THE DISCO Nine In The Afternoo... 2008 FuelByRamen/RRP/Atlantic 1137 1162 -25 4.297
11 10 3 DOORS DOWN It's Not My Time 2008 Universal Republic 1119 1141 -22 4.833

8 11 PARAMORE CrushCrushCrush 2007 FuelByRamen/RRP/Atlantic 1099 1248 -149 3.996
12 12 JACK JOHNSON If I Had Eyes 2007 Brush/Universal Republic 1000 1099 -99 4.792
13 13 RISE AGAINST The Good Left Undone 2006 Geffen/Interscope 989 1084 -95 5.173
14 14 FINGER ELEVEN Paralyzer 2006 Wind-up 983 1071 -88 6.165
15 15 ASHES DIVIDE The Stone 2007 Island/IDJMG 933 1002 -69 2.343
18 16 THREE DAYS GRACE Never Too Late 2006 Jive/Zomba 822 790 32 6.240
20 17 R.E.M. Supernatural Superse... 2008 Warner Bros. 799 746 53 3.699
35 18 DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE I Will Possess Your ... 2008 Atlantic 769 451 318 4.332
17 19 APOCALYPTICA I'm Not Jesus 2007 Jive/Zomba 733 795 -62 2.692
23 20 LINKIN PARK Given Up 2007 Warner Bros. 726 687 39 2.735



Very few movers & shakers, and when was the last time 1300 plays got you into the Top 5?!

[Pipa]

I wouldn't call Death Cab for Cutie's jump "dead". There's also The Raconteurs and Disturbed. Besides that, yeah, it's pretty bleak...

[oscillations.]

Agreed, DCFC & Raconteurs are making nice leaps. But that's the first breath of fresh air we've had in ages.
It's not like there is a shortage of new music...

[American Idiot]

I think it's just been that so far this year, up until very recently, no one debut song has made a significant impact, but finally with the ones mentioned above, hopefully the chart will move a little.

[Nicholas2.0]

In my opinion, there's just not a lot of exciting rock music being released these days overall. Couple that with Alternative stations pulling their reins tighter and basically becoming "Generation Y"'s classic rock, and you're not left with much.

[pen]

Active Rock has a lot of motion going on. That's because Active Rock rules.

[Nicholas2.0]

Active rock would rule if I didn't have to tolerate such a high amount of post-grunge crapola in order to hear more metal.

[jvandyck87]

Also, remember that a bunch of stations from alternative just flipped to active rock this week, so that's why 1300 plays can get you top 5 at alternative now. The panel has shrunk a wee bit, and thus bullets are gone. Things will be back to normal tomorrow in the sense that last week tomorrow was when mediabase flipped the stations, so we'll see what bullets look like then.

[Chato]

Moving some stations to the AR panel was long overdue as most of these stations had been de facto Active Rock stations fpr quite some time. Even before the panel change the AR chart looked a lot livelier than the alternative chart.
Like I said (or tried to say) in the Disturbed thread, there is no shortage of alternative rock music, there's just a shortage of stations willing to play it.
Let's face it, post-grunge , cock-rock (Hinder, Saving Abel etc) and alt-metal are the way most casual rock radio listeners want their music served these days.

[Walking Contradiction]

Well, this change doesn't seem to have had much of an effect on the type of music that's dominating the charts. We still have 3 Doors Down in the top ten. I'm sorry, but I really don't see anything remotely alternative about them. Those of you defending the current state of the chart clearly have more Active-leaning tastes, which is fine in its own right, but this is not the direction that Alternative should be heading in.

[musicaddict]

Not many new rock/alternative releases in 2008 compared to previous years.

[oscillations.]

Untrue.

[pen]

It's only April. How can we possibly compare this year to previous years already?

[crash46]

I bought my first CD of 2008 yesterday. Actually, that drought extends all the way back to October when I bought six in one day.

If I cared enough about anything being released, that wouldn't have happened.

There haven't been fewer releases to get excited about in my life. Then the ones that are worth a damn produce 1½ hits and then die off.

[barryhatchet]

The way I took the original question was that it seems most songs are just sitting there doing nothing. I've noticed this too. Even with all the songs losing spins, others that should be able to take advantage and move up have no momentum. Compare this with the Hot AC chart, where there's almost always a logjam of songs fighting to break into the top 40, and then ANOTHER logjam after that, lots of songs adding spins crammed together, fighting for position.

[crash46]

That's exactly the way I see things too; I just wanted to elaborate on how it's not totally off base to talk about the lack of releases as a factor in all of this.

It's less exciting for the chart as a whole to have so many immortal songs because you're looking at the same chart week in and week out. It's also less exciting when a song you like becomes immortal because so many other songs are already doing the same thing.

[Pipa]

Hey, if one station thinks "The Pretender" is still good enough after 8 months to play it 57 times a week, let them be. But that doesn't mean every station should follow suit.

[barryhatchet]

The other problem with the Mainstream chart is a lack of songs, period. Good, bad, or indifferent. They can barely keep a top 100 chart populated.

What does this mean? There are no mainstream rock stations anymore? Mediabase needs to add a few maybe?

I'm sure somebody here knows. As Hannibal Lecter said, thrill me with your acumen.

[atlantaboy]

Mar 31, 2008 20:57:00 GMT -5 Pipa said:

I wouldn't call Death Cab for Cutie's jump "dead". There's also The Raconteurs and Disturbed. Besides that, yeah, it's pretty bleak...

Yeah a whole bunch of markets have lost their Alternative stations in the past year...in many cases, hard-rock fans have gone to Active Rock and more heritage-Alternative fans have gone to Triple A

I think Boston is the only major market that has gained an Alternative station

[oscillations.]

Philly, too.