Not Psycho, But Schizophrenic, Perhaps
Written Apr. 9, 2008 by Sean Ross in Content with 3 Comments
For the last few years, Modern Rock has often been a trade magazine chart panel in search of a format. Despite everything you hear about the more centrist leanings of many Rock stations these days, the Modern Rock panel has always been an uneasy mix of "true alternative" stations that will play Feist and Band Of Horses (but often steer away from mainstream guitar rock) and harder rocking stations that are just a Muse or White Stripes song away from the Active Rock chart.
There's a vivid demonstration of that this week on the Modern Rock chart where the No. 1 song is Puddle Of Mudd's "Psycho." It's the hookiest, most melodic song in a long time from the one-time Limp Bizkit proteges. But even in its chart-topping week, it's being played by only 50 of Mediabase's 72 Alternative reporters.
Some of the stations that aren't playing "Psycho" are duopoly outlets that have an Active Rock sister station next door. A few are the adult-leaning true alts that you might expect to have an issue with it. But a lot of the holdouts are mainstream standard bearers such as KROQ Los Angeles, KITS San Francisco, WBCN Boston, or CIMX (89X) Detroit.
So what does this tell us:
1) There truly is no consensus in the format right now;
2) Things are a lot slower in the format these days. PDs talk about songs taking longer to kick in. And during this second boom of adult/library-based modern stations, many are playing fewer currents and more gold. Some of the holdouts will likely go back for this record in a few weeks. (The long-running "Never Too Late" by Three Days Grace, which finally crossed to the pop side, is No. 1 on KROQ now.) That said, when the right reaction record like Flobots' "Handlebars" comes along, it seems to find its way much faster, not unlike the superstar Country titles that don't take six months to climb that chart like everything else.
3) Even PDs who are willing to play Seether, Breaking Benjamin, Atreyu, and Incubus are among the holdouts -- so perhaps it's not sonic, but instead an artist image issue among PDs who somehow consigned the band to Active Rock five years ago.
In any event, it's another case of a format that doesn't have a ton of its own hits being finicky about the ones it does have. And I'm guessing that PDs and label people will have plenty of other recent examples.
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
The hook in Psycho sounds very much like something Kurt Cobain would have sung 15 years ago. I could see this mixing in well on stations that are heavy on 90s gold, such as WENN in Birmingham, AL.
It's interesting to look at the current charts for active rock and alternative and see the overlap. You won't see Egypt Central on the alternative list, and you won't see Death Cab For Cutie on the active rock list, but overall the amount of duplication between the two charts is noteworthy.
What is Alternative? This is a question that has been asked time and time again, because there is no clear definition of what "Alternative" is. Even the term "Modern Rock" can mean anything from Active Rock with a Bush song from 10 years ago thrown in -- or a format that features songs from acts such as Kaiser Chiefs, Bravery, Oasis, MGMT, The Courteeners and even Amy Winehouse.
To have a chart that includes radio stations like WFNX, KROQ, Q101 in Chicago, Live 105 and 97X in Tampa is even a bit unfair, because you have stations targeting their respective markets by playing songs higher than other stations because it works for them.
The fact that "Psycho" is No. 1 on the chart yet isn't on KROQ or Live 105 is an urgent and pressing manner to two people - the A&R guy working the record and his boss.
For the KROQ and Live 105 programming folks who are programming the stations for their listeners, and not the labels, perhaps not playing the No. 1 song is the best way to go.
Sorry I don't do 2¢... I do a nickel's worth...
The real problem here is not if station A or station B adopts a particular track or act. The real problem for alternative stations overall are a mish mash of musical styles that don’t say anything in particular to the listener about what kind of community the station stands for. CHR and their ilk can get away with it. They are pop culture offering. The rock genres are narrower. A little of this rock genre mixed with that rock genre constitutes the Big Tent theory… More on that later… if you make it that far.
Instead of too broad mass appeal rock, I’m a big believer in station culture and community. The mental picture of what a station looks like is 60% of what makes an Alternative station appealing to the Alternative or Rock listener and in many cases both groups have little in common. Ask yourself the next time you’re listening to a quarter hour of your local Alternative, Active Rock or Rock station. What kind of mental picture do you get of who’s listening, what the place they’re listening from looks like and what these listener interests and values might be? Listeners adopt the station that talks to their soul and wear the station like a badge if it can be used to tell peers who they are (or would like to be). If you think I’m thinking too narrow or nutzy think about these scenarios.
When was the last time you went the mall and saw a biker bar next to Macy’s next to a strip joint next to a woman’s plus sizes boutique next to a soul food restaurant next to an info kiosk for the KKK. That’s a mall no one will go to.
When was the last time you went to a salad bar where you could get a selection of lettuce, French dressing, bacon bits, carrots and motor oil? Mmmmm tasty.
When was the last time you organized a gathering where the PTA, AA, The PTL and the KKK all showed up? And if they did how long till there was a knife fight around the refreshments?
When was the last time you saw a street thug in penny loafers, a doctor in black eye liner or a skate punk in Dockers? Fashion faux pas!
I don’t care what the R&R panel looks like nor should I care what and where your station is classified. That’s more of a business matter having to do with add budgets than programming. What I would care about is what kind of neighborhood I was creating and who will propagate it. This isn’t CHR which is by nature a mish mash pop cultures and styles. This is Alternative, Rock or Active Rock and it’s a narrower field so you’ve got to build music and content quarter hours that cause listeners to listen with alacrity. If cume is tepid or has reached its apex then you’ll need to add TSL to bolster the numbers! You get buy in from focus and scrutiny. Pick a position even if it’s a bit narrower. Nobody is excited about The Cure into Avenge Sevenfold into Paramore, into Pearl Jam into LCD Sound System into Nickelback. All great artists in there own neighborhoods (I suppose) but I see a knife fight, bitch slap, I got a brain owee, mental smack down on the horizon! By the way I got that sequence of artists from a Top30 Alt station with a mid one share 12+.
Pick Alternative if you can aggregate a large enough faction. Pick Rock if your market has that feel. Pick Active Rock if the number of roofers, farmers and mechanics outweighs the number of college students per capita. Nothing wrong with that. Whatever. Each one of those formats is valid in the rock genre. Just pick a position and super serve it. A little something for everybody leaves little impression with no one. Yeah, “Big Tent” my ass. Be careful where you step, the elephants where just in the big ring. sniff sniff...The big tent smells like ass.
sd