Idolator
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here's "Corporate Rock Still Sells," where Al "GovernmentNames" Shipley examines what's good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he looks at an eight-years-in-the-making hit by an act that was once seen as a rap-rock also-ran, as well as a few other developments on the rock radio charts.
In 2000, a band from Georgia named Rehab was one of the many rap-rock acts flooding the music industry in the wake of Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit. That October, they released their major-label debut Southern Discomfort and scored a minor hit with the simply awful "It Don't Matter," which reached No. 20 on the Modern Rock chart. After failing to score any follow-up hits, Rehab was dropped from Sony, deservingly going the way of so many of their peers. The group's rapper, a walking dirt 'stache named Brooks Buford, briefly signed to So So Def Records as a solo artist, and resurfaced hosting the short-lived MTV show Trailer Fabulous, which could be described as Pimp My Ride for double-wides. But nearly eight years after the release of Southern Discomfort, one of its tracks, "Sittin' At A Bar," has suddenly become a hit:
In the past two months this song, now retitled "Bartender Song (a.k.a. Sittin' At A Bar)," has reached No. 16 on the Modern Rock chart, No. 26 on Mainstream Rock, and No. 77 on the Hot 100. And it's still rising. In June, Southern Discomfort was re-released under the name Sittin' At A Bar by Sony subsidiary Epic, with three new versions of the song appended to its tracklist. When I was searching my soul to come up with an accurate explanation for the popularity of this terrible, terrible song, the best point of comparison I could come up with is Sublime's "Santeria." Both songs feature wistful, countryish melodies, wack rhymes, and a healthy serving of curse words and misogyny. And when I conducted a survey of the past six months of alternative airplay for my last column, I noticed that the single most played song of the entire 1990s was "Santeria." ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" was fourth, behind Blur's "Song 2" and another Sublime track.)
I'm not sure exactly how "Bartender Song" began this long, tangled road to crossover success. Perhaps Sony re-signed the band and decided to work an older song to radio first, or maybe the song has just been building a grassroots following for the last seven years that the label finally decided to capitalize on. "Bartender" song was also issued as a bonus track on a 2006 pressing of their 2005 independent album, Graffiti The World, so obviously it's been one of the band's more popular songs for a while. One thing is clear, however: with the rise of the Flobots and now Rehab, and Atmosphere's first appearance on the Modern Rock chart in recent weeks with "You," white rappers are a big look for alt-rock radio in '08.
Until last week, it seemed like Weezer's "Pork & Beans" would be the rock radio hit of the summer. The song, which I've come to think of as the "Umma Do Me" for the horn-rimmed set, hit No. 1 on Modern Rock in its third week on the chart, and stayed there for 11 weeks, the longest stay at the top since the Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" 18-week reign late last year. And who unseated Weezer from the spot? The Foos, of course, with their third consecutive Modern Rock No. 1, "Let It Die."
Even given the band's ridiculous career momentum these days, I'm a little surprised at the success of "Let It Die," which I expected would fizzle at radio like previous third singles from FF albums ("Low," "Next Year"). Last year, when I wrote about the numerous Grammy nominations for the band's last album and remarked "I just hope Dave Grohl doesn't feel the need to pander to voters by releasing one of the album's overly serious dirges as the next single," this was exactly what I was referring to. Even of the tracks on Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace that go for the slow build and big rock ending, I'd rather hear "Come Alive" or "But, Honestly" on the radio, but go figure. Incidentally, this fan-made YouTube montage of Nirvana footage set to "Let It Die" is, just on a conceptual level, perhaps creepier than anything I've ever seen on Idolator's tribute-video beat.
I've been beating a drum for a while now about how Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks are getting harder and harder to tell apart. For instance, right now the two charts are 60% the same—24 of the top 40 songs appear on both charts. But it's still really easy to tell where a band gets its bread buttered. Nickelback and My
Chemical Romance may each get airtime on both formats, but you can probably guess who charts better on which chart every time.
Staind's new single, "Believe," however, has been rising up both charts at an almost exactly equal pace, which is rare, if not unheard of. And it's not a massive hit like "The Pretender" that's gunning for the top of both charts, it's just on two steady, parallel paths: It entered the Modern Rock chart four weeks ago at No. 27, then jumped to No. 16, then to No. 11, and currently sits at No. 9; It entered the Mainstream Rock chart four weeks ago at No. 25, then jumped to No. 15, then to No. 11, and currently sits at No. 9.
It's hard to read any real significance into those numbers, though they are interesting. But it helps that "Believe" sounds just like every other sluggish ballad Staind has made since frontman Aaron Lewis' accidental solo hit "Outside" changed the course of the nu-metal band's career. So the music is a control; the variables are the charts. Staind has historically been in the Nickelback category: very big on the Mainstream chart, while more moderately successful on the Modern chart, sometimes charting high but never as high as on Mainstream. So this could be a fluke, or it could be further evidence that the charts are moving toward common ground—particularly Modern, which has fewer big stars to depend on for hits now, and has gradually become more welcoming of groaning frat grunge than it used to be.
Comments
Al,
Actually the modern charts used to be EXTREMELY Active-happy back in the early 00's. You had Papa Roach, Staind and Linkin Park all hitting #1. 2004 was the year of modern rock programmers "going back to their roots" and playing Modest Mouse, Fountains Of Wayne and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. 2004 was also the year that we probably saw the most flips. Don't know if there is any connection there (hint: there most likely is) but maybe that's the reason modern stations refuse to let go of sludgy post-grunge tracks.
On another note, that Rehab song reminds me of Uncle Kracker (before UK became totally CHR-friendly). And on yet another note, if you stamp the words Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Pepppers or Green Day on any recording, you can be sure it all modern rock stations (blue or red-state) will be all over it.
@2ironic4u: Oh, I didn't mean to give the impression that Active/Alt crossover is something new. And yeah, the fluctuating number of alt stations from all the format flips was something I meant to bring up but kinda forgot to mention. I also had an Uncle Kracker reference waiting in the wings the whole time I was writing this that never got into a draft.
@Al Shipley: Ha, either way, that song is terrible. Who do you side with on the new Hinder song v. new Buckcherry song? You know since they are basically one in the same.
It makes me pissed that bands like Rehab can somehow get hits on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, but good bands like Dogs Die In Hot Cars can't.
@DocStrange: Do you really think that those people who bother to tune into a Modern Rock station want to hear Dogs Die In Hot Cars?
Oh btw, there's a difference between Sittin at a Bar and Santeria: Santeria is actually a good song.
The other weird thing is that "Song 2" by Blur gets alot of plays. Probably because it's short and heavy. Which is sad because it's unrepresentative of the band's otherwise brilliant catalog.
It's reading articles like this that make me so happy that I don't have to drive anymore and therefore don't listen to the radio. It's amazing just how stuck in the 90s rock radio is. Does anyone know if the demographics for rock radio listeners has shifted older since the 90s or if younger listeners really are clamoring for a constant barrage of 90s-style rock music?
@2ironic4u: Yes. Yes I do. Only two radio stations picked up on DDIHC: WFNX Boston and WBRU Providence (both of them played "I Love You Cause I Have To" and to a lesser extent "Godhopping" and both located in my general area) and they were big and even played a concert for WBRU. However these are kind of the standard devients of the format: both are very experimental and more open in how they construct their playlists and are probably two of the finest radio stations on the East Coast.
@DocStrange: BRU and FNX both cater to a small but dedicated niche audience. If BCN in Boston picked up Dogs Die In Hot Cars, you probably wouldn't see the same thing.
I'm all for indie/blog bands getting radio love but, most of the time, there's a reason why most of our beloved blog-bands only cater to a small audience.
@The Van Buren Boys: It's probably due to the fact that there really isn't a such thing as a "hit rock single" anymore due to severe media fragmentation.
@DocStrange: I'm pretty sure that Indie 103.1 in LA played DDIHC (I love that band name, its not only a name, but a public service announcement), as I can't think of how else I would have heard "I Love You Cause I Have To" and picked up the album. Of course, they never played it on KROQ. God forbid I don't hear RHCP "Hey Yo" for the 500th time.
(Also, I seem to remember someone listing DDIHC in that post a few weeks back where people listed the best albums for every year they've been alive post. Maura maybe?)
1. Thanks for correcting me (not that you were trying) on Weezer's streak at No. 1 (I had 10 weeks, not 11). Fixed it in last week's column.
2. Guess I'm alone on liking "Let It Die." I dunno, "The Pretender" kinda bored me -- I could see the hook, but it felt very paint-by-numbers to me. "Let It Die" is paint-by-numbers too, but I like that number: classic post-Pixies quiet-loud. What, predictable? Me?
3. I agree with you that Staind is consistently bigger on Mainstream than Modern, but that discounts their one moment of total rock-radio dominance: "It's Been Awhile," which owned the top of both charts for months - Modern for a then-record 16 weeks, Mainstream for a near-record 20 weeks. (It's in second place for longevity on both charts behind "The Pretender" and "Kryptonite," respectively.) My only point is, Staind seems to be a band that can be huge on Modern when their songs push the right kinds of Sad Bastard/post-grunge buttons -- it just varies song-to-song.
@Chris Molanphy: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean with Staind, you just articulated way better than I did. I guess I downplayed the cross-format hugeness of "It's Been Awimoweh," but like you said, even when it hit #1 on Modern it didn't stay there as long as it did on Mainstream.
@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: Ah, so some west coast stations also gave some DDIHC love. But yes, this is also one of the weakest weeks in the Modern Rock Tracks' history. Only Death Cab, The Ting Tings, Beck and Flobots have good songs, with Ludo and The Kooks having OK songs. The rest is awful. I mean how "alternative" is Katy Perry? What the hell is Hinder doing on there? Is there any love for Tokyo Police Club, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, No Age or She & Him outside of a few clustered stations in the northeast?
@DocStrange: Again, you're thinking of "Blog radio" not commercial modern rock radio.
@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: yep!
[idolator.com]
I saw this so called "bartender song" on youtube a while back and my friends and I all had a good laugh/cringe at it. I had no idea it was even close to charting that high (or at all).
So should I be planning a column where I rate how well blog rock bands would do on non-Triple A alt-rock radio?
@Al Shipley: YES YOU SHOULD
haha ok then let the suggestions rain in
@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: Indie 103.1 did indeed play DDIHC first in the U.S. on their import show "Passport Approved"
@owenmeany: I knew 103.1 played it, but didn't realize they were the "US debut." I love Passport Approved. Hell, I love most of their once-a-week shows. Well, not the metal one, but that's just I don't generally like metal; I'm sure the show is fine.
@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: Actually, Indie 103.1's metal show is probably the best metal show on U.S. radio - that chick knows her stuff.
@Al Shipley: Yes.
Now, Vampire Weekend did well with "A-Punk" on the Modern Rock Tracks, and the Ting Tings are doing well too. Black Kids and The Whigs have been between #50 and #41 on the Mediabase Alternative Chart (which uses the same information) for months.
Of course, like it was pointed out. The only two stations in the format that I can get are freeform with their playlists (WBRU and WFNX. I consider myself lucky) but I still get things like Saving Abel or that song "The Stone" by that forgettably named band with the forgettably named dude from A Perfect Circle.
@2ironic4u: Well what do I to do? they're the only two stations I get in the format, so I must get a false sense of actual Alternative radio and it's national active rock skewing. WBRU must be immune to this because it's owned by Brown University (it's a commercially run station owned by a college. Such a beast does indeed exist)
@DocStrange: BRU still plays the mook rock along with the "indie" favorites.
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