Idolator
Since many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock, welcome to "Corporate Rock Still Sells," where Al Shipley (a.k.a. Idolator commenter GovernmentNames) examines what's good, bad, and ugly in the world of Billboard's rock charts. This time around he tries to distinguish just what separates one modern rock radio playlist from another if there's room for Evanescence on both:
I'll give you a topic: rock radio is neither modern nor active. Discuss.
This week, I thought I'd compare and contrast Billboard's two big rock singles charts, Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock. And I also thought I'd precede that with a brief history of the industry developments that led to these two vaguely defined formats—if that old chart-hound Molanphy hadn't stolen my thunder by doing just that in the comments section earlier this week.
But the long and short of it is that Modern Rock and Active Rock (the radio industry's name for the heavier "mainstream" variant) stations have always been slightly at odds with each other, even while having a lot in common on their playlists. Growing up in and around Maryland in the '80s and '90s, I had a front-row seat for the development of both, thanks to pioneering stations in each format: the Annapolis/D.C.-based WHFS, which was arguably the flagship modern-rock station of the East Coast, and 98 Rock in Baltimore , which cemented the mid-Atlantic as a hard-rock mecca as much as Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
WHFS thrived with the '90s alt-rock explosion, hosting the massive HFStival every year and setting trends nationwide with its playlists. But as the format declined, so did the station, and in 2005 corporate parent Radio One flipped a switch and gave HFS' frequency over to reggaeton. Around the same time, several other modern rock stations went off the air—although, as we learned yesterday, one station in Connecticut just switched back to rock. WHFS briefly made a comeback, playing music on nights and weekends via the auspices of 105.7, a talk station, but even that was short-lived, and the station now exists only as an Internet stream.
While 98 Rock openly gloated about its victory (one wonders if Active Rock jocks have an "anti-choice" style cutdown for their competitors. "Inactive rock," perhaps?), if any station killed WHFS, it was DC101, the Active Rock/Modern Rock hybrid station that covers most of the same broadcast area. Perhaps it's because the rock radio audience is no longer big enough to support two distinct audiences for different types of new music, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to a station that was heavy enough to play Nirvana but not heavy enough to play Metallica. But cross-format mutants like DC101 are likely the way of the future for rock radio, especially if the respective charts stay as similar as they are right now.
Billboard's current top 20s in Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks have nine songs in common, and if you give them a week or two to change, the two charts could probably reach 50% synergy. The usual suspects that have been dominating rock radio for half the year—including the Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Finger Eleven—are on both charts, but when the formats diverge, it's hard to even tell where the dividing line exists. It's not surprising that Ozzy Osbourne, Godsmack, and Atreyu are on the Mainstream chart, but not the Modern one. But why exactly are some hard rockers, like Kid Rock and Papa Roach, fair game on both charts? And most confusingly, why is the girly alt-metal act Flyleaf in the Modern top 10, but completely absent from the Mainstream chart? Sure, there are no female-fronted bands at all on the Mainstream chart right now, but the slightly less metal Evanescence has done just fine on Active stations in the past.
One wonders if it's only a matter of time before Billboard re-evaluates the necessity of two separate charts that are so frequently similar, with both moving toward the homogenized neo-grunge soup that has made Chad Kroeger an unstoppable force in popular music. Unlike the Hot Rap Tracks and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts, there's no easily defined musical component like rapping or the absence thereof to help parse the difference, just the whims of each format's various program directors. If I had to make a prediction, I'd say that hybrid stations like DC101 will keep swallowing up the remaining Modern Rock stations, leaving a respectable number of Active Rock stations standing. In a few years there may be only one kind of station for contemporary loud guitar music, while the quieter, more artsy strain of alt-rock will slowly rise to an increased number of Adult Album Alternative stations. Except by then, the format will probably just be called Blog Rock.
Comments
Here in Providence things went severely downhill about the turn of the millennium, when WBRU went from being the station that had never played Metallica or Creed to the station that suddenly did. And, okay, before that modern rock was also defined as Natalie Imbruglia and Robbie Williams, so it was kind of jarring.
Also, in all their print ads, the station (which is owned by Brown University, but is a commercial station, which led to all kinds of legal hullabaloo a while ago) still advertise themselves as the station to hear 311, Soundgarden, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Sublime. Way to stay modern, modern rock.
WHFS, which was arguably the flagship modern-rock station of the East Coast
what about WDRE?
Very well done. And I spat out my coffee when I read the last sentence.
Kudos!
Damn, I was just gonna say WDRE/WLIR, too. STRONG ISLAND REPREZENT.
I had barely lived in the DC area for a few months when HFS went away - and now that I know who to properly blame...Fuck you DC101 and your "Smell My Face" mouth-breather listeners
But what happened after it switched over to Neil Diamond Parking Lot?
@maura: @dickdogfood: There might be a little regionalism in GovernmentNames' assertion, but I can attest -- I was in DC [still am] during HFS' heyday, and yeah, they were HUGE in breaking new alterna-artists in the late-80's/early-90's. They were also well-known -- and much-appreciated -- for the love they showed to local artists, and not simply whomever the corporate suits were trying to push. And the HFStival was-and-still-is a big-deal music festival -- it's the largest annual music festival on the East Coast. More about the HFStival here:
[en.wikipedia.org]
Guys, the word "arguably" it traditionally used to preempt the obvious objections to the statement being made.
I'm not completely current on the state of terrestrial radio, but what's the status of the "alternative gold" format that was kicking around earlier this decade? When I left California about three years about KROQ in LA and FM94.9 in San Diego were both playing a hybrid of "alternative gold" and current alternative tracks, probably at at 75/25 ratio.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: Good question, and one I've been holding off on addressing, probably to make it the focus of a future column. In general it feels like modern rock stations, even ones without the "alternative gold" angle, are leaning more and more on 90s oldies, I think more so than active rock or most non-rock formats, but I'll probably have to put together some solid playlist stats to cement that theory.
@GovernmentNames: Cool, I think that would be a great column.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: KROQ's still about the same.
We've had dueling Modern Rock and Active Rock stations up here in the northeast for the past decade or so between WBCN and WAAF. WBCN was the top dog for the longest time, until Opie and Anthony put WAAF on the map. In the late 90s-early 00s I'd say that the harder edged WAAF had the advantage, culminating with their breaking of Godsmack. WBCN seemed to be making a resurgence, but they pretty much do talk-radio on the afternoon drive, so it seems they've pretty much admitted defeat to WAAF, and aren't even trying to compete with them.
No matter. WFNX is by far the superior station in Boston, anyway.
I own and sometimes still wear that t-shirt. +1 cred for me.
I thought "alternative gold" better described Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles. It plays a lot of "alternative" stuff from the 80s-90s (Pixies, Pumpkins, Nirvana, no Sublime or RATM though) and some of the hipper, newer stuff that might not be blog-rock, but wouldn't feel out of place (Killers, LCD Soundsystem)
Also, whenever I turn the dial back to KROQ, the playlist still sounds like 1998.
WHFS thrived with the '90s alt-rock explosion, hosting the massive HFStival every year and setting trends nationwide with its playlists.
When I moved to L.A. from Md., I realized to my horror that all the awfulness (bad music played over and over and over, obnoxious DJ's with "funny" names, somehow merging the worst aspects of both PC and frat-boy culture) of WHFS was merely a cheap imitation of the real worst radio station in the world, KROQ.
Hearing about 98 rock brings back some good memories though. Horrifically white-trashy as it may have been (and probably still is), it was the first place i ever heard Led Zeppelin.
I blame WFNX for all of my rock-snobbery. That was a seriously great station to grow up on, until they switched to the Kid-Bizkit-Roach-Park axis along the lines of 'BCN and 'AAF. Thit shit bloooooows.
Sorry 'bout the thunder-stealing comment. And for taking all day to write in (ugh, long day at work). Nice job as usual, Your Shipleyness.
I also totally, totally agree with you on the inevitable merging of the rock formats. Who are these program directors even kidding anymore?
@Cos: Wow, that...actually sounds like a playlist I'd love. More sensitive-'90s-guy altrock, less bro-rock, plus LCD Soundsystem? Sign me up!
@dennisobell: No apology necessary, I hope you took it as the light-hearted jab it was intended as. I might have to pick your brain directly sometime about the secrets behind your chart ninja prowess.
How about some fact checking. While Radio One is the local radio mega owner, they did and do not own what was known as 99.1 WHFS, that's been a CBS radio outfit, then Infinity, for a while. I don't think Radio One ever had their claws in that station whatsoever.
I remember that depressing day clearly. It was eerily foggy that night, I woke up discover that the only near listenable station in the area was gone, and was replaced with music I could not give a damn about.
@So Not J.D.: Gah, you're right. I knew I probably had that wrong and meant to go back and check it but never did, sorry. Thanks for calling me on it.
@GovernmentNames: That's what the comment section is for right?!
Both Active Rock and Modern Rock stations play 99.9% major label rock, right? Do any of these stations play the latest say, Spoon cd, and more importantly would the listeners to a modern rock station change the dial if such a now indie artist came on? From Lee Abrams guidelines for late 70s AOR on through Clear Channel stations and their offshoots today, these stations seem to follow a very narrow formatting model. I am curious, as someone who has detested DC 101 since the '70s, has its percentage of the radio audience declined or increased over the years?
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