There have been a number of articles circulating recently theorizing possible assassins in the seemingly sudden death of rock radio. Suspects thus far have included stations, artists, labels, payola, the Evil Empire, Howard Stern and some have even blamed the listeners. Although I find it somewhat pointless to expound on possible causes, when the facts are clear that the ride is over, I think it is important to analyze the mistakes that have been made so maybe history won’t repeat itself. I have heard the various arguments and believe they all hold an element of truth (except the Stern one..that’s just his ego talking), however I feel that upon further investigation it seems that the loss of mainstream rock radio is in no way something to be lamented, nor was it that ‘sudden.’ When god closes a door, he opens a window, or so the saying goes, yes? And in this case, it’s a browser window.

The 80s saw the rise of the arena rock gods. Rock radio was flourishing as new superstar bands with big superstar hair churned out monster hit after monster hit, selling out huge arenas worldwide. The combination of extremely tight pants, more money than most countries, hair spray fumes and an endless supply of cocaine ensured their reign would be short lived as eventually the arena rock ‘Shout at the Devil’ turned into the State Fair sideshow ‘Unskinny Bop.’ As the genre became more cock than rock, rock radio listeners began losing interest, either holing themselves up in their grandmother’s basement air-guitaring to Metal Health until the tape melted, or they turned to other formats to expand their musical horizons. Rock radio had hit a lull that only the buttery smooth vocals of Kurt Cobain teamed with the money of huge beer companies could pull them out of.

As radio began to consolidate and turn into large conglomerates with cookie-cutter stations across the country, playlists became static, allowing for very little variety. Radio was turning more into a mainstream avenue for advertising and less an avenue for exposure to new music. The DJs had all been castrated and forced into reading liner cards and eventually pre-programmed playlists. Beer company advertising dollars seemed to dictate what music made it on the air, wanting to keep the demographic within their target consumer audience (male 21-35). With these things on its side, when grunge hit, it hit hard and that very quickly became the new rock ‘movement,’ flooding radio nation-wide. Rock listeners obediently traded in their spandex for flannel and their revelry for angst as they were completely surrounded by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Although this genre was very short-lived comparatively, their medium-rotation ‘Alternative’ counterparts like Green Day, Radiohead and Weezer saw continued success and bridged the gap between flash-in-the-pan rock fads.

As grunge floundered in a weak attempt to keep itself interesting, the internet was growing in popularity and we were all soon introduced to Napster. Although it had not been big enough or popular enough at the time to do any damage to record sales, labels ensured the Napster debate stayed in the headlines, giving Peer to Peer networks more free advertising than they ever could have hoped for. Soon, rock listeners we plugged in and on the hunt for music. Rather than embracing this new technology and seeing the future marketing potential contained within, the labels felt threatened. Even though the labels fear was unfounded (record sales were actually going up, on the whole), it kept them distracted enough to make some hasty and unwise decisions. Thinking they must increase the quantity of product they were pushing in order to make money, labels seemed to be on a signing frenzy, picking up every piece of shit that knocked on their door. And hence, the birth of Nu-Metal.

Rock radio was standing firm on it’s pile of beer money and kept their playlists geared at a male audience of legal drinking age, which in the absence of new grunge that was worth a damn, welcomed with open arms ‘dude rock’ bands like Korn, Godsmack, Limp Bizkit and Nickelback. This Nu-Metal was just as watered down as the beer keeping it on the air, and discerning rock fans were soon glued to the internet in search of something better. With a world of new and previously unheard of music at their fingertips, rock listeners quickly expanded their musical interests, educated themselves and allowed music a more central role in their lives.

This accessibility and the shift from passive to active listening, had a profound effect not only on rock listeners, but future musicians. Taking advantage of the endless promotional opportunities on the internet, just about anyone could be in a band, be heard and sell records…even if they’re horrible. No matter what your band sounded like, there was an audience for it somewhere, and you could reach them through your computer. This was a very significant time in rock music as it changed from blanket movements of certain styles to a large community of niche markets. College-aged kids led the technological revolution in music and as a result, indie rock started to see a serious upswing, emerging as the largest of the ‘niche’ markets visible on the internet.

By this point, rock radio was on a significant decline. It seems 20 minutes of commercials every hour and a stale 150 song playlist had trouble competing with the commercial-free never-ending playlist that the internet provided. Labels and radio agreed that in order to entice these listeners to come back to radio, they must start playing indie rock bands. This came in the form of ‘garage rock revival’ like The Strokes and The White Stripes and the countless other bands with ‘The’ in the name. Although it seemed a natural solution to a difficult problem, radio never saw the listener increase it had expected. The songs were not the only issue listeners had with radio. With no live DJs, countless commercials, lack of variety in programming and with the buzz of satellite radio beginning, rock radio didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Because the mainstream had become ‘indie rock,’ specialty and college programming began to go further underground, picking up unsigned artists in an attempt to break format and bring listeners something new. There was certainly no shortage of them as the production, pressing, sale and promotion could be done almost completely on a home computer taking away the need for large label backing. Unsigned artists now had the same resources as labels at a very affordable price, and given the label’s track records over the past 20 years (since before the birth of some of these new bands), self-releasing or going to small independent labels was starting to become preferred over pursuit of the bright lights, bad records and huge debts that majors offered. Although it is not difficult to find a decent band that will sign a contract, the sea of shitty bands flooding the unsigned space made A&R life a living hell.

By the end of 2004, satellite and internet radio had a full stronghold on rock listeners and it was widely known that after holiday programming ended, many stations would not be returning to their old formats. The first half of this year saw a dramatic number of format flips away from Alternative. Most going to either Urban or Latin, and some morphing into the mysterious ‘JACK’ format (a combination of 80s, 90s and current Alternative, although the format has yet to clearly define itself). Active Rock, however, has seen little change aside from the embrace of Hardcore and Emo, and in some cases a nearly exclusive metal/metal-derivative playlist. Although some believe the dissolving of the Alternative format means that people are no longer listening to alternative, there is absolutely no evidence to support that theory. Alternative fans are out there and more dedicated than ever to new music, proof of this being their willingness to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak, through satellite radio and download service subscriptions. It can be argued that the drop in record sales indicates a lack of fans, but keep in mind that alternative sales avenues, like shows and most online sales are not usually included in these calculations.

Rock radio is dead. It killed itself. The labels helped, so I guess it was an assisted suicide. Unable or unwilling to know their audience left both of them up shit creek. There is a chance that rock radio could one day live again, however it is not very likely to happen any time soon. I am sure someday the novelty or retro-status of terrestrial radio stations will appeal to an underground crowd. I like to think of this more as evolution than death, since rock listeners as well as rock artists have more options than they did previously. This is a good thing for rock music and will pave the way for the other formats to follow suit, which is inevitable. It seems labels would be wise to focus more attention on New Media Marketing and get their radio promoters focused on these new outlets (and perhaps drop some of the old school change-fearing hacks higher up on the chain that stunted progress to the point of lay-offs).

It would be silly to think that standard methods of money-making would apply in this new paradigm, so it is now on the labels to get creative and either find a way to make it work or come up with new methods. In much the same way, the pressure is certainly on the A&Rs to start finding better bands that can appeal to a variety of these niche audiences. Perhaps this change will encourage labels to go back to the days of artist development and conditioning artists to become future Rock Legends. Rock will always need its heroes, and we are all anxiously waiting for one to emerge. With the new artists being those raised in this more enlightened technological environment, I am optimistic one is on the way, and confident they will exceed expectations.

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[GlockMeAmadeus]

In light of the recent payola scandals, I think it is becoming more obvious than ever that A&R has a serious problem on their hands. If the songs aren’t good enough that they can’t get more than light overnight rotation without spending millions upon millions a year, then labels need to crack down on their A&Rs and find out why they can’t do much more than polish a turd and buy it a chart position. Of course this payola problem involves the stations as well, since anyone currently in radio has never known anything but payola. Programmers are just as clueless as the A&Rs in figuring out the difference between a good song vs. bad song and a flash-in-the-pan artist vs. a career artist. It’s going to take a lot more than a public apology and promise to never do it again to fix this problem. Sweeping reforms are necessary for any credibility to be regained. Major labels used to represent the best of the best in music. They have the money and the resources to give high quality acts the support they deserve. Why they choose to waste this money on shitty music is beyond me. Are they not aware that all of the production, imaging and promotion work would not be nearly as expensive or difficult if the artists brought something to the table?