Now well all know that mainstream rock in 2018 wasn’t the best that rock has to offer, but there’s a reason for that. Most radio stations in America are owned by one major company. iHeart Radio. That company basically tells their stations to play certain things and not others because their paid to do so. Here’s a perfect example of this in action.
While listening to my local iHeart station, that’s labeled as something else, you hear the same old stuff, every time, every hour, on the same rotation, every day. I wake up at 5 in the morning on the weekdays and when I turn on the radio to get ready for the day, I hear the same songs every single time. It goes, from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Badflower to Iron Maiden to Green Day to Godsmack. Those bands are either established or trying to get established, but these are bands that are on the approved list for airplay.
Now, I may be completely wrong about this and I may be totally in left field, but I find it interesting that they claim to break new bands all the time but I hardly hear any new music. I’m told that Badflower is a great new band that needs to be heard and their only song I’ve heard, which is completely overplayed, completely sucks in my opinion. I’m sure they have fans all over the world that will say otherwise, but we all like different stuff and they aren’t what I like to listen to.
Other bands, like Breaking Benjamin, got limited airplay when their new album dropped. I did hear it every now and then, but not like the favorited songs on the rotation. You also don’t hear any bands like Sevendust, Slipknot or even Nickelback unless they’re coming to your town, that’s the only time they’ll play the bands music and they do that so they can hype up a concert. After the show is done, they disappear from the radio rotation. The only one that didn’t disappear from radio airplay was Guns N Roses. They were basically non-existent until they played a show here in Lubbock for the first time ever and all of a sudden, non stop GNR on the radio. Evanescenese is another good example, the recently came out with an amazing song about suicide and trying to help people in need, but it didn’t receive any airplay. Yet, we need to hear Badflower because it talks about the same subject, except it’s about haunting someone after their death.
If you want to know what rock bands that came out with amazing music that you should have heard about more often, look at: Of Allies, Skillet, Above Only, Breaking Benjamin, Halestorm, Shinedown, and Disturbed. Not only that, you should look at Spotify's "Discover Weekly" playlist and you'll find new favorites in no time.
Do you want to know the reason rock sucked in 2018? Look no further than iHeart Radio and their pay to play scheme they have going on. This isn’t just a 2018 problem either, it’s also a generation problem. This has been going on for the last decade or so and it’s only now becoming a problem. This is the reason I stopped listening to the radio as much as I did ten years ago and started listening to Spotify and paying attention to new music video releases on YouTube. Those are the only platforms that I’m able to discover new music and it not be completely biased. I’m sure people wouldn’t appreciate things getting shoved in their face and are told that they need to like this because someone told them they needed to, so why would we want to listen to Rolling Stones when they only pay attention to stuff that’s approved to play on the radio continuously? That’s just as bad as Billboard calling Lorde’s “Royals” best Rock Streaming Song in 2013. If you listen to the executives at Billboard and Rolling Stones, you’re being led down the wrong path.
Do yourself a favor, listen to what you want to, not what you're told to or force fed. When you focus completely on what one source says for ANYTHING, you hinder yourself and your way of life.