DOES ANYONE LISTEN TO ACTIVE ROCK RADIO?

I did a very funny thing this morning: I looked at the Active Rock radio charts. For those not familiar with radio lingo, “Active Rock” refers to the heavier rock radio format that generally consists of bands too heavy for “Alternative” and too light for actual metal stations, plus a smattering of metal classics like Ozzy, Van Halen and GNR.). Amidst confused exclamations of “THAT band STILL gets radio play??” and “I can’t believe people actually listen to THAT band!” I decided to do another very funny thing: go to all of said bands’ MySpace pages and actually listen to their songs. Woah. And my conclusion was this: what the fuck year is it?

Apparently Theory of a Deadman has the number one song in the country right now. WHAT?? Disturbed has the #2 slot (no surprise there) and 3 Doors Down occupy the third rank. ZUH??? I thought those dudes fell of a cliff sometime around 2002.

The rest of the top 20 is filled out something like this: Seether (with two songs!), Chevelle, Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Sevendust, 10 Years, Five Finger Death Punch, and continual Nirvana-apists Puddle of Mudd. I have a message for the Active Rock station directors who are programming this shlock: Hey guys, 2003 called and it would really love its radio station back!

There’s a couple of unexpected but welcome surprises: Airbourne’s “Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast” holds at #18, but this isn’t too surprising considering these stations’ listeners are the epitome of the AC/DC demographic. Also, Sixx AM? Not exactly the calling card for revolutionary, but I’ll take it. Ditto with Billy Howerdel’s Ashes Divide.

Then there’s a bunch of newcomers who borrowed a page — actually, they stole the entire script — from the early ’00s playbook: Red, Egypt Central and Saving Abel.

I guess my point is… Active Rock radio seems like it hasn’t changed one bit in nearly a decade. Aren’t people sick of this shit? Who even LISTENS to these stations? Red state America? Beats me. Or am I that out of touch with mainstream rock that I’m just disconnected from what people actually listen to?

-VN