MR

To quote Tom Petty from "Into the Great White Open"

"The A and R man said I don't hear a single...."

As strong as it sounds from a rock perspective - how is the mainstream even going to know its out there?

Well, it's not like Revelation was out there, save some radio play on After All These Years, and little bit of another song. Neal said he didn't make this album for radio play, so I doubt they think they will really get much, if any, off of it. I think Resonate, Chain of Love are very catchy. And Anything is Possible sounds that way, too. They, to me, should have gone with a more obvious song as far as hooks to get some airplay.

Most bands of this genre are facing the same situation. Heart has put out several SMOKIN albums of late, but you don’t hear a lick of it on the radio.

Why?

It doesn’t fit anywhere. The Classic Rock stations will only play the old stuff. New Rock stations only play modern bands. So the only other choice is to succumb to the old age home of radio, “Adult Contemporary”. Thankfully, Heart balked at this path! Looks like Journey feels the same way. (again, thankfully!)

I think Journey has it 100 % right. Why cater to a market you won’t have access to anyway? It’s a wasted effort.

It’s similar to the mentality that brought about the current Comic Book craze in movies. These movies have largely been successful because they’ve embraced the attitude of, “Please the core fans. Screw everyone else! They’re gonna ignore us anyway!”

I think it’s a bold and smart move for Journey to blow off radio play. Sure After All These Years got some Adult Contemporary radio play (though not much), but give me an album full of Change for the Better and Higher Place any day!!! Screw the radio!

For me, Eclipse sounds like the album I’ve been waiting for since Frontiers!

Mark and Brian from KLOS will sample it. Whether the station plays the songs or not is a different story.

I could care less. Radio is a wasteland.
It's not going to sell like Thriller. It's a different time and these are older artists.
I'll buy it. I'm sure I'll dig it. I'll play it. I've already bought my ticket.

"Classic Rock" (I hate that term) artists basically have no chance these days of a "Hit".
Radio is not formatted the same way.

If Classic Rock stations were smart (They're not)
the would be playing old and NEW stuff by classic rock artists. What they are doing now by
playing just the old hits (Old Time RocknRoll, Freebird, Stairway to Heaven), is burning people
out on the same old stuff. EVENTUALLY their listeners will go elsewhere if for nothing else but traffic reports because they can't hear "Rocking in the Freeworld" one more time.

They're killing their own market. Also, Americans have Z E R O attention span and cannot stand to sit for 5 minutes to listen to something that sounds good but that they've never heard before.

Our best hope for Journey to get HUGE success with anything is for someone to Autotune some of their interviews, make a song out of it, and throw it on youtube.

In the meantime, I'll be blasting ECLIPSE from my car...

Making albums to sell money is a thing of the past. Even the newer artists are being measured more by the singles they release over complete album releases.
That said, Journey has more hits than they can ever play in one set. Eclipse isn't an album that is going to capture the masses, it's more of an record that the band wanted to make for themselves to change up the same old formula they have been running with the last 30 years. Journey is an old band from the 80s. I doubt they are hoping to reinvent the wheel and come off as something hip and exciting; if they are, they may be in for a rude awakening. Their peers Bon Jovi and U2 have already tried it and in the end have come back to using touring as the best way to keep their brand alive.
Forget the radio or making money off a new album release. Journey, with a good opening act can sell out decent size arenas anywhere in the country. Licensing and touring the dirty dozen is what is keeping the Journey name out there now. They've already whored out Pineda's story as far as they could take it for the moment (the documentary will just pile onto that, eventually) They should just do what they do best and that is tour. Release albums that they like but use them as tour kickstarters, not write them with the idea of making money off of them. I think the "screw the hits" attitude is what they have done with Eclipse and I'm very cool with that.
Seeing as Eclipse is supposed to be a concept album, I don't even like them butchering COH and Human Feel with edits to release them as singles, but I guess you can't expect the band to totally change over night as far as their affinity for having at least a few releases from reach record.

Classic Rock Radio would be so cool if they did "something old, something new, something blue" hours where they play a classic rocker from the classic rock bands followed by a new song and then followed by a ballad or blues song from the band. That would make me want to listen.

I don't really listen to radio because I just pop in whatever CD I want to hear and I am off to the races. But if they made it a little fun, I would be all over it.

Record sales is not the prime focus for these bands indeed, but even if they were isn't the 'air-play' prerequisite kind of overrated? How many from the younger audience would rely on radio these days in order to buy an album? They would just check the web and purchase the music online. And yes it is a bit weird that the 'classic rock' stations don't play classic band's new material...makes no sense at all

Hippie wrote:Most bands of this genre are facing the same situation. Heart has put out several SMOKIN albums of late, but you don’t hear a lick of it on the radio.

Why?

It doesn’t fit anywhere. The Classic Rock stations will only play the old stuff. New Rock stations only play modern bands. So the only other choice is to succumb to the old age home of radio, “Adult Contemporary”. Thankfully, Heart balked at this path! Looks like Journey feels the same way. (again, thankfully!)

I think Journey has it 100 % right. Why cater to a market you won’t have access to anyway? It’s a wasted effort.

It’s similar to the mentality that brought about the current Comic Book craze in movies. These movies have largely been successful because they’ve embraced the attitude of, “Please the core fans. Screw everyone else! They’re gonna ignore us anyway!”

I think it’s a bold and smart move for Journey to blow off radio play. Sure After All These Years got some Adult Contemporary radio play (though not much), but give me an album full of Change for the Better and Higher Place any day!!! Screw the radio!

For me, Eclipse sounds like the album I’ve been waiting for since Frontiers!

Exactly. Journey shouldnt even try wasting their time on getting something played on the radio anymore. Even when radio stations play newer songs by Journey, like "After all these years", its right when the album comes out and for a short time after. After that you dont hear the song on the radio again. Heck that even happened with "When you love a woman". It was a pretty big hit, reaching #12 and nominated for a grammy, radio stations played it non stop for like 6 months afterwards, but do you ever hear it on the radio now?? Most radio stations in Michigan dont even play that song anymore and that was a big hit. The stations stick to their core journey songs of DSB, LTS, Lights, Faithfully, open arms, etc.

I too would love to see classic rock stations play newer and older hits by artists. It gets tiring hearing the same old song over and over again.

george_g wrote:Record sales is not the prime focus for these bands indeed, but even if they were isn't the 'air-play' prerequisite kind of overrated? How many from the younger audience would rely on radio these days in order to buy an album? They would just check the web and purchase the music online. And yes it is a bit weird that the 'classic rock' stations don't play classic band's new material...makes no sense at all

I always thought the purpose of Classic Rock was for just that, to listen to Classic Rock songs. Even if the band is old, if the song is new, how can it be a classic?

Don wrote:

george_g wrote:Record sales is not the prime focus for these bands indeed, but even if they were isn't the 'air-play' prerequisite kind of overrated? How many from the younger audience would rely on radio these days in order to buy an album? They would just check the web and purchase the music online. And yes it is a bit weird that the 'classic rock' stations don't play classic band's new material...makes no sense at all

I always thought the purpose of Classic Rock was for just that, to listen to Classic Rock songs. Even if the band is old, if the song is new, how can it be a classic?

Ever hear of Instant Classic?

Don wrote:Making albums to sell money is a thing of the past. Even the newer artists are being measured more by the singles they release over complete album releases.
That said, Journey has more hits than they can ever play in one set. Eclipse isn't an album that is going to capture the masses, it's more of an record that the band wanted to make for themselves to change up the same old formula they have been running with the last 30 years. Journey is an old band from the 80s. I doubt they are hoping to reinvent the wheel and come off as something hip and exciting; if they are, they may be in for a rude awakening. Their peers Bon Jovi and U2 have already tried it and in the end have come back to using touring as the best way to keep their brand alive.
Forget the radio or making money off a new album release. Journey, with a good opening act can sell out decent size arenas anywhere in the country. Licensing and touring the dirty dozen is what is keeping the Journey name out there now. They've already whored out Pineda's story as far as they could take it for the moment (the documentary will just pile onto that, eventually) They should just do what they do best and that is tour. Release albums that they like but use them as tour kickstarters, not write them with the idea of making money off of them. I think the "screw the hits" attitude is what they have done with Eclipse and I'm very cool with that.
Seeing as Eclipse is supposed to be a concept album, I don't even like them butchering COH and Human Feel with edits to release them as singles, but I guess you can't expect the band to totally change over night as far as their affinity for having at least a few releases from reach record.

It's not just '80s classic rock bands. It's '80s artists, in general. Madonna's 2005 Confessions On a Dance Floor ended up selling around 12 million and in the U.S. she got very little radio play, save the one single. It doesn't make sense. They just don't play her because she's an older artist. And her last album was around four million albums worldwide and was considered a flop (for her), though she did have a big single off it in other countries. And hardly any radioplay here. You're right, touring is their mainstay now to keep the public interest and put out albums for their fanbase.

Don wrote:

george_g wrote:Record sales is not the prime focus for these bands indeed, but even if they were isn't the 'air-play' prerequisite kind of overrated? How many from the younger audience would rely on radio these days in order to buy an album? They would just check the web and purchase the music online. And yes it is a bit weird that the 'classic rock' stations don't play classic band's new material...makes no sense at all

I always thought the purpose of Classic Rock was for just that, to listen to Classic Rock songs. Even if the band is old, if the song is new, how can it be a classic?

Because they are classic rock artists.

Maybe they should change the nomenclature from Classic Rock to Back Catalog radio.


Honestly, an established group shouldn't need radio play anymore. Iron Maiden never gets played on the radio yet they sell out places like Madison Square Garden. Look at their fan pics at these shows and also how young a lot of the people are.
If your brand has a strong user base, that and word of mouth should get you by now days.

Don wrote:Maybe they should change the nomenclature from Classic Rock to Back Catalog radio.


Honestly, an established group shouldn't need radio play anymore. Iron Maiden never gets played on the radio yet they sell out places like Madison Square Garden. Look at their fan pics at these shows and also how young a lot of the people are.
If your brand has a strong user base, that and word of mouth should get you by now days.

Exactly. There are many bands that don't get played, but have ravenous followers- Rush, for example. They play their old stuff, but when their old stuff was new, they didn't play it.
Iron Maiden, same deal.

I think the thing with Journey is that they were a HIT band at one time. Now they are just a great live band with classic songs making new music. That's fine with me.

brywool wrote:

Don wrote:Maybe they should change the nomenclature from Classic Rock to Back Catalog radio.


Honestly, an established group shouldn't need radio play anymore. Iron Maiden never gets played on the radio yet they sell out places like Madison Square Garden. Look at their fan pics at these shows and also how young a lot of the people are.
If your brand has a strong user base, that and word of mouth should get you by now days.

Exactly. There are many bands that don't get played, but have ravenous followers- Rush, for example. They play their old stuff, but when their old stuff was new, they didn't play it.
Iron Maiden, same deal.

I think the thing with Journey is that they were a HIT band at one time. Now they are just a great live band with classic songs making new music. That's fine with me.

I'll say it again, FaceBook Is where bands make or break. Even Roger Waters knows that. Maybe it's a fad, but at this moment in time, it makes a difference. Look at Maiden, telling fans they are going to put concert pics on their wall so come to the shows looking to get filmed, or Bon Jovi having DVD nights where they stream material for free.
Putting up concert photos after every show to get the next town pumped up and actually posting once a week seems to get fans hyped up and sometimes leads to their friends checking out that page also.
An ungodly amount of People spend 4,6 even 8 hours or more on FaceBook everyday. As a legacy band trying to stay relevant, if you don't use that as a bastion for free advertising, then you really have no right to complain. Don't necessarily wait for fans to drop by your official site, bring the news to their home turf, put your new songs up in a playlist on your FB page and let it take off from there.

Look at it this way. When 38 Special tried to stay on the radio, they went from ROUGH HOUSIN' to SECOND CHANCE.

Nuff said!

Hippie wrote:Look at it this way. When 38 Special tried to stay on the radio, they went from ROUGH HOUSIN' to SECOND CHANCE.

Nuff said!

They looked cool as shit when I first saw them on MTV, sing Hold On Loosely and Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. When I heard Second Chance a few years later, I was like "WTF?"

someone could be a radio hit

its classic journey

scarab wrote:someone could be a radio hit

its classic journey

I totally get it. It sounds so fucking classic Journey it's not true. I can't wait to hear the full song.

Don wrote:I'll say it again, FaceBook Is where bands make or break. Even Roger Waters knows that. Maybe it's a fad, but at this moment in time, it makes a difference. Look at Maiden, telling fans they are going to put concert pics on their wall so come to the shows looking to get filmed, or Bon Jovi having DVD nights where they stream material for free.

Putting up concert photos after every show to get the next town pumped up and actually posting once a week seems to get fans hyped up and sometimes leads to their friends checking out that page also.

An ungodly amount of People spend 4,6 even 8 hours or more on FaceBook everyday. As a legacy band trying to stay relevant, if you don't use that as a bastion for free advertising, then you really have no right to complain. Don't necessarily wait for fans to drop by your official site, bring the news to their home turf, put your new songs up in a playlist on your FB page and let it take off from there.

And, put the URLs on stage, especially the bass drums! Take advantage of all the fans using Youtube, FB, & Twitter as free advertising. Thing is, rock stars today need to take a lot of personal initiative. Most 'classic' artists are introverted musicians that had mgrs doing everything for them. Today's stars are computer-savvy and don't look at it as work.


later~

Hippie wrote:SECOND CHANCE. :roll

Great tune. Remember when I first heard it, I thought it was a new Perry single.

Sure there's hit potential! Didn't you guys hear "City of Hope My Nizzle"?
I Tink Dats about Oaklin!


INSTANT hit!