I.B. BAD FINDS HIMSELF
BETWEEN ROCK & A HARD PLACE

In an era that embraces divas, rappers and dance tracks, a number of the majors have moved away from rock. Concurrently, and perhaps not coincidentally, rock radio has also fallen on hard times, as evidenced by the recent demise of Q101, leaving only adult-leaving WXRT in Chicago, while New York and Cleveland now have no contemporary rock stations whatsoever—a situation that would have been incomprehensible in past decades. On the other hand, rock stations in Top 10 markets L.A., Philly, Boston, Detroit, Dallas and Houston are all extremely successful. But while guitar-based music is struggling in some areas, it’s absurd to say rock is dead at a time when the form contains such potent acts as U2, Coldplay, AC/DC, Kings of Leon, Muse, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Linkin Park, Paramore, the Black Keys, Florence & the Machine, Thirty Seconds to Mars, MGMT, Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend and Mumford & Sons, each with its own loyal fan base. What’s different is that few rock singles get massive spins these days, though when they do, as with KOL’s “Use Somebody” and Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man,” they sell big numbers of albums, with KOL’s Only by the Night selling 2.18m (without a hit, the following Come Around Sundown got to 657k) and Mumford’s Sigh No More now at 1.79k—achieving this impressive total with zero Top 40 spins. At this point in time, a rock album with sufficient sustained airplay can typically do between 600-900k, as with the Black Keys’ Brothers (832k), Florence & the Machine’s Lungs (780k) and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs (680k). Currently carrying the rock banner at rock radio is Foster the People, whose “Pumped Up Kicks” has become one of 2011’s definitive hits, resulting in album sales on Torches of 275k to date, while RCA and Warner Bros. are presently attempting to cross the Foo Fighters and the Chili Peppers to pop. Be that as it may, some labels have opted to put rock on the back burner, deeming it too risky and expensive. One of the first to do so was Interscope, which has been hugely successful with the likes of Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas and Eminem, while parting ways with Beck, Weezer, Snow Patrol, Papa Roach and Nine Inch Nails during the last couple of years, and is now down to U2, No Doubt, Blink-182, All American Rejects and Rise Against. The irony here is that the company is led by Jimmy Iovine, who built his reputation working with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Now, Warner Bros., another label headed by a big-time rock producer in Rob Cavallo, while still entrenched in the rock business, would like to become a more well-rounded operation, in keeping with today’s mainstream. The label still has the Black Keys, Green Day, Muse, Linkin Park and the Chili Peppers, and though Metallica is out of contract, WBR is putting out the band’s collaborative LP with Lou Reed, despite the fact that it has little mainstream potential, based as it is on a pair of German Expressionist plays. While industry observers point to the reduction of Warner/Reprise promotion from two staffs to one under new overall department head Peter Gray as evidence of the label’s desire to become a more stylistically eclectic and competitive label, those in the know point out that this two-to-one move has been in the works for years. Lyor Cohen would have been done so long ago, they say, having concluded that WBR’s A&R staff wasn’t signing enough viable acts to warrant two departments, but he was thwarted by a clause in Tom Whalley’s contract stipulating such a structure—and this issue was believed to be one of the issues leading to their acrimonious relationship. All eyes are now on Gray as he reorganizes the company’s promotion team… The same can be said for Epic promotion—a clear-cut priority for newly installed label head L.A. Reid considering the radio-centric acts he signs—under newly hired leader Erik Olesen. He succeeds Jacqueline Saturn, who is staying at the label in an as yet unspecified role, making for an awkward situation… After spending its entire 35-year career at WB, Van Halen, with David Lee Roth back in the fold, recently completed work on its first album for new label Columbia, coming early next year… And though rock record revenues have diminished, the concert business, led by acts with multi-decade careers playing arenas and stadiums, has held steady and in some cases has actually increased. The same is true with high-profile festivals like Coachella, which has locked in No Doubt and Radiohead as two of next year’s headliners… Names in the rumor mill: Bernstein and Mensch, Bono, Dave Grohl , Ken Levitan, Ian Montone, Bob Rock and Brian Eno.