Pretty much on the money, pun intended. I didn't realize exactly how it happened in radio, but MS radio is absolutely garbage now. I have thought for a very long time to try to open a local radio station to promote local artist but I'm sure I'd have to claw through hell... not only have I witnessed the decline of alternative rock, they have also manipulated it into what I call "Festival Rock" which is sorta girly if you ask me. Bands like 21 pilots, Imagine Dragons, ect. (Which I'm not saying are bad but...) you really have to go out of your way to find real powerful rock music today.
Rock music is not dead. It's the MSM and radio industry that's trying to kill it or manipulate it into pop rock away from heaviness and power.
When they got rid of 96 Rock and 99X in Atlanta, thats when I realized what was going on.
I'm so sick of the MS Music industry I could go on and on.
No local radio,
No local artists getting any attention really at all.
Anything harder than Godsmack ain't gonna make the radio
They don't even have stations for good trance, electronica, or Future Garage. It's ridiculous.
Same 2 songs from the same 10 bands over and over again.. so many good songs that never got played.
There are many bands I'm just now finding out about from the early 2000s that I cannot believe I've never heard of before. I search youtube and just click random bands just to see how they sound and go through their records on Spotify to find the best songs.
Pandora was the best thing to happen in the mid 2005s where it introduced me to so many different types of music and metal bands. It was a life saver. I use to listen to some awesome heavy metal music late into the night playing AH. A favorite past time of mine.
I feel like so many people never understand the true power of music because all they hear their entire life is the same MS songs over and over again from the radio. It's sad really. Music can heal you, it's literally a vibrational drug, and so many don't know or understand the power of it, which is why the MSM producers push garbage nasty rap/pop that influences poor behavior. The old conspiracy was paying rappers to push garbage to get more in private prisons. What a complete shame. Most don't understand the power of music because they are trapped by MSM garbage and don't venture out to find other artists.
So many bands didn't get the notoriety they deserved because of the stupid main stream radio stations manipulating to only play 1 or 2 songs from the main "approved" rock bands, and many of those were sellouts who changed their sound for the Main Stream producers. We've seen time and time again bands with great albums early on turn to girly crap in the years later. To harp on the Taylor Swift crazy, they realized a while back that 13 year old girls run the music industry, so that's what they push, disregard everyone else and their music interest.
Here is my Power Rock Playlist. How many of these bands from the early 2,000s have you heard? I just found some of these songs last year... its a shame because they are really good.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6dNYr05wlrChXj7KhBYc0i?si=U5O-ZwdoSpmXI26K9An6jg&pi=6fQu6mG6QSSSe
Local Arist;
From the mid 60s-mid-late80s, local "agents/promoters" would attend bar band shows. And in the 70s-80s we gave them a LOT to see in a bar. Competition for that reason was full throttle.
In the early 80s when I was getting my chops together, I ran with some metal or classic rock bands. They were everywhere. On Chicago West suburbs (of the rich) there musta been 50 rock clubs within a 50 mile radius, which all ran bands 5-7 days a week. Out of those bar shows came REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, The Hounds, Chicago (I have a personal story about that band) Yanni, etc. We would literally, take in concert scale gear, lights and pyro into these large bars, that held 50-3000. We were bright and very loud, every band competed for having the biggest production. And Agents would come to see it all, and once in a while they'd pick a local band to open for a national act they were promoting. But for most local bands, after that adrenaline rush and then nothing else coming of it, it deflated them, and a lot of bands dispersed.
we have a cpl radio stations out here that tried what you suggest, it kinda always balanced on a razor blade, the some of the audience was like Meh!. They wanted to hear what they bought. It was mostly music connoisseurs who tuned in. One DJ friend of mine tried your idea on radio and newspapers for 40 yrs, same results. Back int he 80s there were mags out everyone read, because everyone bought them to see their friends bands in print. They are still around but down from 40 pages to 3-4.
Now days you just don't have that agent lurking feel, nor the gear. Most of it is now stick speaker systems and a few LED lights. So even more slips through the cracks.
My best example. 2007. I had done a LOT of bands of all genres. A sound company that had hired me as an employee, the owner comes to me and says "We have a present for you, a gift show". <blank stare> I'm like what does that mean, sometimes "gifts" turn out to be a nightmare joke, sarcasm. They would not tell me who it was, but now I'm on edge. I like to know what I'm walking into, who I'm dealing with and use their reputation as what I might be in for, good or bad. Finally they ask, "do you know who Joe Bonamassa is? I said no, they said well then it's a gift, he was a child prodigy, that's all we're saying. <scratches head> Could not find a damn thing about this guy.
Setting up the stage, I'm mixing monitors so I'm designing that setup to his stage plot. Kinda busy. Some dweeb comes up to me and ask "when are you going to get to my gear?". I wasn't very charming that day and said, Look, I'm just doing what your FOH told the should be done. Basically, go away and stay away. lol. Never pester a monitor engineer. They are usually stressed out from the weight on their shoulders. (grumpy).
OK, so we do sound check without the main artist, all is cool. Loud AF on stage. Start the show, go into first song without the artist. Then they are announced and he walks out.....and here comes that little squirrel I shrugged off during setup. Whoops!. Kinda figure this is gonna be a suck show, I was pranked. Kinda rock-blues, meh!!
Then he started playing <jaw drop>, by the 3rd song my jaw just stayed dropped through the whole show. His guitar playing and band was just stunning. And everyone who sees him say the same. I mean he never ever hits a bad note. Kinda mind blowing talent. I wish he'd play more upbeat stuff. <shrug>
My point. I've done 450 high profile artist in 4000 concerts over 45 yrs. >I< never even heard of the guy, and I was sent to work with him, and he was already touring for 5 yrs. In th eold days I'd know everything I need to know about them, because everyone knew who they were.
Now days, the music we hear on YT are local artist using PCs as mentioned above. They're not getting into an ambient studio, with mics and acustics and most of all, a real sound engineer with decades of tricks up his sleeve. Kinda recycles back to the above.
