Shaking off my Thanksgiving dinner food coma, I’m having a delayed-reaction thought from the week before Thanksgiving. My delayed reaction thought: this news bit I heard saying that Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer had placed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 25. I remember a time when rock songs actually were “Hot 100” songs, songs like Jump, songs like Livin’ on a Prayer, and heavier songs too, song we like much more than Livin’ on a Prayer. Not now, but what does that mean, what does the appearance of Livin’ on a Prayer mean? Could it be true? Is it a sign? I checked Billboard, and yes, it is true, Livin’ on a Prayer, the actual Bon Jovi song, was Number 25 on the Hot 100 chart for the week of November 21, 2013; notice the heavy emphasis on 2013. According to these statistics reported by Rolling Stone, the 1986 single returned to the chart due to a 2009 viral clip of a Boston Celtics fan doing a crazy, showy dance and lip-synch of the song on the cameras, which video apparently made it onto the site Utrend.tv the week of the Billboard chart, in turn resulting in 11 million views, 1.6 million Facebook shares and 5.1 million streams in the United States. All of that apparently is counted by Nielson BDS, with the estimation that 96 percent of the streams came from the video of the silly dancing basketball fan. This 2013 exposure to Livin’ on a Prayer also resulted in the song reaching number 5 on the Streaming Songs chart and garnering 4,000 downloads that week. Okay, so it’s true, but is it a sign?
The next day, while listening to Carson Daly on the pop station I wake up to, I heard Daly’s top five requested daily downloads – a local statistic I believe, and noticed that, except for the latest Eminem song where Eminem raps about the monsters under his bed (I’m not making that up people), the songs were melodic and perhaps trying to have at least a rock influence. In fact, the number one song on that day’s list — Counting Stars, by One Republic — has an almost riff-like chorus. In fact, the boy band we love to mock, One Direction, even has a current song with acoustic guitar. Not that I rely on what One Republic or One Direction or any bunch of pop guys named One “whatever” are doing, what I wanted to say from all of this is LOOK, rock is coming back, mainstream pop stations will embrace rock again; I wanted to believe there are signs (following up on my earlier article asking people to look for the signs), but I think it could be too early to say that because for it to be a true sign, it must hold.
This week I looked again. I wanted to look and see more rock, or at least more signs of rock being relevant in the Top 100 songs. I wanted the signs to hold. No luck though. Well except that Lorde’s song Royals is number one, and the first place I heard that song was the alternative rock radio station. However, the pop songs are all over the place, everything from hip hop, to electronic, to groups, to … Miley Cyrus, although that variety itself could be a sign of change. What stood out was that there were quite a lot of country artists on the pop chart, showing that the pop chart certainly is willing to accept cross-over artists, although I add the caveat that those songs appear at 34, not a high enough number to matter on pop radio. The album chart had a sprinkling of rock, which I suppose makes sense in that the classic rock radio format was once known as “album” rock. As examples, number 25 on the album chart is Eric Clapton’s, Crossroads Live album (also a large poster on the Warner Brothers building in Burbank by the way), the Beatles, On Air Live at the BBC, Vol. 2 is number 29, and Rush’s Clockwork Angels Tour is number 33. There were some alternative bands on the album chart such as Arcade Fire’s Reflecktor at number 28. Many of the albums were not albums I would want, like say Christmas records, but I have yet to feel that Christmas spirit thing this year, perhaps because I require multi-colored lights and I have seen only white mini lights. But I digress.
Making my point, I really hope the small appearance of rock in the world of the mainstream charts was not a fluke. I really hope it doesn’t require videos of crazy basketball fans dancing to rock for rock to make a dent. Or could it be something else is at work? Could it be that country on the pop chart is there because people want guitars, something country musicians use in good doses? Could it be that the songs I heard that day on the Carson Daly top five daily downloads were there because people want something other than an overproduced pop sound and songs rapping about monsters under our beds? Could it be that’s why Lorde is number one, why even One Direction’s backing musicians picked up an acoustic guitar? Could it be that people wanted to hear Livin’ on a Prayer because it’s better than what’s already playing? Time will tell because, frankly, there is no actual rock on this chart. Yet I see something from all of this. I see the power of the Internet. The Internet itself made this old rock song relevant because streams count. So? If the Internet matters, perhaps all we need to do is … stream rock music. And this brings me to my point … rock, somebody play stream me some rock.
The pop song, Counting Stars; see if you hear any rock influences, and remember I’m going to be happy with influences at this point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ULOwtgyoVc