Why are rock acts bypassing ATL? (Sparta, Greenville: college, subsidized, safe)

[flamadiddle]

Sevendust occasionally plays Atlanta, but then that's where they're from. Awesome band btw!

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by CMMom

It does suck because, at my age, there's no way in Hades that I'm going to a muddy, smelly music festival and staying in a tent. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. As long as people on this thread are dissing Gen-Xers, I might as well own it. Age has its privileges, and I'd rather sip Cabernet at the Ritz-Carlton than share a bong with a bunch of smelly hippy wannabes at a music festival. YMMV.

LOL, this is my exact feeling. I have zero interest in going to a festival and dealing with all the unpleasantries. An hour wait for a porta potty (dangerous at my age), dirty sweaty masses squeezed together, massive plumes of cigarette or weed smoke is not my idea of a fun way to spend $100.

Plus, I don't want to be that sad, balding, middle aged guy wearing jorts and white shoes belting out the lyrics to the song at a concert that I used to make fun of.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Plus, I don't want to be that sad, balding, middle aged guy wearing jorts

There's a festival for that coming up in August. https://www.timeout.com/atlanta/thin...jortsfest-2017

[gil_happy]

Having lived in Atlanta for 13 years, I think Atlanta has the best music scene, i.e concerts, shows, etc in the country. Second to maybe LA or possibly NY.... other than that, I put the ATL on top to getting all of the great shows.

My musical taste is 80s and 90s so I might be behind on the times, but with Chastain (my absolute fav), Verizon, Lakewood, Tabernacle, etc, we have it covered!

[Craziaskowboi]

Just some random thoughts of mine that can possibly be connected together into a coherent answer to this question:


1. Beyond the now-classic rock acts like Metallica and U2, if I want to listen to bands like Shinedown or Disturbed on the radio in Atlanta, then I'm **** out of luck. But hey, I can hear Adele and The Chainsmokers on four different stations! Hooray for variety! Oh, and somebody earlier in this topic said that bands like Foo Fighters are "pop" now, so hey, that means I'll be hearing their music on Star 94 or Q100 in no time, right?

2. "Real" rock music hasn't gone underground voluntarily. It's been pushed underground by radio and record executives who have basically declared war on the genre. The switch flipped in 2012, and contemporary rock music has been pushed out in the cold ever since.

3. Millennials don't know how to rock. That's probably the main reason why the genre has been sent into near-total exile by radio and record executives. When "Shut Up And Dance" by Walk The Moon has the loudest guitars on Top 40 radio, then there's a problem. It can't all be pop, hip-hop and EDM, with a token indie-pop song thrown in every now and then. Top 40 radio today has the least diversity of sound that I've ever heard.

4. Alternative doesn't know how to rock anymore either. If banjos or synthesizers are the primary instrument of the band, then it's not a rock band, period. Rock music has loud guitars and loud vocals. Alternative these days sounds more like '80s new wave than anything. Some of it can be rock-ish, but at its core, it's not rock.

5. If the "active rock" radio format can thrive in Dallas/Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Detroit and Phoenix, then I really don't see why it can't thrive in Atlanta. Here's a band from Atlanta that isn't getting a single spin on Atlanta radio. You can't tell me that there's no market for music like that here. Likewise, you can't tell me that this song wouldn't be good for Top 40 if only Top 40 radio consultants anywhere in the U.S. had an open enough mind.

6. It's weird how Europe, Latin America, Japan and Australia still embrace rock music, while North America shuns it. Rock music in North America was ever-present in the Top 40 from the late 1960s all the way through the late 2000s, so this decade is not normal.


Anyway, maybe what I typed above will add up to something.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by CMMom

It does suck because, at my age, there's no way in Hades that I'm going to a muddy, smelly music festival and staying in a tent. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. As long as people on this thread are dissing Gen-Xers, I might as well own it. Age has its privileges, and I'd rather sip Cabernet at the Ritz-Carlton than share a bong with a bunch of smelly hippy wannabes at a music festival. YMMV.

Originally Posted by waronxmas

LOL, this is my exact feeling. I have zero interest in going to a festival and dealing with all the unpleasantries. An hour wait for a porta potty (dangerous at my age), dirty sweaty masses squeezed together, massive plumes of cigarette or weed smoke is not my idea of a fun way to spend $100.

Plus, I don't want to be that sad, balding, middle aged guy wearing jorts and white shoes belting out the lyrics to the song at a concert that I used to make fun of.

Man....you guys are doing festivals wrong. Or at least the wrong festivals. I'm 42, so pretty-much middle aged, and went to my first out-of-town music festival last year. I had the time of my life. They limited the number of people at the festival, so it wasn't ridiculous-crowded..plenty of room to move around. They had regular bathrooms in addition to plenty of porta-potties, so I never once waited more than a couple of minutes for a bathroom. And I stayed in a nearby hotel, although I decided I'd camp this year if I went back.

On the flip side, I've been to plenty of concert venues where people were jam packed in, waits at the bathrooms exceeded 20 minutes, and the people were just as smelly!

That being said...I know a lot of festivals jam-pack as many people as they can into them, and that sounds utterly miserable. Like, this does not look like fun:

[atlantamoi]

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

1. Beyond the now-classic rock acts like Metallica and U2, if I want to listen to bands like Shinedown or Disturbed on the radio in Atlanta, then I'm **** out of luck. But hey, I can hear Adele and The Chainsmokers on four different stations! Hooray for variety! Oh, and somebody earlier in this topic said that bands like Foo Fighters are "pop" now, so hey, that means I'll be hearing their music on Star 94 or Q100 in no time, right?

I definitely am not happy where rock radio is today, but radio seems to have gone the way of the dodo. I mean, I get my kicks online now. Lots of great music to choose from and you can dive into your particular subgenre in a big way. USB drive in the car for my too large music collection. We all have different tastes, but IMO rock radio died in the late 90's when Creed/Linkin Park/Nickelback and their influence kicked in. The saddest period ever on the air.

[stillinthesouth]

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

Just some random thoughts of mine that can possibly be connected together into a coherent answer to this question:


1. Beyond the now-classic rock acts like Metallica and U2, if I want to listen to bands like Shinedown or Disturbed on the radio in Atlanta, then I'm **** out of luck. But hey, I can hear Adele and The Chainsmokers on four different stations! Hooray for variety! Oh, and somebody earlier in this topic said that bands like Foo Fighters are "pop" now, so hey, that means I'll be hearing their music on Star 94 or Q100 in no time, right?

2. "Real" rock music hasn't gone underground voluntarily. It's been pushed underground by radio and record executives who have basically declared war on the genre. The switch flipped in 2012, and contemporary rock music has been pushed out in the cold ever since.

3. Millennials don't know how to rock. That's probably the main reason why the genre has been sent into near-total exile by radio and record executives. When "Shut Up And Dance" by Walk The Moon has the loudest guitars on Top 40 radio, then there's a problem. It can't all be pop, hip-hop and EDM, with a token indie-pop song thrown in every now and then. Top 40 radio today has the least diversity of sound that I've ever heard.

4. Alternative doesn't know how to rock anymore either. If banjos or synthesizers are the primary instrument of the band, then it's not a rock band, period. Rock music has loud guitars and loud vocals. Alternative these days sounds more like '80s new wave than anything. Some of it can be rock-ish, but at its core, it's not rock.

5. If the "active rock" radio format can thrive in Dallas/Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Detroit and Phoenix, then I really don't see why it can't thrive in Atlanta. Here's
a band from Atlanta that isn't getting a single spin on Atlanta radio. You can't tell me that there's no market for music like that here. Likewise, you can't tell me that
this song wouldn't be good for Top 40 if only Top 40 radio consultants anywhere in the U.S. had an open enough mind.

6. It's weird how Europe, Latin America, Japan and Australia still embrace rock music, while North America shuns it. Rock music in North America was ever-present in the Top 40 from the late 1960s all the way through the late 2000s, so this decade is not normal.


Anyway, maybe what I typed above will add up to something.

A lot of good points in this post.

Regarding Atlanta rock radio, it never has done a very good job promoting local talent. One fairly recent example is Manchester Orchestra, which got national attention but couldn't get radio airplay here.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Plus, I don't want to be that sad, balding, middle aged guy wearing jorts and white shoes belting out the lyrics to the song at a concert that I used to make fun of.

I'm so out of the loop I didn't even know what jorts were.

Back in the day they were just called cutoffs and your mama made them after you wore holes in the knees of your jeans.

[DTL3000]

It all started going downhill when Cooley/Conlon sold out to Clear Channel. Atlanta used to have one of the best live music markets in the country but Clear Channel did the same thing for the live scene as they did for radio. Music promotion became beholden to shareholders and not so much music lovers and fans. Adventurous acts were choked out of mid-sized and large venues.

On the positive side, they unwittingly did their best to kill off conventional radio and inadvertently promote the independent live music scene in Atlanta. I think the 00's produced some pretty solid talent(Deerhunter, Mastodon, The Black Lips and others) that got little to no attention on terrestrial radio yet managed to make a career and attract sizable followings.