deaths_friend

radiohead are living proof that you dont need radio support to become huge. they are played on only 3 of the top 1000 radio stations in the US but still managed to do a massive arena (or arty equivalent) tour around the country. i think its the RnB and Rap artist who need the radio support but arent getting it as the stations only plug the shit out of one or two songs ignoring the fact that all those artists have albums out.

re: musicradar not sure how many of you took a listen to him answering all those fan questions. but he was seemed very defensive and at times aggresive when he was asked anything RHCP related especially when he was asked about them recording again. john has always come across as being very tame and polite so i was shocked when he reacted like that to the RHCP questions.

i was talking to a friend about how alot of the best music of the year not sounding great live. and he put it to the fact that most of those artists/bands are very young and inexperienced. most of them are on their first world tour and dont quite have the funds to reproduce all the sounds they made in the studio.

another reason why rock is soo far ahead would be because alot of the classic rock bands from the 80s and 90s have built up substantial fan bases who will buy whatever the band releases. and yeh rock fans tend to be more loyal than fans of other genres. just look at what happened around the release of Metallica's Death Magnetic where you had hardcore fans lining up at midnight all around the world. very few bands have devotion like that.

altnernative being 2nd was what surprised me the most. but then again something doesn't become mainstream by sales only. another reason why rock is sooo high up is because i'm 100% certain that there are far more rock albums released every year than of any other genre. keep the discussion going people. :)

First there was Jet then Wolfmother and now Tame Impala. the classic rock and roll sound has become the key to success in the Australian alternative scene, which in the case of Jet and Wolfmother has led to worldwide success. Tame Impala bring a great 8 track sound to the table, you can very much tell from their debut EP that they have grown up listening to Led Zeppelin, Cream and psychedelic rock. They are signed to the same record label (Modular Recordings) as Cut Copy and Wolfmother and internationally the Klaxons. Here are 3 songs from their debut EP. it was released in October 2008 and went to the top of the local EP charts. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN5mn_89asw]YouTube - Tame Impala - Skeleton Tiger -[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkceZKRotTo]YouTube - Tame Impala - Desire Be, Desire Go (Modular Recordings)[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koCcgvLcoM4]YouTube - TAME IMPALA - Half Full Glass Of Wine[/ame] i'm sure fans of the Beatles, early Pink Floyd and Led Zep will thoroughly enjoy this.

i think U2 did enough on their first 5/6 albums to be able to sit back and enjoy the rest of their careers. the Rolling Stones haven't made a decent album in God knows how long, same can be said for KISS and alot of other bands that everyone still loves. the fact that U2 have only had 3 or 4 decent songs in the last 16years shouldn't really draw anything away from how good a band they are.

the most interesting thing about those numbers is that it disspells all the theories that Rap and RnB music dominates in the US. rock by itself sells more than Rap n RnB together.

triple j was built around the same model as BBC's Radio 1 which from what i've heard has very much sold out. triple j is very very gradually heading that way but at the moment is staying true to itself and its listeners. pretty much every single aussie artist you ever hear of around the world made their break through this radio station from Wolfmother to Cut Copy to Silverchair and Powderfinger. you can find a list of the most popular songs of the year on the official website.

The good old 12-inch vinyl album made a comeback in 2008 with Radiohead topping the LP chart. Before you start selling your iPod, let me point out that while vinyl experienced a growth of 89%, we are talking total sales of 1.88 million units. The Top 10 Vinyl Albums were: 1. Radiohead : In Rainbows (25,800) 2. The Beatles : Abbey Road (16,500) 3. Guns n’ Roses : Chinese Democracy (13,600) 4. B-52’s : Funplex (12,800) 5. Portishead : Third (12.300) 6. Neutral Milk Hotel : In The Aeroplane (10,200) 7. Pink Floyd : Dark Side Of The Moon (10,200) 8. Fleet Foxes : Fleet Foxes (9,600) 9. Metallica : Death Magnetic (9,400) 10. Radiohead : O.K. Computer (9,300) The Top 10 Vinyl Artists were: 1. Radiohead (61,200) 2. Metallica (39,500) 3. The Beatles (20,400) 4. Elliott Smith (17,800) 5. Bob Dylan (15,200) 6. Portishead (15,100) 7. Ryan Adams (14,000) 8. Coldplay (13,900) 9. Guns n’ Roses (13,600) 10. Neutral Milk Hotel (13,200) Numbers are from US Sales only 139,666,000 rock albums sold in the USA during the past year, fuelled in part by AC/DC, Metallica and Kid Rock. 1. Rock (139,666,000) 2. Alternative (80,919,000) 3. R&B (77,014,000) 4. Metal (50,476,000) 5. Country (47,657,000) 6. Rap (33,410,000) 7. Christian (29,793,000) 8. Latin (25,125,000) 9. Soundtrack (20,847,000) 10. Classical (13,323,000) 11. Jazz (11,791,000) 12. New Age (2,942,000) Music sales have topped 1.5 billion units for the first time ever in the USA. Despite the perceived drop in the music biz, digital sales have fuelled the most successful year ever for total sales in the US music industry.1,513 million sales were tallied during 2008 according to Nielsen SoundScan. That was up from 1,369 million last year or a 10.5% increase.While overall album sales were down 8.5%%, digital album sales were up 32%. More people bought albums digitally than ever before last year. Digital albums accounted for 65.8 million sales More than 1 billion tracks were sold digitally in 2008. Digital track sales sold 1,070 million last year. The top selling digital artist was Rihanna. The top selling digital song was ‘Bleeding Love’ by Leona Lewis and the top selling digital album was ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay. Source : http://www.undercover.com.au

they lead singer Robin has told an aussie music mag that the live versions of White Winter Hymnal and Tiger Peasant Mountain are a good indication of the sound the band will be going for on their next album.

This is a massive music poll held by Australia's main alternative music station Triple J. The station prides itself on focusing purely on alternative music and new up and coming artists. They do have a slight bias towards Australian artists but that is only natural. to give you an idea of the nature of the radio station and the poll, they started played acts like MGMT and Ting Tings around November of 2007 well before they had achieved any degree of prominence. the presenters aren't necessarily the best for radio but are all music experts. its the perfect radio station for music nerds. I'm sure my fellow austrailans will concur. Now the poll. It is the worlds biggest annual poll of songs with over 700 000 votes coming in for the 2007 countdown. which was won by Muse's Knight of Cydonia by only 13 votes from Silverchair's Straight Lines. the event is in its 20th year now and keeps growing everytime. the poll is usually dominated by Australian bands who take up around 45 to 55 of the 100 songs. Coldplay enjoyed alot of success between 2000 and 2002. with Yellow coming 5th in 2000 and remix of Clocks also coming 5th in 2003. This year's poll is expected to be dominated by the likes of Kings of Leon, MGMT, Ting Tings, The Rapture, Cut Copy, Vampire Weekend, Sigur Ros, Fleet Foxes, Flight of the Conchords, Beck and Bloc Party. http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/ - you can vote for your 10 favourite songs at this link. the song's must of been released as a single in 2008. http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/ - history of the event Voting is open until 18th January. i would greatly encourage all alternative music fans out there to vote even if you don't live in Australia.

i think alot of these comeback artist and bands need to know when they're pushing their luck. in the case of alot of older bands like The Police, Eagles, Van Halen etc there is no need to record a new album just a world tour is enough. i honestly can't think of a single comeback album by a veteran band that has impressed me. to be honest i would actually prefer it if some of my favourite bands like U2, RHCP and Bon Jovi cut back on recording and spent more time touring, it would make both musical and business sense. all the bands i have mentioned make insane amounts of money on tour off the back of fairly average records. but the poorly received music threatens their credibility. in short comeback should not equal new album!!

i found it interesting that alot of the best artists of the year have not been able to reproduce their great music live on stage. having heard and seen alot of vampire weekend live i found them to be monotonous and bland on stage only saved by an awesome crowd. MGMT are half the band in concert that they are on CD. fleet foxes set the standard way way too high on their album and no matter how hard they try live, it will never sound as good to me. other top artists like Death Cab For Cutie and Bon Iver arent exactly ideal either. and on the home front the guys from Cut Copy arent the most charismatic on stage. all of these band made brilliant albums but in the end i was underwhelmed by their live shows. here's a song i thought sounds great on cd and live. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSxZs8Y1z_A]YouTube - The Raconteurs - Salute Your Solution (Live Bonnaroo 2008)[/ame] and an artist i never thought i would like. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqV6UJnVGh8]YouTube - Laura Marling - Night Terror (at Mercury Music Prize 2008)[/ame]

Around The World by RHCP

Metacritic has compiled top album lists from all the major magazines, websites and critics from around the world and Fleet Foxes have come out on top by being 1st in 6 lists and being in the top 10 of another 15.

oh how could i forget Portishead. brilliant comeback. first album in 11years is REAL comeback. and i think its quite obvious that all of us with any degree of understanding of the music scene would agree coldplay did not make a "comeback" this year. nor did radiohead in 2007 as they toured alot in 2006. this is a good thread nonetheless. very interesting topic :)

nothing will beat their acoustic work. a great sign of how great a band is how they do acoustic shows and fooeys acoustic shows kicked ass!! i'm going to miss them over their extended hiatus. i was hearing that they won't be getting back in the studio until 2011 if not later.

i don't quite understand what people meen by "comeback". isn't a comeback when a band breaks then re-unites or goes on a long hiatus (no albums or tour for more than 2years). worst comeback would have to be AC/DC. and i thought Oasis made a decent comeback.

do people think that he should go back to being more pop rock? i was quite the fan back then but not so much now. robbie williams is one of my guilty pleasures

by germany 2001 do you meen their performance at Rock Am Ring 2001?

i think every album release should have the following as the bare minimum: - the CD in enchanced format including a music video, links to extra tracks and wallpapers - lyric book with at least half decent artwork - a little explanation of each song just for something to read while listening to the album - special editions should have making-of footage, interviews on a dvd and some band merchandise.

they were still alive?

deservedly so!! i can't remember the last time i've listened to an album this time many time in one week and loved it every time. and this is 3 months after i first started listening!!

we're comparing Muse live to coldplay live?? hahhahaha. i know people who have seen the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who perform say that Muse are one of the best they have ever seen. can't say i've ever come across anyone make comparisons between a cp show and the greats of rock n roll. and to the post above this. if chris martin was a solo artist then i would think he was great. but last time i checked there are 4 people in Coldplay (i know its hard to tell sometimes) and all chris martin does it play simple piano loops and strums three chords on a guitar whereas matt dom and chris play some awesome complex riffs and still manage to put on a great visual spectacle. coldplay are great in the studio and muse are great on stage. at the end of the day they're both just as good as each other. but in different ways.