Ohhh Canada

[rocky]

I took a peek at the top 100 selling CD's in Canada,and, much to my dismay "WSB" wasn't on the list. www.canoe.ca/JamMusicCharts/ALBUMS.html
This would be acceptable if we wern't talking about the best rawk band on the planet,and even more maddening, sitting at #1 is Nickleback, a band that fronts their music as rock, just barely, imho. Pop with a little thump is how I see them.
Rumor has it that there will most likely be a 2nd vid (Dance?) created. Although 'I Want You' was an excellent vid, it has been largely ignored by the nation's music stations, err at least I've only seen it aired a few times. I feel that this is the #1 method of reaching out to the music population. Danko Jones falls just out of range of what sells here. They miss the teenyboppers by a hair ( I know, I have 2 teens) and all the old fogies around my age are still living in the past hanging onto their old favs for dear life. Unfortunately these seem to be the major byers of music nowadays.
Here's hoping that the next vid will stir up some DJ emotion here in Canada, cause once you get hooked on them, there's no turning back.

[Tidyman]

I feel your frustration, rocky. They may be missing target markets somewhat, as you suggested, but I think the main reason Danko Jones hasn't blown up here in North America has more to do with the structure of the music industry.

There are a few (fewer than you think) massive media conglomerates which own and at least partially dictate the programming of pretty much every major radio station there is (eg. Clear Channel Radio and Viacom to name a couple).

Ever wonder why modern rock and hip-hop radio sounds almost identical no matter what city you're in? I sure did. But as I found out a little more about the industry it became less of a mystery.

One interesting term I discovered was "payola". Here's the very first definition that pops up when you punch up the word at dictionary.reference.com:

"Bribery of an influential person in exchange for the promotion of a product or service, such that of disc jockeys for the promotion of records."

This used to happen on a much smaller scale because it used to involve individual radio stations and disc jockeys. But now you're dealing with huge record companys (Sony, Columbia, Universal) buying their way onto playlists in every major market. The new term is "pay for play".

Danko Jones exists outside of this music industry structure because of their fierce independence.

For one they are signed to an independent label in Europe (BTR). Two they signed a distribution and marketing deal only with Universal Canada, which means they did not give up the rights to their publishing and masters (almost completely unheard of these days) but also means they probably won't get the push that other bands signed to Universal will. And third, they're completely self-managed.

Before I turn this into a full essay, let me point you to some essential reading at dir.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/03/14/payola/index.html
and www.clearchannelsucks.org/.

After reading just a little of these pages I think you'll agree that it's a small miracle that Danko Jones is even as popular as they are, and testament to the bands incredible talent.

"ClearChannelSucks.org is a free speech website dedicated to educating the public about entertainment giant Clear Channel. Clear Channel owns over 1,200 radio stations and 37 television stations, with investments in 240 radio stations globally, and Clear Channel Entertainment (aka SFX, one of their more well-known subsidiaries) owns and operates over 200 venues nationwide. They are in 248 of the top 250 radio markets, controlling 60% of all rock programming. They outright own the tours of musicians like Janet Jackson, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Madonna and N'Sync. They own the network which airs Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Casey Kasem, and the Fox Sports Radio Network. With 103,000,000 listeners in the U.S. and 1,000,000,000 globally (1/6 of the world population), this powerful company has grown unchecked, using their monopoly to control the entire music industry. If you find this alarming, ClearChannelSucks.org is the place for you."

"Industry rule number four thousand and eighty / Record company people are shady"
-- Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest in the song 'Check The Rhyme'.

[rocky]

Hey thanks for that eye-opening post T-man. Wow, i thought that all this nasty stuff went away in the 90's. The music industry seems to be as tainted as ever, maybe even worse. That is a terrific report T-man, very enlightening, you certainly know your stuff!! Thank you.

[Sac]

Great post Tidy. This is the kind of stuff you always suspected, but never really knew the hard facts about. It is truly a great achivement that a band like DJ can even exist in a music industry like this... We just have to keep our dedication for DJ up!!! And stop bying Limp Bizkit and shit like that.

[Tidyman]

Thanks guys. Most people assume that when a song is played a lot on the radio, it's because the song is more requested by listeners than other songs. Although this is the case once in a while, it ain't usually.

Those two links I posted, especially the first one, should be required reading for any music fan, regardless of how they feel about Danko Jones.

[Tidyman]

Forgot to mention, I heard I Want You on the radio for the first time a couple of days ago!

A station called 95.1 The Rock played it Tuesday morning. The Rock is out of a small city called Chatam which is about an hours drive from me. Chatams population is under a hundred thou! I tuned in because a guy from work told me he heard it the day before.

Danko would have approved of the company he was in - I also heard Heaven's On Fire by Kiss (a song which is a lot cheesier than I remember it being), Changes by Bowie, and Lake Of Fire by Nirvana.

Maybe there's hope for radio!

[rocky]

Sad to say that it will never make the radio here in NS...we have Light Rock ( jeez i hate this stuff ), country( click ), more light rock, then there's CBC crap which may include clasical, jazz or celtic. One must leave the house with your CD's at your side at all times...heck i just leave em in the car to avoid disappointment. Biggest challenge is sweet-talking my daughter for control...'Baby your not going to play that Eminem again, I haven't heard Danko in at least an hour now". "OK dad, but it has to be the new one", "hey no prob sweets, oh oh here comes mom, lets turn it down, #$%@^"