Led by Coldplay's X&Y, which has sold more than one million copies in just two weeks, rock albums have been atop eight of the last nine pop charts.
The rock blitz began with Rob Thomas' ...Something to Be in April and continued with Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, Dave Matthews Band, System of a Down and Audioslave. Pop diva Mariah Carey sneaked back into the top spot earlier this month, before Coldplay took over. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney are poised to give rock a strong end-of-year finish.
"To quote LL Cool J, don't call it a comeback," says Rick Rubin, who produced Audioslave's Out of Exile and co-produced System's Mezmerize. "Rock will always be here. Unfortunately, much of the recording industry has turned away from rock, and I'm not exactly sure why. There's a misconception that the big pop and hip-hop albums sell more than the big rock records."
Rock's sales resurgence comes at a strange time. Five rock radio stations in major U.S. cities switched formats in recent months after ratings dropped for six consecutive years.
The new releases come just in time for rock-radio programmers. Last year's alt-rock miniboom of Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand and others petered out with little airplay, although the Killers' Hot Fuss spawned the radio hit "Mr. Brightside" and sold 1.9 million copies. The only major rock releases since late 2004 were U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and 3 Doors Down's Seventeen Days -- until Thomas kicked off rock's recent run.
"It's like the movie industry: Everything good comes all at once," says Doug Podell, operations manager for WRIF, a leading Detroit rock station. "In the fourth quarter, we had absolutely nothing to play on the radio, which is when this doom and gloom arrived."
Some say rock's future is still bleak -- record labels look for quick hits from pop, hip-hop and R&B stars but don't invest the resources to develop young rock bands over time. In his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech earlier this year, Bono addressed this point, saying, "There would be no U2 the way things are right now. That's a fact." Adds E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, "There hasn't been development in twenty-five ******** years. We got a big, big problem."
All seven of rock's recent chart-toppers are from established acts -- like last year's success story, Green Day, whose American Idiot has sold 3.6 million copies. "It's a marathon, not a race," says David "Beno" Benveniste, System's manager. "System, Nine Inch Nails, Dave Matthews -- these are bands that have built their careers on touring and ticket sales, and radio has been the vehicle to take them to a bigger scale. What you're seeing now is the cream is starting to rise to the top."
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