AH Challenge: Get a rock song to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 between 2008 and 2012

Zacoftheaxes

In 2008, Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (one of the worst songs ever made, in my opinion) reached #1 in the United States. From that point on there was not a rock song in the #1 slot until fun.'s "We Are Young" (Which I consider even worse) in 2012.

Your challenge is to get a rock song to #1 in that gap, it can be any genre of rock, but it has to enter the #1 slot on the Billboard 100.

Bonus Challenge: "Use Somebody" and "Pumped Up Kicks", which both cracked into the top 5 (and are good songs), are not allowed.
 
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Pikers3

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé team up and create a rock band that is indie. They release it and the massive fan bases lap it up and it automatically becomes no.1

Alternatively you could use any of the following: Adele, Will.i.am, Rhiana, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift or remixed Zombie Micheal Jackson.


A better one would be a surviving Amy Whinehouse teaming up with her on/off boyfriend Mark Ronson and creating a rock song. I think at the time of her death she was beginning to get popular in the US
 
history nerd

history nerd

It all depends on your definition of "rock" most rap and pop falls under the larger rock umbrella.

... to satisfy the OP however your best bet is to have late 90s early 00s pop punk not fall out of style as hard after the whole "emo" thing blew over.
 

Zacoftheaxes

Hörnla said:
Just make someone die at the right moment....
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I can't think of anyone outside of Kings of Leon, Coldplay and maybe, maybe Mumford and Sons having their death get them a #1. Remember that Foster the People and fun. came out of obscurity right into the Hot 100 (mostly due to their record labels pushing the fuck out of them).

Pikers3 said:
Lady Gaga and Beyoncé team up and create a rock band that is indie. They release it and the massive fan bases lap it up and it automatically becomes no.1

Alternatively you could use any of the following: Adele, Will.i.am, Rhiana, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift or remixed Zombie Micheal Jackson.


A better one would be a surviving Amy Whinehouse teaming up with her on/off boyfriend Mark Ronson and creating a rock song. I think at the time of her death she was beginning to get popular in the US
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It'd be incredibly hard for Gaga and Beyonce to make a rock song that caters to both of their fans. "Telephone" is one of Gaga's weaker singles mostly because of Beyonce taking over the song. I don't think Gaga was established enough back then to go back to her rock roots, could totally see that on Born This Way however. B

Bieber, Rihanna, and Swift are corporate puppets who wouldn't create a rock song if their lives depended on it. Will.i.am could make a rock song, but I don't think he's even gotten to #1 without the rest of The Black Eyed Peas.
 

BillyShears

Zacoftheaxes said:
In 2008, Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (one of the worst songs ever made, in my opinion) reached #1 in the United States. From that point on there was not a rock song in the #1 slot until fun.'s "We Are Young" (Which I consider even worse) in 2012.

Your challenge is to get a rock song to #1 in that gap, it can be any genre of rock, but it has to enter the #1 slot on the Billboard 100.

Bonus Challenge: "Use Somebody" and "Pumped Up Kicks", which both cracked into the top 5 (and are good songs), are not allowed.
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Kings of Leon and "good song" cannot be mentioned in the same sentence... :D

You need another British invasion, the Arctic Monkeys could do it, I think...
 
history nerd

history nerd

Zacoftheaxes said:
I can't think of anyone outside of Kings of Leon, Coldplay and maybe, maybe Mumford and Sons having their death get them a #1. Remember that Foster the People and fun. came out of obscurity right into the Hot 100 (mostly due to their record labels pushing the fuck out of them).



It'd be incredibly hard for Gaga and Beyonce to make a rock song that caters to both of their fans. "Telephone" is one of Gaga's weaker singles mostly because of Beyonce taking over the song. I don't think Gaga was established enough back then to go back to her rock roots, could totally see that on Born This Way however. B

Bieber, Rihanna, and Swift are corporate puppets who wouldn't create a rock song if their lives depended on it. Will.i.am could make a rock song, but I don't think he's even gotten to #1 without the rest of The Black Eyed Peas.
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you have a really narrow view of what is considered rock... explain to me how Mumford and Sons is rock and Swift isn't? they both use more country/folk elements than trad rock elements, swift uses more electric guitar and 4 to the floor rythms than Mumford and Sons in many cases.

unless you equate rock with quality. not all rock is good rock, case in point: I would see the most likely candidate for your challenge to be Soul Sister by Train
 

Zacoftheaxes

BillyShears said:
Kings of Leon and "good song" cannot be mentioned in the same sentence... :D

You need another British invasion, the Arctic Monkeys could do it, I think...
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Hey, Kings of Leon have released the same pretty good song 10 or so times now, and I have to say I don't have many complaints with it. :p

Another British Invasion is possible to crop up right before fun.'s random appearance in OTL, since we got a huge influx of British pop earlier this year, with Lights making it to #5 on the year end charts this year.
 

Life In Black

history nerd said:
you have a really narrow view of what is considered rock... explain to me how Mumford and Sons is rock and Swift isn't? they both use more country/folk elements than trad rock elements, swift uses more electric guitar and 4 to the floor rythms than Mumford and Sons in many cases.

unless you equate rock with quality. not all rock is good rock, case in point: I would see the most likely candidate for your challenge to be Soul Sister by Train
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Well, my definition of heavy metal is along those lines: If it's good, it's metal, if it's not, it's crap. :p
 

Zacoftheaxes

history nerd said:
you have a really narrow view of what is considered rock... explain to me how Mumford and Sons is rock and Swift isn't? they both use more country/folk elements than trad rock elements, swift uses more electric guitar and 4 to the floor rythms than Mumford and Sons in many cases.

unless you equate rock with quality. not all rock is good rock, case in point: I would see the most likely candidate for your challenge to be Soul Sister by Train
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I'm going partly by how they're self labelled and labelled on the internet as well as where most of their airplay is. Mumford and Sons is considered folk rock by most sources (and included in Billboard's rock charts meaning they are played more on rock charts. Swift is played on pop and country).

You're probably be right about Hey Soul Sister, but it never charted on rock or alternative charts, which both "Viva la Vida" and "We Are Young" did, as well as "Pumped Up Kicks" and "Use Somebody".
 

TRH

Well, you're more than within your rights to argue the point, and I won't defend this too vigorously, but "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 did hit #1 last year, and while Jagger was the point at which Maroon 5 stopped being a legit rock group, Billboard at least considered it as such. Hey, "Viva La Vida" isn't much of a rock song either.

That pedantry aside, I think the best candidate would be "Gives You Hell" by the All-American Rejects. That made #4 on the Hot 100 in 2009. Less obviously a rock song, but "Hey, Soul Sister" did that one better and peaked at #3. Other than those..."Breakeven" by The Script was #12, but I'm not sure what would be able to push that up to #1, really.

Edit: Ninja'd re: Train, this board is just too fast sometimes.
 

Zacoftheaxes

TRH said:
Well, you're more than within your rights to argue the point, and I won't defend this too vigorously, but "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 did hit #1 last year, and while Jagger was the point at which Maroon 5 stopped being a legit rock group, Billboard at least considered it as such. Hey, "Viva La Vida" isn't much of a rock song either.

That pedantry aside, I think the best candidate would be "Gives You Hell" by the All-American Rejects. That made #4 on the Hot 100 in 2009. Less obviously a rock song, but "Hey, Soul Sister" did that one better and peaked at #3. Other than those..."Breakeven" by The Script was #12, but I'm not sure what would be able to push that up to #1, really.

Edit: Ninja'd re: Train, this board is just too fast sometimes.
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I'm going both band label and where it charts, neither "Moves Like Jagger" or "Hey, Soul Sister" ever charted on rock charts, nor did they come close. And according to wikipedia "Moves Like Jagger" is dancepop.
 
history nerd

history nerd

Zacoftheaxes said:
I'm going both band label and where it charts, neither "Moves Like Jagger" or "Hey, Soul Sister" ever charted on rock charts, nor did they come close. And according to wikipedia "Moves Like Jagger" is dancepop.
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Rock = dance pop for most of its history.

This argument has more to do with the general degradation of genre labels, sub-genre over classifying culture that wiki encourages and the inability of billboard to make common sense decisions. as stated, best solution is accept a wider definition of rock for the charts.
 

TRH

Well, there's a reason I said I wouldn't belabor that point too much. There's still AAR. Still, if Wikipedia's genre classification is at all relevant, then "Hey, Soul Sister" should count as roots rock. Again, I'm not interested in a debate about this, it's enough that the option's been thrown out there.
 

Life In Black

Ed Costello

Well, the likelihood of this happening depends on a few things:

*Was rock particularly dominant in the US charts for a while prior to 2008? If it was, then the recent four-year drought could be considered a standard reaction against that dominance, and any 'rock' hit in that period is more likely to be a novelty hit or one-hit wonder. If it wasn't, and Coldplay and Fun. represent a more infrequent appearance of 'rock', the gap can be considered unusual and it should be relatively easy to get a 'standard' song to the top.

*What were the big rock bands between 2008 and 2012 - at least, the ones capable of having hit singles - and how many of them were there? If there's more rock in the singles chart, it's more likely to hit #1.

*Does radio in that period tend to be more rock-friendly? More airplay equals more sales.

Sorry, bit of a wall'o'text, but if other people can do it for their areas of expertise I'm damn well going to do it for mine! :p
 

TRH

Ed Costello said:
Well, the likelihood of this happening depends on a few things:

*Was rock particularly dominant in the US charts for a while prior to 2008? If it was, then the recent four-year drought could be considered a standard reaction against that dominance, and any 'rock' hit in that period is more likely to be a novelty hit or one-hit wonder. If it wasn't, and Coldplay and Fun. represent a more infrequent appearance of 'rock', the gap can be considered unusual and it should be relatively easy to get a 'standard' song to the top.
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It was not. If any genre can be considered to have dominated the middle of the 2000's, it would be R&B. 2004 saw a number of indie rock groups grab top 40 hits, groups like Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, but even in that particular year the top of the charts was dominated by crunk more than anything else.

Ed Costello said:
*What were the big rock bands between 2008 and 2012 - at least, the ones capable of having hit singles - and how many of them were there? If there's more rock in the singles chart, it's more likely to hit #1.
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As depressing as it is, I'd say that the biggest rock group of the 2000's was Nickelback. Their rock-bottom reputation notwithstanding, they did have an uncanny knack for getting hits. There's also the aforementioned Coldplay, but they started going downhill commercially after Viva la Vida. Other than those two and the already ruled-out Kings of Leon, I can only really think of a few one-hitters. There's also Daughtry, I guess, but his song No Surprise peaked at #15 in 2009, and that was one of his biggest hits, I'm pretty sure. The lack of success rock music faced between 2008 and 2012 wasn't just because of poorly charting singles, there was also a distinct shortage of relevant artists.

Ed Costello said:
*Does radio in that period tend to be more rock-friendly? More airplay equals more sales.
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I'm honestly not sure about this, but rock's commercial difficulties were quite evident by 2009, if not even earlier.
 
history nerd

history nerd

Life In Black said:
What definition of Glam are we using here, the British one for bands like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieRfmiPEfX8 , or are we talking the American "Glam Metal", of the '80s and into the '90s that also was called "Hair Metal"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbzjSmVyLiw Because I'll admit, I consider it metal. :p

Nu metal on the other hand, no way in hell do I consider it metal. ;)
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80's of course glam like Roxy Music and Bowie can't be considered metal ever, no matter how good it is!

The reason I bring it up is most "true metalheads" I know specifically exclude Glam-Metal and Nu Metal which I don't think is fair since they do represent an important part of the evolution of metal... even Nu Metal, without it we wouldn't have gotten the Djent sound or the few diamonds in the rough like RATM or SOD.
 
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