A Half-Decade of Lost Rock in The Quad Cities
Starting and running I-Rock 93.5 continues to be a surreal dream for me. The fact that on August 30, 2019 Townsquare Media actually let me flip the switch on this thing...and they continue to just let me do what we do...is quite frankly insane. As I-Rock continues to evolve and grow with new music and other stuff that I find and/or remember from the last 20-30 years of rock, one period of time for rock continues to be tough.
On July 9, 2014 Rock 104.9 left the airwaves of the Quad Cities and new rock on the radio in the QC was dead. Hard rock fans could of course tune to their CD's and iPods for stuff they knew, and streaming services...was Spotify a thing at that time...for new rock. Either way, you had to go out of your way to find rock from 2014-2019. While I'm sure many of you did, just as many did not. This leaves me to question this half-decade of rock now being played in the Quad Cities.
The 2010's were not a strong decade in general for new rock music. So the fact that 1/2 of this decade was not heard routinely by the Quad Cities brings into a lot of questions over what should be played on the station now. Me personally, I like a lot of the stuff that was on during that time. However, for me, I was hearing a lot of it as it was coming out.
When you take a look at the number ones from that time period, bands you know are on the list. Five Finger Death Punch, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold, Chevelle all had songs go number one. But those bands were established. What about some of the newer bands of the time like Bring Me The Horizon, Pop Evil, Royal Blood, Highly Suspect, Nothing More, GVF, Glorious Sons and so many more. And these are just bands that had a number one in the mainstream rock format! That doesn't include the heavier stuff and ones that didn't top the charts.
For these bands and songs that missed your ears for 5 years, where do they fall in the pecking order. I try to introduce you to as much new stuff as I can. Stuff on top of the chart right now like Architects and stuff nobody else is playing like SION. So while bringing that new music to you, the old stuff you missed out on is kind of new to you as well. That becomes a lot of new.
Just looking through my "2010's" music in the system, I see stuff I question. Not that it's bad...but, you didn't spend 5 years listening to Art of Dying, From Ashes To New, Ice Nine Kills, In This Moment, Motionless in White, A Day To Remember, and on and on. Most of the stuff from this decade is from established bands, but maybe you'd rather hear the older ones from them or the newer ones we've been playing the last couple years.
If you actually read this and didn't just comment on the Facebook post without seeing my point...well first off thank you...but also, let me know what you think. Are those years lost and I should give up on them? Or, is the random one that was released during that time still a good one to play.
I'm always messing with things to bring you the best rock every day. I want you to keep listening so they don't take it away from me. Then I'd have to do other work around here and that would be boring af. So thank you so much for the support and rockin with I-Rock 93.5!