We knew early on in the month that there had been a significant pickup in Inside The Rock Era fans. Shortly after Christmas, December became the fifth month in history to go over 25,000 page views. And shortly after that, December broke the all-time record of 26,394 set in July of our first year. December of 2016 ended up completely obliterating the existing record by reaching 28,578 page views.
We cannot thank you enough for your interest and support and hope the thousands of new viewers will stay with us in the months and years to come. We'll be providing tips for easy viewing and features that you might be interested in. You've actually found the website just in time for one of our major music specials, The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era*.
This special is one that I've been putting together since 1976. That year, I did hundreds of hours of work on it before submitting it to a local radio station while I was in high school. To my shock, I got a call saying they were interested in broadcasting it and I spent the next several months meeting with Tom Scott, Program Director at KFXD in Boise, Idaho to go over the details. I was eventually hired there to do part-time work, which soon turned into full-time, which shortly after turned into Music Director working 80 hours a week doing the same things I'm doing now on Inside The Rock Era, putting together music features and specials.
A lot has changed since then in the industry. Back then, a "Top 40" station played music from several genres, with the only requirement being that it was popular. A market's Top 40 station was what people who liked Rock music listened to. Those days are long gone, with the endless segmentation which split the Rock audience into many different directions.
That's unfortunately, really, for one doesn't get to hear the many great styles of music, and it also likely is responsible for "Top 40" stations thinking they are playing what most people want to hear, such as the rap and the crap that you hear and see on nationally-published song rankings.
It's also unfortunate because a special of the nature of The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era* will never be played on the radio, since each station today plays a select sliver of what the general population likes; for example, an artist such as AC/DC or Metallica will never be played on the same station that plays Barbra Streisand or Air Supply, and that station will never play the Beatles, Elvis or the Platters.
So what we have coming up is essentially a "world exclusive"--you won't be able to hear music from all different decades of the Rock Era by the many diverse artists who add to the great flavor that is the full cuisine of the last 60 years at the same time, in the same place.
But that is what is coming up, beginning February 6 on Inside The Rock Era! We will feature one artist per day, beginning with #100 and going to The #1 Artist of the Rock Era*.
In the meantime, have some fun and write down who you think the most successful artists of the last 60 years are and see how close your guesses come to the actual list. Base it on number and quality of hit songs, sales of singles and albums, radio airplay (and keep in mind that the station you listen to doesn't play even close to all of the songs that are popular), awards won, and concert revenue. Think longevity and depth of material--in some cases, artists may not have had a lot of "hit" records, but their albums are so filled with great material that their overall body of work earns them a spot in the elite list.
We don't expect you to agree with every artist in the list; if you did, we'd be afraid you were a robot! Our goal, however, is to present each artist with their story and the many things they have accomplished in their career in the hope that, even if you don't particularly like that artist, you can see why they are successful and deserve to be ranked where they are.
In the days to come, we'll be revealing some of the great artists who are just outside The Top 100 Artists*, not to demean them in any way, but rather to convey just how special it is and how difficult it is to make The Top 100*!
Join us February 6 and every day after that for The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era*!
