The Teenage Rock Fan

[AxlRose4eva1]

Imagine you are a 15 year old rock fan.  You grew up through grunge, probably listen to Zep and Stones and Sabbath, listen to Audioslave and maybe even own a copy of AFD.  You walk into Bestbuy and look in the new releases and see Chinese Democracy.  Most teenage rock fans couldnt tell you what Chinese Democracy is, some who do probably just have heard of it.  Maybe the CD will rouse their interest and theyll pick it up, but CD's are about 17 dollars at Bestbuy and most rock fans dont buy them unless they are fans of the band.  If hes a real rock fan he will probably go home and look for it on Morpheus, most fans will probably dismiss it.  Many people will have no idea what it is, or have no interest in what they deem as an 80's band.  There will be no single on radio, and there will be no video on mtv, vh1 or mtv2.  No teenager blind buys (or i guess deaf buys) albums anymore, its too expensive and they can dl the music for free.  This is the rock fan we are talking about too.  The non rock teenager will have no idea what chinese democracy is, and maybe only recognize a few gnr songs.

MTV doesnt care about GNR or music anymore, VH1 wont message it except maybe on some obscure rock show.  Most teenagers dont read the papers, some read music magazines, but thats rare, a lot go to sites like Pitchfork and such, but that wont mention GNR.  What media unit is going to pump this CD.  THE UNITED STATES MAINSTREAM DOES NOT CARE ABOUT GNR ANYMORE.  The key to promotion is by getting the word out there to as many people as possible.  To make GNR "cool" again, by releasing a powerful gritty single, with a video having a concert like feel, relying on new songs on the tour and not relying on old songs.  If every person who sees GNR in concert this tour buys an album the album would maybe do well enough for the band to stay together...MAYBE. If GNR plays 80% old songs, why are fans going to buy the new songs if the band does not act like they are even strong enough to play in concert. 

If the non promotion strategy is in effect it sounds like the label isnt happy with the cd and does not believe in it.  It sounds like they are cutting their loss with this stupid "no promotion will garner promotion" idea.  Limp Bizkit did the same thing and flopped, they released the same worthless material (minus borland) and paid radio stations to play it and went several times platinum.  We live in an era where exposure is everything.  People are all followers. 

While most cds are bought by people 45+, the next strongest demographic is 10-18.  This is a crucial market that must be tapped for the band to be successful with this cd, and this strategy will fail to generate support in that demographic. (stats come from RIAA)

[randomconcepts]

I dunno last time I imagined myself a 15 yr old... the cops came and I was busted on that "To Catch A Predator" show. That sucked... they took my ccomputer with the GNR downloads and children, my name and dignity and worst off I never got that date... Thanks for reminding me about being 15.

[forgotaboutsteve]

Imagine you are a 15 year old rock fan.? You grew up through grunge

if you are 15 years old today then you would have barely been born when "grunge" was hitting it big.  i don't think i even started to really discover my own musical tastes until i was an early teenager, up until that point my parents had control of the radio and record player(i was born in '77).

[mrbrownstone8797]

Imagine you are a 15 year old rock fan.  You grew up through grunge

if you are 15 years old today then you would have barely been born when "grunge" was hitting it big.  i don't think i even started to really discover my own musical tastes until i was an early teenager, up until that point my parents had control of the radio and record player(i was born in '77).

You are correct. I'm 16 and the first CD I bought was Smash Mouth. Either way, the poster is right. Besides hardcore fans, no one is going to drop $15 on a CD they haven't heard anything about.

[requiem156]

Let me ask the obvious question - if no one cares, then how did GH sell over 3 million copies?

[beans4life]

I'm 15 and have been following Chinese Democracy stories for 2 years.

[pasnow]

Let me ask the obvious question - if no one cares, then how did GH sell over 3 million copies?

1.5 million bought it because Slash was on it.. So take them right out of the equation. Then those that bought it because they didn't have AFD but wanted SCOM PC & WTTJ, Patience, NR etc on 1 album and you're looking at a target audience of about 1 million..


Also, where is 3 million coming from all of the sudden?? A few weeks ago people were making the same arguements about how it sold 2 million.

[tHeElEcTrIcSiNtAr]

Let me ask the obvious question - if no one cares, then how did GH sell over 3 million copies?

Thats a good point. Tons of teenagers have just bought the Greatest Hits over the last two years, and now when they see that a new Guns album is in the stores they will probably be pretty curious to check it out.

Lets face it, if anytime is right its now. I have seen a lot more GN'R fans around these last 2 years then say 1999-2003. Its the right time, when its put out, its going to sell.

[Mattattack]

Looks like GnR is going with word of mouth marketing. This worked for Zeppelin in the 70's.

[tHeElEcTrIcSiNtAr]

Looks like GnR is going with word of mouth marketing. This worked for Zeppelin in the 70's.

Hey I'm cool with that. I already do tons of promoting by word of mouth for the tour and shit anyway, so I'll do it for the album too.

I pretty much talk about GN'R at least once with everyone that I encounter.

[Sparksry]

I was born in 89 and i dont remeber really getting into music till i was ike 10 so it would of been 99.... and all crappy music started in 99.. so i looked into the past thats how i found GNR

[Eclipsed107]

17 bucks?

What best buy do you shop at?  Cds at my best buy are like 12, 14 bucks.

15 year old teens are probably more up to date than you think.  They grew up with the internet, and if they're into rock music then they're going to know something about Gn'R and Chinese Democracy...

The casual fans don't, but the more hardcore rock fans would.

[requiem156]

Let me ask the obvious question - if no one cares, then how did GH sell over 3 million copies?

1.5 million bought it because Slash was on it.. So take them right out of the equation. Then those that bought it because they didn't have AFD but wanted SCOM PC & WTTJ, Patience, NR etc on 1 album and you're looking at a target audience of about 1 million..


Also, where is 3 million coming from all of the sudden?? A few weeks ago people were making the same arguements about how it sold 2 million.

You should research the numbers yourself if you have questions. I'm pretty sure that I'm right, though. As for the Slash fans, I thought we were talking about 15 year-olds - they don't know who Slash is. Secondly, I think the "cult of Slash" that you're referencing here is smaller than you apparently think it is - that's a matter of opinion, I suppose.

[pasnow]

I'd say original GnR fans are 50/50 Axl vs. Slash, but I'll give you the teens don't necessarily take sides soo much.. More like whoever puts something out is who they like best right now. Still, I don't think alot of 3 million would buy this record if it landed in stores unannounced. Even if it adverstised in Magazines & Websites I don't think alot would buy the album without hearing a good song on the radio. Sure, us fansite readers will, but really, how many of us are there, 100,000 max!! They need to announce it & more than anything get some radio play.

[February]

I don't agree with the general ideia that Teenage Rock Fan are just a bunch of publicity consumption magets, if they were they would be listening to hip hop, if the album is good mouth to mouth will sell, that's how bands that don't have air play or MTV coverage sell out concerts and do a preatty good living out of it. Why would generic forums on Rock music talk about GNR if there's nothing to talk about ? (except for the hard core fans like us, and were not that few world over).

I didn't boght GH but i'm a Slash fan, actually you could count me twice, in the 1.5 million slah's fans and on the 1.5 million that also liked the rest, i'm 33 and i don't take sides either, and i'll assure you i'll buy CD the day it comes out

[pasnow]

I didn't boght GH but i'm a Slash fan, actually you could count me twice, in the 1.5 million slah's fans and on the 1.5 million that also liked the rest, i'm 33 and i don't take sides either, and i'll assure you i'll buy CD the day it comes out

I'm 33 too

Like you I'll buy the album the day it's released no matter what. But think back to your friends from High School & how many of them you qould guess will automatically buy it?? For me, I'd guess not many of them (probably just me). Now, if GnR put out a good single, and a little bit of hype behind it, I'd guess 3 or 4 of them might also buy it.

[requiem156]

I didn't boght GH but i'm a Slash fan, actually you could count me twice, in the 1.5 million slah's fans and on the 1.5 million that also liked the rest, i'm 33 and i don't take sides either, and i'll assure you i'll buy CD the day it comes out

I'm 33 too

Like you I'll buy the album the day it's released no matter what. But think back to your friends from High School & how many of them you qould guess will automatically buy it?? For me, I'd guess not many of them (probably just me). Now, if GnR put out a good single, and a little bit of hype behind it, I'd guess 3 or 4 of them might also buy it.

A good single would definitely help. Maybe management is taking the internet buzz as more significant than it is. It's a bit like that movie Snakes on a Plane - it was all over the internet, and based on that, should have been a huge success. However, the general public who is not surfing the net all the time was unaware of the hype - consequently it was only a minor hit.

If they can get people to the concerts, I think that the album will sell - the problem is that the two things may be an interdependent chicken/egg situation. We'll see.

[February]

The European tour was marketing and creating a vibe, Axl letting himself be photographed is marketing...so, either they don't have the money to do usual heavy promotion or  they have something up their sleeves, or they just don't want to go that way or all of the above. they could market it til you couldnt stand it anymore and flop, and you could just do direct promotion to main public audiance and do great. Marketing is not an exact science.
They can create a hype after the release day.
Most of my High school mates are into Rock music, if the album is good they'll buy, after doing the some thing 15 years old, dowload some musics get the vibe, and if they like it, here in Portugal,  all the way to Fnac the'll go 

[requiem156]

they could market it til you couldnt stand it anymore and flop, and you could just do direct promotion to main public audiance and do great. Marketing is not an exact science.

That's a good point.

[charlesfosterkane]

when i was in high school everyone knew gnr but half the kids i knew were into janes addiction so they hated gnr and they wouldn't have bought the cd anyhow. people will hear about it. if its good, it will sell.