For all the American friends of the site

Anything Alice Cooper or AC band related goes here

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bigbradwolf
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For all the American friends of the site

Post by bigbradwolf » Wed Jul 12, 2017 3:53 am

Out of curiosity I'm currently holidaying in Orlando and have had a couple of different rock stations on in the two weeks I have been here. At no point has there been an Alice track played.
Today in a shop I was asked by a female shop keeper what was on my arm (signed by Alice Cooper). She was like 'oh that's cool'. Who is that?
I'm curious to find out why Alice doesn't appear to be any more popular here than back home in the UK. Am I in the wrong state? Or is this consistent with the rest of the country. I'm curious...any thoughts or views?

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by padre_sliprat » Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:25 am

It's been that way here in the states for a very long time, Brad.
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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by pitkin88 » Wed Jul 12, 2017 5:43 am

bigbradwolf wrote:Out of curiosity I'm currently holidaying in Orlando and have had a couple of different rock stations on in the two weeks I have been here. At no point has there been an Alice track played.
Today in a shop I was asked by a female shop keeper what was on my arm (signed by Alice Cooper). She was like 'oh that's cool'. Who is that?
I'm curious to find out why Alice doesn't appear to be any more popular here than back home in the UK. Am I in the wrong state? Or is this consistent with the rest of the country. I'm curious...any thoughts or views?
He hasn't had a hit song in over 27 years. He's not on tv. He's not on the radio. What did you expect?

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by Keith1980 » Wed Jul 12, 2017 8:59 am

the us only wants to here people sing if they are sexy and have no brains. And they have to believe the world will end from global climate warming change in the next 2 mins. Hury send ur momey to decaprio and gore they are the new batman and robin to save us!!! Ohh relax we have justin biber bruno mars dj this and that to soooth us while we all BURN

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by Keith1980 » Wed Jul 12, 2017 9:04 am

Truth be told doesnt matter if alice is old or young hip or not hes a christian. And the left run media hates that top priority here. Doubt this comment will last long.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by bigbradwolf » Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:36 am

pitkin88 wrote:
bigbradwolf wrote:Out of curiosity I'm currently holidaying in Orlando and have had a couple of different rock stations on in the two weeks I have been here. At no point has there been an Alice track played.
Today in a shop I was asked by a female shop keeper what was on my arm (signed by Alice Cooper). She was like 'oh that's cool'. Who is that?
I'm curious to find out why Alice doesn't appear to be any more popular here than back home in the UK. Am I in the wrong state? Or is this consistent with the rest of the country. I'm curious...any thoughts or views?
He hasn't had a hit song in over 27 years. He's not on tv. He's not on the radio. What did you expect?

Ozzy Osbourne, Godsmack, Poison, Skid Row are just a handful of bands that have been aired that I would consider to have not had a hit for approximately that length of time. I'm just surprised. People know of Alice in the UK even if they aren't keen on his music or rock music in general.
I've even heard TREX being played and supposedly they never broke America.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by Dannorama » Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:41 pm

The best answer is that American radio is a very snug environment, and it is not a true barometer of success or true popularity. I have friends in radio who tell me that their playlist is no more than 350 songs. That includes the Billy Idols, Bon Jovis, and other lesser-achieved bands who "pay to play." It's nothing more than business politics, and it has been going on for decades.
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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by NotSoPerfect » Wed Jul 12, 2017 1:01 pm

bigbradwolf wrote:
Ozzy Osbourne, Godsmack, Poison, Skid Row are just a handful of bands that have been aired that I would consider to have not had a hit for approximately that length of time. I'm just surprised. People know of Alice in the UK even if they aren't keen on his music or rock music in general.
I've even heard TREX being played and supposedly they never broke America.
Generally, I'm not surprised that you're not hearing much Coop. :(

However, if you're listening to radio stations that play those other artists, then I'm AM surprised you're not hearing Coop at least as much as you're hearing those artists. My general experience is at least his hits show up with some regularity on classic rock stations.

I'd say that I hear Ozzy less than Alice, and can't recall the last time that I heard Godsmack (though, around here, the same station likely wouldn't play Godsmack and classic rock).

At the very least, if the area you're in has an NWAC affiliate station, you'd likely hear him played on that. But, where I live (Wisconsin), I'd say that songs like School's Out, Poison, and No More Mr. Nice Guy are in fairly regular rotation (such as it is) on the classic rock station. And I've also heard Billion Dollar Babies, Killer, Elected, and Under My Wheels every so often.
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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by NotSoPerfect » Wed Jul 12, 2017 1:12 pm

Keith1980 wrote:Truth be told doesnt matter if alice is old or young hip or not hes a christian. And the left run media hates that top priority here. Doubt this comment will last long.
Justin Bieber (whom you mentioned before) is actually quite open about his faith, and even broke out into a worship song and led the crowd in a sing-along of it at a Paris concert.

I would also argue that the success of Twenty One Pilots shows that being Christian is not the thing that will exclude you from hits/constant radio airplay.

I don't really think it's an Alice thing. I think that it's a classic rock thing. If it's not a radio station dedicated to that genre/era, then you won't hear those artists much. And I don't see too many of them popping up on TV much more than Alice does.
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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by jacknifejohnny » Wed Jul 12, 2017 1:19 pm

You goin' to The Spurs / PSG game Brad ?

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by cooperrocks » Wed Jul 12, 2017 1:21 pm

I hope you explained to her who Alice is. School's Out, Eighteen, and Poison are played fairly often still in my area. In regards to Ozzy, he has played several times a day every day here. Ozzy is big with the young crowd (though with each passing year I become less of a fan personally).

It does amaze me how less and less people seem to know who Alice is yet claim they like rock music.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by TeresofBlood » Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:33 pm

In Boston, WZLX is a classic rock station that syndicates the radio show, so that's how most people know him. WZLX also plays on occasion Eighteen, Under My Wheels, School's Out. No surprises ever.

I worked with somebody once who was a bit of a music snob (he was a film sound recorder and engineer) who swore that Alice Cooper was a joke and questioned my musical taste for calling him my favorite. I played him Halo of Flies and he said "Holy ****! This is Alice Cooper?!"

That's how most people react. They are impressed and surprised, but not enough to seek him out on their own. Funnily enough I know more friends of my parents who are Alice Cooper fans than any people my age.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by guttertrash » Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:55 pm

If the "left wing media" is going to be an argument against Alice's success as it has become about everything else that the far right doesn't like you need to grow up. He was on the "evil left" CNN telling his thoughts on politics just last year, and I am pretty sure he spoke of the Hollywood Vampires project while on there. Very few things are truly conspiracies, and anything doing with Alice's success is definitely not one.

And I agree with TeresOfBlood, here in Alabama, Alice is mostly known as the funny rock musician from Wayne's World. He is known as a hair metal act to people who were not around during the 70s, and most of them only know him for those kind of silly, cheesy moments. He is however highly regarded by many musicians around here for his work up through Goes To Hell. You can still here No More Mr. Nice Guy, School's Out, Elected, Poison as well as I'm Eighteen, Feed My Frankenstein, and Black Widow at times on the only classic rock station here.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by guttertrash » Wed Jul 12, 2017 3:25 pm

I have always heard at least one Ozzy single played on rock radio up through his latest albums. While I can't stand his work with Zakk Wylde except for on his first album, No Rest For The Wicked, it makes sense to me that Ozzy would be played, because his singles generally sound modern enough to fit along side Godsmack, Nickelback, Disturbed, and whatever other terrible metal-tinged rock is on the radio. Ozzy has also been on a major label which makes it easier to get on the radio to say the least.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by Mr.Bluelegs » Wed Jul 12, 2017 3:30 pm

Reading some of these comments made me realize that I infrequently hear Alice on Sirius Satellite Radio. It's usually the pre-'74 hits ( and not too often), and I've never heard him on the deep tracks station. They might play "Poison" on the Hair Metal station, however I don't listen to that station. I did hear his version of "Hey Bulldog" on The Beatles Channel. Is it somewhat deliberate because of his syndicated radio show which is competition? Not sure.

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by mr.barlow » Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:08 pm

My girlfriend teaches art courses at a local college. A few sememsters ago she was teaching a course segment on Salavdor Dali. In her lecture she mentioned his association with Alice Cooper in the 1970s thinking that the kids (young adults) would immediately know who Alice was. Well...NO ONE knew who he was! She did the same in another course she taught and again---NOT ONE!

Just for the hell of it I asked her to ask the kids if they ever heard of Paul McCartney and less than half of them knew who he was or what band he played with.

If kids today don't know who a member of The Beatles (or The Beatles themselves) are then Alice doesn't stand a chance!

This explains why Alice became a nostalgia act in his live performaces. Outside of his ever graying fan base---no one cares!

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:24 pm

There are certain areas of the country that are probably more Alice friendly than others.

I know in the midwest where Alice generally plays regularly he's "known".... Michigan / Ohio / Western Pennsylvania / West Virginia are all areas where I would expect his visibility to be higher than certain other areas of the country.

I don't listen to much regular classic rock radio anymore, but a handful of ACG songs used to be relative staples (NMMNG, 18, UMW, SO, BDB, BODF) for years and years. I'd be surprised if they're still not played on those formats because they rarely change their playlists.
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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:26 pm

Mr.Bluelegs wrote:Reading some of these comments made me realize that I infrequently hear Alice on Sirius Satellite Radio.
They don't play enough Alice, that's for sure. I listen to Ozzy's Boneyard the most and the one Alice track they mostly play is "Welcome to My Nightmare" from A FISTFUL OF ALICE which has the ending of "Steven" tacked onto the front of it.
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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by Somwhere In Auckland » Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:16 pm

Never had such problem in California, even heard local radio play his stuff from time to time, they were even big on promoting the Hollywood Vampires material. I wouldnt go as far as saying he is a household name as he once was, but you wouldnt get blank faces talking about Alice Cooper haha.

The Hollywood show last year was a good mix of old school and younger fans,

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Re: For all the American friends of the site

Post by revinkevin » Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:45 pm

Its not political why Alice is less recognized today. That's just the paranoid ranting of the right. Times change. In the 60's and 70's rock was the voice of a generation. Today it's a different generation with a different voice. Back in Alice's prime it was about the bands and who was the hot guitarist or drummer. Go to a hip hop show today and you probably won't even see a band. Just some guy hooked up to a computer with a bad ass light show. Time marches on. With or without us.

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