There are a lot of recognizable names on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart: Green Day, Jack White and Linkin Park are all in the top 10, to name a few. But this week, one of the most successful bands in the chart’s history spends a second week at No. 1: Cage The Elephant, whose latest single “Rainbow” becomes their 12th leader on the chart, tying Linkin Park and the Foo Fighters for the third-most all time.
That’s a significant milestone for both the band and its label, RCA Records. But RCA’s success atop Alternative Airplay goes deeper, and more unconventional, this week: Myles Smith’s breakout single “Stargazing” reaches No. 2 on the chart, giving the label the top two songs there for the week. And Smith’s achievement is all the more remarkable because the song is his first charting hit in the U.S., a relative rarity for an artist making waves at alternative. And that one-two punch success helps RCA’s senior vp of pop/rock promotion Gary Gorman earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Gorman explains the strategies that helped RCA hit those marks, the differences between veteran acts and new artists at alternative radio and how the promotions job has changed over the course of his extensive career. “The information and technology we have now vs. 15 years ago is staggering and allows us to be more strategic than ever,” Gorman says. “The bones of this job are, however, still the same. I expect that to continue, as long as music programing at radio is still editorialized.”
This week, Cage The Elephant spent its second week at No. 1 on Alternative Airplay with “Rainbow,” tied with Foo Fighters and Linkin Park for third-most all time, with 12 No. 1s. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
Cage The Elephant is a Goldilocks band for the alternative format. Their history of No. 1 songs and alternative chart success coming into the Neon Pill album cycle was undeniable. Not to mention, for my money, they are one of the most consistently ferocious live bands in the space. That being said, multiple No. 1s from any campaign are promised to no one, so a lot of the strategy here lies in the long tail of the promotional campaign and how to outline a comprehensive 24-plus-month plan. Our partners at Q Prime are an incredible asset and invaluable in all collective decisions from the timing, touring, artist participation and information sharing. One of the hardest and most discussed decisions wound up being about which single to lead with. Impacting the darker “Neon Pill” first into the lighter “Rainbow” still rings true for me.
With Myles Smith’s “Stargazing” at No. 2, RCA has both of the top two slots on the chart, with two vastly different songs. What strategy goes into making that happen?
So wildly different — it’s such an exciting moment. Cage is an established band at the format, and it had been many years since new Cage music, so the table was set and the anticipation was high. Myles, on the other hand, was a virtual unknown to alternative radio. As a result, the set up was more “door to door” as we sought early champions. A handful of alternative major-market programmers led the way, early, on the backs of a huge streaming story and we were off to the races. We couldn’t have achieved this level of success on this campaign without the early belief from those first alternative stations. Those folks have all my gratitude.
The upper tier of the Alternative Airplay chart is full of artists who have had careers stretching back 10 years or more — Cage, White, The Offspring, Linkin Park, Green Day — but Myles is a much newer artist, with “Stargazing” being his first charting hit in the U.S. How hard is it to break a new artist on alternative radio these days?
As Public Enemy once said, harder than you think. Alternative radio has always played a wide variety of new musical styles, but ultimately, it’s their gold libraries that hold everything together. One can say many of the most successful new songs at alternative have “connective tissue” sonically to a station’s music library. With the nostalgic feels coming out of the pandemic, heritage artists releasing new music have been a hot ticket item for many programmers, making shots on new artists even tougher. That being said, there certainly have been some brand-new artists with terrific runs at alternative in the last year. Myles Smith has been a triple threat with “Stargazing”: a sonic fit, incredible streaming and early power-worthy research.
On the flip side, why is the format so friendly to artists with long careers, when so much of pop radio is driven by new hits and new artists?
How much time do you have? Alternative radio today has remained true to their explosive origins, continuing to support a larger library of songs and artists dating back to the format’s inception. As a result, these stations tend to have a slightly older audience than pop, along with fewer current tracks in rotation at a given time. As mentioned, the wave of historic artists releasing new music has created quite a dilemma. Given the limited space for current music, it would seem many programmers have opted to lean into the artists they know have worked in the past. The irony, of course, is that we have seen some of the biggest researching songs of the year come from either new or unexpected artists at this format, with Myles Smith being a prime example.
How has radio promotion evolved over the course of your career?
The information and technology we have now vs. 15 years ago is staggering and allows us to be more strategic than ever. The bones of this job are, however, still the same. I expect that to continue, as long as music programing at radio is still editorialized. I learned a long time ago that the one constant in this business is change. Having a crackerjack team here at RCA across all formats, including the promo leadership from Keith Rothschild and Sam Selolwane, allows us to face new challenges and adopt new strategies while remaining focused and unrelenting in the amplification of our artists across the radio platform.