DoT probably has more radio friendly songs than most DT albums or maybe any of them for that matter. I realize DT gets a lot of internet radio play but what about local radio stations? I never listen to the radio, so does anyone know if some of the new songs are getting radio play at all?
Not around here (Seattle/Pacific Northwest area). I haven't heart DT on the radio since 1993, which is a bummer since they have quite a few radio friendly songs since then.
I don't know if the label has much clout with mainstream radio since they mostly focus on prog/metal music. I wish insideoutmusic would push harder to get Distance Over Time on some hard rock stations around the country, but like I said I doubt they have enough clout to do so.
It seems an absolute crime that songs from this album (d/t) aren't getting airplay, Dream Theater deserves better than that! I know they would have a bigger following here in the states if they did. Plus they would sell out bigger venues.
It all has to do with contracts between radio stations and mainstream record companies. 
Hit radio stations aren't playing Dream Theater, in part because rock and metal are 'over' as a mainstream source of music. Like jazz before it, it will live on (obviously, and imo most of the best jazz came after it wasn't mainstream anymore) but is underground. New songs aren't going to be filled with riffs, or even people playing instruments for the most part. Mainstream music has been dumbed down more and more each decade, a band like Dream Theater is only going to expand minds, it's any wonder that The Mars Volta had a relatively big hit back in 2005/6, "The Widow" but the rest of their music sounds nothing like that song, but they kind of fit a particular sound that was popular in the rock spectrum at that time. The 'popular' music keeps getting simpler, less reliant on anyone playing an instrument, and more on the ability to push a few buttons in a studio, or have someone do it for you. Notice how the biggest rock songs from the 60s-00s the average song got simpler and simpler until we got to the point of no guitar solos and simple chords while someone sings over them and someone plays a beat. Today's youth in America is just fine with a rapper who can't sing and doesn't know where middle C is, who doesn't write music, just raps over a beat for 3 minutes. Maybe there's something that one could mistake for a chorus.
DT also never got airplay throughout the 2000s, and had many radio-friendly tunes during that era, where rock 'hits' were still a thing until late in the decade from my perspective. I did hear Constant Motion a few times on the NYC Q1043 classic rock station, and each time it was during the Eddie Trunk show on Friday nights. That's not really much exposure, outside of your general fan base.
Besides, what constitutes a 'hit' song? I read one time a couple years back that you pay the stations to play your single, the more you pay, the more they'll play. I'm sure there was something related to the record company, but record companies, for all the bad they did in trying to control artistic directions for bands and artists through the 20th Century they did take risks and give many types of acts a chance to succeed. Part of the problem is illegal downloading, and more recently "streaming" and things like Spotify and Apple Music. These things destroyed the music business for better or worse. Nowadays, a hit is a hit before it enters the audiences ears. The general crowd listening to what's popular now, is not seeking anything else out. Combined with a poor education system in this country, especially in regards to the arts and music, and how our society doesn't care about music like they used to a generation ago, and its easy to see why Dream Theater is not a mainstream act. I still think it's amazing that Pull Me Under was a hit, considering the sound and that grunge was coming in as the new big thing.
Topic: Official Distance Over Time discussion thread (Read 190207 times)
