By Karen Glauber

CHVRCHES by Danny Clinch

Timing is everything. Everything is cyclical. Everything counts in large amounts (according to Depeche Mode). In a presentation at the iHeart Alt Summit on Wednesday, someone remarked that 2 million guitars were sold in the U.S. last year—an impressive and heartening statistic for those of us who refuse to accept the edict that “rock is dead.” The number of guns sold in America last year is staggering: more than 25m.

Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” deserves more than a few spins. I refuse to be cynical. I refuse to give up on the power of rock & roll. Donald Glover is rock & roll, regardless of which genre you categorize his music. When Florence Welch sings, “At 17, I started to starve myself/I thought that love was a kind of emptiness/And at least I understood then the hunger I felt/And I didn’t have to call it loneliness,” she embodies the force of rock & roll.

Mike Kaplan and I were blown back in our seats by Bruce Springsteen’s performance on Broadway this past Wednesday night. Accompanying himself on either guitar or piano (with two harmony assists from his wife, Patti Scialfa), Bruce told stories of his childhood and the evolution of his career that were deeply personal and revelatory, including a version of “Born in the U.S.A.” that bore the weight of its intended meaning as a slow-burn blues piece. I wept a smidge during “Born to Run,” later recounting to Mike how I used to call my local Top 40 in Easton, Pa., to request the song the week the album came out, even bringing my copy to the station, just in case they didn’t have it.

I’ve always thought of myself as the sum of my influences, fucked-up parents included, so, in lieu of driving to wherever my father was buried in 1987, I made the trek to the Brooklyn Museum Thursday night to see the David Bowie exhibit. Upon entering, you’re given a headset, and the music/commentary changes as you wind your way from room to room (or “station to station”—see what I did there?). His music evolved from record to record, even acknowledging the weight of audience expectations with the cover of his 24th album, The Next Day, which superimposed a white square over his iconic Heroes cover.

For decades, radio played a huge role in Bowie’s mainstream success, embracing whichever version of himself he chose to present with each record. Now, when visionary artists like Win Butler, Beck and Alex Turner reinvent themselves, radio digs in their collective heels and waits for the universe (or some divine entity) to inform them that the song is, in fact, a hit, and therefore worthy of airplay, squeezed between the six different Imagine Dragons songs they feel compelled to play at least once every 45 minutes. I emailed Peter Berard at Domino: “Maybe they’re waiting for an engraved invitation before they play the new Arctic Monkeys’ single?” And maybe these metrics would look even more impressive if they were embossed in gold: #1 iTunes Alternative Sales Chart upon release, over 8m Spotify streams of the single since last Friday, over 40 Modern Rock adds for week one (except for your station) and a sold-out ARENA tour beginning this fall. The Arctic Monkeys show in L.A. a few weeks ago reinforced their status as one of the truly great rock bands of this era, shoulder to shoulder with Tame Impala.

“Metrics” is Brady Bedard’s “safe word” (mine is “Prada”), and he’s bound and determined to break King Princess’ “1950,” bolstered by the streams and Shazams that explode with every terrestrial and satellite spin. He and Darice also just launched a “Genius” song by LSD (Labrinth, Sia and Diplo) that sounds like a smash on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation, according to programming chief Steve Blatter. I worked Sia records at the format from 2004 onward (Garett Michaels will concur), so don’t tell me she doesn’t fit… BIG NEWS: RCA just signed Flora Cash, whose single, “You’re Somebody Else,” is a big, huge, undeniable hit for WRFF and KRBZ, with the rest of you to follow. I always tell radio and label people that you can have a long career if you’re unfailingly RIGHT two times a year. This song is one of your opportunities to hit it out of the park.

SONG TO HEAR: CHVRCHES' “Miracle,” going for adds now.

“And her life was saved by rock & roll”: [email protected]