Concrete Marketing is an independent marketing company based in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, US, founded by Bob Chiappardi and Walter O'Brien in 1984.
Concrete: Early years
Concrete Marketing was founded by Bob Chiappardi and Walter O'Brien in 1984. Chiappardi was working in the mail room of
Arista Records
Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...
in New York whilst managing a few bands from Long Island and O'Brien was the founder of Relativity/Combat Records. The company name was chosen by plucking a name blindly from the Yellow Pages. Concrete’s first client was RCA’s
Grim Reaper
The Grim Reaper is a popular personification of death in Western culture in the form of a hooded skeletal figure wearing a black robe and carrying a scythe.
During the 1984
New Music Seminar
The New Music Seminar (NMS) originated in New York City as an event dedicated to education and the celebration of music throughout history, taking place each June from 1980-1995. After several years, the annual NMS was relaunched in 2009.
In 20 ...
, they distributed around 200 flyers
advertising Concrete and its services and by the end of the first day
they had been approached by Rick Dobbis, then vice president of marketing at
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...
, and were hired to work the first full length
Armoured Saint record.
In 1990, Chiappardi and O’Brien amicably split as business partners
with Chiappardi taking the helm of Concrete Marketing and several
other companies they had created, whilst Walter O’Brien took Concrete
Management, the management company that looked after
Pantera
Pantera () is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Arlington, Texas in 1981 by the Abbott brothers (guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul), and currently composed of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, an ...
In 1992, the company began Concrete Corner, the purpose of which was
the promotion and distribution of heavy metal records. This was
achieved at a retail level by creating a unified sales force from the
blending of independent and select chain stores that would adopt the
program thus promoting select hard rock/metal/hardcore/alternative
releases.
The format of the program was a store within a store concept and
featured point of purchase displays, instore play, sales pricing,
clerk recommendations and 15,000 monthly sampler CDs. A free hard
music magazine ''Concrete Corner'' was available for the consumer,
while ‘Network Newz’ provided information for the store owner. Key
reasoning behind these strategies was that small retailers fared
better with niche markets such as heavy metal.
Occasionally for selected record launches, listening parties and
midnight sales would be held the day before the release of the album
proper. The first listening party and midnight sale, in which 318 of
the 325 stores participated, was for a
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
boxset.
Listening parties would be advertised through instore banners,
syndicated radio shows, and in magazines that featured the
SoundScan
Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellig ...
hard music chart, owned by Concrete. Invitations would go out to
Concrete’s 20,000 strong database of fans and stores would invite
their targeted customers by mail.
The program was successful in offering more to the consumer who
received freebies, discounts and won raffle prizes; to the store
whose staff won prizes for the best display and to the label which
could be certain that their product was being pushed to their target
audience.
Other promotions that spun off Concrete Corner were "bonus disc" giveaways,
where a bonus disc of artists from different labels was shrink wrapped to
a highly anticipated new release from one of Concrete's clients. The first
of these types of promotions was for
Korn
Korn (stylized as KoЯn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, originally formed in 1993 by James Shaffer, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald Arvizu, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu and David Silveria, who were members of the band ...
’s album
'' Follow the Leader'' in which 100,000 copies of a compilation CD
featuring tracks of breakthrough artists approved by Korn, as well as
a previously unreleased Korn track were given away to each person who
purchased the record. Baby band artists, at the time, featured on the
first disc included
Kid Rock
Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock, is an American musician, singer, rapper, and songwriter. After establishing himself in the Music of Detroit#Hip-hop, Detroit hip-hop scene, he broke through into m ...
,
Powerman 5000
Powerman 5000 (also known as PM5K) is an American rock music, rock band formed in 1991. The group has released eleven studio albums, gaining its highest level of commercial success with 1999's ''Tonight the Stars Revolt!'', which reached number ...
,
Orgy
An orgy is a sex party where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex.
Swingers' parties do not always conform to this designation, because at many swinger parties the sexual partners may all know each other o ...
and
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit is an American nu metal band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto (drummer), John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers (bassist), Sam ...
. Subsequent programs like
this were executed for
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal—alo ...
and
Rob Zombie
Robert Bartleh Cummings (born January 12, 1965), known professionally as Rob Zombie, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live show ...
, among others.
In 1994, a Concrete Corner Tour was also put together. The concept of the tour was to initiate monthly events in each city where the tour was routed, with the focus of the shows being more on creating an affordable, fun evening of music rather than being based specifically on recognition of the bands' names. This club tour allowed for the exposure of the bands to ticketholders who may not have seen them otherwise. Shows featured raffles and giveaways, and the first in the tour series saw
Greta Greta may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Greta'' (2018 film), a thriller film directed by Neil Jordan
* ''Greta'' (2020 film), a documentary film about activist Greta Thunberg Music
* Greta (band), hard rock band
* Greta (song), ...
, Varga and Shootyz Groove take to the road.
In 1998, Concrete Corner and Concrete Marketing won the ‘Related Products and
Services Supplier of the Year’ award from National Association
of Recording Merchandisers ( NARM), the trade organization of music retail
industry. This was the first time this award was ever presented. In
subsequent years, Concrete was nominated two more times.
RetailVision
RetailVision was a service Concrete provided which was based upon in-store video play. Concrete kept a database of 1200 stores nationwide, organized by genre in order to provide appropriate video reel compilations to each in the four genres of alternative (AlternateVision), rap (RapVision), hard rock (MetalVision) and pop music (HitVision). The appropriate video cassette was distributed to each of the stores which allowed the active consumer to see all the new hits, while at the same time let new bands reach a wider audience because of the ever-expanding record store network. With this program, Concrete could help promote 30 - 40 new bands/songs a month. Bands were selected for RetailVision via a regular weekly meeting of heavy metal fans who could vote for their favorite entries, thus helping the program maintain credibility and quality.
Foundations and the Hard Music Soundscan Chart
Before producing ''Foundations'', the first exclusively heavy metal trade publication, Concrete were contributing to ''Friday Morning Quarterback'' (''
FMQB
''Friday Morning Quarterback'' (better known as ''FMQB'') was a trade magazine which covered the radio and music industries in the United States. Its coverage included programming, management, promotion, marketing, and airplay for music formatt ...
''). By the time they had worked the first Metallica record and the second Anthrax record and were beginning to amass a lot of metal clients, they decided it was time to begin their own newsletter, and so the first issue of ''Foundations'' was distributed in January 1988.
It was a bi-weekly publication that provided release information, tour itineraries and a breakdown of all of Concrete's current projects, the idea behind it being that it should mimic the underground fanzines that were rife within the scene. It also featured the Concrete/Soundscan Hard Music chart. This chart was also syndicated not only in US regional publications such as ''Radioactive'', ''Good Times'' and ''
The Aquarian
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'', but also in worldwide publications like ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'', ''
Metal Hammer
''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...
'' and ''
Guitar World
''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...
'', reaching a combined readership of somewhere in the region of three million.