New release by Greg X. Volz

[brent]

I am not saying that their musical popularity declined per se. You were blind to the point at hand which is BUILDING AND KEEPING FAN BASE. I am not talking about selling CDs. I am talking about loyal fanbase that buys more than 1 or 2 CDs and attends more than one show.

Petra stopped developing the fan base, doing the news letters, doing the grass roots stuff on a personal level. All of this went away when Becky was ousted and Petrafied closed up. Those duties were never fully reinstitued by the band or people at the labels. The labels did some things, but John and Bob both have said that the labels expected the money to flow in just because they were Petra. They thought that they did not have to invest in them. Even their last manager discussed planning an exit from the industry, not building a presence in it.

If a band does not cultivate their base hands on and stay directly involved, then they will have to compete for dollars and attention with the music alone. Christian bands simply cannot do that and survive. Not only that, the minute that a band get's too big to interface and be approachable (not saying Petra was), they will die.

Christian bands cannot engage in the same marketing practices in the same press, reaching the same audiences with proficiency as seculars. It is a hyper niche market that is shrinking by 10% this year. They have to build a family culture or blow away. Take a clue from Gaither. Gaither has done an excellent job displaying family culture, building it on his site, and selling it.

Back to Petra. The problem is that the music styles of the world changed and Christians mostly listen to secular music. Christian music has forever and forever will be playing it safe, about 10 years behind the curve. So, Petra had to do something and do it at that moment. No, it was not for us, but what they were doing previously was selling like rocks in a box too. They were damned if they did or damned if they didn't. So, damn! What are they to do? Go where the masses and listener ship was headed. The sales figures do not match what the theories state here. No Doubt did not kill Petra. They were dying before!

[separateunion]

The biggest issue was that the style that Petra played pretty much died overnight when the grunge scene exploded. It doesn't matter if they kept rocking and a few hardcore fans would have kept listening to them, the large majority of music listeners moved to the alternative scene. Look at all of Petra's secular peers; they were mostly non-existent during the 90s.

[brent]

You verified what I just said. There was no listener loyalty on a large scale. Bon Jovi never really lost market share. Neither did the Stones, Aerosmith, etc. These bands have in some cases left a genre for another. They had a fan base that has been loyal and alive, transcending generations.

[Preacherman777]

It seems to me that this is a theory based on no applicable evidence. When did Petra do a solid hard rock album in the early 90s that failed? They didn't. It never happened. Many of Petra peers in the Christian market also changed their style around that time and they also failed. Others simply disappeared due to the changing market. But I was around and I remember very clearly all the comments from fans of Christian hard rock which were basically this, "What happened to Petra?" and "Why are they going soft?" Those comments never went away until Jekyll and Hyde. I'm telling you that the fans of hard rock did not suddenly start getting into grunge and alternative. That was a different audience and it may have been the dominant audience in the market, but it was not Petra's audience. It's easy to say that Petra had no choice, but to do what they did, but I just don't see it. We know what they did and we know that what they did brought about their end due to ever declining sales, but we don't know what would have happened if they would have retained their hard rock edge. Suggesting that we do is just speculation.

As a result, Petra's fan base went elsewhere to find the music they loved. While bands like Petra, White Heart, Guardian, Holy Soldier and others were busy trying to appeal to a new audience, the fans of their old sound were flocking to indi outlets and indi bands to find a place where they could still get the kind of music they wanted and this they continued to do until recent years when some of the old bands have started to make a comeback.

[separateunion]

You verified what I just said. There was no listener loyalty on a large scale. Bon Jovi never really lost market share. Neither did the Stones, Aerosmith, etc. These bands have in some cases left a genre for another. They had a fan base that has been loyal and alive, transcending generations.

None of those bands were playing the style Petra played in the late 80s/early 90s. If Petra had stuck to a similar style as they were playing in the 70s, then they may have been able to make the transition like Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, etc. However, Petra was not playing classic rock at their peak (read: album sales). They were more along the lines of hair bands like Def Leppard. Even Volz era Petra was more similar to Journey than Aerosmith. None of the bands comparable to Petra's sound in their peak years maintained the mass popularity that they had because that style of music quickly became obsolete.

[separateunion]

While bands like Petra, White Heart, Guardian, Holy Soldier and others were busy trying to appeal to a new audience, the fans of their old sound were flocking to indi outlets and indi bands to find a place where they could still get the kind of music they wanted and this they continued to do until recent years when some of the old bands have started to make a comeback.

None of those bands "making a comeback" is garnering much attention outside of small circles. If masses of people were really interested in that type of music, they'd be flocking back. But they aren't, and it's because that style of music only interests a small niche of people. It is not a popular style by any stretch.

[Preacherman777]

What's happening now doesn't really have anything to do with what was going on in early to mid 90s. That was 15 years ago and while the bands may have been going out of site, they were not out of mind. Now they are coming back into sight, but they have been too long out of mind. The two situations simply do not compare to each other. I was simply explaining what path the fans of hard rock and metal did after the market turned it's back on their kind of music.