Hi, I am glad that this sort of topic is raised by melodic rock fans in the U.S.

The difference between U.S. and the rest of the world I believe is that U.S. is so wide in area and so varied in music taste unless strong force such as radio network and music label do something you have no way of knowing the artist exists at all. Ordionary music fans in the U.S. may not even know such things as melodic rock. Unfortunately both lost dominance in the 90s and visual media took over and the music style depended so much on both media lost popularity as well.

But I am hopeful that melodic rock will return to the U.S. If you do not believe me just take a look at amazon. com and search for Journey. Journey's Greatest Hit
is ranked between 200 to 600 in amazon.com sales rank. What is more important is who are buying this. College students. Given more knowledge they will be led to what they really want such as ,say, Heartland, Harem Scarem, or Ten. Maybe they get interested in sales ranking which shows up to No.300,000. Very cool. Even the artist with little popularity can be given space there. Internet is so interactive if you think some album is great you can review it. In a few years or so cybernet will change the music industry itself.

My conclousion is if major labels do not promote them, you do it. Let the presence of the artist you love known by using interactive means.

I hope this might help

Best regards

Susumu