AOR VS Disco

Dean wrote: Svetonio wrote: verslibre wrote: I don't recall any sort of "flash-rock" label applied to Asia. They're AOR through and through, or MOR. 'Flash Rock' as the term now means almost nothing, but in The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock (Salamander Books Limited, 1977), the authors Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden mentioned flash rock even in the Yes chapter, and they wrote that Rick Wakeman "push the band more deep into something what become knowing as flash rock or techno rock territory." Also, in the same chapter, while describing the genre, the authors have called ELP "leading representatives of flash rock" as "technically stunning but inflated and pretentious school of rock". I have Croatian version of the book, but the terms are cited in English. The term was used, but not in association with Argent. (...)

Sorry, but I do, in spite of all the shortcomings of that first encyclopedia of rock (e.g.lack of Hatfield & The Norh entry, they called Uriah Heep "imitation of Led Zep", etc.), I still believe to this book a lot more than to your stories.

Edited by Svetonio - June 30 2014 at 04:11

Svetonio wrote: Dean wrote: Svetonio wrote: verslibre wrote: I don't recall any sort of "flash-rock" label applied to Asia. They're AOR through and through, or MOR. 'Flash Rock' as the term now means almost nothing, but in The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock (Salamander Books Limited, 1977), the authors Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden mentioned flash rock even in the Yes chapter, and they wrote that Rick Wakeman "push the band more deep into something what become knowing as flash rock or techno rock territory." Also, in the same chapter, while describing the genre, the authors have called ELP "leading representatives of flash rock" as "technically stunning but inflated and pretentious school of rock". I have Croatian version of the book, but the terms are cited in English. The term was used, but not in association with Argent. (...) In The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock (1977, Salamander Books Limited, Salamander House, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WCIN 3AF, United Kingdom)  Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden wrote about Argent:  (...) "The band with the album Ring of Hands (1971) was establish their own identity on recordings. This second album has sparked much interest and sales on both sides of the Atlantic, and introduced Argent in flash rock hierarchy, which was made up by favourite bands as ELP, Yes and Geneisis. (...)" Sorry, but I do, in spite of all the shortcomings of that first encyclopedia of rock (e.g.lack of Hatfield & The Norh entry, they called Uriah Heep "imitation of Led Zep", etc.), I still believe to this book a lot more than to your stories.

Dean wrote: Svetonio wrote: Dean wrote: Svetonio wrote: verslibre wrote: I don't recall any sort of "flash-rock" label applied to Asia. They're AOR through and through, or MOR. 'Flash Rock' as the term now means almost nothing, but in The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock (Salamander Books Limited, 1977), the authors Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden mentioned flash rock even in the Yes chapter, and they wrote that Rick Wakeman "push the band more deep into something what become knowing as flash rock or techno rock territory." Also, in the same chapter, while describing the genre, the authors have called ELP "leading representatives of flash rock" as "technically stunning but inflated and pretentious school of rock". I have Croatian version of the book, but the terms are cited in English. The term was used, but not in association with Argent. (...) In The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock (1977, Salamander Books Limited, Salamander House, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WCIN 3AF, United Kingdom)  Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden wrote about Argent:  (...) "The band with the album Ring of Hands (1971) was establish their own identity on recordings. This second album has sparked much interest and sales on both sides of the Atlantic, and introduced Argent in flash rock hierarchy, which was made up by favourite bands as ELP, Yes and Geneisis. (...)" Sorry, but I do, in spite of all the shortcomings of that first encyclopedia of rock (e.g.lack of Hatfield & The Norh entry, they called Uriah Heep "imitation of Led Zep", etc.), I still believe to this book a lot more than to your stories. You can believe all you like. The NME Encyclopaedia of Rock is not a definitive reference book, it is the "version" as told by Logan and Woffinden writing at a time when British Rock Journalism was vehemently anti-Prog. With Logan as editor of the NME pushing the publication away from established bands towards Pub Rock and then eventually Punk Rock (in 76/77) he was not using the term in a positive way, (the use of the word 'hierarchy' is a big clue there) - also note that he used it uncapitalised as a descriptive term, not as the Name Of A Genre. I'll repeat this again:  "term existed but only by a few journalists [in] the music press - it never entered the popular vernacular nor was it ever accepted by the fans of those bands"

Edited by Svetonio - June 30 2014 at 12:21

ok all this thread has done is made me really confused about what AOR actually is. oh well.

bloodnarfer wrote: ok all this thread has done is made me really confused about what AOR actually is. oh well.

^
Quadrophenia the album is also in the manner of Flash Rock, as well as Tommy soundtrack.
Although Nick Logan and Bob Voffinden in their capital work without whom we lost a lot of real informations about that golden age, do not labeled Quadrophenia as Flash Rock, they actually says:

"Quadrophenia the album marks the return of the inarticulate, disorganized period of mods, where each of the four members of the band is one of the four sides of the character of a typical representative of mods. This album experienced a certain success - it comes with a first class single 5:15 - but in many ways the album was too ambitious, as far as the text and music, a cumbersome orchestration did not match the group. However, despite all the shortcomings, the album was worth and important experiment."



As a progressive rock fan and a casual The Who fan, I love all that synths at Quadrophenia (after all, I'm lover of Todd Rundgren's A Treatise of Cosmic Fire - what can be more flashy than that?!:-) However, I meet at 1986 in one of London pubs a group of English hardcore The Who fans who told me roughly this: "although we love Quad, for a bit it shows The Who as the mods imposters, cause Quad is not a mods music at all; that album should be just one LP without those long instrumental songs, without synths, only Nicky Hopkins at piano as it was originally conceived, but Pete changed everything".

In 1977, I was read an interview with Mr Townshend that have been given for the most important ex-Yugoslavian rock magazine Jukebox, where he said in one of his answers that "although I get a lot of letters by the kids about Quad, we rarely play it at gigs. It's too hard for playing live and it's pretty intangible for a live perfomance."

In the same magazine ( which jounalists were traveling to London very often), I saw many times the term *flash rock*.
Nobody now can prove with a fact how many fans exactly were accepted the term at that time.
Personally, I still love the term because it is very descriptive regarding a lot of the albums, including that Asia's debut.




Edited by Svetonio - July 01 2014 at 01:55

Svetonio wrote: Personally, I still love the term because it is very descriptive regarding a lot of the albums, including that Asia's debut.

*headdesk* it is then

While now we treat the initialism of AOR as being synonymous to "Adult Oriented Rock" "Album Orient Rock" and "Album Oriented Radio" they were originally three completely different things and were not the same.

Another three PERFECT examples of AOR.

Edited by Svetonio - July 01 2014 at 03:48