AOR and why I don't like it.

siLLy puPPy wrote: Made this list on RYM recently https://rateyourmusic.com/list/siLLy_puPPy/aor-ballads-that-make-me-want-to-get-my-pale-white-ass-to-the-mic-and-shake-my-karaoke-booty/ While not even close to my favorite style of music, there are some artists and songs that i find irresistible. One of the strongest aspects of this style of music are vocalists ability to be the focus of the music and of course the melody has to be strong. I've always considered neo-prog to be the AOR of prog whether that's a realistic comparison or not

Well, I like one song form the list. Africa by Toto. It's kind of like prog lite.

SteveG wrote: ... Unfortunately, this is the popular misconception of AOR as Adult Oriented Rock. It's not a business term that was ever used by either the record industry or FM radio stations in the 70s. This a concept that appeared in the late 80s and has no bearing on Album Oriented Rock, which is what my post is about, exclusively. ...

Sean Trane wrote: I have a bit of a problem with AOR as a concept It seems that the Album Oriented Rock actually meant in the early 70's about Prog bands and assimilated, and the North American FM radios often played big chunks of albums, sometimes a fill side. This wasn't financially viable for private radio stations, which didn't have many commercial spots to air between 9 or 15 minute tracks.  However, the AOR concept changed in the mid-70's, when Adult Oriented Radios (FM stations, going to compete with AM stations) chose singles and commercial tracks lasting between 3 and five minutes from rock albums (and their singles) and thus being able to insert much more add slots Thus, you'll understand that I generally like Album OR, but dislike Adult O Radio

Unfortunately, this is the popular misconception of AOR as Adult Oriented Rock. It's not a business term that was ever used by either the record industry or FM radio stations in the 70s. This a concept that appeared in the late 80s and has no bearing on Album Oriented Rock, which is what my post is about, exclusively.

Edited by SteveG - March 20 2020 at 06:34

Bad Company's debut is a very solid album.

I think of “AOR” as more of a radio format than a style of music. If it is a style, what is it exactly? When you think about it, Boston and Fleetwood Mac have very little in common musically, yet they’re two of the first bands that come to mind with that term. The pejorative nature of the term today comes from over saturation and (possibly) some resentment at those bands’ continued popularity when most of them haven’t released anything new/decent in decades. Enough already, we cry. But ya know? I can remember a time when Foreigner sounded pretty damn cool, and those songs that were the coolest continue to get played today. So they serve a nostalgic purpose at least.

Funny that no one posting (mostly from the US) mentioned the other A word that is used in this context - 'American' . For those from the UK this was music that was peculiarly a United States style of music and epitomised by Foreigner , Toto, Kansas , Boston and eventually by Styx and the utterly dreadful Reo Speedwagon. I'm not trying to be xenophobic about this ( I don't need to try lol) but it did seem like 1% inspiration and 99% drivel. Another explanation for its existence I've heard is that the massive stadium acts like ELP, Genesis , Floyd and Yes stopped touring and something had to take its place. It was radio driven but that was less obvious to us here as we didn't listen to US radio! That said I can list at least half a dozen so called AOR songs that I love. Perhaps the earliest might be Chicago 25 or 6 to 4. Of course its an incredibly cool track that's not really considered 'AOR' but I think of it as very early example of what was coming. Stuff like Carry On Wayward Song and More Than A Feeling is also great even though the formula is emerging and becoming more obvious. I will also admit I have a massive soft spot for Toto -Africa . That was such a deceptively delightful record if ever there was one.

Edited by richardh - March 19 2020 at 16:13

As mentioned, AOR can mean various things (album-oriented rock, album-oriented radio, adult oriented rock and radio, a sort of melodic rock, arena rock, Andalusian Oriental Raga....). I commonly value quirky, off-beat music expression, and I found it generally seemingly too conservative for my tastes. I also associate it with a certain kind of Americana that I don't like.

I love much American folk, psychedelic music, jazz, art pop, blues, soundtracks/ library music, academic/ art music, electronic, avant-garde/ experimental music and more, but I have negative associations with AOR. I don't care that much either about radio saturation as I'm not a big radio listener when it comes to music at least, but when I was listening to classic rock radio, certain AOR stuff just, well, it just didn't resonate with me at all.

As The Cars was mentioned, I like early The Cars, but I don't associate that so much with AOR as later stuff by the band ("Candy-O" in particular is for me a great track). There's a lot of music hits that did get played a lot on FM radio, such as Madness' "Our House", that I continued to like.

Jeffro wrote: SteveG wrote: Jeffro wrote: SteveG wrote:   To be honest, some of these songs are quite good rock music, but their over saturated broadcasts and commercial origins tarnish them for me. What say you about AOR? I don't give a rat's ass about categories or origins. If the song sounds good to my ears, I like it.  I will agree that over saturation is a problem. There are many songs I used to like/love that frankly I never need to hear again.  ah, the ever convenient "no and yes" answer. yeah but over saturation is not exclusive to AOR.

true, but that's the fault of modern Classic Rock Radio.   Another one on the top of my hit parade.

Edited by SteveG - March 19 2020 at 11:43

Jeffro wrote: SteveG wrote:   To be honest, some of these songs are quite good rock music, but their over saturated broadcasts and commercial origins tarnish them for me. What say you about AOR? I don't give a rat's ass about categories or origins. If the song sounds good to my ears, I like it.  I will agree that over saturation is a problem. There are many songs I used to like/love that frankly I never need to hear again.

ah, the ever convenient "no and yes" answer.

Edited by SteveG - March 19 2020 at 10:22