80s AOR/FM rock/Arena rock (a guilty pleasure)

[ChrisXymphonia]

I agree with all those points. I'm not sure, but I think BJH only had 1 or 2 lps in the 80s, and I don't really hear AOR on either of them.

BJH Discography in the 80s:

Turn of the Tide (1981)
Ring of Changes (1983)
Victims of Circumstance (1984)
Face to Face (1987)

Live-albums:
Berlin - A Concert for the People (1982)
Glasnost (1988)

[Klonk]

I lot of this stuff takes me back as it was pretty much floating around my soundtrack of life growing up in the 80's. So in that respect I have a soft spot for a lot of it. I won't usually play it purposely, but if it pops up, I'll listen and smile.

Some obvious ones...

[Gruno]

Love the genre. Some of these bands are still making good music these days.

[PeterG]

Klonk, regarding Saga, you obviously didn't click on my Saga link in post #17


Excellent song though so it doesn't hurt to have it here twice

[Gerardo]

My favorite records in this genre during the 80's (OP said 80's, so I'll just stay within that decade, most choices are the obvious ones) are:

Boston- Third Stage
Asia- s/t
Journey- Escape
REO Speedwagon- Hi Infidelity
Foreigner- 4
Survivor- Eye of the Tiger
Toto- Toto IV
Zebra- s/t
Saga- Worlds Apart
Magnum- Wings of Heaven (I'll give the edge to this one although I like 'Chase The Dragon' and 'On A Storyteller's Night' as well)
Giant- Last of the Runaways
Night Ranger- Dawn Patrol and Midnight Madness (in this case I like the first two equally)
Loverboy- Get Lucky (I'll give the edge to this one over their first s/t album)
Shooting Star- s/t
Triumph- Sport of Kings ( not too many people liked this when it came out, but I did. I liked all their previous better, but I have a soft spot for this one)

[PeterG]

Gerard, hit me with some good Zebra and Giant tracks from the period, I don't know them at all.

[Gerardo]

[Rufus]

Yeah , the Giant debut is up there !

[Gerardo]

Another Giant tune:



...and I really like this Triumph song from the 80's (This is the live version):

[trurl]

[Modry Effekt]

I'm afraid my reputation is gone now

Nightwing - Treading Water

[Digital_Man]

I tend to think of the aor/arena rock genre as being a seventies thing. I admit it carried over into the eighties but for the eighties I think hair metal and pop metal and maybe one or two other things(new wave maybe)as being more dominate. For example some of the biggest selling bands from the eighties such as Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Motley Crue and Poison I would all consider to be either pop metal or hair metal.

[Gerardo]

Both Magnum songs are from the 'Wings of Heaven' album

[Gerardo]

I'm afraid my reputation is gone now

Nightwing - Treading Water

The prog reputation has gone down the drain, LOL! I love prog, but I also like a good melodic song as long as it has integrity. This was the Nightwing song I actually heard on classic rock radio when I was in my early teen years in Puerto Rico:

[Modry Effekt]

The prog reputation has gone down the drain, LOL! I love prog, but I also like a good melodic song as long as it has integrity. This was the Nightwing song I actually heard on classic rock radio when I was in my early teen years in Puerto Rico:

Yes,prog reputation... gone

I haven't heard that before,it's a very good song.

[PeterG]

I tend to think of the aor/arena rock genre as being a seventies thing. I admit it carried over into the eighties but for the eighties I think hair metal and pop metal and maybe one or two other things(new wave maybe)as being more dominate. For example some of the biggest selling bands from the eighties such as Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Motley Crue and Poison I would all consider to be either pop metal or hair metal.

I think it was equally a 70s and 80s thing, at least in the UK. However, IMO, the reason certain bands were called "hair metal", "poodle rock" "soft metal" is becasue they WEREN'T metal at all, but calling them what they were i.e. AOR seemed to be unacceptable at the time.

[Gerardo]

I think it was equally a 70s and 80s thing, at least in the UK. However, IMO, the reason certain bands were called "hair metal", "poodle rock" "soft metal" is becasue they WEREN'T metal at all, but calling them what they were i.e. AOR seemed to be unacceptable at the time.

Very good point. Maybe a better term to label all these bands (aor and the "hair bands") would be "arena rock", or is it too big of an umbrella to clasify them?

[Galactic Bulldozer]

[JKL2000]

Not sure if this qualifies, but I always loved this track:

[Gruno]

I was always very fond of "Rough Boy". Love the soloing in that one.

[PeterG]

Thanks for the Zebra and Nightwing tracks guys, I had't heard of them till now but I like what I hear.

[PeterG]

RAINBOW

[trurl]

3.V by Zebra (that I posted the song from) is a really good album, though it does suffer from from that stock early 80s drum sound- whaddayagonnado

[Progatron]

One from my older brother's LP collection that I used to listen to as a kid. No idea why it appealed to me so much.



Love the Zebra tracks posted too!

[Scott Bails]

This thread is like the soundtrack to my youth.