It was Glee what did it. The actually-quite-good American teen comedy has taken the world by storm, and in its wake, the radio is awash with songs from the glory days of American rock. Songs which were long-gone and, according to some, best-forgotten, have suddenly become cool again. Except, of course, they haven’t.
Soft rock, AOR – call it what you want, but it’s never been cool. It seemed in the 70s and 80s like it had been beamed in from another planet. We had punk, New Wave, New Romantics, Acid House; John Cougar Mellencamp was unlikely to ever resemble a musical James Dean while all that was going on. But come on – ‘Bat Out of Hell’, ‘Cold As Ice’, ‘We Built This City on Rock’N'Roll’ – good Lord, my friend, what treasures are these!
It was always popular, and with good reason; good AOR is, not to put too fine a point on it, magic. ‘But ELM’, you sneer, ‘surely it is just trite, ‘best a man can get’-style lyrics over great swathes of overproduced rock music, often saddled with the latest keyboard sound of the time which thus renders it old-fashioned about twenty seconds after it was released.’ Well, yes it is. And that, dear reader, is why it is a genre to be cherished.
Guilty Pleasures, ironic detachment – it doesn’t matter what prism you view it through, it’s still great. ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey has become the poster boy for this upsurge, and with good reason. We were banging on about how good it is two years ago. A huge, inspirational beast of a thing, it is ludicrous, silly and wonderful. It is better than anything Oasis have ever done. This is a fact.
ELM has been banging the drum for AOR for a while now – seriously – but admit it was done with an air of anti-cool to prove how cool we are. Now that it is on every 12 year olds iPod, it’s a bit difficult to try to hide behind that, so we are just coming out of the closet: AOR rocks.
As songs are being exhumed left, right and centre, we know we aren’t going to get any of our favourites to ourselves, but here’s an absolute essential piece of AOR genius. Glorious, technicolour tune? Check. Exceptionally stupid lyrics? Yup. Bad video which becomes mesmerising in its idiocy? Oh yeah. We got it.
Ladies and gentlemen, man’s definitive artistic statement (fuck your Sistine Chapel, this is the pinnacle of human achievement); Rick Springfield – for it is he – with the classic ‘Jesse’s Girl’. Enjoy.
‘Arthur’s Theme’. I forgot ‘Arthur’s Theme’. Man, AOR is the gift that keeps on giving.
Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | arthur, christopher cross, don't stop believing, glee, journey, Oasis, rick springfield
this is the reason I don’t watch Glee
Good lord ! its a band made up of three Bruce Foxtons !
What toon though. makes me want to go watch Teen Wolf and drink Quattro.
…..with the sleeves of your jacket rolled up ?
It sure is easier to get that dirty pole in the back when you wear your pants below your ass. Hip Pop sucks, no sale.
Soft? Not guilty. AOR rocks out to various degrees of R N R attitude in an all included blend of live instrumental showdown. The purpose is to create the best sound possible. Great instrumental, great vocals; a great tune.
A hell of a lot cooler than following the scam industry marketing uncool things for cool, just because they fail to make money out of their incompetence. See above comments for a good example to that. A marvelous AOR classic in Toto’s Home Of The Brave from The Seventh One album says all. About communism and anti-record industry corruption. True music right there, period.