EVERY GENRE PROJECT - November 6 - AOR

Genre of the Day - AOR (Adult-Oriented Rock)

Album of the Day - Boston by Boston (1976)

As the presidential election’s results loomed heavy in the air, I inevitably spent hours today voraciously reading articles and analyses. Though their insights are much appreciated, simple exit polls speak volumes too. One inquired if voters felt that America’s best days were in the past or in the future: depending on the party, the answers were heavily bent one way or the other. It’s unquestionable that a lot of people simply voted based on vibes. Many felt that the economy seems and feels bad, and this largely influenced the outcome of this election. Nostalgia is one of the strongest ~vibes~ of all. Nostalgia and reality are fundamentally different beings, though. Though statistically more polarized than ever, any sense of cohesion that many Americans yearn for never really existed. How does that tie into today’s random genre? Well, at some point, America did agree on something: radio should have distinct formats that catered to different demographics and ages. You’d tune to your reliable station and you would be musically satiated. AOR musically defined that long bygone time of the pleasantness of monoculture, prior to the postmodern echo chamber in which reality is refracted by and individuals interpret universal truths from whatever is relatively weighted in personalized algorithms.

To be instantly recognizable enough to be abbreviated to three letters often encapsulates some sort of appeal to broad sensibilities: Brazil has its MPB (música popular brasileira), major media companies like ABC and NBC, and of course AOR, which stands for adult-oriented rock. The use of the word adult as a prefix to describe a certain genre or format now seems rather antiquated. As television became the preeminent medium of media consumption in American homes, radio broadcasters had to rapidly retool for a new media environment. Additionally, the vocal jazz that had once defined easy listening was generally succumbing to rock as the first generation to experience and adore rock’n’roll came of age and matured. Adult contemporary and album*-oriented rock emerged as two radio formats in the ‘70s, both generally favoring a polished and palatable sound that theoretically could capture the average adult listener’s tastes for a little while and allow for a broad range of artists and styling within that range.

Musically, AOR aims to stretch as wide a portion as possible of the spectrum from harder to softer rock and balance the excesses of both. The melodies and virtuosic playing have to be compelling and anthemic enough to fill arenas with anyone inclined towards rock, while also reaching out to a sense of universal experience. That means packing songs with hooks on hooks on hooks until a listener’s ear is bound to be caught by one. Eventually, the next generation of rockers would reject these excesses and alternative rock would push in subtler directions, but for the bombastic and corporate era that the late ‘70s and ‘80s constituted, AOR bands with names just as snappy as each musical section of their songs dominated—Toto, Journey, Boston, Survivor, and FM dominated airwaves. Turn on any grab-bag adult-contemporary radio station and these bands still stand tall. 

Was there ever a time when the city of Boston’s name sounded romantic enough to christen a band with? I’m not sure. I wasn’t around in the ‘70s. Evidently, it worked off the strength of some monstrously catchy, jaunty hits. I can’t say I don’t feel some envy for those who lived during a time when an album cover with a giant guitar spaceship (which predates Star Wars by a year!) was simply cool enough to push records. The chorus of the ubiquitous megahit “More Than A Feeling” grabs onto you with velcro-immediacy, the balance in dynamics between euphoric and gritty electric solos and heartland-indebted strumming in the verses walking across the metaphorical stage to greet all sides of the rock-fan spectrum. “Peace of Mind” lodges as an earnest ode to staying the path, made even more resonant for the ‘funemployment’ era. “Rock and Roll Band” is a charming metanarrative about being an AOR band, packed with riffs galore constructing the starry-eyed vision of making it big in music that our more cynical century might balk at. The bluesy release and barreling drums at the end of “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” make for a classically satisfying closer. Reflecting on AOR reminds me to take a pause from the individualized construction of reality I’m unintentionally used to miring in, given that that is simply how social media operates, and be the everyman listener that such a genre asks us to be for a moment of our musical time. 

* Album-oriented rock and adult-oriented rock are slightly different, and the latter more characterizes a type of music than the actual radio format.