AOR, or ‘Album/Adult Orientated Rock’ to use its disputed full titles, is also known as melodic or soft rock, even hair metal, and has developed several spin-off strands. Arguably the greatest AOR group of them all were (and still are) Journey, who said goodbye to their jazz-rock roots to seduce the North American airwaves with a peerless combination of lighter-waving ballads and raunch during the 1970s. By its very nature, the very best melodic rock is based upon accessible hooklines, sturdy, riff-driven musicianship and an obligatory high-pitched, liquid-larynxed singer.
The fine balance between hard rock, wimpdom and more progressive tendencies has always made AOR extremely difficult to define. Kansas, Styx and Magnum, for instance, are regarded by purists as pomp rock entities. Others would regard Foreigner or Toto as either balls-out rockers (certainly during the early stages of their careers), or the super-smooth, chart-busting balladers that they both later became. Yet all of these five bands are perfectly comfortable as pewmates in the broad church that is the melodic rock scene.
