Just recently, there has been some interesting debate on the popularity of melodic rock/aor, with some people like John Q taking a negative viepoint seeing the genre as being stagnant or even struggling. I disagree totally. For a start, labels like ESCAPE and FRONTIERS have only been formed in the last few years specifically to cater for this type of music. Okay sales have not been monstrous but growth is occuring and unlike alternative music and the boy band phenomenon not subject to trends. It's too be expected that in the process of time more labels will appear and through the proliferation of the INTERNET lesser known bands will gain greater exposure. The other argument that I saw pointed to melodic rock having its day, especially that derogatory term "80s bands", some pointing to everyone looking the same, too many "hair bands" etc. Well, what explains POISON selling out 20000 seat arena's on last years tour and if grunge was a reaction to "hair bands" (you know one of the arguments all the bands look the same) why do most grunge, alternative, boy bands sport identical looks - in the time of grunge it was actually cool to look ugly! MELODIC ROCK WILL NEVER DIE! Though I personally liked many of the hair bands in their late 80s peak(Poison, Warrant etc) and the less heralded and higher quality acts like Lillian Axe AND DIVING FOR PEARLS, the tides of time and proliferation of smaller quality labels have ensured that quality acts like HEARTLAND, HUGO, THE DISTANCE, MILLENIUM etc survive. Its up to us to keep the melodic rock flame burning Oh, and John PANTERA did not save metal. Outside of the English speaking world(specifically US, UK, AUST,) melodic metal whether of the power/progressive persuasion dominates. When I travelled throughout Europe people were talking about IRON MAIDEN, HELLOWEEN ,STRATOVARIUS etc., bands that still believe in the power of melody and "real" vocals not growly distorted vocals ala Pantera, Korn, Limp Bizkit etc. In Brazil one of the popular bands is Angra who in the space of a couple of years have become very popular with their brand of melodic metal Finally, if melodic rock is on the wane what explains the whole panoply of reunions - NIGHT RANGER , rumoured DAMN YANKEES , RATT, DIVING FOR PEARLS(new studio album coming), IRON MAIDEN(massive world tour imminent). These bands all experienced some hiatus in the last decade and are now back. Melodic rock will never die because there will always be people out there who want to hear a good tune(melody), want to hear "fun" music and are discriminating in their tastes. Cheers to all, what do you think!http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,160#msg-160Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:03:24 +1000 Phorum 5.2.16 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,195#msg-195 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,195#msg-195
Best regards

Susumu ]]> Susumu NoticeboardSun, 16 Apr 2000 22:12:12 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,186#msg-186 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,186#msg-186
Way back when I was in high school and college, the radio stations here in Houston were more diverse. Radio stations then could actually play what they wanted from albums, hence Album Oriented Rock. Now when say Collective Soul comes out with a new album, the alternative staion here will play the old Collective Soul hits, playing a new cut every fourth time. It is really sad.

I recently read a Steely Dan interview at CD Now's site, where Becker and Fagan basically said that if they came out originally in the 90s they would have not made it, since they don't sound like exactly everything else on the radio.

The even sadder truth is that the only radio staions in town that play a diverse mix of music are the college radio stations, which are not forced to stick to a play list.

BD
]]> Big Doggie NoticeboardSun, 16 Apr 2000 13:11:02 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,184#msg-184 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,184#msg-184
]]> Geoff NoticeboardSun, 16 Apr 2000 11:04:40 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,181#msg-181 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,181#msg-181
Another thing though is that the music scene is very blurred anymore. There are so many bands that have elements of various styles of music playing. No one genre is dominating right now.

]]> Mike Matney NoticeboardSun, 16 Apr 2000 09:55:48 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,177#msg-177 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,177#msg-177Instead we should all heed to what they consider is popular music these days.

It makes me laugh actually, these alternative bands with the 'street cred' are now totally and 100% owned by these labels and media outlets and are now more commercial than metal ever was....

AOR / melodic rock is now the alternative!

Just a few thoughts...

Regards,
Andrew.
]]> Andrew NoticeboardSun, 16 Apr 2000 09:12:31 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,171#msg-171 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,171#msg-171
Now is that a bad thing? Not one bit in my opinion! When a genre becomes popular, there is more of a push by the recording industry to make everyone sound like what is popular at the moment, even though the record companies don't realize that the moment has passed already.

We just need to continue to support the music.

]]> Mike Matney NoticeboardSun, 16 Apr 2000 00:30:38 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,160#msg-160 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,160,160#msg-160The other argument that I saw pointed to melodic rock having its day, especially that derogatory term "80s bands", some pointing to everyone looking the same, too many "hair bands" etc. Well, what explains POISON selling out 20000 seat arena's on last years tour and if grunge was a reaction to "hair bands" (you know one of the arguments all the bands look the same) why do most grunge, alternative, boy bands sport identical looks - in the time of grunge it was actually cool to look ugly!
MELODIC ROCK WILL NEVER DIE! Though I personally liked many of the hair bands in their late 80s peak(Poison, Warrant etc) and the less heralded and higher quality acts like Lillian Axe AND DIVING FOR PEARLS, the tides of time and proliferation of smaller quality labels have ensured that quality acts like HEARTLAND, HUGO, THE DISTANCE, MILLENIUM etc survive. Its up to us to keep the melodic rock flame burning
Oh, and John PANTERA did not save metal. Outside of the English speaking world(specifically US, UK, AUST,) melodic metal whether of the power/progressive persuasion dominates. When I travelled throughout Europe people were talking about IRON MAIDEN, HELLOWEEN ,STRATOVARIUS etc., bands that still believe in the power of melody and "real" vocals not growly distorted vocals ala Pantera, Korn, Limp Bizkit etc. In Brazil one of the popular bands is Angra who in the space of a couple of years have become very popular with their brand of melodic metal
Finally, if melodic rock is on the wane what explains the whole panoply of reunions - NIGHT RANGER , rumoured DAMN YANKEES , RATT, DIVING FOR PEARLS(new studio album coming), IRON MAIDEN(massive world tour imminent). These bands all experienced some hiatus in the last decade and are now back. Melodic rock will never die because there will always be people out there who want to hear a good tune(melody), want to hear "fun" music and are discriminating in their tastes. Cheers to all, what do you think!]]> KAOS FAN NoticeboardSat, 15 Apr 2000 13:37:01 +1000