While you have some very good points, John Q, uneducated comments like "they don't read magazines in the US..." only serve to make you sound like some knee-jerking cynic and undermine your arguments. The reality is that none of the "major" MHR/AOR mags (Boulevard, Frontiers, Hard Roxx, etc.)managed to secure any sort of consistent distribution here in the States (or--based on my time in Toronto-- in Canada).

I can walk into any Borders, Tower Books or Barnes&Noble and buy European magazines about damn near anything else (PC Answers, Cooking U.K., Metal Hammer, Record Collector and Modern Home & Bath, to name a few), and can even pick up Burrrn!! and obscure U.K.fanzines, but I could never go to a news agent or bookstore and find say, Powerplay or even Classic Rock magazine. For that matter, I cannot subscribe to such publications without paying exorbitantly because I am in the US.

This sucks, especially when you consider that the reality is that the growth of this music is dependant on getting the music and the news out to the fans. Andrew does a helluva job. Plus, Frontiers, Songhaus and Kivel are making a solid effort to bring it to us in the US. It just needs to go a step further.

Everyday, I can turn on the radio and hear Journey, Boston, Styx, Bon Jovi and (occasionally) Night Ranger so I know that there is a market for this music. While the rise of bands like Matchbox 20, No Doubt, and Third Eye Blind has reshaped US rock radio, there still is a mainstream rock format that is not being worked at properly. With the right marketing, I believe better bands like Two Fires, Ten, and Crown of Thorns could land airplay. I also believe that, if everyone (labelwise, journalistwise and fanwise) could get behind one high-quality bi-monthly MHR/AOR publication with international distribution it would be successful in the longterm. In the words of one popular AOR chestnut, "Only time will tell...."

Regards,
Chris D