Kieran,

Spooky! Check out my response to the Bon Jovi meets Backstreet Boys thread. I mention some of the same artists. The point is you are, of course, correct. AOR IS BACK. It's just in diguise! Mainly, it seems, in the form of either groups of boys or jailbait females! But there are some GREAT songs around.

I've been in music retail over half of my life, seen trends change continually and yes, I love all those 80's bands, but that was then. It may seem desperate 'making do' with the music that's out there in the absence of the style and sound we all got used to but there is a whole new generation that need to find a sound to call their own now and the majors just don't seem to target 30 somethings that want to hang on to the past. That's what the specialist labels do! The problem is that they can't get the music onto the radio. A problem for what is, essentially, 'radio rock'.

I'll be interested to see what kind of response you get to this thread. But, let's face it, Jon Bon Jovi is nothing if not a buisness man and even he's enlisting the same songwriters to help him get another hit (Max Martin).By the way, did you know that Desmond Child wrote Ricky Martin's 'Livin' La Vida Loca'? Next time you hear it listen to that bridge!

I suspect you've opened up a whole can of worms here! Brilliant!