The ten essential Adult Oriented Rock albums of the '80s according to Louder

Adult Oriented Rock is the hugely successful "non-genre" of the 70s and 80s, into which many strands converged, from prog and hard rock roots to American FM pop-rock, from arena rock to soft rock and even "yacht rock". Gleaming hard-rock guitars, a pop sensibility and choruses in abundance, with the recording studio once again taking centre stage, made the fortune of a genre "for adults" that nonetheless often won over younger listeners too, through bands like Styx, Journey, Foreigner, Rush, Yes, Asia, Boston, Heart, Kansas, Toto, Steely Dan, Electric Light Orchestra, Supertramp and many others. But it's also one of the strands most despised by the pseudo-alternative critics who have so often laid down the law in rock circles.
Bucking the trend, thankfully, is the online magazine Louder, which devotes an in-depth feature to the genre, picking out what it considers “the ten essential AOR albums of the 80s”. “AOR – Dave Ling notes in the introduction – had already put down roots in the Seventies, but it was in the following decade that it reached its absolute peak. New acts like Bon Jovi and Europe joined the scene's leading melodic-rock names, while increasingly sophisticated recording techniques helped make the sound richer and glossier. With MTV now the arbiter of commercial success, albums like Def Leppard's “Hysteria” turned the genre into a global, multi-million-selling phenomenon. Alongside the biggest names, the Eighties also saw the emergence of numerous outfits who helped shape AOR's identity, including Survivor, Night Ranger, Balance, Diving For Pearls, Icon, Giuffria, Signal and Strangeways”.

So here are the ten essential Aor albums of the 80s, according to Louder (full feature here).
On OndaRock, meanwhile, you'll find a podcast dedicated to the history of Aor.

• REO Speedwagon – “Hi Infidelity” (1980)
• Styx – “Paradise Theater” (1981)
• Foreigner – “4” (1981)
• Journey – “Escape” (1981)
• Toto – “Toto IV” (1982)
• Michael Bolton – “Everybody’s Crazy” (1985)
• Europe – “The Final Countdown” (1986)
• Bon Jovi – “Slippery When Wet” (1986)
• FM – “Indiscreet” (1986)
• Def Leppard – “Hysteria” (1987)

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