one of the most maligned genres ever in music were the corporate rock bands of the 70's and 80's. Critics hated them and the vast majority of them are now playing clubs near you with not even half the original members, but surely there were some you liked. If so who?

I vote Foreigner, Journey and Boston

Journey. They had quite a few good songs I like.

I also like Asia's "Heat of the Moment."

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
I vote Foreigner, Journey and Boston I saw Foreigner in concert, and they were incredible:)

I also liked Survivor. They did some really great songs for the Rocky series. My favorite song from them is "Eye of the Tiger." Best song to listen to while exercising and working out.

I like all of those bands :lol:


Journey is my favorite "corporate rock band"

Journey - my first taste of Journey was with Who's Crying Now. I liked them, have their greatest hits album.

REO Speedwagon - I like (now more than then) Keep On Loving You and Take It On The Run.

Styx - For some reason they always turned me off, but there was a song or two that I liked. I just don't remember which one.

Foreigner - I liked them: Urgent, Waiting For A Girl Like You, Juke Box Hero. They were cool.

Boston - was never really familiar with their music, only know More Than A Feeling (that was Boston, right?)

Loverboy - I really liked this guys: Working For The Weekend, When It's Over and a few others.

Survivor - Aside from Eye of The Tiger, which I always loved, they didn't make much of an impression on me.

Night Ranger - don't care for them. Sister Christian: puke:

Asia - I liked the first two singles: Heat of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell. I didn't pay attention after that.

Kansas - I don't know their music

So I vote for Journey, Foreigner and Loverboy.

Wow, so many choices.

Journey had some good stuff. Ditto for REO Speedwagon and Asia.

Crap, I just thought of Loverboy's "Working For The Weekend" and now I can't get the song out of my head.

:wallbang

;)

JOURNEY!

That was a really hard choice! :lol: ;)

Journey and Survivor. I think Journey will pick up the most votes, because I can't think of anyone who does not own their greatest hits album.

Actually i like all of those bands, especially Foreigner and Boston.

I like Foreigner, Loverboy and Night Ranger.

Originally posted by crystals
I like Foreigner, Loverboy and Night Ranger.

Sing along with TJL...

Sister Christian oh the time has come...

;)

I hate the term "corporate rock"

I loved most of these bands even before they were labeled as "corporate rock"

What a bunch of dung! Listen to what you like- regardless of what mainstream media lables it!

Listen to what is played on the radio today- you'll hear what "corporate music" really is

I chose Boston, Loverboy, Night Ranger and Kansas.

Journey. They were my favorite when I was a kid.

I never heard the term Corporate Rock, exactly what does it mean?

Originally posted by Seinatra
I never heard the term Corporate Rock, exactly what does it mean?

critics usually use this term to describe rock bands of the 70's and 80's (usually 1976-1986 was the heyday), bands who were neither hard rock/heavy metal, but not soft rock either. The bands were in it for fun and nothing more, and critics generally resented the fact that these bands were not "artistic"., and many of them scored major hits with ballads.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
critics usually use this term to describe rock bands of the 70's and 80's (usually 1976-1986 was the heyday), bands who were neither hard rock/heavy metal, but not soft rock either. The bands were in it for fun and nothing more, and critics generally resented the fact that these bands were not "artistic"., and many of them scored major hits with ballads.

I was always a bit fuzzy on the definition of corporate rock too. Thanks for the clarification.

Nowadays music is fragmented more than ever into so many genres, but are there any modern corporate rock bands?

Originally posted by TJL
I was always a bit fuzzy on the definition of corporate rock too. Thanks for the clarification.

Nowadays music is fragmented more than ever into so many genres, but are there any modern corporate rock bands?

actually, I do think "corporate rock" has come back bigtime in the past few years. Nickelback and Three Doors Down are definately recent examples of "corporate rock" bands and they've been popular in recent years.

This was my daughter's generation. But she was absolutely attached to Duran Duran.:lol: So in all honesty I still adhere to The Beatles of course. No one will ever come close to them IMO :lol: But of the 80's groups I really liked Hall and Oates, The Traveling Wilbury's and Jefferson Starship (among others) :D

Originally posted by Penny Lane
This was my daughter's generation. But she was absolutely attached to Duran Duran.:lol: So in all honesty I still adhere to The Beatles of course. No one will ever come close to them IMO :lol:

why do you hate Duran Duran because they can't compete with The Beatles? I mean, that's like hating all sitcoms of the past 30 years just because it's not I Love Lucy.

Hmmm, I wonder if there's one member in particular who's happy to see Journey in first place in this poll.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
why do you hate Duran Duran because they can't compete with The Beatles? I mean, that's like hating all sitcoms of the past 30 years just because it's not I Love Lucy.

I didn't say that I hated Duran Duran , I actually like them . :D

I'm going to burn you a copy of Duran Duran's "Rio" for Christmas Marlene.

;)

Originally posted by vashti1999
Hmmm, I wonder if there's one member in particular who's happy to see Journey in first place in this poll.

I wonder who that could be? ;) :D

The funny thing is, if you listen to Journey before Perry joined the band, they were anything but corporate rock. Remember Journey's original founding members were apart of Santana. To this day the guys in Journey hate the fact that they were lumped into the "corporate rock" genre. It you listen to their Frontiers album (CD) the second half of the CD was made as a creative outlet for the guys.

Picture of the original members of Journey.

They're all really good but my favorites would be...

Journey
REO Speedwagon
Foreigner
Boston
Loverboy
Night Ranger
Asia

:rock:

Originally posted by TJL
I'm going to burn you a copy of Duran Duran's "Rio" for Christmas Marlene.

;)

Oh thank you!;)

a few groups who really weren't "corporate rock", but flirted with it in the 80's, but ended up digging back out of the hole

Heart (basically their work between 1983-1990 was Corporate Rock and Ann and Nancy are the first to admit it)
Chicago (pretty much everything between 1982-1991)
Santana (the Zebop album, especially "Winning")
Van Halen (the 5150 and OU812 albums)
Kiss (Crazy Nights album)

Journey. Love 'em.

Journey is my favorite on the list. Asia was decent, but they did turn out to be a disappointment.

Originally posted by Penny Lane
I didn't say that I hated Duran Duran , I actually like them . :D Good deal. Afterall, they are the "Fab 5!" LOL... as much as I love Duran Duran I am no fool to compare them seriously with the Beatles because it is no contest who reigns supreme.

Nonetheless, thank God for Duran Duran making a comeback in 2004 and beyond! :D

I love all of those bands, especially Foreigener , cant go wrong iwth "Hot Blooded" :rock:

Does this mean that my favorite band is the winner? ;)



:rock: :rockon: :drummer: party:

Corporate band or not, love them or hate them, you have to admit that Journey was an awesome during their time.

Originally posted by Brian
Journey. They had quite a few good songs I like.

I also like Asia's "Heat of the Moment."

And now you find yourself on 82! :lol:

http://www.phenry.org/wsh/photos/i82sign.jpg

Originally posted by Steve M.
And now you find yourself on 82! :lol:

I always thought that ended with "an empty tomb"!

:eek:

Anyway, I voted for all of the above. I like all of those groups' music myself.

:rock:

Originally posted by James
I always thought that ended with "an empty tomb"!

:eek:

Anyway, I voted for all of the above. I like all of those groups' music myself.

:rock:

The actual line is "And now you find yourself in '82," but I couldn't resist the bad visual pun! It was in the, well, the heat of the moment! :D

The only one I ever liked (and still like) is Kansas. There are several reasons, but one is the fact that they wrote intelligent lyrics instead of those g.d love songs. :)

I don't know how I missed this thread!!

From the list, my all-time favorites are Journey & Styx. A close 2nd are REO & Foreigner. I never could get into Boston.

Technically, as Scott Ian of Anthrax pointed out, any band that is out to makes money recording and touring is a "corporate rock" act (and he includes himself). The term corporate rock is kind of one of those durogatory terms in music (like "hair-metal" aka "butt-rock") that was designed, allegedly by radio programmers, to appeal to middle class tastes and sell out huge arenas with a "tailor-made" radio sound that wasn't too heavy or too cutting edge that made ordinary folks pump their fists in the air when a feel-good anthem was played, or the obligatory power ballad was played (and thousands of Bics would light up the night). In 1979, when Journey, Boston, Kansas, and Foreigner were at their peak, the "cutting edge" bands were the skinny-tie "punk" bands like the Knack. The first four bands were considered "safe" and likeable, but critics thought their music was "bland", disposable, predictable and almost identical. If you wanted REALLY cutting edge music in 1979/1980, you went for the Dead Kennedys, and Motorhead--who were tied in with the NWOBHM: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a punk-inspired movement which spawned the likes of Iron Maiden and Diamond Head, who inspired a certain drummer by the name of Lars Ulrich, who hated the "corporate rockers" of the time who were branded as "metal."

Technically, as Scott Ian of Anthrax pointed out, any band that is out to makes money recording and touring is a "corporate rock" act (and he includes himself). The term corporate rock is kind of one of those durogatory terms in music (like "hair-metal" aka "butt-rock") that was designed, allegedly by radio programmers, to appeal to middle class tastes and sell out huge arenas with a "tailor-made" radio sound that wasn't too heavy or too cutting edge that made ordinary folks pump their fists in the air when a feel-good anthem was played, or the obligatory power ballad was played (and thousands of Bics would light up the night). In 1979, when Journey, Boston, Kansas, and Foreigner were at their peak, the "cutting edge" bands were the skinny-tie "punk" bands like the Knack. The first four bands were considered "safe" and likeable, but critics thought their music was "bland", disposable, predictable and almost identical. If you wanted REALLY cutting edge music in 1979/1980, you went for the Dead Kennedys, and Motorhead--who were tied in with the NWOBHM: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a punk-inspired movement which spawned the likes of Iron Maiden and Diamond Head, who inspired a certain drummer by the name of Lars Ulrich, who hated the "corporate rockers" of the time who were branded as "metal."


Thanks Captain! Which explains why the corporate rock bands will never make it into the RRHOF. ;) :wave:

Question, where did VH fit amongst these groups. To me they weren't corporate rock, even though they opened for Journey a few times.

In 1978, Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing was considered so radical that they could not have been considered "corporate rock" (and btw, the term didn't really quite exist until the late 80's/early 90's), even though it's interesting to note that when Van Halen started out in the L.A. clubs in the mid-70's, they just did covers of Top 40 songs of the day that were so loud and "psychedelic" to many club owners that they got kicked out for being "too weird and too heavy." They just happened to put a very unique spin on their version of what was popular back in those days.

The term corporate rock came into existence more around the late 80's when it was noted by many critics that rock had "sold out" by being endorsed by corporate sponsorships of tours by major beer companies like Anheuser-Busch (makers of Budweiser) and Miller, soft drink companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, etc. While many bands and performers in the late 80's like Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood ("Don't You Know What the Night Can Do") were singing for beer commercials, other performers were slamming the "corporate" craze,
such as Neil Young and his song and excellent video, "This Note's For You" where he parodied many familiar video and commercial ad images. Also in 1991, the Black Crowes were kicked off a ZZ Top tour when they bad-mouthed the tour's sponsors Miller Beer. It's interesting that in the mid-80's some up and coming bands such as alternative roots-rock band The Long Riders got massive exposure on ads for Miller High Life ("They say that rock and roll is folk music, I guess because it's music for folks"), so some bands were helped by the being on the ads. Even though back then such a band as them were not considered "sellouts", many other established artists would experience a backlash for being used in commercials.

So by the early 90's, the concept of corporate rock soon would go from corporate sponsorship of tours and "product placement" in ads and move on on to the whole idea that such corporate sponsors were footing the bill for crowd-pleasing "arena rock" tours, the "safe, predictable" sort of bands that could hardly be considered "cutting edge." Corporate rock was a term invented by rock and roll "purists" who disparaged the whole music=commerce idea. It would lead to the idea that if you were a huge band
and everybody liked you, then you must have gone "corporate" and boring and mainstream "pop" music. You may have started out as a cutting edge band, but the moment you started appearing all over MTV and sold out big arenas, according to critics, you no longer had "indie-level cred" and were no longer cutting edge. You were "rich, bloated rock stars" that compromised your musical ideals. This was the attitude that would destroy many bands in the mid 90's like Nirvana and other alternative acts.

I hate the term "corporate rock"

I loved most of these bands even before they were labeled as "corporate rock"

What a bunch of dung! Listen to what you like- regardless of what mainstream media lables it!

Listen to what is played on the radio today- you'll hear what "corporate music" really is

Amen! I voted for nearly all of the above bands, cuz most of them had uniqueness, musicianship, melody, and poetry in their music.

Survivor may be best known for their song "Eye of the Tiger"--but you are missing alot if you have not heard anything from their album "Vital Signs" apart from "The Search is Over"! IMHO the most underrated band on this list! Sooo sad to see them doing cheesy commercials for Starbucks!

The pinnacle of this sort of "melodic rock" (as I would call it if it must be labelled), though, was Boston. I probably love Journey and Styx more cuz their songs never sank into sameness in the way I must admit Boston's did, but Boston's guitarist coaxed the most beautiful melodies from his instrument--his solos were actually worth listening to!

"Also in 1991, the Black Crowes were kicked off a ZZ Top tour when they bad-mouthed the tour's sponsors Miller Beer."

Saw that tour--musta been before Black Crowes were kicked off. They and ZZ Top were fantastic! The next year I had my first kid, so this was the last rock show I attended LOL!

I picked every option on the poll :)

I chose Boston, Kansas,Reo Speedwagon

It was hard... Every band I saw I love like crazy :D