Question?

So many times you see AOR when they talk about music.
What is AOR?

I have asked that same question and never got a straight answer. Here are some of the definitions I have received:

Adult Oriented Rock
Arena Oriented Rock
Album Oriented Rock


Basically, though the name changes a little bit, it has to do with bands which were like Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon in the 80's & 90's. They were groups that played rock music, but not really "head-banging" music.

nazpastor wrote:

Album Oriented Rock

This is the correct one. And it's basically heavy metal light.

"Adult Oriented" Rock is what I found.
Now I'm curious to know some AOR bands.

Album Oriented Rock is how I first heard it.
It used to mean something completely different. Just that rock that was meant to be played in an entire album format, and not so much as single songs (like Pink Floyd, or Yes, and some of the more progressive type bands).

But it has come to be known as the radio friendly version of hard rock/light metal. Usually still guitar (or sometimes keyboard) driven, it still rocks much of the time, but is not really very heavy at all. Some of the Christian bands that would fit this category are probably: Nouveaux, Cry Holy, Arrival, Halo, Hovland, Liaison, Line of Fire (probably not strictly Christian per se).
On the secular side Journey, Asia & Survivor immediately spring to mind.

Check out wikipedia for a good rundown on AOR...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album-oriented_rock

More Christian bands that are generally in this style of music

Jag
Idle Cure
Fighter
20/20 Blind
Steelwind
Sure Conviction
Sweet Crystal

Great Additions Naz, I would totally agree (even though I haven't heard much of Steelwind or Sweet Crystal).

Disposable Hero at Christian Hard Music.
We hope you enjoy it here.

Are Petra, Whiteheart, Tamplin, Rachel Rachel AOR bands as well?
Is AOR a "brother" of the symphonic rock?

Yes Yvonne, those groups are generally lumped into the AOR genre. Some albums more than other.

As for symphonic rock, I would say they are pretty close and depend on the listener to chose if they wanted to call something symphonic rock or AOR.

Most music fits into broad categories, Rock, Metal, Classical, Pop, etc. Getting into sub-groups is a lot trickier and causes a lot of discussion. One person calls a certain group by one sub-group and another person calls them another sub-group. Usually, a band like Whiteheart or Petra with a lot of albums is actually many different sub-groups, depending on the album.

There are a lot of difference in a Hardcore band and and AOR band, but a hard rock band versus an AOR band is much more subtle.

So now, you are probably more confused than ever. This is what happened when I tried to "classify AOR bands". It is nearly impossible to label a band, unless every album sounds the same, by a sub-genres. As the name implies, AOR is a rock sound, it is just that it is typically a lighter sound than hard rock or heavy metal.

I have heard quite a few people classify some "Hair Metal" bands as AOR too.
Bands like Novella or The Brave (first album), might fit into that classification as well.
So the lines seperating some of these genres are far from black & white.

Saw they noticed Stryper as a hair metal band.
Now have to confess I am not good or very bad is a better word in music styles.
I have two catogories, I like it or I really don't like it.

nazpastor wrote:

More Christian bands that are generally in this style of music

Jag
Idle Cure
Fighter
20/20 Blind
Steelwind
Sure Conviction
Sweet Crystal

I love 20/20 Blind, they are one of the most underated bands.
I never could figure out why they were not more popular.

avdb11 wrote:

Disposable Hero at Christian Hard Music.
We hope you enjoy it here.

Thank you for the welcome. I wasn't aware of the site, but now that I know about it I'll have to drop in more often.

dale434445 wrote:

I love 20/20 Blind, they are one of the most underated bands.
I never could figure out why they were not more popular.

There were a couple big reasons. The first was that 20/20 Blind signed with Intersound. Intersound never really marketed Christian music well. The genre never did well for them (probably as a result of poor marketing) and so they abandoned the Christian music market after only a couple years (roughly 1993-1994). Consequently titles like Never Far didn't get the shelf-life they deserved. A lot of others faded away quickly too, like titles by Maia Amada, Ji Lim and Paul Smith.

The second reason was that the band called it quits shortly after the release of Never Far. It was a shame, too, since it got favorable reviews and those who bought it were, for the most part, eager for a follow-up. It reminds me of Killed By Cain in that regard. I would have loved to hear more from 20/20 Blind.

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As for AOR in general, I kind of play it by ear. What sets it apart to me is what I refer to as a radio friendly sound. Petra, Rachel Rachel, Jag, Fighter, etc. all have a sound that, even when on the slightly harder edge, could still be considered radio friendly to the point where CCM listeners who don't get into rock as a rule of thumb would enjoy it. This is my own loose interpretation. But after a while you kind of hear a sound in the music that you identify with AOR. Sometimes I end up way off base. Like when I call Fleming & John and X-Propagation AOR.

Disposable HERO wrote:

avdb11 wrote:

Disposable Hero at Christian Hard Music.
We hope you enjoy it here.

Thank you for the welcome. I wasn't aware of the site, but now that I know about it I'll have to drop in more often.

Hello Disposable HERO, and welcome to the board. Somehow I totally missed that you were new. For some reason your name seems very familiar.

Staybrite wrote:

Hello Disposable HERO, and welcome to the board. Somehow I totally missed that you were new. For some reason your name seems very familiar.

Thank you, Staybrite. I've been posting on the Christian Metal Realm for a little while, so if you're over there that's probably where you recognize my name. Either that or from playing Counter-Strike with the EGBT clan from about 3 to 7 years ago.

Never even heard of the EGBT clan, so it must have been the CMR.

Gary what a nice spidy welcome you have.
Is that Charlottes Web?

avdb11 wrote:

Gary what a nice spidy welcome you have.
Is that Charlottes Web?

I think you might be right.