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Re: Wold you consider Honeymoon Suite's debut, "New Wave"?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:54 am
by bpdp3
I'm no expert but i agree AOR was probably more of a US phenomenon...not so much in the U.K. (Although it seems a lot of good aor was from Canada and the Scandinavian countries).

A band like loverboy was really received more like foreigner or journey, rather than talking heads or squeeze. Loverboy had the right elements (synths and short catchy songs) AND the right timeframe (1980 debut) but weren't truly seen as new wave. Why? Maybe they're image, their bravado, their lack of quirkiness? Pretty subjective measures, to be sure.

Re: Wold you consider Honeymoon Suite's debut, "New Wave"?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 10:02 am
by MissingPersons
Scandinavian? Apart from Europe (well, they are usually labelled as Glam Metal, but I believe they were more an AOR band with a Glam Metal image, as I said) I don't recall any other Scandinavian AOR band.

Re: Wold you consider Honeymoon Suite's debut, "New Wave"?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 1:28 pm
by MrOktober
bpdp3 wrote:maybe you're right...maybe. 9-12 year olds probably are responsible for the radio Disney-nature of much of today's top 40. BUT there should still be room for a regular, pop-minded (i.e. Melodic) ROCK band to exist today. Was it the proliferation of the internet that forced the target demographic down in age... and perhaps away from typical "aor" type bands?

And I won't listen to arguments against hip hop. There was rap in the 80's, the heyday of good bands like honeymoon suite. It's not hip hops fault If listeners choose it over say a band like journey. For whatever reason it's only grown in appeal, where "aor" died on the vine. Why?? That's the choice of 13-25 year olds, not just tweens. Why??


There might very well be bands like Journey or Huey Lewis & News out there today, playing at your local bar. On Top 40 radio, it's about club/dance music. That's what the visually focused, short attention span, instant gratification kids of today are into. Bland white guys with no "image" just aren't cool enough, no matter what their music sounds like. OK, I'm sounding like an old man now :o

Re: Wold you consider Honeymoon Suite's debut, "New Wave"?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:15 pm
by bpdp3
MissingPersons wrote:Scandinavian? Apart from Europe (well, they are usually labelled as Glam Metal, but I believe they were more an AOR band with a Glam Metal image, as I said) I don't recall any other Scandinavian AOR band.


Don't let ANYONE tell you Europe was glam-metal. They were more in-line with someone like Bon Jovi and other AOR bands. They had no 'glam' image.

I am a lifelong new wave fanatic. I was never 'too hip' to like AOR during the eighties, but have become a little more obsessive about it in the last 5 years or so---actively seeking out 80's AOR artists that I was unfamiliar with at the time. To that end, I've recently discovered scandenavian bands like Stage Dolls, 220 Volt or Scagarak --- none of which were well-known in the states but certainly could've been.

MrOktober wrote:There might very well be bands like Journey or Huey Lewis & News out there today, playing at your local bar. On Top 40 radio, it's about club/dance music. That's what the visually focused, short attention span, instant gratification kids of today are into. Bland white guys with no "image" just aren't cool enough, no matter what their music sounds like. OK, I'm sounding like an old man now


hmmmm...perhpas there are current AOR-style bands lurking out there, but WHY can't they break out? You'd THINK it would've been harder in the 80's when the 'visual' impact of MTV and actual music-video-broadcast was more pervasive. But somehow relatively bland-looking guys like Bryan Adams or Toto were able to compete with the more visually appealing Duran. But even Duran was a BAND, hell i'll even call them a ROCK BAND, who wrote their own songs, played their own instruments, etc. Ahhh, i'm just painting myself into corners with this conundrum.

I still think the basic problem is that for some reason, kids today just aren't into standard-issue rock. (they'll get into niches like death metal, indie, etc). Even if all the band members were as 'cute' as Bieber, if they performed basic rock songs they would probably fail in the marketplace.

I'm starting to think this era of top-40 is similar to the 50's era of top-40. In the 50's it was all about the 45's, the hits...nobody cared about the album, same as today. Also, most of the stars of the 50's were fairly superficial (exceptions like buddy holly and the rockabilly contingent duly noted) and probably even looks-driven. Not alot of concern for musical integrity I'm guessing. The listeners were mostly young girls.... maybe i'm onto something?

Re: Wold you consider Honeymoon Suite's debut, "New Wave"?

PostPosted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 5:22 am
by MarcD
Honeymoon Suite...finally saw them live back in the early 2000s. I was 11 when their debut LP hit so a bit young.

It's odd...I would say HS is not NW, but a fellow Canadian band like Platinum Blonde definitely is. Not sure where the distinction is but it is there.

"New Girl Now" and "Burning In Love" are great songs, with some NW elements. But no, not New Wave. A separate genre of "Canadian Rock" that really didn't sound like the rock coming out of the USA at the time. Haywire, Glass Tiger, Frozen Ghost, etc.

And yes, rock bands like that are gone. Ironic since the same changing musical tastes that caused NW to fade in favor of rock in the later 80s also caused that music to disappear from the charts too.