It seems like we're going for a broad lite rock/pop feel, though.
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:10 (three years ago) link
Twilight - Golden Earring - maybe slightly too many BPM to be midtempo, but nails the moodhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1sf2CzEq0w
― enochroot, Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:13 (three years ago) link
Yeah, Madonna was pop not AOR, for sure, but for the purposes of this thread I'm including her as classic rock cannon in the (other) AOR/lite (but weirdly dark!) sense. It's really just the Patrick Leonard connection, though, he's a master of this vibe.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:22 (three years ago) link
This was on Miami Vice and has the drug deal/relationship about to go catastrophically wrong feel, but is it too far afield from the comforting pocket of AOR? You make the call.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0bk6Hbz0ZU
― Josefa, Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:36 (three years ago) link
Hmm, good question. Speaking of Michael Mann, it kind of works like this does/did in "Manhunter:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4U0KBvzi7g
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:38 (three years ago) link
Russ Ballard's classic "Voices" too.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:43 (three years ago) link
Funny how U2's "With Or Without You" fits into this category on paper, but there's nothing evoking criminal activity or adult relationships, so it doesn't fit.
"Live to Tell" works for this, for me, because I think of these songs as effectively moody supermarket/hotel-lobby music and not just strictly in a radio format.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:49 (three years ago) link
(wrt Michael Mann) almost too obvious to mention would be the stuff Wang Chung did for To Live and Die in L.A.
― Josefa, Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:49 (three years ago) link
Mike & The Mechanics already mentioned upthread, but this one covers all the moody 80s tropes — menacing synth, vaguely political lyrics, batshit video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep7W89I_V_g
― dinnerboat, Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:26 (three years ago) link
I thought of that one yesterday! think it fits
― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:35 (three years ago) link
love that it was sampled on a Killer Mike song lol
I had actually considered "With or Without You" but felt it didn't fit for similar reasons, despite fitting perfectly on paper. Definitely moody but maybe not spooky enough? But this one works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Re5fiSY8Y
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:38 (three years ago) link
Diana Ross - it’s your move
― brimstead, Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:40 (three years ago) link
^^^^^^
Going down that U2 road also gets you to AOR adjacent stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cit17Si-Vts
And I've never heard or heard of this, but despite being a little too self consciously new wave and quirky it's also sort of adjacent to the theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_fVnE3xHY
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:44 (three years ago) link
I’m not a musician but I think I notice that most of these songs tend to have only two chords in the verses, songs mostly moving forward with textures and rhythms
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:44 (three years ago) link
Haha, Muchmusic played that Payola$ song endlessly in the late 80s iirc. Bob Rock's old band!
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:46 (three years ago) link
xpost I think there might be something to that, something that differentiates it from sophistipop or yacht rock. It's a kind of minimalist rejection of sophistication, mood over flash, cool but also cold, no doubt inspired/provoked by punk and new wave, which gave people permission to just have a synth patch or flanged guitar chord hang there menacingly.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:46 (three years ago) link
I guess it works for synths to give a more atmospheric, moody feel. Too many chords doesn’t let the synth stay still and becomes more poppy.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:47 (three years ago) link
Xpost: haha I was just posting and I just read that you also came to the conclusion that it allows certain instruments to hang in there.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:51 (three years ago) link
mood over flash, cool but also cold
Son, life is simple. It's either cherry red
or MIDNIGHT BLUE
― velcro-magnon (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 3 December 2020 15:58 (three years ago) link
Re the Police: "King of Pain"?
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:05 (three years ago) link
All of Synchronicity feels like it captures this mood of 80s sophisticated dread, even the individual songs don't all fit.
Interesting that Clapton of all people didn't have an 80s single that fit this mood.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:17 (three years ago) link
I thought of "Bad Love" but maybe the chorus is too anthemic?
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:19 (three years ago) link
I think Clapton's slow synthy remake of "After Midnight" - the beer commercial version - was discussed upthread.
― velcro-magnon (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link
Also too late 80s? xp
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link
Corey Hart 'Sunglasses at Night' & The Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams' also seem to fit (with similar riffs).
What was this "mood" about anyway? Anxiety over computers taking over?
― dinnerboat, Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:21 (three years ago) link
That's got to be part of it. Also, adding an icy synth was probably the easiest way for even the most resistant (or even inept) rock band to try to change with the times.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:48 (three years ago) link
This seems relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Mainstream_Rock_number-one_songs_of_the_1980s
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
the easiest way for even the most resistant (or even inept) rock band to try to change with the times.
see to me one of the interesting things about the 80s is that i didn't detect a lot of resistance from most older rock bands, i think a lot of them were really into the new technology
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 3 December 2020 17:00 (three years ago) link
there were the keith richards of the world here and there but i dunno, i think they were enthusiastic
I agree, but they definitely often dumbed themselves down to the technology and leaned in to the minimalism. Tony Banks is a great example of a guy with classical chops who figured out really early the power of eerie synths doing little to not much.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 17:04 (three years ago) link
By the way, totally tangential, but I've always been fascinated by this 1979 video as a document of a band whose various members are clearly at different phases of fashion evolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P17ct4e5OE
You've got the bassist in a new wave suit, the singer with short hair, the drummer with track suit but also leather and studs and double bass kit, the keyboard player with banks of keys when he only needs half of one, lifer Blackmore looking bored/embarrassed to be there ...
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 December 2020 17:10 (three years ago) link
AOR Rainbow rules (posted Stone Cold above)
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 3 December 2020 17:40 (three years ago) link
I feel like the Greg Kihn Band should have had a single like this but I think they're all near misses — "Jeopardy" is too funky, "The Breakup Song" is too fast and heavy(!)
― real muthaphuckkin jeez (crüt), Thursday, 3 December 2020 19:10 (three years ago) link
totally, Jeopardy is almost here but not quite
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 3 December 2020 20:00 (three years ago) link
feel like "Run to You" by Bryan Adams is in the same boat
Once the kids are in bed Imma sit down with YouTube and a metronome and get to the bottom of the "what is midtempo" question. Speaking in terms of quarter-note pulses:
Waiting for a Girl Like You = 100Eminence Front = 98 ishEye in the Sky = 100I Can't Tell You Why = 85 (wow that's slow!)In the Air Tonight = 98 ish Self-Control = 110 (fastest so far!)
So far we're really clustered around 100 BPM as "mid-tempo."
Remember that 120 BPM (Stayin' Alive) has become somewhat solidified as rock's default tempo, and also ideal for CPR.
― velcro-magnon (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 3 December 2020 20:45 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhmK_sD2uoGary Myrick's 'She Talks in Stereo' kind of has the feel, although maybe in a more new wave setting.
Especially when compared to the album version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STsL4y9Xi4k
― vcrash, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:14 (three years ago) link
you guys would all really like the westerman album
― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:15 (three years ago) link
“Waiting for a girl like you” is honestly top 10 all time for me
― brimstead, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:27 (three years ago) link
eminence front always struck me as more “sleeves rolled up” muscular daytime AOR
― brimstead, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:28 (three years ago) link
wasn’t that destroyer album kaput all about this vibe? too bad about dude’s voice.
― brimstead, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:29 (three years ago) link
“Bringing’ on the Heartache” and “Hysteria” bring this vibe to a mostly empty strip club.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:36 (three years ago) link
This is perhaps one of my favorite genres of music, and all of my faves have already been named.
― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:45 (three years ago) link
I count "Stayin' Alive" around 104 bpm fwiw.
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:47 (three years ago) link
at least based on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c
"Just What I Needed" and "Satisfaction" are in the high 120s/low 130s, a lot of ballads are around the low 70s. "Mid-tempo" seems right for the neighbourhood of 100 bpm.
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:50 (three years ago) link
I mean, by v rough counting, not loading tracks into a DAW or anything
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:55 (three years ago) link
Has this one been posted yet, re: the Bee Gees?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZY9oYSSjFI
― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:58 (three years ago) link