In Praise of Moody Midtempo AOR

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.

(wrt Michael Mann) almost too obvious to mention would be the stuff Wang Chung did for To Live and Die in L.A.

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

I thought of that one yesterday! think it fits

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

Diana Ross - it’s your move

^^^^^^

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

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

Haha, Muchmusic played that Payola$ song endlessly in the late 80s iirc. Bob Rock's old band!

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.

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.

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.

mood over flash, cool but also cold

Son, life is simple. It's either cherry red

or MIDNIGHT BLUE

Re the Police: "King of Pain"?

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.

I thought of "Bad Love" but maybe the chorus is too anthemic?

I think Clapton's slow synthy remake of "After Midnight" - the beer commercial version - was discussed upthread.

Also too late 80s? xp

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?

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.

This seems relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Mainstream_Rock_number-one_songs_of_the_1980s

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

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.

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 ...

AOR Rainbow rules (posted Stone Cold above)

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(!)

totally, Jeopardy is almost here but not quite

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 = 100
Eminence Front = 98 ish
Eye in the Sky = 100
I 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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhmK_sD2uo
Gary 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

you guys would all really like the westerman album

“Waiting for a girl like you” is honestly top 10 all time for me

eminence front always struck me as more “sleeves rolled up” muscular daytime AOR

wasn’t that destroyer album kaput all about this vibe? too bad about dude’s voice.

“Bringing’ on the Heartache” and “Hysteria” bring this vibe to a mostly empty strip club.

This is perhaps one of my favorite genres of music, and all of my faves have already been named.

I count "Stayin' Alive" around 104 bpm fwiw.

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.

I mean, by v rough counting, not loading tracks into a DAW or anything

Has this one been posted yet, re: the Bee Gees?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZY9oYSSjFI

The first time I head that one, we were living with two tweakers, and one of them played this really loud on the living room speakers, and I rushed out of my room to see what it was, and it is perhaps the only good thing that came out of that whole period of my life.

Bit offbeat here but Kraftwerk's The Model kind of fits

Sorry I misremembered on "Staying Alive" as the ur-tempo. On further looking, it and "Dancing Queen" are in the low hundreds.

120 is "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

I hang my head in shame

Dana donahue - “Casablanca”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BuGl1NcHbQ

You all heard of Seahawks? Their early stuff was all amazing spacey edits of this kind of stuff. Check out secrets of the deep and ocean trippin

Bit offbeat here but Kraftwerk's The Model kind of fits

I don’t know why I called it crunk, fp me