In Praise of Moody Midtempo AOR

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

If John Stewart "Gold" fits, how about Gerry Rafferty's 1979 "Get It Right the Next Time":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXW-sL5gzHQ

Some other 1979-1980 tracks with (pick all that apply): steady drive, a little drama, keyboard swirls, tension, late night vibes, a little extra reverb.

Blondie - Union City Blue, Shayla, Do the Dark
Bob Dylan - I Believe in You
David Bowie - Fantastic Voyage, Look Back in Anger
Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (still my choice for the weirdest Top 10 hit of the '70s)
Led Zeppelin - In the Evening
Marianne Faithfull - Broken English, Witches' Song
Patti Smith - Frederick
The Roches - Hammond Song, Losing True (unearthly harmonies with a sprinkling of Fripp)
Supertramp - Take the Long Way Home (maybe?)
Paul McCartney & Wings - Arrow Through Me
The B-52s - Dirty Back Road
David Bowie - Up the Hill Backward
Elvis Costello - Riot Act
John & Yoko - Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him
Peter Gabriel - No Self Control
Pretenders - Lovers of Today, Mystery Achievement, Porcelain
Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue
Roxy Music - My Only Love
Steve Winwood - While You See a Chance or others from the Arc of a Diver album
U2 - An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
Warren Zevon - Jungle Work

that list made me think of Marshall Hain's "Dancing In The City", from 1978. It's moody alright, but probably too breezy. More British yacht rock if anything I guess.

I'm still not 100% sure what the criteria is but I'll contribute Walter Egan - "Magnet And Steel"

At the core of Josh’s first examples and “You Belong to the City” is a kind of masculine grieving from someone who can’t emote through a full-on ballad and so maintains the mid-tempo and the rock groove. Maybe that’s why “With or Without You” doesn’t fit: it’s too open with its feelings.

"You Belong to the City" feels like a song you blast in your sports car en route to a drug deal.

Classic

Bill laBounty - livin it up

It Keeps you running - doobie brothers

I always assumed this song was about coke until I saw the verse lyrics. Just another love song

Drug deal, on the way to schtup someone who Isn’t your wife, something illicit like that.

I kinda get this vibe from the two big Robert Cray songs, minus the synths

a kind of masculine grieving from someone who can’t emote through a full-on ballad and so maintains the mid-tempo and the rock groove

brilliant description

figured Iggy pop would have one of these but can't quite find it - cry for love is really close but probably a bit too uptempo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI9vzh7CZIw

if you ran the numbers I also reckon a lot of these would feature some variation on Am-F-Am-F chord progression in the verses (is that i-IV?)

Fleetwood Mac - Mystified
Richard & Linda Thompson - Walking on a Wire
Most of Springsteen's "Tunnel of Love"

^ Tunnel is great but might be a little too...romantic? And the singles are uptempo

Bruce Hornsby - mandolin rain

Iggy's The Passenger fits in spirit but it's a little too rocking. Maybe something from The Idiot?

That description posted above is indeed a pretty brilliant encapsulation of this ethos!

Certainly female equivalents are fewer and far between, though I did post that Motels song "Only the Lonely," which fits perfectly. And "Self Control."

bruce’s voice is maybe a little too ragged for this thread, but “i’m on fire” and “one step up” totally fit imo

Xxxp

I was thinking “Tougher Than the Rest” and “One Step Up” but I agree there are some jumpier numbers that don’t fit.