Soft rock

Not to be confused with underground mining (soft rock).
For the Lemon Jelly single, see Soft/Rock.
For the Lifter Puller album, see Soft Rock (album).

Soft rock (or lite rock)[3] is a subgenre of rock music with a more commercial and less offensive sound. Originating in the early 1970s in southern California, the style smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. Soft rock dominated radio throughout the 1970s and eventually metamorphosed into the synthesized music of adult contemporary in the 1980s.[1]

History

Hard rock had been established as a mainstream genre by 1968. From the end of the 1960s, it became common to divide mainstream rock music into soft and hard rock,[4] with both emerging as major radio formats in the US.[5]

The Carpenters' hit version of "(They Long to Be) Close to You" was released in the summer of 1970, followed by Bread's "Make It with You", both early examples of a softer sound that was coming to dominate the charts.[6] This eventually reached its commercial peak in the mid-to-late 1970s with acts such as Billy Joel, Elton John, Chicago, Toto, Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Air Supply, Seals and Crofts, America and the reformed Fleetwood Mac, whose Rumours (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade.[7] By 1977, some radio stations, like New York's WTFM and WYNY, and Los Angeles' KOST had switched to an all-soft rock format.[8] Phoenix, Arizona's KBBC "Mellow Rock" formula focused on picking non-yet-hit tracks that fit the easier tempo of soft rock but introduced an album orientation. By the 1980s, tastes had changed and radio formats reflected this change, including musical artists such as Journey.[9][10]

The radio format evolved into what came to be known as "adult contemporary" or "adult album alternative", a format that has less overt rock bias than its forebear radio categorization.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Anon (n.d.). "Soft Rock". AllMusic.
  2. ↑ Viglione, Joe. "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". AllMusic.
  3. ↑ Alan Stephenson, David Reese, Mary Beadle, 2013, Broadcast Announcing Worktext: A Media Performance Guide p. 198.
  4. ↑ R. B. Browne and P. Browne, eds, The Guide to United States Popular Culture (Popular Press, 2001), ISBN 0-87972-821-3, p. 687.
  5. ↑ M. C. Keith, The Radio Station: Broadcast, Satellite and Internet (Focal Press, 8th edn., 2009), ISBN 0-240-81186-0, p. 14.
  6. ↑ Simpson, 2011 Early 70s Radio, chap. 2 "Pillow Talk: MOR, Soft Rock, and the 'Feminization' of Hit Radio".
  7. ↑ P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock (Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2003), p. 378.
  8. ↑ C. H. Sterling, M. C. Keith, Sounds of Change: a History of FM broadcasting in America (UNC Press, 2008), pp. 136-7.
  9. ↑ "Journey: The band who did not stop believing". BBC News. November 12, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
  10. ↑ "10 Best Soft Rock Ballads". Made Man. Retrieved December 6, 2010. “Journey fans can easily list a dozen soft rock ballads from the band...”
  11. ↑ C. H. Sterling, M. C. Keith, Sounds of Change: a History of FM Broadcasting in America (UNC Press, 2008), p. 187.

Further reading

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