When I was at the Deep Purple show, I saw an ad for an upcoming show featuring three bands: Journey, Styx, and REO Speedwagon.

You know what all these bands have in common? I'm sure somebody thinks they're funny by answering that question with "They suck!" Yeah, yeah, whatever, but seriously. They were all "Arena Rock" bands of the 70s who each became "Power Ballad Machines" in the 80s, the latter of which everybody has permanently associated the band with. Chicago almost qualifies for this category too, but they weren't so much a hard/arena rock band of the 70s.

How do these things happen? Judging by the interviews I've read from Chicago, I think it has to do with the record companies and marketing. Hell, Black Sabbath almost went in that direction; the only singles promoted from some of their 1985-1990 albums were the token ballads. People who are in conrtol assume that these are the most "radio friendly" songs, and thus go about using them to promote the whole album.

This seems to be part of a greater phenomenon: how the status quo can take two bands that are similar in many ways, but brand one as "bad" to listen to, and the other as "good". I do NOT believe for one minute that this has to do with one band being objectively better than the other. There's more at work here.

Let's take "Late 60s-early 70s hard rock" (for lack of a better term) as an example. It seems to be OK to the herd to express your liking for Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Alman Brothers, Aerosmith, and Pink Floyd. But mention Deep Purple, Black Sabbath (at least before the years of Ozzfest), Alice Cooper, ELO, or Blue Oyster Cult, and your average left-wing sheep will giggle.

Why is that? I'd think it has to do with the fact that some of these bands did stuff in the 80s, and people are still conditioned to hate the 80s. Then again, Pink Floyd and Aerosmith don't follow this theory. Maybe it has to do with how many hits the band had, and thus how willing the classic rock stations or biased writters of "Rolling Stone" magazine want to cover them.

Though getting back to the original 3 bands, it's funny how many people hate the whole polished, wall-of-sound type of music in general these days. I'm sure the sloppy playing, muddy projection, and garage sound of the "grunge" movement has a lot to do with it. As for me, I still thoroughly enjoy my Def Leppard and Asia albums. And as with anything I like, I do it shamelessly.