Paul Rees, "Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine and Payola - the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986" (De Capo, 2026)

Feb 14, 2026

Paul Rees, author and music journalist behind Raised on Radio, traces AOR’s boom from 1976–1986. He recounts FM radio’s rise, the creation of stadium-sized hits, MTV’s image shift, rampant excess and band quarrels, and why an oral history best captures conflicting memories. Short, vivid stories reveal how power ballads and playlists shaped pop culture.

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INSIGHT

AOR Defined A Radio-First Sound

AOR (album-oriented rock) emerged from FM radio as a format for playing deep album tracks and crafting polished, radio-friendly records.
Bands like Boston, Journey, Toto, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner defined a commercially dominant American sound in the 1976–1986 era.

ANECDOTE

Boston's Basement Breakthrough

Tom Scholz built Boston’s debut in his basement while working at Polaroid and risked his savings sending demos to labels.
The last tape he mailed contained "More Than a Feeling," which launched Boston into huge commercial success.

INSIGHT

Records Made To Sound Great On Radio

AOR records were engineered specifically to sound great on FM car radios and tailored for broadcast exposure.
That radio-first production helped AOR albums dominate airwaves before MTV shifted the industry toward visuals.

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Paul Rees' Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine and Payola - the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986 (De Capo, 2026) is a massively entertaining oral biography of the golden era of critically derided yet monumentally popular radio rock, when Journey, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Toto, and more ruled the airwaves Paul Rees' Raised on Radio is, remarkably, the first biography of the (at the time) critically derided and yet massively popular AOR (album-oriented rock) bands whose heyday was 1976-1986, when groups like Journey, Boston, Foreigner, Toto, and REO Speedwagon sold many millions of albums, toured stadiums, and whose songs continue to stream in record numbers. Many of them still tour. And sure, they were punching bags for the elitist rock critics more interested in covering punk and new wave, terminally uncool, and never fashionably cutting edge, but their music was, and is, the soundtrack to so many people's lives. Who among music fans (of a certain age) didn't pump their fist to "Don't Stop Believin'" (long before The Sopranos), play air guitar to "More Than a Feeling," bellow along with Toto's "Africa," or have their heart broken to the strains of "Can't Fight This Feeling"? Even better: their tour stories and the tales of making the music are as entertaining and eye-opening as any of the antics from the annals of rock and roll history. Cocaine use was rampant, intra-band fighting was par for the course, and for better or worse, the groups' members lived life to excess. In so many ways, it was these artists' music (they are responsible for the power ballad) and lifestyles that led directly to the soon-to-follow hair metal scene. And in spite of what the critical establishment wrote, it turns out the music has aged . . . rather well! Raised on Radio is a stadium-sized, massively entertaining oral history in the bestselling tradition of Meet Me in the Bathroom, Nothin' But A Good Time, and Please Kill Me, capturing a time and a place that was as big and booming and as unabashed as the music that provided its soundtrack.

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