MUSICAL MONDAY - ARENA ROCK

I thought that what we would do is feature a particular genre of music and more in particular of Rock music - this week featuring ARENA ROCK

Arena rock is a loosely defined style of rock music, often also called anthem rock or stadium rock, and the style of music is closely associated with "corporate rock" and album-oriented rock. Arena rock is usually medium hard rock, but lacks the edginess or rage often inherent in heavy metal. Hair metal is also included in arena rock, and many so-called "arena rock" stations in fact play mostly hair metal. Simple rhythms, acoustic/electric guitar interplay, and keyboards define the instrumental sound, and vocally the music is far closer to mainstream pop than most hard rock or metal.
In the 1960s, the tremendous popularity of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones led to the use of larger venues to accommodate audiences. The Beatles' 1965 appearance at New York City's Shea Stadium is often cited as the first "arena rock" concert. By the 1970s, the ability to perform for huge crowds in sports arenas and stadiums became a prerequisite for rock stardom.
While many groups performed in massive venues while on tour, the term "arena rock" usually refers to 1970s and 1980s hard rock groups that occupied a middle ground between the heavy metal sound and the softer adult oriented sounds of country rock and the singer-songwriters of the decade. Bands such as Cheap Trick,
Heart, Boston,
Foreigner, Journey, Kansas, Queen, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Survivor, and performers such as Meat Loaf, Eddie Money and Peter Frampton directed their appeal to a young white American audience who favored bombastic, anthemic rock.
The rise of MTV and new wave music adversely affected many of these groups, but some continued to be successful in the 1980s. Hair metal bands such as Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, in retrospect, are essentially a continuation of this style and sound.
Indeed, even some heavy metal acts were able to break into the fold, most notably Metallica whose drummer Lars Ulrich was recorded as saying that they desired to "...f**k with the concept of arena rock" during their extensive stadium tour in 1992. This marked a change from the band's initial desire to shun "mass market" practices, but showed that as the popularity of a group increases, so too must the venue at which it performs. However, "arena rock" retains much of its pejorative meaning, as some popular alternative rock groups of the 1990s such as Stone Temple Pilots were tagged with this label by dismissive critics. In the early 2000s, Creed was similarly labeled.

An update on last weeks list was promised and is found below
Alive – Pearl Jam
All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Day Tripper - The Beatles
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Funk #49 – James Gang
Gimme Shelter – Rolling Stones
Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
No Sugar Tonight – The Guess Who
Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
Roundabout - Yes
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
You Really Got Me - The Kinks / Van Halen