AOR Music | Discogs

AOR Music Description

AOR is an ambiguous abbreviation, for both "Album Oriented Rock" and "Adult Oriented Rock"

It is a style of rock music associated with early FM Radio, where album tracks, rather than released singles, are played. Its roots originate in the underground-FM stations of the late 1960s - early 1970s, such as KPPC-FM (Los Angeles) and WNEW-FM (New York City). It encomed both hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, as well as prog/art rock bands, like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. As the 1970s wore on, "Album Oriented Rock" morphed into Classic Rock, while "Adult Oriented Rock" morphed into Soft Rock. Ultimately, it was a term for targeting demographic groups, and was defined by the radio stations playing it, rather than being a legitimate style or fashion followed by the artists themselves.