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What is, or was, AM rock?

B

BMR

Hi folks, a question from an ignorant Brit....

These are lyrics from a 1974 track from Harry Chapin (WOLD), which despite only getting to Number 34 in the UK, still gets played on the radio occasionally.

"two kids and I was was into AM rock
But I just had to run around
It's been eight years since I left you babe
Let me tell you 'bout what's gone down"


What was 'AM rock'? I've tried googling, but Google just thinks I'm searching for the word 'am'. I've tried a UK based radio board, and no-one on there seems too sure. We don't really have radio formats in the same way in the UK, and in 1974 commercial radio barely existed in any form, so it's not a term anyone in the UK understands.

can anyone help?
 
Back in the 70's and earlier, there were only a few major formats on the radio. AM was still king, as FM hadn't taken over yet, and you didn't have all the fragmentation of formats, like you have today. The only formats playing rock music back then, were either Top-40's or AOR's (Album Oriented Rock). We who worked at AM Top-40 stations, commonly refered to them as "rock" stations. The other major formats of that period, were MOR (Middle Of the Road), Country, and Beautiful Music. There was an occassional all-news, or talk station.
 
From a 2010 perspective, it's funny to see a genre identified by which radio band it was played on, but the descriptions above are quite accurate. I don't recall the term "AM Rock" being used often outside of the Chapin song, though, and I don't believe the average listener would have used that term back then. IIRC, the term "FM Rock" was more common, and its "cachet" meant that if you listened, you were cool.

Many of the "AM Rock" songs were by artists also on the FM stations, but the AM's almost never played the deep tracks. Example: "Immigrant Song" and "Whole Lotta Love" were played a lot on AM Top 40, but most Zepplin tracks, of course, were not on the Top 40 charts.

I'm wonderin' - would "FM Rock" have been called "VHF Rock" in the UK? (Just kiddin' :) )

Can you imagine any of today's music being referred to as "Sattellite Rock", "Internet Rock", "Pandora Rock" or "DAB Rock?"

Nick Summers
 
Like was said, "AM Rock" would be another name for "Top 40" (now CHR). Going deeper, "AM Rock" would also be those Rock records that the FM "Progressive" or AOR stations would shy away from, most notably the bubble-gum very "poppy"-Rock. "White Lies, Blue Eyes" by Bullet ... or songs by The Grass Roots... or just about everything on Buddah Records (1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express), and even one of my favorite groups, Flaming Ember, who had some songs with social meaning, but had an AM radio sound. Also included would be R&B based Pop-Rock tunes, such as "Somebody's Been Sleeping In My Bed" by 100 Proof Aged In Soul, or "She's Not Just Another Woman" by 8th Day and the always annoying (to me) "Give Me Just A Little More Time" by The Chairmen of The Board (with General Johnson's strained vocal sound).
 
Nick Gerard said:
.

I'm wonderin' - would "FM Rock" have been called "VHF Rock" in the UK? (Just kiddin' :) )
Click to expand...

Funilly enough, in the 70s there were only 3 VHF/FM stations in the UK (all nationally networked and BBC owned). Much of the output was 'serious' music like opera or plays and discussion shows. The small amount of time allowed for pop/rock music tended to be at night, and 'album' music did tend to dominate the output, with poppier stuff confined to AM only daytime output. So some similarites there, despite the very different way radio has evolved over here.

By the way the term 'VHF' has been replaced by 'FM' in the UK for ages now- at least 30 years.

'AM' was considered a bit of an Americanism until about 15 years ago, but it too is the norm now.
 
BMR said:
'AM' was considered a bit of an Americanism until about 15 years ago, but it too is the norm now.
Click to expand...
I thought "AM" collectively refers to the Longwave and Mediumwave bands in Europe. I've seen U.K. radios which have an ordinary "AM/FM" switch, and then another switch to select which AM band you want: LW or MW.

Anyway, the term "AM rock" is a bit of a misnomer, because the AM Top 40 stations in the '60s and '70s were mostly all-inclusive formats. For example, they had no problem playing Herb Alpert or Perry Como or Barbra Streisand -- hardly "rock" artists -- whenever they had a Top 40 hit.
 
satech said:
BMR said:
'AM' was considered a bit of an Americanism until about 15 years ago, but it too is the norm now.
Click to expand...
I thought "AM" collectively refers to the Longwave and Mediumwave bands in Europe.
Click to expand...

In theory you are correct, but people (wrongly) tend to use AM and MW interchangably. In practice, I've never heard AM used in reference to LW.

I've seen U.K. radios which have an ordinary "AM/FM" switch, and then another switch to select which AM band you want: LW or MW.
Click to expand...

Have you? I've never seen or owned one of those, although I'm sure they exist somewhere. Every three band set I've had in the last 20 years has had a single band selector labelled 'LW/MW/FM'.

All my two band sets are labelled 'AM/FM' or 'MW/FM'

Anyway, longwave is practically a dead duck these days.
 
Some great songs about American AM Rock/Top 40 stations:

AM Radio - Everclear
My Big Sisters Radio - Tommy Castro
I Heard It On the X - ZZ Top
Nine Volt Heart - Dave Alvin also recorded by the Iguanas (slightly different lyrics)
Border Radio - Dave Alvin
Late Night Radio - Gregg Brown
Ghost Town Radio - Patrick Thomas

Any more out there? ... sure there are!

Rickity
gulchradio.com
 
satech said:
Anyway, the term "AM rock" is a bit of a misnomer, because the AM Top 40 stations in the '60s and '70s were mostly all-inclusive formats. For example, they had no problem playing Herb Alpert or Perry Como or Barbra Streisand -- hardly "rock" artists -- whenever they had a Top 40 hit.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind the era. Back then "rock" was used to designate most pop music that wasn't hard-core MOR or country. It wasn't until the mid-ish 70s where "rock" came to mean strictly guitar-based music.
 
I really like the Everclear song and thought it should have been a bigger hit, but I was surprised that Everclear did that song, as I don't think they're old enough to remember AM Top-40.
 
I believe AM Top 40 stations really started to die around 1980, when the music softened and many stations evolved into a younger sounding AC. The same thing happened to some extent on FM, with new stations becoming CHR around 1983.
 
Nick Gerard said:
From a 2010 perspective, it's funny to see a genre identified by which radio band it was played on, but the descriptions above are quite accurate. I don't recall the term "AM Rock" being used often outside of the Chapin song, though, and I don't believe the average listener would have used that term back then. IIRC, the term "FM Rock" was more common, and its "cachet" meant that if you listened, you were cool.

Many of the "AM Rock" songs were by artists also on the FM stations, but the AM's almost never played the deep tracks. Example: "Immigrant Song" and "Whole Lotta Love" were played a lot on AM Top 40, but most Zepplin tracks, of course, were not on the Top 40 charts.

Zepplin had an agreement with Atlantic not to release any tracks as singles like from their 4th album which produced "Stairway to Heaven". AM radio played the whole version like any hit top 40 song, but if you wanted it in your collection...you had to buy the whole album. It wasn't tilll their last album they went back to releasing singles...."Fool in the Rain", and I think "All of My Love" were released in 45's.
Click to expand...
 
Starbucks said:
Zepplin had an agreement with Atlantic not to release any tracks as singles like from their 4th album which produced "Stairway to Heaven". AM radio played the whole version like any hit top 40 song, but if you wanted it in your collection...you had to buy the whole album. It wasn't tilll their last album they went back to releasing singles...."Fool in the Rain", and I think "All of My Love" were released in 45's.
Click to expand...

I just looked in my Whitburn book, and it shows that both "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" from the 4th album made the Hot 100, which means singles of those songs were released. "STH" was never commercially released as a single (though promo copies were pressed).

As far as LZ not releasing any singles until "Fool In The Rain", Whitburn lists 3..."Over The Hills & Far Away", "D'Yer Maker" & "Trampled Under Foot". "All My Love" was not released as a single.
 
Correct, but what was confusing about the singles chart career is....Black Dog and Immigrant Song were released and played on AM radio 70' and 71'. Rock And Roll didn't hit the singles chart till 72'. Stairway To Heaven made the AM radio stations playlist not till 74'. I believe the promo single was released that year. It's still a mystery why the delay in releasing it... period, especially when they were already working on a concert movie "Song Remains the Same" and the their own sub-record label to Atlantic ...Swan Song. Physical Grafitti LP came out a year later.
 
Starbucks said:
Correct, but what was confusing about the singles chart career is....Black Dog and Immigrant Song were released and played on AM radio 70' and 71'. Rock And Roll didn't hit the singles chart till 72'. Stairway To Heaven made the AM radio stations playlist not till 74'. I believe the promo single was released that year. It's still a mystery why the delay in releasing it... period, especially when they were already working on a concert movie "Song Remains the Same" and the their own sub-record label to Atlantic ...Swan Song. Physical Grafitti LP came out a year later.
Click to expand...

I remember playing a radio edit of Stairway To Heaven, on a 45. I think it was something like 4:13 in length??
 
The late 60s and early 70s were probably the best era of radio. Both the AM and FM bands were vital and rocked! AM Rock was still dominant although a number of FMs were also doing the format at that point too...usually with deeper playlists and fewer commercials than the format dominant AM Rocker in any given market...and some of the FM Progressive Rockers of that period were truly in a class all by themselves!
 
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