New Books In Popular Culture

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