Top 10 Arena Rock Artists of the '80s

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Top 10 Arena Rock Artists of the '80s

By Steve Peake, About.com Guide

http://80music.about.com/od/top10list1/ ... rtists.htm

Because the genre occupied such a significant space within the fabric of '80s music, arena rock artists tend to pop up quickly in a discussion of the era's pop music offerings. This kind of straightforward, mainstream rock music - even sometimes disdainfully referred to as middle-of-the-road (MOR) rock - has gone by other names, of course: stadium rock, album rock, even the painfully broad, generic moniker pop/rock. But the bottom line is that this was music blessed with maximum appeal across the record-buying, concert-going age demographic of 15 to 50. Here's a list of the genre's most essential artists.


1. Journey

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Columbia/Legacy

There's certainly an argument to be had here about whether or not this Bay Area progressive rock band-turned arena rock/soft rock purveyors of the power ballad should own the top spot on this list. But there is little doubt that this group stands as the genre's most quintessential artist of the first half of the '80s, arena rock's peak period. Fusing the powerhouse guitar work of Neal Schon with Jonathan Cain's sensitive keyboard melodicism was magical enough, but with Steve Perry as pipes-working-overtime lead vocalist, the Journey formula struck gold in a myriad of ways music fans are still trying to understand today. This is bombastic, heartfelt power rock that both defined its era and holds up surprisingly well almost 30 years later.

2. Foreigner

3. REO Speedwagon

4. Loverboy

5. Heart

6. Def Leppard

7. Pat Benatar

8. .38 Special

9. Night Ranger

10. Survivor