Raised on Radio

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’s Raised on Radio is, remarkably, the first biography of AOR (“Album-Oriented Rock”), critically derided at the time but massively popular during its 1976–1986 heyday when artists such as Journey, Boston, Foreigner, Toto, REO Speedwagon, Heart, Pat Benatar, Bryan Adams, and Styx sold many millions of albums and toured stadiums. Today, those very same songs are streaming in record numbers and many of the artists continue to play to sellout audiences around the world. They may have been dismissed at the time as terminally uncool by elitist rock critics in thrall to punk and new wave, but their music was, and is still, the soundtrack to so many people’s lives.

For better or worse, AOR’s prime movers lived life in the fast lane. Cocaine use was rampant, egos were unchecked, and intra-band fighting became par for the course. What’s more, their influence stretches across generations and through the fabric of popular American music. AOR invented the power ballad, and the sound of it has traveled on through hair metal, pop rock, and right up to Taylor Swift.

Raised on Radio is a stadium-sized, massively entertaining oral and pop-cultural history in the bestselling tradition of Meet Me in the Bathroom, Nothin’ But a Good Time, and Please Kill Me, capturing a time and place that was as big, booming, and unabashed as the music that provided its soundtrack.

Paul Rees is the author of the acclaimed biographies Robert Plant: A Life, The Ox: The Authorized Biography of the Who’s John Entwistle, Mellencamp: The Biography, and Shooting Star: The Definitive Biography of Elliott Smith. He has written about music for more than thirty years. In that time, he has interviewed everyone from Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and Bono to Madonna, Lana Del Rey, and Adele. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Sunday Times Culture, the Telegraph, the Independent, and The Guardian. He was also Editor-in-Chief of two of the UK's most successful and long-standing music publications, Q and Kerrang!, for a total of thirteen years. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.