No love for 70's guitar bands?


When I was in high school it was the heyday of the pop guitar bands. Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Loverboy, etc. These bands were immensely popular during the late 70s and early 80s and continue to tour (with scant remnants of the original bandz) but they don't seem to get any love here at Audiogon. They are almost never mentioned in the "what are you listening to threads" and you never see them mentioned in the "what is your reference CD/LP/file".

I think a lot of them did some decent work early in their careers and I think all of them eventually made big money on sappy sickening ballads that shortened their careers at least in terms of credibility.

I saw most of these bands live in the 80's and have the hearing loss to prove it. I loved them at the time. Rarely think of them now. The reason I thought of this is that I found a copy of Styx Cornerstone on vinyl in my meager collection of LPs. I think my wife won it in a contest. It is the album with "Babe" on it. I'm listening to it now.

It is terrible.

Thoughts on these bands in terms of relevance today? Relevance in their heyday?
n80
Ah, I forgot about Kansas.

Yes, there was plenty going on in the late 70s and early 80s and I was more into British bands but it seems like the bands I mentioned seemed to get a lot of the attention but have not survived as well as Floyd, Yes, Elton John, Eagles, Skynrd, Zep and others from a critical standpoint.

The only place I ever hear them is on classic rock stations. And they are most of what you hear.

And maybe it is just me to see them as sort of their own genre.

They weren’t ’southern’ like Skynrd or Molly Hatchett. They weren’t as raunchy as Aerosmith. They weren't Kiss. They weren’t British. They certainly weren’t prog rock although Styx kind of took a shot at that late. They all ended up making radio/chick friendly ballads.

I'm with lowrider and stevecham and was lucky enough to be exposed to lots of great music back in the day.Journey,John Denver,Bread,etc. were pleasant enough but I gravitated towards more interesting(to me) music.Any love for Frank Zappa?
NEWSFLASH: Disco still Sucks

Yes the seventies rock was and still is some of the best of my youth
too bad it wasn’t recorded in higher quality
Be Bob Deluxe.  Bill Nelson made the music magic!  Thanks for the G squared shout out @stevecham ! About as progressive as it gets. I really miss strings ringing like bells in the night.

For example: McLaughlin, Holdsworth, DiMeola. Those were special artists in unique times.  Happy listening indeed!

When I was in high school it was the heyday of the pop guitar bands. Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Loverboy, etc.
Listen to them all. Foreigner, Styx, Boston as well as some of the others mentioned in this thread quite often.

Listening to Boston on a pair of Koss CM1030s when I was seventeen is what started me down the audiophile path.