Melodic rock

Melodic rock is a genre of music. It is the modern continuation of 1980s-1990s album-oriented rock, pop rock, arena rock, classic rock, hard rock and glam rock.

History

Melodic rock came about in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is seen as a throwback to the pop-metal and pop-rock eras and a counter-reaction against the grunge music, alternative rock, pop punk, bubblegum pop, electronic dance music, hip hop music, contemporary R&B and Latin American music sounds of the mid-to-late 1990s.

Many of these acts are bands, band members, and musicians from (or related to) popular bands of the earlier eras, such as Journey, Toto, Foreigner, Survivor, Styx, Boston, Asia, Heart, Bad Company, Night Ranger, Kansas and Van Halen.

Newer acts in the genre often enlist veteran songwriters such as Jim Peterik, Jack Blades, Tommy Denander, Mark Spiro, Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon, Desmond Child, Kip Winger, Richard Marx, Joe Lynn Turner and Freddy Curci.

Many prominent acts of the genre are signed to the Italian record label Frontiers Records.
Rise of Frontiers Records started in 1998 when other important label, British based Now & Then Records became a production company, with their record releases being handled by Frontiers. Their partnership folded in 2003 when Now & Then Records unsuccessfully attempted to re-start as record label.

Other notable record labels important for melodic rock genre are:
British based Escape Music, Z Records and Angelmilk Records;
Finnish based Lion Music;
German based AOR Heaven, Metal Heaven and AFM Records;
American based Perris Records, Kivel Records, Chavis Records, Metal Mayhem and Fastlane Records.

Prominent, but now de-funct record labels important for melodic rock genre were:
British based Music For Nations, CMC International and Now & Then Records;
German based MTM Music;
Swedish based Empire Records, Megarock Records, Westcoast Records and Atenzia Records.

Melodic rock in the United States

Melodic rock CDs, even those by American musicians, are usually marketed to non-American audiences, mostly due to the lack of an applicable radio format in commercial American broadcast radio. Therefore, these CDs are usually only available as imports and are generally more expensive than other American CDs.

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