Bands (and Artists) I Probably Should Like (But Don’t)

Perhaps the 1st post in a series....  perhaps not.

Let’s start with: Journey. Yep. These masters of “Rock - Mainstream” have always bugged me. From their first splash with 1978’s ”Feeling That Way”, though their string of six Top-10 hits in the early 80’s….. these guys make me want to puke. Nowadays, it seems that a lot of folks I know who are 5 – 15 years younger than me LOVE Journey, and I’m feeling like I should give them another look. But as much as I try, I just can’t deal with songs like “Don’t Stop Believing”, “Loving Touching Squeezing” or “Open Arms”. I’m getting a little queasy just thinking about them. To me, the typical Journey fan was the preppy girl who wanted to believe she was a tough Rock and Roller (complete with wrap-skirt, sweater and add-a-beads while drooling over the pretty boy singer…..


When Journey came out, I was about to graduate from High School. My musical tastes were focused mostly on Southern Rock, like Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Outlaws, Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band, Wet Willie, Blackfoot, etc. No “pretty Boys” there…. And as Journey rose, my tastes were shifting towards New Wave, Power Pop and the rise of “College Radio”. By the time Journey was peaking, I was listening to great stuff like The dB’s, Let’s Active, The Jam…. My “Rock – Mainstream” tastes were along the lines of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, R.E.M., Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, B-52’s, Joe Jackson, Blondie, Cheap Trick…. (Aside: I saw 15 of the 17 bands listed above in concert, guess which two I missed).

So, what’s the answer? Am I an elitist pig who is missing out on some great stuff? Or was rock critic Dave Marsh right when he called Journey’s album Escape as “one of the worst number-one albums of all time.”