Editing Album-oriented rock (section)

{{short description|American FM radio format}}
{{distinguish|Adult-oriented rock (disambiguation){{!}}Adult-oriented rock}}
{{sources|date=January 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2024}}

'''Album-oriented rock''' ('''AOR''', originally called '''album-oriented radio''') is an [[FM broadcasting|FM]] [[radio format]] created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of [[Rock music|rock]] albums and is currently associated with [[classic rock]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Radio Broadcasting Glossary|url=https://www.radioconnection.com/glossary/|access-date=December 16, 2020|publisher=Radio Connection}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web|date=May 1, 2019|title=The 50 Greatest AOR Albums of All Time|url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-50-greatest-aor-albums-of-all-time|access-date=December 16, 2020|publisher=Louder}}</ref>

US radio stations dedicated to playing album tracks by rock artists from the [[hard rock]] and [[progressive rock]] genres initially established album-oriented radio.  In the mid-1970s, AOR was characterized by a layered, mellifluous sound and sophisticated production with considerable dependence on melodic hooks. The AOR format achieved tremendous popularity in the late 1960s to the early 1980s through research and formal programming to create an album rock format with great commercial appeal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stim |first=Rich |date=December 1986 |title=Georgia Sattelites review (footnote 1) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FL-rqqrDxb8C&pg=PA42 |journal=[[Spin (magazine)|SPIN]] |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=42 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

From the early 1980s onward, the abbreviation AOR transitioned from "album-oriented radio" to "album-oriented rock", meaning radio stations specialized in classic rock recorded during the late 1960s and 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pomp Rock, a sub-genre overview|date=August 24, 2016 |url=https://www.melodicrock.nl/pomp-rock-a-genre-overview/|access-date=December 16, 2020|publisher=Melodicrock.nl}}</ref>

The term is also commonly conflated with "[[Adult-oriented rock (disambiguation)|adult-oriented rock]]", a radio format that also uses the initialism "AOR" and covers not only album-oriented rock but also album tracks and "[[wiktionary:deep cut|deep cuts]]" from a range of other rock genres, such as [[soft rock]] and [[pop rock]].