A battle of 70s rock-and-roll powerhouses

I have had a continually heated debate with my opponent across the page about a topic that was oddly passionate to me. Which is better: Journey or Foreigner? Both 70s rock bands continue to light up stages and “power ballad lighters” around the world.

Both bands wrote and performed songs which are sung today. I argue that Journey is by far the superior band.

My opponent criticizes Journey on their musicianship and that their musical “chops.” The band was formed by former members of Santana and FrumiousBandersnatch, whose members went on to form the Steve Miller Band.

The founding members of Journey met as studio musicians, meaning that they could actually play their instruments. Foreigner was formed after Journey and was just getting off the ground as Journey was starting their years of major commercial success.

The band now known as Journey was originally formed as Jazz fusion group, which my opponent says was the “golden years” of the group. Perhaps, but they did not secure their recording contract until after changing their name and hiring a drummer who had formerly worked with John Lennon and Frank Zappa. For most Journey fans, though, the “golden years” started with the hiring of iconic front man Steve Perry in 1977.

Non-Journey fans knock the band for hiring a Filipino singer who was singing Journey covers on YouTube. Listen, if it works for Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepson, oh wait, never mind. Some have called the Journey fans criticism of Arnel Pineda as racist, I call it no worse than hiring the new lead singer of INXS from a reality competition show. (Micheal Hutchence, may you rest in peace.)

In a completely informal and unscientific study, I asked a random group of CSC students to name two Journey songs and two Foreigner songs. The students had no clue who the bands were, but once I started naming the Journey song—“Don’t Stop Believing”—I stopped, because every student knew that song. They knew the band immediately.

How about Foreigner? Even after naming “Hot Blooded,” “Cold as Ice,” and “Juke Box Hero,” they still had no clue.

All of this is good and well, but to me one of the tests of a truly great band is longevity. Can they keep producing hits, releasing records, and rocking arenas?  Do people still listen to their music thirty years later? The answer for Journey is yes.

Journey has sold 47 million albums in the United States with 80 million albums worldwide. In 2005, a USA Today opinion poll named Journey the fifth best American rock band in history.

Sales have resulted in two gold albums, eight multi-platinum albums, and one diamond album (which means over 10,000,000 copies) including seven consecutive multi-platinum albums between 1978 and 1987).

They have had eighteen Top 40 singles in the US, six of which reached the Top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and two of which reached No. 1 on other Billboard charts.

With songs featured on recent television shows such as “Glee,” it’s no question: Journey is the better band.

My opponent hit the nail on the head in her first few paragraphs, but she got some facts wrong. Chronologically, Journey did come first, and if I were to compare pre-Steve Perry Journey, I would say they beat Foreigner hands-down.

Just the pedigree of that band was impressive, right up until they fired drummer Aynsly Dunbar (the esteemed musician my opponent eluded to) after Perry’s first album with the band.  The only people that listen to “prog” with sincere enthusiasm are pretentious chaps like me, and the late 70s was aa hard time to break through for a progressive rock group.

But you have to roll with the punches when record execs like Robert Flieschman tell you the truth: Teens listening to FM radio don’t want artsy-fartsy instrumental music; they want something that they can snap their fingers and sing-along to.

The delicious irony is that a long established and talented band like Journey sacrificed their art and integrity and changed their format to conform to the commercially viable sounds of. . . Foreigner!  That’s right; they were a Foreigner clone, and a half-assed one.

Foreigner is the quintessential example of the 70s rock-scape before hair-metal took over, and the fans of this brand of dad-rock are often super serious about it.  I can’t give you tangible reasons, so let me give you more contextual imagery, colloquially known in the parlance of our time as “feels.”

I see Foreigner as an orchestra, providing the kickass soundtrack for the “tall can”-swilling, flannel-cutoff wearing, mullet-and-mustache having, white-trash average American male.  Their songs appeal to that Johnny Everyman; working for the city and driving around in his Trans Am trying to “pick-up chicks.”

Foreigner is music that defines the “Heavy Metal parking lot” crowd.  It paints the daydreams for the guy that meticulously cultivates his “bad-boy” image, mixing in a bit of the lame misunderstood burnout anti-hero found in every cheesy 80s teen movie.

Foreigner embodies a kind of sincere portrayal of the overtly-machismo ethos parodied in “This is Spinal Tap,” an honest reflection of a demographic that is not to be admired, or even to emulated; but studied by anthropologists under a cultural microscope for years to come.  It’s not only incredibly fascinating, it’s also very entertaining.

Journey could never capture Foreigner’s audience, no matter how hard they tried.  But instead of keeping to their patrician craft, they lowered themselves down to fill filthy, plebeian ears, and they did it with ambiguously pansy songs like “Don’t Stop Believing.”

The argument that the average CSC student can identify a Journey song only shows that it’s pervasive, not that it’s a quality tune penned by master musicians.  It speaks to a broad versus a targeted audience, and that the majority’s taste in music is garbage

The biggest “DUH!” moment in  my opponents argument is the obvious advantage of record sales and longevity that Journey has.  But to proclaim these facts as the objective standards for defining a band as superior isn’t going to win this battle.

Foreigner has had no illusions about their music. They didn’t change their sound to make a record exec happy. They kept true to their art, and were succesful the way they were.

That principle is why Foreigner was, is, and forever shall be: “Juke Box Heroes.”