For most generations, the term ‘classic rock‘ is familiar. But there was a time when the word ‘rock-n-roll’ music wasn’t in America’s vocabulary and certainly not classic rock.

The term classic rock came in this area due to the radio stations and their programmers who designed a large playlist of songs ranging from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Taking these songs, these programmers would also then integrate a number of current releases and thus call it ‘classic rock‘.

The thought came in this area back when The Beatles groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, came out, which made a like for all of the tracks on the record very than just one song. The AM and FM station programmers realized that they could play more than top singles and still keep their audiences attention. They could also mix up hits and non-hits to keep their viewers intrigued.

Radio has evolved over the years in choosing which songs to play, when and how. In the late 1960s and 1970s, choosing songs for the air was done by a disc jockey. This was followed by a more commercially oriented variant called album-oriented rock (AOR), or “album rock”, which emerged in the mid- and late 1970s. This format concentrated on album cuts as well, but on a more structured, playlist-oriented basis.

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By the 1970s and early 1980s, Album Oriented Rock would continue to be well loved, but by the end of the 1980s, albums were mostly being replaced by compact discs. At this time, station playlists largely stopped keeping up with developing musical trends (counting New Wave music), and “album rock” evolved into “classic rock radio“.

This is where we get to the term “Classic Rock“. The concept is taken from older radio show formats in that music from the past is played. While there isn’t any consistent ‘classic rock playlist’ due to