Okay, I gotta respond to this one...
Let's be honest here, shall we?  Just because many of us may shun album rock
nowadays (quite frankly, I shun virtually all radio), let us not forget that
many of us were still RAISED on it.
Only now, several years after abandoning album-rock radio, can I bear to
listen to songs by such artists as Bob Seger, the Steve Miller Band, Jethro
Tull, and the like.  In fact, just recently, I finally broke down and bought
the Steve Miller Band's greatest hits.  It sits proudly between Midnight Oil
and Morrissey in my CD collection.
Obviously, AOR has destroyed a lot of respectable bands in many people's
minds (I STILL can't listen to the Eagles without cringing, which is a shame,
cos I know they wrote a lot of great songs).  And you couldn't PAY me to
listen to album-rock radio now.  But it's a format that, despite its
repetition of several core artists and songs, introduced me to a lot of music
that led to my discovery of other great artists and songs.
Hate the concept all you want, but don't take it out on the bands.
 
WILLIAM HARRIS