YMMV / Journey (Band)

• Awesome Music:
  • "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)", a song that is much darker than the band's more famous output, and awesome because of it.
  • A lot of their Arnel Pineda Era output is pretty awesome as well. "Change for the Better", "Faith in the Heartland", "Tantra", "Human Feel", "Someone", the list goes on...
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Perry never said "I never felt part of the band". He really said “All these years, it’s funny—I never really felt part of it.” Even then, the line was actually taken out of context by VH1. What he really said was that he felt he wasn't part of the band at the time (he was talking about his early years with Journey).
• Broken Base:
  • Fans of Steve Perry vs. fans of the Steve-Augeri/Arnel-Pineda eras. The fanbase shattered the moment the band announced they were replacing Steve Perry with Steve Augeri. The hostility got so bad that Journey had to shut down their official forum, many fan-run Journey boards still ban any "Perry vs anyone" topics, and fan-run Perry boards are still full of hostile rants against post-Perry Journey. Flamewars and overheated arguments erupt regularly between the two camps to this day, over twenty-five years since Perry left the band.
  • On a smaller scale, you also have the Perry/Rolie era vs the Perry/Cain era. Fans of the former adore it for blending the progressive jazzier elements of their early material with the poppier, more melodic side of Perry. As well as how Perry and Rolie compliment each others' vocals perfectly. Fans of the latter prefer it because of how the band embraced their pop sensibilities and the classic AOR band we all know and love.
• Colbert Bump: The use of "Don't Stop Believing" in the final scene of The Sopranos instantly made the band a trendy discussion topic again. And then it happened again in the pilot of Glee, which boosted the song to the number one iTunes download.
• Ending Fatigue: "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'". The song repeats the same "Na na na" chorus over. And over. And over. Good God, end it already.
• Epic Riff: The keyboard riffs for "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Separate Ways".
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The band is currently far more popular in Europe than in the US, to the point that their 2011 tour only has 3 US dates, with all the rest being in Europe. This is a relatively new development. In the eighties, Journey toured almost exclusively in USA and Japan. The European AOR fans preferred Toto (still do, really).
  • Since 2007, they've also seen a boost in popularity in Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, thanks to Filipino singer Arnel Pineda taking over as the frontman.
• Growing the Beard: Steve Perry joining as lead singer is considered this, as the band became MUCH more successful when he came on board.
• Hype Backlash: Some people feel that "Don't Stop Believin'" has become so overplayed that it's overshadowing the rest of the band's just as great music catalog. It's gotten to the point where thanks to that song, Journey is bordering on One-Hit Wonder territory!
• Memetic Mutation: It is obligatory that most covers of "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" will include a shot-by-shot copy of its So Bad, It's Good music video. See here and here for examples.
• Misattributed Song: Some people confuse this band with Foreigner and misattribute songs like "Jukebox Hero" and "I Want to Know What Love Is" to this band. Ditto Survivor's "Can't Hold Back", to the point that Survivor's lead singer was actively imitating Steve Perry.
• Narm Charm: The video for "Separate Ways" is either So Bad, It's Good or this, between Steve Perry's exaggerated facial expressions, the band playing invisible instruments, and the band's constant angry posing, preening, and posturing. Likely intentional, though drummer Steve Smith looks ready to crack up laughing in parts (and he is also wearing a foosball shirt, which rocks).
• Never Live It Down: Although Jonathan Cain was reportedly upset when the infamous "Separate Ways" video was featured on Beavis And Butthead, he has since admitted to being embarrassed by it. In I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, he said, "I'm at a loss to explain that video. I will never live down those air keyboards. No matter what else I've done in my career, sooner or later people find a way to ask me about the 'Separate Ways' video."
• Signature Song: "Don't Stop Believin'", without a doubt. It's the one song the band always plays in concert and is a guaranteed singalong, the one song everyone recognizes as Journey, and gets the most airplay out of the band's catalog.
• Spiritual Successor: The aforementioned Bad English supergroup, which was really a successor to both Journey and the Babys.
• Wangst: Steve Perry's "I never felt part of the band" line comes off as this. At least until it was revealed that it was taken out of context (see Beam Me Up, Scotty!).

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