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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/369.jpg]]
2->''"I've seen it all from the bottom to the top!''\
3''Everywhere I go--the kids wanna rock!"''
4
5One of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}'s most successful musicians, Bryan Guy Adams [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever OC]] (born 5 November 1959) entered the music industry as a songwriter in the late 1970s before achieving solo fame in TheEighties. Initially marketed as a "Canadian [[Music/BruceSpringsteen Springsteen]]", Adams developed his own distinctive [[ArenaRock melodic rock]] beginning with his second album, ''You Want It, You Got It''.
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7In 1984, Adams became a global superstar with the release of his most successful album, ''Reckless'', which produced a number of hit singles, including the anthemic "Summer of '69" and the PowerBallad "Heaven".
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9In 1991, Adams teamed up with Creator/RobertJohnMuttLange to record the album ''Waking Up The Neighbours''. During these sessions they wrote a new ballad for the ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' [[AwardBaitSong soundtrack]]. Originally intended to be given to another artist, Adams released "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" himself, and it subsequently became ludicrously successful.
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11While his success has declined in America, Adams is still very popular in Europe and remains one of the most influential and best-selling Canadian artists of all time. Adams is also a very accomplished professional photographer.
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13Not to be confused with Music/RyanAdams, nor with [[Wrestling/BrianAdams Brian Adams, aka Crush]].
14----
15!!Tropes:
16* AwardBaitSong: Starting with the ''Robin Hood'' song, he became well known for these.
17* BestYearsOfYourLife[=/=]LoveNostalgiaSong: "Summer of '69". In the chorus, he even says outright "Those were the best days of my life".
18** Fun fact: he was 9 years old in 1969, so he took his nostalgia from somewhere else. (His co-writer, Jim Vallance, was 17.)
19* ChangingChorus: "Summer Of '69" changes all but the last line of the chorus between the first and second verses and the second line between the second and third.
20** First verse:
21--->''But when I look back now,''\
22''that summer seemed to last forever.''\
23''And if I had the choice,''\
24''yeah, if there was one, I'd be there.''\
25''Those were the best days of my life.''
26** Second verse:
27--->''Standing on your mama's porch,''\
28''you told me that you'd wait forever.''\
29''Oh, and when you held my hand,''\
30''I knew that it was now or never.''\
31''Those were the best days of my life.''
32** Third verse:
33--->''Standing on your mama's porch,''\
34''you told me that it'd last forever.''\
35''Oh, and when you held my hand,''\
36''I knew that it was now or never.''\
37''Those were the best days of my life.''
38* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Grey. Many records of his feature black and white photos of him on the cover. His album You Want It You Got It features a painted in grey background. This color scheme was probably done to distinguish him from the brightly colored album covers of TheEighties and became a standard for him.
39* DarkerAndEdgier: The ''Into the Fire'' album.
40* DoubleEntendre:
41** ''18 'til I Die'' is essentially "Double Entendre: The Album".
42** Adams confirmed in an interview that "Summer of '69" actually ''is'' [[FreudWasRight named in reference to the sex act]] and that anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. His co-writer, Jim Vallance, however claims otherwise. (It's possible that Vallance was thinking of the year and Adams wasn't, considering that Vallance was 17 at the summer of 1969, but Adams was only 9.)
43* DriveInTheater: Part of the video for "Summer of '69" is set there.
44-->''Spent my evenings down at the drive-in''\
45''And that's where I met you, yeah!''
46* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: His first recordings as part of the band "Sweeney Todd" are definitely this, where he sings in a falsetto British accent that was his attempt at singing like the band's previous singer. Similarly, his first single "Let Me Take You Dancing", which is a disco-influenced song, with some varispeed on the vocals making him sound younger than he is. From his first album onwards, he starts to reach his recognisable sound, but doesn't quite get there until his second album ''You Want It You Got It''.
47* EmptySwimmingPoolDive: The video for "Cuts Like A Knife" features one.
48* EpicRocking: While they are not very rock, his ballads "Let's Make a Night to Remember", "Do I Have to Say the Words" and "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" (at least the album version) all clock in at over six minutes each. The mid-tempo song "Don't Drop That Bomb on Me" just makes the cut at six minutes dead and "Native Son" gets over the line at 6:04
49* GenreRoulette: Though his primary genre is pop-rock or ballads, Adams has experimented with Disco ("Let Me Take You Dancing", "Don't Ya Say It"), Punk ("You Want It, You Got It"), Reggae ("Reggae Christmas", "I Want It All"), Blues ("If Ya Wanna Be Bad, Ya Gotta Be Good", "Black Pearl"), Rap ("Bin There, Done That"), Dance ("Don't Give Up", "Cloud Number 9") as well as acoustic renditions of harder songs (the most famous being "I'm Ready").
50* GloryDays: [[NostalgiaFilter Deconstructed by]] "Summer of '69".
51* GreatestHits: "So Far So Good", "The Best Of Me", "Anthology" and "Ultimate". "Anthology" is the only one to include material from all of Adams' albums up to that point (including the first two) but "Ultimate" covers some of the material released afterwards.
52* GreenAesop: "Don't Drop That Bomb on Me" is a rather unsubtle one.
53* IntercourseWithYou: "Give Me Your Love", "I'm Ready", "Heaven", "Summer Of '69", "Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven", "Before The Night Is Over", as well as a good half of the songs on "18 Til I Die" (which is practically a ConceptAlbum about the subject).
54* InTheStyleOf: A few examples
55** Jim Vallance said that "Coming Home" was written in the style of Rod Stewart, though he said that they never got the chance to offer the song to him so Adams kept it.
56** Adams and Vallance wrote "Run To You" in the style of "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult and offered it to the group as a potential comeback single, though they turned it down.
57** A Reckless outtake "Too Hot To Handle" strongly resembles "Gimme All Your Lovin" and "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top which were current hits at the time of its recording. It's especially evident in the drum pattern, which uses the style of drum machine used on those songs.
58* TheNotRemix: "I'm Ready (Extended Version)" [from the US promo 12" of This Time) is actually the full uncut studio track - otherwise unreleased as the album version was edited for time. It features a second guitar solo and complete ending. On the album, it was shortened by 2 minutes - then an earlier part of the song was simply repeated and faded out.
59** "Run To You (Specially Remixed Version)" is oddly enough, no different to the album version.
60* OdeToYouth: "Summer of '69"
61* QuittingToGetMarried: In "Summer of '69", he describes how his first band never got far because "Jimmy quit and Jody got married" (Jody, actually a guy, refers to Bryan's sound manager.)
62* RearrangeTheSong: The "MTV Unplugged" album and in particular its rearrangement of "I'm Ready" into a slow orchestral ballad, which became a hit single. Years later Adams repeated the trick with an entire acoustic tour and live album called "Bare Bones".
63** Adams had a couple of single releases where remixes were more popular than the original -these being the disco mix of his first single "Let Me Take You Dancing", and years later the Chicane mix of "Cloud Number Nine".
64* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's "Summer of '69" not "'69"
65** Adams is fond of the phonetic spelling 'ya' for you, and it frequently appears printed as such in the booklets for his albums, as well as in the track titles "Fits Ya Good", "Is Your Momma Gonna Miss Ya", "If Ya Wanna Be Bad - Ya Gotta Be Good" to name a few. However, he does have a fair few tracks that are just 'you'.
66* TextlessAlbumCover: "On A Day Like Today" does not appear on the cover of its CD or digital versions, though it is present under the clear jewel tray. It is, however, present on the cassette cover.
67* TitleByYear: "Summer of '69", released in 1985.
68* TitleOnlyChorus:
69** "You Want It, You Got It"
70** "Long Gone"
71* TitleTrack: "You Want It, You Got It", "Cuts Like A Knife", "Into The Fire", "18 Til I Die", "On A Day Like Today", "The Best Of Me" and "Room Service". Averted with "Reckless" and "So Far So Good", as they were both omitted from the albums they gave their names to (though released years later).
72* VocalTagTeam: Adams is fond of duets, for example: "It's Only Love" (with Music/TinaTurner), "All For Love" (with Music/RodStewart and Music/{{Sting}}), "Rock Steady" (with Bonnie Raitt), "I Finally Found Someone" (With Music/BarbraStreisand), "When You're Gone" (with Music/MelanieC) and "The Way You Make Me Feel" (with Ronan Keating) and "Don't Let Go" (with Music/SarahMcLachlan).

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