As I remember it, it was fed by all the rock magazines (like Rolling Stone) who could not STAND Journey, called them commercial sell-outs etc. Their fans were devoted to them. The music press was not.
I became a fan in the early to mid-1980s, and I couldn’t tell other guys that, because they were too cool with their Zeppelin and their Floyd and whatever the heck else they were listening to. I once tried to tell someone that Journey did hard rock numbers and he laughed at me.
Now that all that high school pretentious BS is over with, people can sit back and just listen to the music on its own with more of an open mind, and that’s when we can realize the talents of the people involved.
And some of the Steve Perry hate comes from people in the Bay area who got used to their sound from 74-77 and then couldn’t adapt to the new frontmen. Even Robert Fleischman, more of a traditional rocker voice, said he used to get flipped off on stage every night.
I would have never heard and appreciated their early stuff had I not started with Escape and Frontiers, then been blown away by Infinity through Departure.
Van Halen pushed a lot of bands out of “hard rock” - Journey included. As the interview points out, Perry and Schon were amazed watching VH perform live each night. And there was lots of competition between bands, even if they were friends. But if you can’t really compete, you might want to try something else.
I think that’s one of the main reasons Journey evolved, into something they were actually even better at, the rock ballad. Much like VH had re-written what it was to be a hard rock band, Journey re-wrote what a power ballad was with songs like Still they Ride, Open Arms, and especially Faithfully. Faithfully was truly an iconic song, the year it came out. It was like a duet between man and instrument (piano and guitar) plus amazing lyrics. Gives me chills to this day. Yet, many still hate it, and the band.
To each their own, I’m perfectly content liking and learning about most all music. And VH and Journey were two of the best. But I agree with Perry it was best to keep them separate.