Let's Talk About: Hair Metal

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Often panned as a relic of the '80s and an example of the way excess and pomp can ruin good music, I still maintain that there is plenty of good stuff that came out this era. Yeah, maybe big hair and tight spandex invoke a snicker here and there, but like any genre you take the good with the bad.

 

For my money, it's all about Motley Crue. Shout at the Devil and Dr. Feelgood are really solid albums. Surprisingly, I don't think they sound as dated as one might think.

 

Discuss.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

"Kickstart My Heart" still rules. I still listen to Motley Crue's greatest hits every now and then. Nothing sounds dated to me...since I pretty much only listen to music from 1992 backwards.

[King Kamala 0]

I listen to Motley Crue's Decade of Decadence and some Guns 'N' Roses every now and then but other than that and maybe five other songs, I really have no use for the genre. Someone on another board was trying to tell me that Warrant was one of the most underrated bands of the '80s and I just couldn't take the guy seriously (even though we have remarkably similar tastes otherwise).

 

I do love DLR era Van Halen though and that's sort of the precurosor to this crappy genre. I was watching that VH1 five part series on the History of Metal the other day and I think it was Kerry King that said something to the effect of "Those bands took everything Van Halen did and turned it up times 100...in all of the wrong directions." I think that basically sums up my feelings on the genre.

[Epic Reine 0]

I like hair metal just as much as the next guy but a lot of it was really, REALLY ridiculous. I won't lie and say that I didn't enjoy a lot of bands from that era but shit like Poison, Warrant, Ratt, Whitesnake, Winger and Cinderella is what makes the genre overall garbage to music fans. Stuff like Motley Crue, Scorpions, Twisted Sister (yes, screw you), Def Leppard, and borderline bands that can or can't be considered hair metal like GNR and Skid Row (Bach era only), is what I enjoy.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I watched that same VH1 series, Kamala. I don't know why, but I get sucked into those countdown shows every singly time. Doesn't matter if I agree or disagree with the choices, I am hooked to the end.

 

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding what is and isn't hair metal. Are we to include Guns n Roses because they fit into the era, even though nothing they sound nothing like the cheesy power stuff from the late '80s? What about Van Halen? They were more of a hard rock band from the late '70s. That's why I sometimes get into heated discussions about the genre itself. Are we confining it to the dozens of lame one-hit wonders that co-opted the look and feel, or are we throwing out the blanket to cover all hard rock bands that succeeded within the decade?

[King Kamala 0]

 

My boy David Lee at his finest. Shitfaced, telling people he's going to fuck their girlfriend, insulting The Clash for no apparent reason.

[BUTT 0]

I don't see why hair metal is held to a different standard than, say, Britney or Backstreet Boys. They're just dumb pop songs no matter who sings them. Just because the dudes happen to play their own instruments doesn't mean you should expect any more authenticity from them. Once you can accept that, hipsters, you'll realize that hair metal ain't nothing to be afraid of.

 

Poison is better than Motley Crue. "Cry Tough" and "So Tell Me Why" are their best singles even though nobody knows them. "Unskinny Bop" can suck it hard, though. Oh, man, and their cover of "Your Mama Don't Dance." Woof.

 

More thoughts later!

[Guest Czech please!]

I pretty much only listen to music from 1992 backwards.

There's a secret message in "Man on the Moon" that explains where Andy Kaufman really is.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Too Fast for Love is one of my favorite album titles. I like the album itself, as well.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I've always liked "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Warrant. To this day I have no idea why.

[BUTT 0]

borderline bands that can or can't be considered hair metal like GNR and Skid Row (Bach era only), is what I enjoy.

Skid Row was definitely hair metal in the beginning. The first song on their debut album is like SHE'S GOT THE BIG GUNS, POINTED RIGHT AT MY HEART, BANG BANG SHOOTING LIKE A FIRING SQUAD. Slave to the Grind is much harder and doesn't belong in the hair metal genre.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I pretty much only listen to music from 1992 backwards.

There's a secret message in "Man on the Moon" that explains where Andy Kaufman really is.

 

ereht did uoy tahw ees I

[Just John 0]

I really like Poison. I think Fallen Angel is my favorite song of theirs.

 

What about Bon Jovi?

[Copper Feel 0]

What about Bon Jovi?

 

No. I can tolerate the rest of this thread.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

My boy David Lee at his finest.

 

[ZGangsta 0]

I'd file Skid Row under Hair Metal but definitely not Guns N Roses.

[Red Baron 0]

Guns N Roses was hair metal.

[cabbageboy 0]

Having recently checked out GNR I don't really think their music is hair metal at all. Their look was certainly that of a seedier looking hair band of the late 1980s, but an album like Appetite for Destruction is definitely not hair metal. It's not overproduced, it sounds violent and aggressive, there's all sorts of profanity tossed around casually. If anything that album is unlike nearly anything else from that era, with only the singles being dated (Sweet Child O Mine, Paradise City).

 

 

[Rendclaw 0]

GNR was a straight up rock band. They weren't a hair band at all. Van Halen, the same. Whitesnake wasn't hair metal either, since they had been around since the 70s.

 

The New York Dolls started that shit way back in the day, and Kiss took the crown for awhile, then Motley Crue, and it can be argued that Bon Jovi took hair metal to new heights and spawned bands like Cinderella, Poison, Warrant, Skid Row, Britny Fox, Kix, and the like.

 

And yeah, I put Skid Row in there knowing that Slave to the Grind exists. If they had the balls to stand up to the record execs, they could have gotten more respect by putting that out first. But that was the formula back then. Get all the kids on board with the bubblegum shit, then try and garner respect from the fellas by putting out something harder.

 

I never liked Warrant, but Jani Lane had a pretty cool rock bar in downtown Orlando in the middle 90s.

 

I still laugh out loud to this day when I recall that it was being said that the Bulletboys were going to be the next Van Halen.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Motley Crue is dece (though for every good song, they have 2 that are absolute dreck), and I'd certainly say they were the best of the bunch. Hair bands were funny, in that the music wasn't that bad (at least in the beginning), but the over-reliance on image and being just like everybody else ruined what could have possibly lead to some above-average music to be made.

 

This review makes me laugh.

 

And THIS shit is why hair metal died:

 

I'm biased when it comes to hair bands, though.

[Slayer 0]

In 24 hours this thread has garnered more responses than the metal thread down the folder gets in a week. Not sure how to take that one, but at least no one's started the nu-metal thread (yet)

 

Anyways, my opinion with this is the same as any genre, namely that there's no good or bad genres, just goods and bads within each genre. There's some songs I still listen to and enjoy, and others which I remember liking as a kid but now make me turn my nose up... and it's not just a nostalgia thing either, as I occasionally listen to Dee Snider's House of Hair show and find some good songs that I missed way back in the day.

 

Also, Skid Row is not hair metal. They're part of a group of bands (like GNR) that happened to come out at the same time hair metal was big and so they get lumped together despite being stylistically different. Songs like "Youth Gone Wild" and "18 and Life" were not similar to the likes of the Warrants, Poisons, Cinderellas and other HM bands with which they shared airtime on late-afternoon MTV in the late 80's, and I even recognized that when I was 9. Their music had a much harder edge to it, and their looks and lyrics for the most part had that "tough kids" image going that was definitely not shared by HM.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Guns N Roses was hair metal.

 

I've never understood how anyone could listen to Appetite for Destruction and then lump GNR in with the hair metal bands that were popular at the time. It's really really really wrong.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

I find GnR less tolerable than more 'stupid' hair metal. They may have been nearer 'straight-up rock' (whatever people mean by that) but they still took themselves far too seriously. Waste of time trying to separate them from the genre entirely. They were essentially the next step upwards.

[ZGangsta 0]

I'm pretty sure people who lump GNR in with hair metal have just seen clips of the Welcome To The Jungle video on VH1 and haven't actually listened to much of their output, because they definitely have a completely different sound.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Personally, I love hair metal. It's fun music to listen to and doesn't ask too much of its listener (simply asks for you to have a good time) which, sometimes, is all I want from music.

 

Guns N' Roses is not hair metal. They have some 'hair metal-ish' songs but the majority of their output is nowhere near hair metal.

 

Considering Bon Jovi still have a career, still sell millions of records and remain relevant, I wouldn't list them here either as they have surpassed the hair metal genre.

 

Motley Crue is the definition of the 80's hair metal band, which is ironic since they were always desperate to be respected as musicians and be seen as rebels of some kind.

 

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

 

Producer: "I need for this video to be just a little more faggy."

 

Director: "Well, we can litter it with rainbows and flying doves."

 

Producer: "Okay, but I want a lot of rainbows. I mean a lot. And a whole shitload of doves."

 

Director: "I'm on it."

[BUTT 0]

Enuff Znuff actually got good reviews at the time. I think they won Rolling Stone's Best New Artist too. "New Thing" is a good song but their image is among the most obnoxious of the hair bands.

[Henry Spencer 0]

So is their moniker.

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

Is Sebastian Bach still smoking crack? I am watching the #100 top rock songs on VH1. He stated of how Nirvana and NIN killed off all of these bands in the early 90's but it's 2008 now and Rock is back on top. Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK?

[King Kamala 0]

Hey- nobody's mentioned Decline of The Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years yet. Probably my favorite hair metal related thing. Too bad this isn't on DVD yet. One of my ten favorite documentaries ever.

 

Somewhat unrelated but has anyone seen I or III? Either of them worth seeking out?

 

Ah- here's the whole movie on YouTube.