Best 80's hair metal band?

[DCnDC]

Hair metal. Defined as-- if you were alive in the 80's you'd instantly know it when you see or hear it. If you ever looked at the cover of Look What the Cat Dragged In and thought, "Those chicks are hot!" then you know what I'm talking about here.

Poll including the biggest bands off the top of my head. Forgive me for overlooking some other shitty band you liked. However, if you're going to be extolling the virtues of the likes of Trixter, Firehouse or Enuff Z'Nuff I offer no apologies for pointing and laughing.

[StusBlues]

Either Metallica or Van Halen. Metallica has aged much better, but everybody wanted to play like Eddie back in the day.

ETA: Perhaps neither of these are hair metal. If so, I got no pick.

[silenus]

Put me down for "Wouldn't touch that stuff with a 12 ft. Lithuanian."

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

They all sucked.

[Alessan]

How is Van Halen NOT hair metal (http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/pv/Van%20Halen-14.JPG)?

[DCnDC]

Sorry. I was going off the top of my head and for whatever reason Van Halen doesn't ring the "hair metal" bell for me. But I see how they should.

[Paintcharge]

GreatWhiteLionSnake

[Barkis is Willin']

Of the bands on that list, I picked Def Leppard because I've seen them in concert twice in the lsat decade and they still rock. Plus, they're one of the very few bands on that list you can even see in concert now-a-days.

[Tangent]

Guns N Roses - their Appetite for Destruction is, IMO, the best album put out by any of these bands.

[River Hippie]

I would have voted for GNR, because Appetite was freakin' great but I have come to loathe Axel to the point that I can't.

So....Dokken. George Lynch is a fantastic guitar player.

[Sateryn76]

I picked Poison - they are the epitome of everything 80s Sunset Strip hair metal was supposed to be. And, I've seen them several times, and they still rock and roll.

Guns and Roses have the most talent/are the best songwriters, but I don't consider them pure hair metal. They're just too good.

[thelurkinghorror]

I don't like this genre so I thought that Twisted Sister was the most tongue-in-cheek and least douchy. I didn't see Def Leppard on first scan though, maybe they qualify, although I consider them more pre-hair.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

I picked Poison - they are the epitome of everything 80s Sunset Strip hair metal was supposed to be. And, I've seen them several times, and they still rock and roll.

Guns and Roses have the most talent/are the best songwriters, but I don't consider them pure hair metal. They're just too good.

I agree about your GnR assessment, I never thought of them as a hair metal band as to me, hair metal implies a certain amount of cheese and schlock WRT not only appearance but trite lyrics, mundane musical arrangements, etc. GnR weren't ever really any of that although Axl certainly had his hairspray phase.

[TriPolar]

You forgot Spinal Tap. Otherwise, Sateryn76 has it right, Poison was the epitome of the 80s hair band.

[NDP]

I agree about your GnR assessment, I never thought of them as a hair metal band as to me, hair metal implies a certain amount of cheese and schlock WRT not only appearance but trite lyrics, mundane musical arrangements, etc. GnR weren't ever really any of that although Axl certainly had his hairspray phase.

I hate hair metal and even I think GnR doesn't belong on the same list with Poison and Motley Crue.

[handsomeharry]

I hate hair metal and even I think GnR doesn't belong on the same list with Poison and Motley Crue.

Exactly right. GNR isn't hair. Neither is Metallica. Neither is Van Halen. And, even that pic earlier doesn't make Van Halen a hair band. Only DLR wore makeup, and that was about as hair bandish that they got. Look at M. Anthony in the background: don't tell me he hasn't just changed out a set of pistons.

Best wishes,
hh

[pulykamell]

How is Van Halen NOT hair metal (http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/pv/Van%20Halen-14.JPG)?

They might be borderline to some, I dunno, but I would not consider them hair metal at all.

I voted for Def Leppard. Guns N Roses would normally get my nod, but they're not hair metal, either, so I didn't consider them in the poll.

[BaneSidhe]

Of the bands on that list, I picked Def Leppard because I've seen them in concert twice in the lsat decade and they still rock. Plus, they're one of the very few bands on that list you can even see in concert now-a-days.

Leppard wasn't really hair metal [despite the HAIR], I'd put them more as "melodic hard rock." They've held up pretty well over the years and I can't wait for their next album and tour.

[Steophan]

I hate hair metal and even I think GnR doesn't belong on the same list with Poison and Motley Crue.
I love hair metal and I agree - G'n'R were something unique. I voted for the Crue, they started the Sunset Strip scene and are still going strong today. Saints Of Los Angeles from a couple of years ago is a killer album.

From the poll, I'd question Whitesnake being hair metal, or Skid Row being 80s though. And where's Wales's finest export Tigertailz?

[Alessan]

I think there's a lot of One True Scotsmanning going on in this thread. Just because you think a band is good, that doesn't mean it isn't hair metal. And yes, that applies to Van Halen.

[casdave]

ZZ Top

[Tinkertoy]

Cinderella hands down.

[Súil Dubh]

Best Musically? Def Leppard, but the pre-hair-metal "Pyromania"

Best-All-Around-Cheesy-Hair-Metal-Image? Stryper

Best Used-To-Be-Black-Metal-But-Went-The-Way-Of-Hair-For-An-Album-Best-Forgotten? Celtic Frost

[Steophan]

Best Used-To-Be-Black-Metal-But-Went-The-Way-Of-Hair-For-An-Album-Best-Forgotten? Celtic Frost
Oh good lord I actually listened to that album once. Second-worst album in metal history.

[LC Strawhouse]

I think there's a lot of One True Scotsmanning going on in this thread. Just because you think a band is good, that doesn't mean it isn't hair metal. And yes, that applies to Van Halen.

Actually, think that hair metal and non-hair metal (whatever you call it) are really the same thing except for the lyrics. From what I remember,

Hair Metal - songs about love, sex and relationships (and has more of a female audience)
Other Metal - songs about madness, violence and pestilence!

[njtt]

"Best" and "hair metal" do not belong in the same sentence.

Having said that, I was once in the Student's Union at Leeds University, during the '80s, and a TV in one room was showing a performance by Twisted Sister. I left, and went into the other TV lounge, and, by some weird coincidence, Whitesnake was playing on the TV there. The difference was like night and day. I was never any sort of fan, but the contrast was obvious and instructive. Whitesnake were not doing anything very interesting or original, but they seemed to be expressing real emotions, and were clearly still in touch with rock's roots in the blues. Twisted Sister (quite apart from their sheer visual ugliness) were a horrible, fake, meaningless noise.

I really don't think they belonged in the same genre.

[Súil Dubh]

Oh good lord I actually listened to that album once. Second-worst album in metal history.

OK, I'll bite...

:)

What was the worst?!

[WreckingCrew]

A friend of mine's brother was (is?) the drummer for Warrant, so I'm gonna vote that way.

[Sparky812]

This is a tough one! You could break this one down into several different criteria.
I played in several rock/metal bands in the 80's so I consider hair bands to be the ones that were all looks, clothes and hair with limited talent and limited success.
According to your list, White Lion seems to lead in all these areas.

[msmith537]

It's pretty difficult to be a metal band in the 80s and not have been "hair metal" to some degree.

Some bands like Van Halen, Guns & Roses and Aerosmith managed to transcend the "hair metal" image towards the late 90s. Post David Lee Roth Van Halen went for a bit less outrageous look and albums like For Unlawfull Carnel Knowledge and G&Rs Use Your Illision double albums were popular well into the 90s after the hair metal scene disappeared. Aerosmith made all those music videos with his daughter and Alicia Silverstone, including that 2 hour long one directed by Michael Bay. Bon Jovi has also managed to stay somewhat relevant by adopting a less "glam band" look through the past 20 years.

[The wind of my soul]

This poll makes me happy, because I was trying to decide between Guns n Roses, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi, and when I saw the results these guys are the ones doing the best!

[SpartanDC]

I voted GnR, but I agree they're really not hair metal. Yes, they were based in Los Angeles in the mid-to-late 1980s, but there was nothing "glam" about them, which I think is the thing that defines a hair metal band - not just having a lot of big hair, but also having it permed while wearing a unitard.

[Wakinyan]

I voted GnR, but I agree they're really not hair metal. Yes, they were based in Los Angeles in the mid-to-late 1980s, but there was nothing "glam" about them, which I think is the thing that defines a hair metal band - not just having a lot of big hair, but also having it permed while wearing a unitard.
I was surprised to see G'n'R in the poll, of course I voted for them because it was the only good rock'n'roll band in the poll (except for Whitesnake, who release a couple of really nice records before going "hair", but I believe that was still during the '70s); anyhow, then I was going to write about the exact same thing as Spartan above.

[Steophan]

OK, I'll bite... :) What was the worst?!
"Pink Bubbles Go Ape" by Helloween.

[DCnDC]

It's a Catch-22. Had I not included them the outcry would have been, "What, no Guns 'n' Roses?!"

Fact is, no matter what your individual definition of "hair metal" may be, they were a humongous part of that era and included in the genre at the time whether they conformed to the formula or not.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Actually, after re-reading this list, I'd have to say that Ratt is probably the best of the bands on here that in my mind represent true hair metal (meaning I'm excluding GnR and Van Halen). They probably weren't quite as commercially successful as Motley Crue, but I think all around they were better players (especially at the lead guitar spot, which is a crucial component of a hair metal band) and wrote equally successful, schlocky "Girls Girls Girls"-type songs.