Best 80's hair metal band?

Cafe Society
1

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.

2

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.

3

Put me down for “Wouldn’t touch that stuff with a 12 ft. Lithuanian.”

4

They all sucked.

5

How is Van Halen NOT hair metal?

6

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.

7

GreatWhiteLionSnake

8

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.

9

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

10

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.

11

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.

12

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.

13

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.

14

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

15

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

16

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

17

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.

18

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.

19

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?

20

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.