# Best 80's hair metal band? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132 "2010-12-14T16:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/21 "2010-12-15T10:03:37Z")
ZZ Top ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/22 "2010-12-15T10:16:21Z")
Cinderella hands down. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/23 "2010-12-15T12:06:48Z")
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** ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/24 "2010-12-15T12:29:18Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/25 "2010-12-15T12:34:34Z")
> [@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. 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! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/26 "2010-12-15T12:40:33Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/27 "2010-12-15T15:51:42Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Oh good lord I actually listened to that album once. Second-worst album in metal history. OK, I’ll bite… 🙂 What was the worst?! ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/28 "2010-12-15T16:30:23Z")
A friend of mine’s brother was (is?) the drummer for Warrant, so I’m gonna vote that way. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/29 "2010-12-15T16:45:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/30 "2010-12-15T17:15:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/31 "2010-12-15T17:18:30Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/32 "2010-12-15T18:20:37Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/33 "2010-12-15T18:24:35Z")
> [@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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/34 "2010-12-15T18:38:58Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > OK, I’ll bite… 🙂 What was the worst?! “Pink Bubbles Go Ape” by Helloween. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/35 "2010-12-15T18:40:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132/36 "2010-12-15T18:48:42Z")
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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-80s-hair-metal-band/564132.md?page=1)