Note that that map. quoting Wikipedia, calls hair metal “Glam Metal.”
Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums of All Time. They have Dokken and Def Leppard in there but not Van Halen.
I went to a concert a couple months ago with Tesla, Poison and Def Leppard. it was sold out and it was awesome!! Great representation of hair metal.
Yeah, when I was a teenager during the '80s, we called it “Glam”. I don’t recall hearing the term “Hair Metal” until well after its popularity fizzled.
I remember getting into several bands that are now considered “Hair Metal” early on before it was a distinct genre - Motley Crue, Ratt, Stryper, Dokken, Def Leppard - but by the time bands like Poison and Warrant hit the scene I had become a fan of Thrash and viewed glam with much contempt.
A bit older, but yeah.
The dividing line was whether or not the band relied upon their musicianship, or their outrageous appearance, to drive their image and popularity. In some cases, like with Twisted Sister, it’s a hard call.
The really good acts have hung on and transcended the label. Some good acts failed anyway and have to wear the label, even if they don’t deserve it. A great number of acts wallow in the mediocrity of their existence, and deserve the label unreservedly.
Interestingly, I have the reverse experience - I didn’t hear the word ‘glam’ associated with music until we were into the New Wave era.
Yup. Generally agree. You see it repeatedly - Girl Groups. Boy bands. Doo-Wop groups. Beatles Wanna-Be.
Extruded Musical Product.
Edit:
ETA: Dee Snider & Twisted Sister straddled the line, but have survived to shed the label.
I’m with Dee.
Mostly disposable, and the whole “unplugged” thing… ACK!
I was 15 in 1984 and recall hair metal as being a new thing at the time. There were bands that seemed cool to my 15 year old self, Ratt and Whitesnake for example. These bands were different than Ozzy, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest in that their music was more radio friendly, and as such, not really Heavy Metal. Whitesnake had more staying power than Ratt in the long run, and this is a result of David Coverdale having genuine Rock and Roll credentials and experience as the singer for Deep Purple after Ian Gillian left. Hair metal turned out to be mostly poseur fluff. Or, what Snowboarder Bo said.
I’m with Dee too, because the bands he mentioned are lame. But I’m with Eddie Trunk, too.
http://www.vh1.com/video-clips/v8qkhz/that-metal-show-the-rant-eddie-on-hair-bands
Dee Snider fucking rules.
Remember this?
Love his entrance!I am of the appropriate generation (16 in 87), and I fucking hate that shit. But then, I also am not a fan of most other metal genres, either. When Hair Metal was all the rage, I was listening to Indie and Goth.
He does, doesn’t he? When he pops off, it is usually in the right direction.
I wish I didn’t find Twisted Sister so useless. Just nothing about their music I find interesting. And We’re Not Gonna Take It wore out it’s welcome in my brain soon after it went into way-too-heavy rotation decades ago. But I sure as hell respect their right to rock it ;).
I was 11 when Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name came out in 1986 and was immediately bowled over.
I don’t know what it was like in the US, but, as I remember it, the pop music landscape in Europe at the time was utterly dominated by synthetisers and cheesy dance hits. Rock was decidedly uncool.
So, Hair Metal was something else. I latched onto it indisciminately, even more so since guitar-driven songs were so few and far between. Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Europe, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Whitesnake, all came as a relief to my guitar-starved ears. In retrospect, I think that most of these bands were ok at best but it’s still fun to hear them on the radio from time to time.
A couple of years later, I moved on to Iron Maiden, and from there, very quickly to Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax plus a dozen other such bands. I don’t really listen to trash metal anymore but I reckon that it has held up better and was musically much more interesting.
As a teenager in the 80’s, you couldn’t NOT listen to glam/pop/hair metal. It was dominating the radio and MTV, as well as the Billboard charts. Once Quiet Riot hit #1 with “Cum On Feel The Noize,” glam metal became pop music.
Teenagers like what’s popular, and that’s what was popular. Sure there were all kinds of people who didn’t like it; they purposely sought out other forms of music, which is why bands like Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Anthrax, Exodus & Metallica all gained fans and popularity.
As for me, I loved every damn second of it. It was loud, outrageous, fun, and my parents hated it. I couldn’t wait to get the next issue of Hit Parader or Circus so I could read about my favorite bands, tear out the centerfold poster and scotch tape it to my bedroom wall.
My faves from that era : Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken, Van Halen, L.A. Guns, Guns -N- Roses, Skid Row.