I wish I still had a copy. This was recorded back in 87 or 88. I lost it in a house fire in 2000.
Slee
…aaand there’s always a dick who thinks he is better than you.
Anyone who wishes to make it personal – please don’t.
Thanks,
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
This just screams out for a little Def Leppard, doesn’t it?
Bless you, FallingLeaves!
Seconded.
Sorry.
Shit, Darth, don’t apologize. Rules be damned, that might be my favorite post so far in this thread.
Just because it’s true, doesn’t mean it wasn’t out of line. I’m really bad at seeing when I’m a dick, and it helps when someone tells me.
Back on topic-- Steve Vai worked over the phone with PiL and we got “Album”
Musically I think there is little difference between “Hard Rock” and “Hair Metal”. I would characterize Hair Metal as a specific subgenre of Hard Rock - flamboyant, guitar driven songs about sex, drugs and rock and rolls played/sung by tall, lanky dudes with long hair and an in your face attitude.
The “case” for Hair Metal is that it was basically the ultimate evolution of guitar driven Hard Rock, tracing it’s genetic origins back to Led Zeppelin. Like the dinosaur, it ruled it’s era. Also like the dinosaur, it could no longer evolve and was out-competed by punk-decended alternative/indie rock.
I love much of the hair metal, but the one thing that gets on my nerves about it is how they have to sing the chorus, well, in chorus with each other. That’s too poppy for me.
Let’s not forget that the 80’s hair metal scene was the first genre largely driven by visual appeal, namely MTV which launched in '81. Once it got going, appearance mattered as much as the song, if not more so. I would consider the late 90’s boy bands and even Britney Spears and such the evolutionary descendants of 80s hair metal groups. Different music styles to be sure, but still slickly polished pop where appearance and style matter more than music.
I think the term “hair metal” is a dismissive term for the crappy, style over substance pop-rock of the 80s. I wouldn’t put GnR, Metallica, VH, Slayer,or anyone like that in that group at all. I wouldn’t consider any hair metal band good, since to me the term is negative. There were certainly good bands (or at least good songs) in the 80’s pop metal movement, but when you say hair metal, that means it’s crap, IMHO.
Interesting point.
I don’t think anybody in their right mind would ever classify Metallica or Slayer as “hair metal.” GnR and Van Halen come a little closer, and perhaps there can be an argument made for putting them in this category, but, to me, Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, Cinderella, Winger, etc., would be the prime examples of “hair metal.” You are correct in that the word is normally used in an unflattering manner, so if you want to use a more neutral term, “glam metal” might perhaps be the one you’re looking for to describe many of the “hair metal” bands in this thread.
**jk1245 **, I would agree with everything you said, as well as add that “hair metal” was also somewhat of a cultural phenomenon as much as “grunge” was in the early 90s. When I showed my girlfriend my HS yearbook (class of 91) she is somewhat shocked by the preponderance of mullets and feathered big hair and earings (on men and women). Basically, yearbook photos were taken right before the transition from everyone dressing like Jon Bon Jovi and Lita Ford to dressing like Eddie Vedder and Alanis Morissette.
If I were to lay out the following 80s bands on a continuum, where would one define the boundary between “hair metal”, “kick ass hard rock” and “heavy metal”?
<MORE HAIRBAND>
Cinderella
Skid Row
Warrant
Whitesnake
Bon Jovi
Poison
Dokken
KISS
RATT
Motley Crue
Def Leppard
Van Halen
Guns & Rose
Quiet Riot
AC/DC
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
Black Sabbath
<MORE METAAAAAAAAAL>
Also note that no matter how awesome your favorite band is right now, in 5-10 years it will be incredibly lame. But in another 5-10 years it will be retro awesome again.
What about the whole new wave thing? Duran Duran, The Human League, Eurythmics, Adam Ant, Men Without Hats, Devo…
There was clearly an MTV look that folks were into before Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister showed up.
New Wave was more of a commercialization of 70s Punk Rock.
Sure, but they were much quicker in adapting to video than the heavy metal folks.
Sorry, getting off-topic here.
Re: msmith537’s list
Move Cinderella down a bit, Skid Row way down, Warrant up some, Poison way up, Crue either up or down depending on which album, and finish it off by putting Pretty Boy Floyd into the upper stratosphere of “More Hairband”.
Many New Wave bands are examples what I said when my brother said that Duran Duran were just posers: “well, you can be posers and be good at the same time”. (If by poser you mean someone for whom appearance is just as or more important than the music, rather than someone for whom appearance is more important than the music and also lack musical talent.)
But nearly all hair metal bands were posers without talent, to an even greater degree than suggested by Sturgeon’s Law. (Some bands that happened to have long hair were not hair bands, such as GnR, and so do not belong in this genre. I’m not a big GnR fan but have to admit they have talent. And some hair bands had a couple of good songs, like Def Leppard and the Crue, even if the majority of their songs have no redeeming qualities.)