![]() And, we can all thank Lester Bangs for coming up with the term heavy metal. Hair metal, or glam metal as some would have it, is heavy metal lite. Sex-driven, spandex wearing, and coke fueled guitar heroism was on the rise. A more melodic metal album, 1983’s Pyromania vaulted the band up the Billboard charts and into households across the U.S. After Van Halen debuted, EVERY person on the planet wanted to learn how to solo on guitar.Īcross the pond, British bands like Def Leppard were earning a name for themselves by slowly moving their version of heavy metal music into the mainstream. EVH turned the rock world (and the sunset strip - epicenter of the Hair Metal Scene) upside down with face melting solos and two-hand tapping. the screechy vocals like Plant, the androgynous dress of Steven Tyler, and the dazzling stage moves of DLR. ![]() 80s hair metal rock singers now had the perfect triangle of influencers. erupted.Ī graduate of Glam Hair University (honorary degree), Diamond Dave was a male hair template of what a pop metal frontman should be. It got it with the late 1970s debut of Van Halen. ![]() Hair metal had its fuel in classic, glam, and hard rock, all it needed was a spark to ignite. The Pop Metal Evolution and the Rock Brigade They saw Steven Tyler strutting around in black fish nets and a white négligée and thought, "That! That is going to get me laid!?"Īs the late Charlie Murphy said, "You know where you got that shirt from - and it damn sure wasn’t the men’s department."įlair and flamboyance works every time. They saw Kiss in all their glory: face paint, leather, spitting blood, breathing fire, with a bass that looked like a real axe, and a New Hampshire fireworks store’s worth of pyro lit at the concert, and thought, "That! That is going to get me laid!" They were like guitarist Joe Satriani, who upon hearing that Jimi Hendrix died, walked off the football field, got himself an electric guitar, and began surfing with the alien. Kids wanted to be Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. It was more of a natural evolution of rock, starting with Led Zeppelin. While many boast that Hair Metal takes its rock ‘n’ roll roots from 1970s glam rock, I think that’s just plain overselling it. Beyond that, there were glam bands that zagged away from hair metal instead of zigging into it, like Pantera (1981), and even Skid Row on their second album, Slave to the Grind (1991) - both getting heavier.Įven Randy Rhoads of Ozzy Osbourne hard rock / metal fame went "hair" with Quiet Riot. The early 80s featured a mix of new big hair bands on the scene, Mötley Crüe (1981), Bon Jovi (1983), bands evolving their sound, Def Leppard (1977), Whitesnake (1978), and bands evolving their members, Ratt (1976), and Dokken (1979). Is it more like Home Sweet Home and Every Rose, or, is it more like Here I Go Again? 80’s Hair Metal History As to the latter, there is some debate over exactly what a power ballad is. Updated Oct 29 2022Ĩ0s hair metal bands ruled the musical roost for the better part of the 1980s and even into the early 1990s, churning out everything from bluesy, sleaze rock club drinking/drugging anthems, to arena-shaking pop metal power ballads.Īnd no band did the former like Guns’n’Roses with Mr. Big bands loved Aqua Net, power ballads, and chicks. Music | Hair Metal What is Hair Metal? The Immortal 80s (Guitar) God of the Sunset Strip that Seattle Grunge bands drowned in Aqua Net! Leaving a trail of (stripper) glitter from The Rainbow to the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, hair metal left an indelible mark on the Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, and, the rest of the United States of America (and the world for that matter).īorn in the sleaze pits of the Sunset Strip, 80s Hair Metal is the love child of Spandex & Glam Rock.
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