Def Leppard's "HYSTERIA"-- Its Place In Rock Music History--Just Sayin'

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Psychedelic Good Trip, Aug 11, 2017.

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  1. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    Hysteria
    [​IMG]


    I know all musicians and bands have musical influences. We all know the rock God albums that influenced every band. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan & The Who, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin etc. all have immensely influencing albums loved by many musicians, rock bands and fans alike.
    Love it or hate at your will. Did Def Leppards Hysteria influence other bands musically and yes even lyrically?
    Did Hysteria have some influence with even some of the afore mentioned rock legends with their solo album releases?
    I don't mean this thread as a slam against Def Leppard I love the Leps and have all if not most of their albums.

    30 year anniversary this year 2017 I wondered with all the hype and success of Hysteria what are its influences on music since its release 1987.
    With how big Hysteria was in the late 1980's and over 25,000,000+ sold it had to influence many or not as many musicians into the 1990's and through today 2017.

    Even if you don't like Def Leppard or hysteria did it influence some of your favorite rock bands after 1987? Just wondering what if any influence did Hysteria have or has on the music scene 1987 through 2017. Will it continue to influence rock bands in the future?

    Hysteria (Def Leppard album) - Wikipedia

    Hysteria
     
  2. SizzleVonSizzleton

    SizzleVonSizzleton The Last Yeti

    Given how music went from 1987 forward I don't think you can make an argument that Hysteria was any kind of important or significant signpost to the next and future generations of rockers. In a way you could argue that it's the exact type of apex moment that rock ends up rebelling against; if things get too slick something will pop up to burst its bubble and start a new 'movement'. Maybe that's its significance.

    If anything I could see Hysteria being an important album (or concept) for what has become modern country. Which I grant you is an easy statement to make given Hysteria was produced by Mutt Lange and so was Shania Twain. I don't like modern country so I'm probably flirting between generalizing and ignorance but that type of music seems to not be country at all, just pop music with a fiddle (as I believe Tom Petty criticized it). Slick to the point of being designed more than written.

    I think Def Leppard were at that same point with Hysteria, checking off boxes until the slickest hybrid is ready to be birthed. God bless them but I don't think there was a writer of any importance in Def Leppard ever. And maybe there aren't in most groups and why the upper echelon is as exclusive as it is (there aren't 25 faces on Mt. Rushmore.)

    Def Leppard, like modern country, was designed to be a one night stand. Any longer and there's just not much there despite the fond memory of those two lamps we broke and the mattress that should probably be burned.
     
  3. stax o' wax

    stax o' wax Forum Resident

    Location:
    The West
    I think Martin Popoff's review in "The Collectors Guide To Heavy Metal" says it all.
    He gives the album a rating of 0 (out of 10)

    Just a few lines from that review;

    "Hysteria sucks righteously."

    "This is by far the most pointless mountain of misused technology"

    "Tasteless and devoid of all life"

    "Hysteria is a major assault to anyone's intelligence."
     
  4. Juggsnelson

    Juggsnelson Senior Member

    Location:
    Long Island
    Pyromania definitely did!
     
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  5. Meyer

    Meyer Heavy Metal Parking Lot Resident

    I loved it at the time, but now cringe when just about any track from that album pops up on Hair Nation or Ozzy's Boneyard. It's an overproduced, sterile, safe album that is very much of its time. I was somewhere recently where "Pour Some Sugar on Me" popped up on the public address system, and I wanted to stick pencils in my ear everytime I heard that "Pourah Summ Sugah on Muuaaahheee" chorus. I still dig their previous two albums, however.

    I don't think it's influenced many of the musicians/bands I enjoy right now. Maybe Ghost, in that they also perform a brand of metal that's more pop-oriented in terms of incorporating catchy hooks, but I would bet that's an indirect influence at best.
     
  6. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    I could probably say the same for many of the 'pop rock' titles I have and enjoy in my collection :laugh:
     
  7. billygtexas

    billygtexas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kilgore Texas, USA
    I think "Pyromania" was a far more influential album on 80's rock than "Hysteria" was. "Pyromania" sounds like a real breakthrough in how to produce a rock album, while "Hysteria" sounds like a refinement and formalization of what worked best from it. And "Pyromania" doesn't sound as programmed-in because Rick Allan was playing acoustic drums on it instead of pads or drum machines.
     
  8. dlb99

    dlb99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    I like Martin Popoff, but his take here is completely and utterly wrong. Martin is a metal guy, and I suspect the pop sensibilities rubbed him the wrong way; but even he should be objective enough to realise that this album does not suck; far from it. A laughable critique by a guy who should be better than that.

    My take, this is an all-time great pop-rock record. It didn't change the world, very few albums do; but it absolutely is of it's time and is a classic of its time. To me, it is still highly listenable.

    When I think 80s albums I think of: Thriller, Purple Rain, Slippery When Wet, Faith, Born in the USA, Appetite for Destruction and Hysteria. Great company to be in.

    I am glad that Def Leppard are doing a nice big splash for its 30th anniversary.
     
  9. dlb99

    dlb99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    No and no.

    Same could be said of Queen or Dire Straits. How much did they influence music? I don't know many bands that sound like Queen or Dire Straits or Def Leppard. Each are their own beast, whether you like them or not.

    To be honest, Rock Music is kind of dead in the mainstream these days, there is not much influencing going on (at the top of the charts at least).
     
  10. I like Hysteria, but I'm not sure it influenced anything else I like to listen to since then. Maybe if I listened to more slick country, but I don't. Nothing wrong with great pop metal, but maybe because to create its perfection took so much time and money. To make it back, you've got to sell tons and nobody does that anymore. But using all those production methods have gotten better and maybe they are now invisible to me.

    It's as much Mutt as it is the Leps and the Leps moved on past it. They've made a lot of great music since then.
     
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  11. davers

    davers Forum Resident

    I think it's a fantastic album that exists in it's own universe.

    I've never entertained the notion that it influenced anything that followed...it's just not that kind of record.
     
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  12. johnt23

    johnt23 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oregon
    It was exactly like cotton candy for me. Heard the title track and thought it was brilliant. Bought it (on *compact disc*!) and marveled at all the hits. Then, I found myself never playing it and being totally put-off by it. Like cotton candy, first bite is great, and then "eh".
     
  13. Actually, he called it "bad rock 'n roll with a fiddle." :)
     
  14. Platterpus

    Platterpus Senior Member

    I think this album is in a class of it's own. No other hard rock/pop metal album has sounded like this album prior to or after this album coming out. It doesn't even have the traditional riffs and power chords like other hard rock and pop metal. It has an experimental feel to it almost electronic like with it's dense production and weird layering of sounds. This album was released on my 16th birthday. I bought it that day. It was a big deal back then especially when the press covered Rick Allen's drum kit on the local news.
     
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  15. Isamet

    Isamet Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I like Pyromania better
     
  16. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    I myself always felt Hysteria was all over the place. Maybe It was the large amount of time the album needed for its 12 tracks.
    Loved the hits and feel the album has mellowed out somewhat. Time has made hysteria sink in with me to make a smoother listening experience than it was 30 years ago first listen.
     
  17. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York


    Same here. Hysteria has its own merits as well. Pyromania was amazing. IMHO
     
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  18. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
  19. WolfSpear

    WolfSpear Music Enthusiast

    Location:
    Florida
    Lost in time but still a classic.

    Hard to say that glammy sound influenced the future... Come grunge, this style is mute.
     
  20. Vinyl Fan 1973

    Vinyl Fan 1973 "They're like soup, they're like....nothing bad"

    Devoid of all life? He must be devoid of hearing as the album rocks. Gods of war alone is a great f'ing tune.

    People take themselves so seriously, get over yourself.
     
  21. Dream On

    Dream On Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Of course, it influenced Bryan Adams to go from Into the Fire to Waking Up The Neighbours, didn't it? *

    Seriously though, I think I'd respond by asking, does an album really need to influence anything to be considered a great album? There are many ways to measure greatness, influence being one of them. But none of those single measurements is a requirement. Is it an all-time great album? Not sure but Hysteria definitely made it's mark.

    * I'd consider this to be a definite influence actually, and WUTN was massive for whatever that's worth.
     
  22. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    It's a great produced album, but it's mostly too slick and commercial for me personally. I like High 'n' Dry and Pyromania so much more.
     
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  23. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I didn't vote because I honestly can't name any artists I like who I can factually argue were influenced by Hysteria, but I will say that I love the album and I think that the hate for it is almost entirely based on its success. For my money, Pyromania (everyone's idea of the "good" Def Leppard album) is just as over produced as Hysteria, but it wasn't quite so ubiquitous. All of their albums are basically slicked-up AC/DC as far as I'm concerned, but I prefer more songs on Hysteria. "Photograph" and the other hits from Pyromania annoyed the hell out of me for the whole year that they were played on the radio, and they never grew on me like "Women", or "Hysteria", or even (God help me) "Pour Some Sugar On Me" did.
     
  24. In case you didn't know, The Def Leppard E.P., On Through the Night, and High 'N' Dry were actually recorded with all of the members playing together in the same room, unlike Pyromania, Hysteria, Adrenalize, and pretty much everything else that came afterwards from them, which were recorded with each individual member playing each of their individual parts separately.
     
  25. skriefal

    skriefal Senior Member

    Location:
    SLC, Utah
    Good album - but not particularly influential on what came after. More of a throw back to 1970s glam rock.
     
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