Is Highway to Hell (Stylistically) the first "Hair" or Pop Metal album?

Cool. As much as I'm admittedly not a fan of "grunge" I don't hate it for hates sake but what does get my goat is the people who do love it making out like it was some sort of ongoing phenomenon that lasted decades when it really didn't - and when I say that I'm talking about being chart bothering and being on the day to day radar of the general public. Like all genres some bands survived and some didn't and some reached legendary status over perhaps those more worthy by a combination of looks, talent and luck.

 

Great album, but I think HTH is a little too slick compared to DDDDC and LTBR. I like those albums much better.

 

After having very recently (in the last year) acquiring "Highway To Hell", I was very surprised by its sonic similarities to Def Leppard and other 80's "pop-metal" albums. IMO, what Mutt Lange started on HTH he perfected on Hysteria, and HTH, if it did not directly influence much of the metal of the 80's, it sure taught them a lot. AC/DC was a straight-ahead, ground level hard rock band, but they were very influential upon the metal of the 80's. They weren't of it, but it was of them.

 

The problem with quickly typing thoughts on the internet is we don't always convey what we truly mean in a few sentences. I meant they had their fame-cycle that was quickly dated just as "hair" bands did.

FWIW I only saw two glam metal concerts in the eighties. I saw Nirvana on the In Utero tour and Alice In Chains in 1993. I wouldn't trade any of those concert memories for anything. Layne Staley was on fire when I saw AIC and he is one of the most imitated singers in modern rock. Nothing but respect. (Also: I had Louder Than Love shortly after it was released. Listened to it right alongside glam metal, thrash, and everything else I loved at the time.)

 

I remember hearing touch too much and thinking AC/DC on top of the pops!! What next, Rush and Judas Priest........oh wait.....Spirit of Radio and Living After Midnight!

 

AC/DC was the big chick metal band for the stoners in the 80s. They have a slight pop sensibility since their music is monotonous in sound and sort of danceable. But by no means are they in the same category as bands like Bon Jovi, Warrant and Poison which are pure hair metal.

 

I would insert the Scorpions: Lovedrive album into this discussion. It was the first time I recall mentioning to a friend, "hey cool, commercial-metal." It definitely had polish and that wasn't a bad thing at the time.

 

No.

 

While I agree that KISS and Aerosmith were the founding fathers it's Van Halen's debut that can be called the first pure hair metal album. Too bad most Van Halen fans are in denial.

 

Imo Highway to Hell sounds dated, Powerage sounds raw, unpolished and timeless.

I totally get what you're sayin', HTH is kinda pop and a bonafide Lange-production. A great album nonetheless.

 

I agree with Rose River and the OP...(hey, good band name..) Back in Black is much more poppy and radio-friendly than AC/DC's earlier work. "You Shook Me All Night Long" is played at sports stadiums all over, whereas I don't hear, say, "Dirty Deeds" as much. BIB is a fantastic album, and loads better than most of what was "hair metal",..but I do hear that Mutt Lange "sheen" as others have put it.

 

I think you have a tendecy to phrase things badly, I am thinking of that ”most redundant” thread a while back (which seems to be gone now, and I can understand why). But just like back then, after first almost getting angry at the initial statement, I thought some more about it and tried to figure out what you were actually getting at, and I think I get what you are going for and I agree to some extent. I will ignore the "hair" thing, which I think was a mistake to mention and took things on a detour. I also don't really think Highway to Hell was the "first" anything or laid the ground for any genre. But there is certainly a tendency on that album to go for the big choruses, in a way that you don't find on earlier AC/DC albums, especially in those songs you mention above, they are very "sing-along-friendly". Powerage is an intetresting comparison, because that album is also well produced and I consider it their first "mature" album, but Highway to Hell is much more streamlined, both in the songwriting department, with hooks a-plenty, and in the production, with Mutt Lange putting a little polish on and tightening things up. If you go back one step further to Let There Be Rock there is quite a big difference in both songwriting and sound, those songs don't bother much with choruses, some don't even have any, and the sound is very raw and in your face, I can see how they were sometimes lumped in with the Punk movement around that time. I also agree that, when you listen with an open mind, the step from Highway to Hell to something like Def Leppard's High 'n' Dry isn't as big as one might think, and I can see the possible influence and also of course there are those production touches by Mutt Lange.

 

Well, Def Leppard definitely fits in the hair metal/pop metal thing, but it certainly isn't an early 70s British thing.

 

lol yeah I may need to run my initial questions through an editor

 

There ya' go... That's what I think of when people mention pop metal... Them, Bon Jovi, Winger, White Lion, Extreme, and, oh jeezus, friggin' Warrant... They were the worst... Compared to them, Motley Crue WAS AC/DC... Whitesnake was a BORDERLINE pop-metal band, although they totally-fit the "hair band" profile for sure...

I actually can appreciate the musical aspect of Winger's first album. Those guys could actually play, and they had Rod Morgenstein on drums, formerly of the Dixie Dregs, who is an incredible musician and one of the world's best, and Reb Beach and Kip Winger were no slouches themselves. When you listen to the actual MUSICIANSHIP of that Winger debut, there's some monster playing going on there. However, I saw them open up for Deep Purple in like late 1990/early 1991, and it was kinda' sad. The only person I saw on their feet was this 12 year old chick who bore an incredible resemblance to the "Bee Girl" from Blind Melon's "No Rain" video, and she stayed on her feet the entire set, waving her arms in the air. I really felt bad for the guys in the band. They were actually quite-good, but the crowd had ZERO energy and clearly was there to see Deep Purple, all except for that one kid.

Actually, KISS might be the very-first pop-metal band... They certainly fit the profile.... Sweet was more of a glam-rock thing if you ask me... But the "Highway To Hell" album? Hell no. That album and even "Back In Black" both rock with a vengeance. Even "For Those About To Rock..." is a straight-up hard-rock classic. I mean, can you listen to the title track and think of pop-anything? I sure can't.

 

AC/DC seemed to be standard metal within the context of the time. Def Leppard was the group that was more pop metal with Mutt Lange's production style, as sort of an AC/DC lite for the a wider audience.

 

There was no pop metal before Iron Butterfly. Their 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' sales are evidence of the severe popularity of their heavy metal.

 

Starz, Rex Smith's first few, Piper, even Michael Bolton's late 70s debut all point to pop metal

 

The Beatles started Hair Metal. C'mon everyone knows that

 

In my opinion, no.

But I do find that Highway to Hell has aged not nearly as well as Power Age or Let There Be Rock for me. Not sure if it's Mutt or the songs.

 

Van Halen created the sound and the party vibe the Sunset Strippers were trying to cash in on, for sure. The look was copped from the British glam rock scene a decade earlier.

 

I agree.
HtH has a sound and style of a band (maybe management) wanting to take it to the "next" level; which in this case is...made for mainstream consumption. Good LP nonetheless.

 

Def Leppard sounds like Highway to Hell, not the other way around.

 

In the 80s, AC/DC was lumped in with "metal" by a lot of people.