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

Close enough:

 

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Def Leppard was dead to me with the release of Hysteria!
Just an overproduced pop album with cliche hooks galore!
The first three albums rock though!

 

Interesting comment, many feel the same way. Negative comments aside it's fascinating reading all the comments about this mega million seller. The first 3 Leppards were incredible. Still love Hysteria all the same.

 

This album took them in a bad direction IMHO.

 

Id far rather listen to the three albums before, but still like Hysteria.
I think even the band wanted to get away from overproduction afterward, but I may be wrong,.
I never followed DL after Hysteria, but I remember a tune on MTV called "Two steps behind",
which I thought was less produced, reminds me of the band "Extreme".

 

Looks like the "every dude" I knew school. They're look was not "hair metal", it's just how the 80's looked. I see t-shirts and blue jeans. No bandannas, spandex, or makeup.

 

Hahahaha. I graduated in 1989. I shudder to think what would have happened to any guy who dressed like that. Like I said...close enough.

 

How about we quit moaning that Hysteria isn't as good as Pyromania or High N' Dry and simply accept it for what it is? The absolute unchallenged pinnacle of Pop-Metal Rock.

 

Love this Steve Clark version.

Now that's a way of putting it.

 

Got the new 2017 vinyl spinning tonight with a cold root beer. No alcohol tonight got to work tomorrow.
The original 1987 vinyl spinning above in video.

 

Yes, both huge albums in the States.

Hysteria however was a lot more successful on a world wide basis. It is claimed to have sold 25 million copies around the world. Pyromania likely to be in the low to mid teens. With that being the case, the band themselves consider Hysteria to be their peak album; their Dark Side of the Moon as Joe Elliot explains it.

 

It is NOT a metal album. It is a pop rock album.

 

Grunge rock came and went quicker than Hair Metal.

Def Leppard are still doing their thing to this very day whilst most of the grunge bands are gone (in many cases tragically).

 

Still not as wussy as "Adrenalize" (which I do own on Euro vinyl)

 

In the 90s Def Leppard did way too many ballads per album, yes.

 

Uh...it's like ALL ballads.

 

White Lightening is just about the only song I like on Adrenalize. Steve Clark passing really messed up the band's musical balance.

 

I don't think this was an influential album, but it was a very successful formula that fused elements of hard rock with the accessibility of pop and/or contemporary rock in the late-1980's. Def Leppard had the name and image to go with metal/hair metal/hard rock, but this album sounds more like a pop rock album from the late-1980's. It had great hooks, good arrangements, and was well-produced, but I don't think it is transcendent.

 

To me, it's a period album, very much of its time, an apex of the studio-bound band. The record was like an ELP album in that no one in a garage band would ever be it to play it--only they could really play that material live, and I saw the tour in the round with Tesla in Spring of 1988 and that's what I remember about it, the live show. It was fantastic. But I think their influence was limited by the quest for studio perfection--it definitely defined them and set them apart, but maybe too much.

 

Very cool interview with Phil Collen, detailing the struggles on learning how to play "Love Bites" live after it goes to number 1, starting around 9:35:

 

I never said it was a METAL album!

 

I've been following the band for 25 years and they almost always talk about Pyromania AND Hysteria. Very rarely they single out Hysteria. The 25 million copies is a marketing tool and impossible. A couple of years ago they spoke about 20 million copies. You think in this day and age they could have sold 5M copies of Hysteria on physical media in the last couple of years? In North America both sold enormous amounts. Hysteria outsold Pyromania easily in Europe but they are not huge numbers.

Hysteria 12M Pyromania 10M since they almost always talk about their popularity in the US as the most important and relevant that's the big number.