Van Halen - Hair Metal or not?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Uly Gynns, Jun 19, 2015.

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  1. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    No. They carved their own niche.
     
  2. Michael Schenker was a huge influence on hair metal. You don't get that 8th note riff style being so prominent in the music without him. In that sense, I think a lot of 80s hair metal guitarist grew up on UFO.
     
    broccolid likes this.
  3. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    They don't sound anything like hair metal, so no.
     
  4. I don't hear much Blackmore in Eddie at all. Some Jeff Beck and a lot of Eric Clapton's phrasing are in his playing.
     
  5. BluesOvertookMe

    BluesOvertookMe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    Wow, I don't have any problem hearing it - smacks me right in the face!
     
    Archtop likes this.
  6. readr

    readr Forum Resident

    No...too early, hair metal kinda launched around the time DLR was exiting, and they weren't hair metal with Sammy.
     
  7. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    I'm a big Blackmore fan; Eddie VH, not so much, but I've tons of respect for what he was able to develop and create. That said, the similarities between the two are divided into two very separate areas:
    1. Eddie's style, while not exclusively based on this technique, is largely based on hammer-ons, pull-offs and the tapping of the right hand. Part of that had to do with silly low action. Blackmore could do similar things in an earlier era because of his scalloped fingerboard. He could play an entire guitar solo with just his left hand because of his chops and that scalloped board.
    2. They both basically rocked, but Eddie was a careful, precise craftsman and Blackmore was an insane blacksmith with nimble fingers.
    So, they are very much the same, but very much different. So, I can see why one person would see the obvious similarity and another would not. There you go. :D
     
    BluesOvertookMe likes this.
  8. the sands

    the sands Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    No I don't think so but they were quite big commercially in the hair metal era and overlap and I have used the term on some of their 80s music. Not negatively, but on records I like myself, in search of a better word.
     
  9. Different tones. Immensely different rhythm players (Eddie - very fluid rhythm player with a real funky sensibility in his riffs; Blackmore - a more straight-ahead rhythm player who could be nimble, but usually on single note riffs). And their soloing styles aren't similar in the slightest. Not even a little. Choice of notes, scales typically used - all very different. Eddie was much more blues-based in his choice of notes.
     
  10. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    Well, I disagree for the reasons I've already posted. And Blackmore used mixolydian and pentatonic almost to a fault, so I can't agree there. But we can certainly agree that while I'm listening to the Grateful Dead as I type this, we can both go our separate ways and agree to disagree.

    I mean I hope we can.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2016
    BluesOvertookMe likes this.
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