How much musical merit in hair metal?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mtvgeneration, Apr 7, 2021.

  1. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Sebastian Bach was in that band...but not when they made that video.
     
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  2. lonelysea

    lonelysea Ban Leaf Blowers

    Location:
    The Cascades
    Yes, and so was Vixen drummer Roxy Petrucci (when they made that video).
     
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  3. Black Cat Surfboards

    Black Cat Surfboards Forum Resident

    Location:
    Delaware, USA
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Here's a picture of Madame x-era Bach, along with Zakk Wylde and photographer Mark Weiss. Taken at Weiss's wedding.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. mtvgeneration

    mtvgeneration Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    CA
    I retract the statement of Alias as hair metal. It was AOR years after that had peaked. Maybe the record label tried to promote it as hair metal for the first single/music video.

    As someone else said, Kix started early. I wouldn't call it hair metal, except for the anti-suicide song trend it jumped on for "Don't Close Your Eyes," which I think is a good tune. People might have seen it as hair metal because allegedly Brett Michaels got his look from Kix's singer.

    Babylon AD, which I liked the little heard of, to me was light metal, no glam background.

    I have the Enuzz Z'Nuff debut album. Its two singles were deservedly played on MTV. I'd call it more a throwback to 70's glam than hair metal, but that's splitting hairs.

    Bang Tango was sort of bluesy metal, maybe a little like Black Sabbath. I don't think of that as hair metal.

    Bulletboys was hair metal, but with extra bass, its saving grace.

    Faster Pussycat was hair metal with a talent for melody. Underrated now.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2021
  6. mtvgeneration

    mtvgeneration Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    CA
    "L.A. Guns is one of the more underrated hair bands. They did well and had a couple of platinum albums, but never reached the commercial heights of groups like Poison, Warrant, or Mötley Crüe."

    Even though I've seen that band live in a way almost nobody has, I forgot L.A. Guns. Looks like everyone here has. Tracii was/is a good guitarist, the singer Phil Lewis's voice I like a lot, and the songs often were melodic.

    Question: the more I check credits and read responses, the more I think harmonies were more important to and common in hair metal than in most other forms of rock music - is that true?
     
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  7. mtvgeneration

    mtvgeneration Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    CA
    [Vixen post before this vanished.] Because you're a Richard Marx fan? He wrote the first single. I like the lyrics of the first, snappy 4 singles (the only ones I really know) and the women played their instruments with gusto and sang well. That was the best female hair metal band.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
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  8. they lived up to their name
     
  9. 80steen

    80steen John McClane

    Location:
    West Virginia
    Plenty of talent during that period. Many of the singers were darn good vocalist and some great songwriting and musicianship.
     
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  10. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I prefer to call the genre "pop metal" since it's a better describer (I've seen death metal bands with bigger hair), and actually, you could argue that that sound started in the 70s, 1973 to be specific. I'm thinking of the first Kiss album here (as well as pretty much all their material to be perfectly honest), and later on in the decade, Boston definitely fit as well (if they had come out in 1986 instead of 1976, they would be lumped in with Bon Jovi and Poison).
     
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  11. Hanglow

    Hanglow Forum Resident

    Location:
    Saratoga New York
    ...humph.....I know right?...we were proud of our hair metal bands.
     
  12. MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt

    MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt Just spinning on my axis

    Location:
    London
    Yep, good point about the Les Paul and also Slash brought his Aerosmith influence into the band which was also a far cry from hair metal. Ultimately it was Slash and Axl's love of blues meeting Duff's penchant for punk that helped to create their distinct sleazy and heavy sound (that heaviness also setting them apart from hair metal) that oddly was never really replicated by copy cat bands. They never sparked a 'movement'. They were an anomaly. I'll concede they did form at a time when there would have been an overlap with their sound and hair metal - they were good friends with Motley Crue. One or two of their earliest songs flirt with hair metal but never actually go all the way.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
  13. Jimmy Agates

    Jimmy Agates CRAZY DOCTOR

    A heap more merit than many bands held in high esteem on this forum.
     
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  14. Jimmy Agates

    Jimmy Agates CRAZY DOCTOR

    If Guns N Roses weren't hair metal then neither were Junyard, Salty Dog, Cinderella, Faster Pussycat etc etc etc
     
  15. Warand Pain

    Warand Pain Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    I dont know, but even the mighty SLAYER covered Mötley Crue,



    My Slayer demo bootleg CD says this would be EVIL (pre-Slayer) 1982 demo with song "Blackout" (Scorpions?), maybe 2 versions exist.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
  16. blueslover99

    blueslover99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poconos
    Like most genres, there is good and bad, but mostly mediocre. I find that the bands I enjoy from this time are usually 70s acts that used some of the visuals and production popular at the time.
     
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  17. MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt

    MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt Just spinning on my axis

    Location:
    London
    I don't know about those other bands but Faster Pussycat was never hair metal. In fact they were closely linked with GNR, they were all friends, supported GNR at one time early on and if I remember correctly, Duff may have filled in for drums one night for Pussycats.
     
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  18. Jimmy Agates

    Jimmy Agates CRAZY DOCTOR

    Not hair metal hahaha....[​IMG]
     
  19. MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt

    MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt Just spinning on my axis

    Location:
    London
    How about their sound?
     
  20. Warand Pain

    Warand Pain Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    I agree. Mötley Crue, Ratt was real heavy metal bands with their early albums. Just like Twisted Sister from New York area. That hair and glam was just an image.
    Their early (Mötley, Ratt, before year 1986) music was too primitive and hard for the MTV crowd, which was more "hair metal/AOR" stuff 1986->>> with bands like
    Hanoi Rocks, GNR, Poison etc (they werent metal). Cinderella is another question mark, metal or not, their first two albums are great. Twisted Sister is maybe one of the earliest US- GLAM image band with HEAVIER songs.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
  21. Jimmy Agates

    Jimmy Agates CRAZY DOCTOR

    Loud guitars, sleazy high pitched vocals, songs about sex drugs and rock n roll.....screams hair metal to me. Funnily enough when i bought their album i saw no difference than any other band i was buying at the time - everyone I knew threw them in with all the other bands like Cinderella, Dokken, Ratt, Poison etc.... You can't just retrospectively pick out a band yopu like and claim they weren't part of the scene.
     
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  22. JackOfAllTrades

    JackOfAllTrades It's only my opinion

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    I had a ticket for Guns and Roses and Faster Pussycat for Bristol Colston Hall in 1987. Despite being a huge rock fan at the time Guns and Roses hadn't hit home with me yet and I didn't go... because I couldn't be bothered.
    Not one of my finest moves.
     
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  23. MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt

    MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt Just spinning on my axis

    Location:
    London
    No retrospective about it. And I was there too, and we didn't throw them in with those other bands. They were distinctly different to the hair metal bands of the time both in their sound, the way they structured their songs, the way they were distinctly bass driven, the subject matter and the way they presented it, the way they presented themselves (I already mentioned earlier in thread that they briefly dressed in the new wave style then ditched that). They didn't have a carefully crafted look and they didn't 'pretend' they were crazy. They actually were. That's was the other appeal: they were the real deal, theirs wasn't a stage act. Also Slash's guitar tone was distinct from those other bands, as was Duff's bass tone. Nobody sounded like Axl.

    The thing to understand about GNR and where do they fit in this scene is that they didn't. They didn't fit in with any scene - that was the point of them. They didn't sound like anyone else at the time and that's why they stood out. They had their own distinct sound. I stated earlier they were an anomaly which is why nobody ever copied them, they didn't spark a genre movement or anything like that. They just came and went in a flash. The best they could be categorised is hard rock.
     
  24. antonkk

    antonkk Senior Member

    Location:
    moscow
    Hair metal had lots of different sounds and styles. It was not only LA rock'n'roll kind of bands and heavy metal bands with glam image and party songs like Twisted Sister and Scorpions, there were lots of synth heavy post-AOR pop-metal bands like Europe. And it was all pure hair metal. Then everybody went rootsy and bluesy. It was still hair metal.
     
  25. MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt

    MaybeI'mMrsVandebilt Just spinning on my axis

    Location:
    London
    Oh wow...what a missed opportunity! I would have given a limb to be at that concert! :laugh: They found their feet in the UK though...they were well received here and that's what got their ball rolling in the end.
     
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