Most of the hair metal bands are blues based to some extent. Go through the chord structures of a lot of hair metal songs and you will see what I mean. Other musical devices used as well.
They did eventually tone the look down for "Heartbreak Station." I saw them live once years ago, opening for Poison, and they did honestly put on a great show.
Not all alt rock was mopey. The Replacements, The Smiths and for sure They Might Be Giants all had humor in them to various degrees.
"Hair Metal" is a continuation of 60s feel good teenage pop music with heavier guitars, cocaine and wardrobe consultants on cocaine.
The good stuff is good, the bad stuff is bad, there's more bad stuff than good stuff, just like absolutely every other genre.
This all reminds me why I love music but dislike genre use. It creates issues, discretions and limitations upon artists where none need to exist. It's also why I dislike sorting or storing music by such fashion as well. Instead of trying to convince someone that I keep Alice Cooper under "Glam Rock", because it is separate from theatrical rock, which is separate from rock and roll, which is separate from Rock, which is separate from heavy metal, which is separate from hair rock, which is separate from Pop, it's far more important (and relevant) to simply say "Here is a group I keep among my most played artists. They recorded from 1969-1974. They were named Alice Cooper".
When you say "hair metal" people know generally what kind of band and from what time period you're talking about. So in that way it's useful as a shorthand description. Beyond that I don't think it really matters who was or who wasn't...etc.
And here's my hair metal hot take for Saturday: Faster Pussycat were the most underrated band of the era. Cathouse and Bathroom Wall live in '87 and no, if it comes right down to it I don't think they were actually 'hair metal' but they were in that zone....so whatever.
How about this. If you were regularly featured in Metal Edge, Hit Parader and Circus between '86 and '91...you might be hair metal.
I like pretty much everything from the initial run that L.A. Guns had through "Vicious Circle." "Hollywood Vampires" is one of my favorite albums of the genre.
I liked LA Guns at the time and still do, but for whatever reason didn't really appreciate Faster Pussycat until later. Now I think they did the Aerosmith/Hanoi-style sleaze rock better than just about anyone else who wasn't Guns N' Roses.
I like Cocked & Loaded a lot. That's another hair metal band where I think the strengths were a lead singer with a nice voice and an upper-tier guitarist. Also, the band had some Cheap Trick vocal arrangement assistance on that album.
I think they started in the 70's, but they took off with hair metal - and I like power ballads. I don't see how that detracts from musicianship.
I think with them I stopped at the first 2 albums. Saw them in '91 a couple times and wasn't that impressed with the new tunes. The first couple are classics to me!
Oh sure. I get where you're coming from, but you could say that about nearly everyone. I mean the whole rock/rock and roll has blues DNA, right? My original point was simply that Guns was much more overt with their blues influence than most other bands round that time coming off the Sunset Strip. It was just more explicit and that's thanks to Slash. There was no one else who had the likes of Slash in their band or his guitar tone. It was pretty unique. I would argue that same applies to Duff. He created his own bass sound and basslines that really stood out at the time (and that I love to this day). Didn't even realise I'd typed that. I know what I meant in my mind.
