Nope. I'm far more likely to pounce on the fact that GNR are yet again wrongly included in the hair metal category, and for the comment 'did make some good music'.
Yeah GNR def NOT a hair metal band. They had one great album, then UYI 1 and 2 very spotty, after that a big WHO CARES.
Sad, but true. However Spaghetti Incident features an unreal cover of Aint It Fun that is bloodcurdlingly intense. Axl sounds like he's stabbing someone. Also awesome cover of Human Being. Annoyingly, they were very good at covers.
Having some music that is not a certain kind of music doesn’t make a band not have other music that is a certain kind of music.
Agreed! The distinct personas of Slash (hard rock), Duff (punk) and Izzy Stradlin (classic rock / Stones) made for a great, diverse set of tunes on the Use Your Illusion albums. (These labels are just my perception).
oh come on... we all grow up with our musical tastes. "hair metal" always seemed like a "gateway" genre for tween boys to get into music. nothing more nothing less... the whole genre seemed like one giant cliche. How is anyone suppose to take that seriously?
it's not hypocrisy mate! we all change and so do our tastes. surely you aren't the same guy you were 15 years ago?
Late to the thread, sorry if it's been mentioned. But Hair Metal is a fashion style, not a musical genre. That's why a bluesy hard rock band like Whitesnake gets lumped in with a pop band like Poison - they both had the same fashion in the late 80s. There's nothing to say about Hair Metal's musical merits, because the term has nothing to do with music.
It was great "escape music". A lot of us were latchkey kids who had very antagonistic relationships with our parents who were, usually, very sefl-absorbed. I loved all the heavy stuff, but I also loved "melodic" metal. It touched a different nerve. When I was little I was obsessed with Elvis, so I could never abandon the love for singing or melody. So even though I loved banging my head, I had to also have something that I could actually SING along with. (Still obsessed with Elvis, by the way.)
Lots of criticism of Hair Metal. Not much as far as details what makes it bad, so it really is just people that don't like it that can't come up with something tangible as to why it is "bad". I am old and all I know is I get the same thrill out of playing Wanted Man by Ratt on guitar as I do out of playing War Pigs. Anyone who plays guitar knows the riffs are cut from the same cloth. YMMV.
The criticisms of Hair Metal on this thread have been so compelling and convincing, I have decided to never listen to any of it again. It is all Hindemith, VU and Television from now on for me. Man was I dumb. Plus I abandoned trying to learn the guitar parts from this song. YUK! And to think I just put a new battery in my Metal Zone pedal.
Don't really like the tag...but I get it.Some of the bands I still enjoy and there are some I had no use for.. My faves are Van Halen Motley Crue Poison Ratt Enuff Z Nuff LA Guns Hanoi Rocks Faster Pussycat BulletBoys
I remember discussing the Hair Metal bands with a guy in work that just liked hard metal like trash. He laughed when I told him I liked Faster Pussycat. I still listen to them but not as much as some of the other bands you mentioned.
At least early on, they weren’t really a metal band either. To me they had more in common with the boozy Faces meet AC/DC sound of English “sleaze” bands like the Quireboys or Dogs D’Amour than they did with most other glam metal acts. Or as I also like to put it, they were like the Georgia Satellites in mascara.
The intro is... That guitar tone...also listen out for Duff's bass in the intro. His bass gave this band its thunder, Thor style. lol. These two things also show why GNR was not hair metal. I'm assuming you mean this song about the lyrics (although both songs apply). 'Ain't if fun when you've broken up every band you've ever begun' is tragically apt. My favourite bit: 2:20 when he can't 'find his tongue'. Axl's brutal honesty, his conflicted introspection and self-loathing is also what set them apart from the likes of Poison and paved the way for Kurt Cobain.
I love when ever there is a metal thread that all the musical snobs come out. It can't POSSIBLY have the same merit as jazz or classical or any of my sacred cows from the 60's and 70's. It can't POSSIBLY have a band's catalog remastered by the boutique (MFSL, AF, etc) labels, because it's not worthy. It can't POSSIBLY be taken seriously. I know it's a thread asking about musical merit, but all the high horse snobs get together and gather in a circle around a cracker and argue amongst themselves who's going to eat it when they're done over metal threads. It's sad and comical at the same time.
I would have thought that latchkey gen x-ers in the mid-80's would have been more likely to find solace in The Cure, The Replacements, The Smiths and REM rather than Poison and Britney Foxx (sp?)
Nah. All the kids that dug that stuff were quiet, loner types. I was a boisterous party dude/class clown type. Always looking to have fun.
