I reckon that my ten favourite bands that are or have flirted with, hair metal would probably be: KISS. I really like their Eighties hair-metal phase. Asylum, Crazy Nights and Hot In The Shade are three my highlights from their entire catalogue. W.A.S.P.. They lost me a little during the "industrial" phase but most of their albums are excellent. Surprisingly thoughtful lyrics on occasion, too. White Lion. A small but remarkable catalogue. Barely a misplaced note across four albums. I haven't heard Mike Tramp's White Lion "comeback" record from 2008. Slave Raider. Only released three albums - I have two - but they should have been huge. Twisted Sister. A force of nature. I like all their records but - strangely enough - the less heralded Come Out & Play & Love Is For Suckers are the ones I return to most. Stryper. They've had tendency to metal it a bit too much, for my taste, on some of their later records, but the first four are epic slices of glam rock. Poison. Just high rolling good time rock & roll. Top fun. Cinderella. I 'm not much of a blues-rock fan - not keen on Great White or Areosmith, for example - but there's a rootsy intensity about Cinderella that really hits the spot. Dokken. The Dokken thread here led me to explore the band more than I've ever done before. Plenty of great songs to be had across their discography. Tigertailz. If Poison were Welsh....
Ha. I knew a lot of people that sounded like you in middle school in HS. The metal kids who got slightly below average grades but were still clearly smart. A lot of them seemed to be good at art and would draw metal band logos and stuff on their binders etc. The popular kids would call on them to help make posters for school events.
The interesting thing about that magazine is that even when pop metal was pretty much dead, they still covered those bands, up until Gerri Miller (R.I.P.) left in 1998, and even then it wasnt total abandonment, unlike certain other publications (*couch* Circus *cough).
Lots of daily papers were never turned in, but I always got a 90+ on tests. I was an honor student until the 8th grade. I just got so bored with it all. All I wanted to do was play guitar. I did like being in choir, though
Whitesnake may have started out as bluesy hard rock but by their 1987 self-titled record, they were a pop metal band. Maybe not as bouncy as Poison but they still had power ballads with synthesizers. If hair metal is just a fashion genre and not a musical one then Whitesnake is definitely hair metal, due to the way they looked. Years ago, my snotty elitist record store coworkers and I would relieve the boredom by having Whitesnake Poetry Corner where one of us would stand on a box and recite Whitesnake lyrics (because they thoughtfully included them in the CD booklet) like Shakespeare. Hours of fun. And yes, Guns & Roses may be unfairly lumped into hair metal but ... look at Slash's HAIR! Maybe it's not blowdried and coiffed like David Coverdale's but it's big.
It is a great song and they did. Man, the guitar parts from that song are not exactly a walk in the park either. They are played with a lot of skill and conviction. I will struggle with them again today.
Yeah, a lot of their stuff requires a lot of agility. It's aggressive yet nimble. Ya dig "Queen Of The Nile"? That one may be my favorite. Killer riff.
Wasn't the mid-80's for me, but most of those bands were around later and my isolated, not happy self picked for the fun most of the hair metal (Britny Fox specifically excluded) over generally mopey alt-rock. Seriousness in itself doesn't add any credibility when measuring ability to play instruments, nor is it relevant to technical singing ability (except maybe operatic voice, which seems inherently serious and skillful).
The only hair band I liked was Enuff Z'nuff, and they weren't metal but pop.. and good pop in a Beatlesque-Cheap Trick kind of way.
Would people call Frehley's Comet a hair metal band? I just thought of it because the keyboard player was good. I like that band regardless of how it's characterized. Also, anyone recognize the name Mick Brown? That's the drummer for Dokken in its heyday. I didn't know his name, but in racking my brain for hair metal with good drumming, Dokken stands out.
Good to hear that my assessment probably is correct. I never commented on Slaughter here, despite some mentions by others. That's a clearly hair metal band that I liked as soon as I heard "Up All Night" and was more vocals plus drums than any other hair metal band. I don't think its rhythm section was particularly good. Also, Mark Slaughter played guitar as a lead singer better than anyone else in full-fledged hair metal. Maybe that's why he didn't bother to bring in a great lead guitarist. It's not even clear who played the leads on the songs, and I don't think anyone here is interested in figuring that out.
Slaughter were a horror show spun out of the (fantastic) Vinnie Vincent Invasion. VVI That Time Of Year
i disagree with those points. one the drummer blas elias has been part of blue man group the last 10 years or so. you can't be a slouch and do that. two the original guitar player tim kelley was pretty good himself . he passed away almost 25 years ago now
Gotcha. I think I've been defining rhythm section wrongly, as just guitar(s) and bass. Like I said, the drummer stood out. Also, I know about the guitarist dying and the Vinnie Vincent origin. Sorry to Tim Kelley's memory, but I don't think he was more than okay by hair-metal guitarist standards. Also, except for a soundtrack contribution, I don't like what I've heard from Vinnie Vincent Invasion. That was more metal, and I don't like most styles of real metal. And I've heard too much about Vinnie himself
