Absolutely. As somebody who mocked this entire scene mercilessly at the time it was popular, I have had to eat a serious plate of crow when I realized how good of a band Extreme was. Their music is varied, complex, and very tuneful. And “More Than Words” has a very high amount of musical sophistication to it melodically and harmonically. Lyrics are cheesy, granted, but there is nothing at all generic about the dynamic arrangement and those harmonies.
I'm aware of Slash's heritage and I didn't mean he was emulating anyone. I just said his hair was big. You can't deny that. And most people associate Guns & Roses with hair metal anyway, so who cares? Hey if GnR are hair metal, that probably makes them the best of the bunch, so there you go. Hair-itage. Ha.
I didn't really like the genre back in the day. More of a KROQ guy back then. I have come to love the stuff. "Hair Nation" on SiriusXM is to blame. There are/were a group of seriously badas$ guitarists in most of those groups. Most of the singers...could sing! Anyone who discounts this type of music is missing out.
If many of the bands named in this thread are so-called Hair Metal (ie RATT, Dokken) than GnR certainly are.
Then that would suggest a re-evaluation of those other bands not GNR. I'm not familiar enough with Dokken and RATT's sound to know where to place them. From the limited number of RATT songs I know, they struck me as straight up rock. Faster Pussycat are another band I wouldn't place in hair metal. GNR are blues based with some punk, and later incorporated elements of country, and in my opinion, blues does form part or any of the hair metal sound.
i'd say you are pretty right but after 1985 they started getting more and more commercial pop metal sounding
I thought my recent guessing game video was going to gain more traction, maybe some of you will be interested. Here is the link to the thread and the video. Guess 21 Glam Metal/Hard Rock Songs By Hearing Their Guitar Riffs
For sure. If you like rock music, the hair metal scene was a cornucopia of high quality music. Those who dismiss it because of the image are missing out. As I mentioned up-thread, it's a pretty broad church musically, at least in my opinion. Plenty for even the most jaded fan to get their teeth into.
They reached a wider audience than many hair meatal bands, at least here in the UK but I think they fit the remit well enough.
I dunno. Bands like Cinderella, Great White & Tesla, who are often included in round-ups of hair metal bands, have much more blues in their sound than Guns & Roses, I reckon.
So perhaps those bands shouldn't be included in the hair metal genre? I'm not familiar enough with them to know, but I just don't think blues has any place in hair metal, but that's my opinion. I don't know if there's an official definition of hair metal.
Maybe we have different ideas of pop metal. I'm not hearing pop metal in GNR for anything. They certainly did get very commercial after AFD with their ballads and their outrageously expensive music videos. But that was kinda everyone's thing by that stage. We can thank Duran Duran for that! lol. Otherwise, AFD and UYI were not pop metal sounding in any way - ballads aside. Even their album of covers was mostly punk or straight up rock. Can you name a couple of songs of theirs you think were pop metal, maybe then I'd have an idea of what you mean?
Cinderella was probably the most talented of the hair bands, especially since Tom Keifer not only sang and wrote the songs, but he was a pretty decent lead guitar player too.
Honestly, I think the label is a lazy attempt to link a bunch of bands that really don't sound much like each other, based on their image. Most genres are tenuous and this one particularly so. However, for me, it's a handy enough way of talking about sartorially dubious rock bands - mostly but not exclusively - from the US who were popular between the mid-Eighties to the early Nineties. I love some of them, others, like GnR, I cherry pick what I regard as the good stuff, and there are a few - Bulletboys, the aforementioned Great White, Skid Row etc - that I haven't connected with. Call them hair metal or call them something else. It doesn't really matter. One man's spade is another's bloody shovel.
I agree. I think it's a bad term that's for sure. When you think about it, it's just a derogatory name that places the emphasis on their hair and not their music. I'd like to see a different label...someone said glam rock. It doesn't bother me in the least what they wore. That was the general fashion for everyone back then anyway, just those guys hammed it up a bit more because they were musicians and creative types who always tend to exaggerate the fashion of the day. But even ordinary guys had long hair and mullets and wore oversized yellow checked jumpers. lol. Many of the bands had good musos...some good guitarists and singers.
Good points. I think the biggest negative with the "hair metal" term is that it gives naysayers an easy way to dismiss a vast swathe of really quite interesting bands without the need to listen to them. It's indolent but, I suppose, understandable. If I'm honest I use the term "grunge" in a similar way. I'm not keen on a few of the big names so I don't even bother to listen to others tarred with the same brush.
Probably not a coincidence that this just popped up in my YouTube recs. Google is always watching. Top 5 Mislabeled "Hair" Bands
Never knew Guns N' Roses covered Ain't it Fun. The original version from 1975 is by Rockets From The Tombs, an obscure proto-punk band from Cleveland, that contained future Pere Ubu and Dead Boys members. I prefer the crude tensity of the original Ain't It Fun over GNR's version, but still very cool that they covered it! Agreed that Guns N'Roses were not really hair metal. Although they emerged from the same LA Sunset Strip scene, their music on Appetite For Destruction was way too ragged and mean for hair/glam metal. I always consider Guns N' Roses the transitional band between hair metal and grunge. Most hair metal fans were also listening to Guns N' Roses, while a few years later many kids who got into grunge also could dig a few GNR tunes.
Wow, the original is awesome. I never bothered to check it out before, so thanks for posting. Just a totally different vibe, still raw but in an almost poetic Dylan-esque way if that makes any sense. GnR's is more mad and menacing as per Axl. I love both. Got a new band to check out now! And yes, I've always regarded GnR as paving the way for grunge. They were an anomaly of a band, not really fitting in with any scene; they were truly on their own and came and went in a brief blaze of glory so to speak.
Thanks for sharing - good to know. The things you learn in the hair metal thread. lol. I like this one the least out of the three, though it's still good with decent guitar work, but I find the bass a little muted and muddy for my tastes.
