lol just cause a band had long hair didn't make them 'hair metal'. There was a lot more to it than that. Their approach to music was too heavy to simply lump them in with the more poppier "hey look at us, we're on MTV" hard rock bands of the era. No one is going to confuse Red Hot with Every Rose has its Thorn.
We could define “merit” but let’s not. I’d just say this: if you are able to write and perform a bunch of albums that many many people pay money for, you are talented.
No way, they were long established superstars way before there was anything called 'hair metal'. I mean if they had started in 1987 and their first album was Hysteria I might then agree with you.
Just because nobody called it “hair metal” yet doesn’t make it not hair metal. And it’s not as if Hysteria isn’t an album they released...
Long Cold Winter is a great album. Yeah, it's got the required ballad and rocker, but the remainder sounds like they were enjoying some Dominoes, Little Feat and a touch of Steely at the time...fixing to be what they wanted instead of what was dictated.
To me if you started earlier than like 1986 you can't be considered hair metal. It's like those bands almost designed themselves for MTV and purposely followed the trend that Poison started. I would say they went where the trend was for awhile, but a true hair metal band?---no. They had too much other prior history to have that label put on them. Agreed High N Dry is a classic, certainly their best work and in no way in 1981 was anyone referring to them as "hair metal', that's for sure.
Many of those bands released albums that sounded too slick and packaged, but when you saw them live they could really rock. Warrant comes to mind....they're often a punchline but I saw them live 3 times and they could bring it. Hair metal was about sex and drugs and fun. At it's best it was glam mixed with punk and metal. At it's worst it was sappy pop music with guitar distortion. I think it is generally underrated.
But let's have only true diehard fans of heavy metal and hard rock vote. Someone who seen them a couple of times on MTV in 1990 isn't really going to know much about their history enough to make any kind of informed assessment.
How much musical merit in hair metal? However much the listener thinks there it. For me, that's not much. Ratt/Poison/Cinderella/Warrant/Extreme/Bon Jovi.... all straight to the bin for me.
The genre had a lot of great music. Unfortunately most of it is tarnished by cringe-worthy lyrics and antics judged by today’s standards. Fair or not.
Nobody really heard of them until they started popping up on MTV around that time period. To me they are the originators of hair metal.
Gerrymandering for a poll? And anyone who watched MTV during its peak from early 80s to early 90s would have seen MC hundreds of times and absolutely should be allowed to vote.
You're focusing on their look too much and not considering their music. This was not a band that wrote 3 minute cutey pie songs for the MTV high school crowd.
Ratt/Poison/Cinderella/Warrant/Extreme/Bon Jovi. Ratt, Extreme, Bon Jovi NOT hair metal. Pretty generous just to put Bon Jovi in ANY 'heavy metal' catagory to begin with lol.
