Hair metal/pop metal

I was reading MetalMisfits album/collection review log and I was surprised how many pop/hair metal bands I actually liked and comparing how many of this bands recordings I own.

I think as a genre I felt it was and still is being bashed and unfairly maglined by both critics and even metal fans.

I felt for example Cinderella where a better band then given credit for, a they had a huge Stones/Aerosmith influence and wrote some great songs.

Quiet Riot and Britny Fox where just updating what Slade and The Sweet and other critics darlings where doing with giving it their own spin.

Skid Row where a great band who wrote great catchy songs with an incredible vocalist.

and there where others, not saying this is my favorite genre but I am also not ashamed to say enjoyed these and many other bands from that era. At the same time while I am a fan I felt toward the end the genre was becoming a parody of itself but I cannot deny alot of great bands came out of that era and genre.

Anyone else feel this way or am I feeling a false sense of nostalgia?

manny wrote:

I was reading MetalMisfits album/collection review log and I was surprised how many pop/hair metal bands I actually liked and comparing how many of this bands recordings I own.

I think as a genre I felt it was and still is being bashed and unfairly maglined by both critics and even metal fans.

I felt for example Cinderella where a better band then given credit for, a they had a huge Stones/Aerosmith influence and wrote some great songs.

Quiet Riot and Britny Fox where just updating what Slade and The Sweet and other critics darlings where doing with giving it their own spin.

Skid Row where a great band who wrote great catchy songs with an incredible vocalist.

and there where others, not saying this is my favorite genre but I am also not ashamed to say enjoyed these and many other bands from that era. At the same time while I am a fan I felt toward the end the genre was becoming a parody of itself but I cannot deny alot of great bands came out of that era and genre.

Anyone else feel this way or am I feeling a false sense of nostalgia?

Nope, not at all!!! I feel the same way!!! Many of the hair bands where unfairly trashed for their look and put out some GREAT music!

I sometimes think it is just the nostalgia that causes me to love these bands. But then I'll come across an album I've never heard (Big House, Juliet, and Mass being recent examples) and with no memories attached will find myself unable to stop playing it. I love finding those hidden gems from this genre.

I'll never understand the hate either. Maybe you had to live through that era to truly appreciate it. One thing I have always felt is that at some point it will somehow become popular again. And not just as a joke.

I dunno. I think it's more of a nostalgia thing for me. I became aware of all this hair/glam/pop metal right in the thick of it in 1987, so I'm always gonna have fond memories.

But as I've mentioned before, much of that stuff didin't age well for me. Part of it is just the cheese factor and part of it is my change in lifestyle and attitude. The "sex, drugs and party all night" themes of the glam era don't sit well with this old curmudgeon.

The few bands that I still hold onto from that era are more of a trip back to a simpler time for me.

Then again, maybe I still hold onto them because of the good songwriting? Perhaps Manny has a point.

There I go, talking outta my asshat again.

Nostalgia factor for me would be bands like Poison and Faster Pu$$ycat who I did not care for when they were first around but alot of the girls I was hanging with or hoping to hang with loved, now when I listen to those bands it is more about the memories.

Other bands like Cinderella, even the silly ass Motley Crue I actually like their songs and feel they wrote some good songs, but like MG stated, I can no longer relate to the lyrics, which is a good thing nothing sadder than seeing a 40year old guy trying to pretend he is still 20

I still dig a lotta my old hair metal albums. Love me some Cinderella, Kix, early Ratt, Great White, Whitesnake, the first couple of Crue records, etc.

As the 80s progressed and my tastes moved towards heavier fare I lost interest in a lot of those bands but I still dig listening to their old stuff.

Anyone have any opinions why this genre was and is still held in low regards by critics?

Please no easy answers such as blaming Nirvana ( which I do not hold responsible for the lack of respect the genre gets)

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Anyone have any opinions why this genre was and is still held in low regards by critics?

Image. How can anyone take a band that looks like this seriously?





....and Britny Fox were great. It just became too overblown, just like the tough guy act popularized by Pantera did in the 90's. Of course, your opinion may differ.

I think it's the look.

Take away the poofy, teased, dyed hair, the eyeliner, the spandex and just listen to the music and there's some quality songwriting there. I just think many critics and metalheads can't get passed the look.

I've always dug hair metal and it's what led me to my favorite genre of glam/sleaze metal.

Yea, the look played a big part of it. Sure. Also some of the antics in the videos and on stage didn't help.

Anyone else get douche chills when they see Rudy Sarzo licking his guitar in a Whitesnake video? Or even our beloved Dio walking around brandishing a sword bigger than him to slay a mechanical dragon? What might have worked then just looks ridiculous now.

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What might have worked then just looks ridiculous now.

Can someone write Bret Michaels a letter explaining this fact?

I think that bandana is cutting off circulation to his brain.

It also always surprises me how many bands I think got unfairly tagged with this label probably based simply on the look.

Cinderella is a prime example. I think only Night Songs might fall into the hair metal category. After that the band started adding elements like dobro and mouth harp; things a true hair metal band would never do.

Saigon Kick is another example. There's nothing remotely hair metal about them but because "Love Is On The Way" is tagged as a "power ballad", the casual music fan usually classifies the band as hair metal.

There were some gems in this genre for me but most of it was really too sugary and pop-hooks oriented to suit my tastes. I loved the harder, more menacing acts like Dangerous Toys, the first two Crue records, Quiet Riot. Never considered Skid Row to be a glam/hair band - they are a classic metal band to me. Hell - "Slave To The Grind" sometimes rivals "Painkiller" in riffing and speed.

I've always liked the Hair/Glam metal since back in the 80's.I grew up on the stuff that Motley Crue,Cinderella,Kix etc were doing.I still love to find new sleaze bands.Its probably my second fave genre of metal.I dig the stuff that Spread Eagle,Smashed Gladys,Tora Tora were doing and still do to this day.

I think it was the look more then anything else and also the genre became overran with alot of also rans like Trixter and other bands of similar quality or lack of quality.

I have to also agree with toho Saigon Kick and Tesla are two examples of bands labeled hair metal that did not have any place being lumped in with alot of those type of bands

Saigon Kick was an amazing band. I don't see ANYTHING pop metal/hair about them. Nada.

WELL.

There are certain elements I like a lot that this style often incorporates, but I tend to not like many bands or albums as a whole. When it gets a bit less juvenile and has some more interesting stuff going on, I can get into it (AdultOrientedRock, the more stuffy uncle of glam/sleaze). I recognize this is an authentic and traditional form of hard roots rock 'n roll, so nothing about the associated image ever had anything to do with my dislike...90% of bands in the 80's had hair spray. Look at Running Wild circa Death or Glory, and that's as Teutonic Speed Metal as it gets. I just need more meat on my sandwich,...and no it's not 'fun' to me, I listen to plenty of other bands I consider a ton of 'fun' who entertain me better musically and don't revolve around 'sex/drugs/rock 'n roll'. My person just does not relate with most of the stuff that comes out of this scene....I typically end up liking a song from the album but then most of the rest of the thing I'll never come back to, or it will make me cringe listening to it. Uncle Tom's Cabin syndrome?

All that being said, I'll listen to any band listed in this thread (that are authentically hair metal) over the grandfathers: Roth-era VH. God I hate that man's voice.

I think a lot of the hate also comes from the overexposure of power ballads on the radio and MTV - a lot of people's exposure to these bands was solely through these songs that often had a cookie cutter vibe about them.

I think part of it is the over saturation of the American market and then the resulting backlash. Happens to almost every band or style to make it big with a few exceptions. This doesn't seem to happen as much in other countries, say a Japan where hair bands went if they wanted to survive the 90's. And the look got so ridiculous that at some point people went, screw it, i'm wearing flannel.

I can't really have any nostalgic attraction to it, being a 90's kid, but I've always dug some good pop metal. It just seems like a natural progression from bands like Aerosmith or Queen, and I even like the look (not in all cases though. Britny Fox just looks creepy).

The only thing I don't really like about hair/pop metal is that it really doesn't offer much room for artistic diversity, so most of the bands seemed to end up looking sounding extremely similar.

Great White, Motley Crue, RATT, and Tesla are some of my favorites.

Dokken and Stryper are favorites. i also love Skid Row.

manny wrote:

with toho Saigon Kick and Tesla are two examples of bands labeled hair metal that did not have any place being lumped in with alot of those type of bands

Kinda like how Def Leppard got lumped in w/ NWOBHM, huh?

I dont like to call all thos bands HAIR METAL or POP METAL. I call them HARD ROCK, or GLAM METAL, SLEAZY METAL, SLEAZY ROCK etc...And yes, i like many of those bands, many. CRYSTAL ROXX were very good for exemple, and underrated.

S wrote:

manny wrote:

with toho Saigon Kick and Tesla are two examples of bands labeled hair metal that did not have any place being lumped in with alot of those type of bands

Kinda like how Def Leppard got lumped in w/ NWOBHM, huh?

Yes just like that but Def Leppard live where they were pretty heavy (for the time period) and had a huge fan following among classic metal fans of Priest, Deep Purple etc but their roots where more in line with T. Rex, Mott the Hopple as opposed to Black Sabbath etc.