Where were you, when the Glam Plague came?

This is a question I'd like to ask the older head bangers around here, because I'm genuinely intrested about your reactions.

Back in the early 80s, when the whole glam metal thing started happening, what were your feelings about it? Interest? Anger? Indiference-turning-to-slow-horror as it slowly overtook the metal scene like kudzu choking the life out of your front yard?

From what I've seen, the scene wasn't exactly targeted with much derision until it became popular. Alot of the early Glam bands like Dokken, Ratt, Twisted Sister and Crue all seemed to have quality musicians and great (and genuinely HEAVY) riffs. But around the mid-80s the industry became glutted with a bunch of talentless hacks who couldn't play chopsticks on a piano because the record companies were desperate to find the next Crue (sorta what happened to the whole rap rock thing around the turn of the millenium).

Just to point out, the glam thing was kinda my introduction into the metal scene until I matured into the much heavier stuff, so I still have a bit of a soft spot for those early glam metal bands.

Like all genres that break big there were good ones and bad ones, even from the beginning. You know, even for all the copycatting that went on, many had excellent guitar players and could catch a riff.

I was 14 in 1983 - I was a total punk into the Flag, Circle Jerks, DOA, Minor Threat, etc. As soon as I saw all the pretty boyz getting laid, I puffed my hair up. Yeah, I still had my Jump in the Fire back patch, but that did not seem to matter. It only encouraged the fluff, for whatever reason. If I wanted to get girls, I went to the Dokken shows. If I did not care, I went to see the Urban Guerrillas, Ottos Chemical Lounge, Husker, whatever. Worked in my scene anyways.

I was home watching A TEAM and BACK TO THE FUTURE movie . I started back in the late 80s listening to metal and hard rock and one of the first albums i bought was POISON debut album. I thought they were girls first. Anyway, i loved and still like all those bands like RATT, TIGERTAILZ, WRATHCHILD UK, LONDON, DIAMOND REXX, first ROXX GANG, and a long etc...but when i was listening to glam i was also playing death metal, and thrash, back in 1991 and 1992 for exemple. Still today i do the same, i listen to anything i like between hard rock&heavy rock and black&death metal but it need to be pure, with tradicional influences, not bands with modern sounds, or black with melodic parts that takes the purity out of the genre.

it was never a major interest for me, but i never discounted it at all. i ended up liking many bands too, thanks to the lovely ladies i courted at the time. i guess most of what caught my attention was sleaze, not glam/hair stuff though.

Dont forget that when glam metal became big in the mid 80s many new US METAL bands came out too releasing great albums, but they never became popular like those glam bands did. I think about OMEN, VICIOUS RUMORS, LEATHERWOLF, FIFTH ANGEL, RACER X, ROTTWEILER, WARCRY, WARNING *from San Francisco* , LIEGE LORD, GRIFFIN etc...

I love glam/sleaze, both old and new.

I especially dig the new wave of bands coming from Scandanavia. Hardcore Superstar, Babylon Bombs, Backyard Babies, Gemini Five, Wig Wam...there's a ton of 'em.

I was a kid, but I do remember Europe's Final Countdown and Twister Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It being my favourite songs for awhile. Coolest two songs for a first grader.

I still love a lot of glam. Dokken, Skid Row, Cinderella are probably my top three.

To actually answer the question, I was living in Jackson, TN when hair bands started breaking big. I remember when Headbanger's Ball started mixing in Poison, Dokken, etc with Savatage and Maiden.

I was probably a freshman in high school when it started getting really popular (circa '85, '86.) I liked some of it, didn't like some of it. I never cared for Poison much, but Dokken is still one of my favorite bands to this day, and I always liked Stryper, Twisted Sister (though I feel they're somewhat undeserving of the "hair band" tag), Cinderella, White Lion, etc.

I started getting really sick of it two or three years later when all the labels were signing second and third stringers like Kik Tracee, Roxy Blue, Trixter, Danger Danger, etc. though.

I started out late... 1988 was when i started listening to Winger and Ratt. I was just intrigued by the guitar, not the image.

I've always liked alot of the so called Hair and Glam bands.Sleaze is my favorite of the genre and still dig it to this day.I never really paid much attention to the image,I just liked alot of the Hooks and whatnot.

I was 13 in 1983 when Quiet Riot hit it big which lead me to alot of the so called hair metal bands of that era such as the usual suspects Ratt, Motley Crue, Dokken, etc, I liked all of them and even liked them when I started getting into the heavier stuff, but I got sick of the genre when like Freddy said bands such Kik Tracee and Trixter started appearing on the scene, and the whole scene turned into a parody of itself.

The first single had to be a rocker, the second single had to be ballad, you had the have the big budget video etc

High School - great times to be a fan of Metal!!!!!!! As FF and Manny mentioned, by the time the "D" list bands started to get signed I got sick of the genre

I was in the thick of it my freshman year of high school ('85) so I pretty much embraced it full-on. Philadelphia was a hot spot for hair/glam bands at the time with both Cinderella and Britney Fox both hitting the big time, so it was hard to not be into it. You always root for your hometown boys.

All the people I hung with were full on into the hair bands, so I just went along with 'em. The only heavy stuff I listened to was 3 of the Big 4. Even Slayer was too intense for us at the time. College expanded my horizons to a much broader scope of music. Then the internet came along and opened my eyes even wider.

So in summary, I never looked at the glam era as a plauge on the music scene. I did feel that way with grunge and alternative though. I've since gotten over that phobia as well.

I was playing clubs in Hollywood as an under-aged drummer in a band called Lethal Dose
from 79' till right after I turned 18 in 83'

There was other stuff going on besides what dokken and the crue were doing that same year. examples, armored saint, slayer, aftershock, and others I can't recall the band names though I know they went on to be in more established bands as the decade progressed. I am sure Glenn could help me out with this.

Like Sax stated, it wasn't my cup-o-tea. Yet, the females were saturated wall to wall at the clubs. I auditioned for some bands that at the time were not too much into the "chick" look but planned to make that move after the audition process. I walked away, being brought up in a harley in the living room and v twin in the tub proper biker household. I couldn't get myself to do it, no matter how bad I wanted to play. Lots of great players got ignored or pushed aside. Promotion and marketing outshined talent eventually and the scene was mere chaos and bands got ripped off by promoters and club owners alike. Pay to play ruined it all. So I hooked back up with Lethal Dose and we did alot of the regional club circuits around the country. We were too loaded and worrying about getting laid to put the proper effort into writing enough good material to make it. Then of course, it got hard to get a gig anywhere unless you looked like a chick.

Quote :

I think about OMEN, VICIOUS RUMORS, LEATHERWOLF, FIFTH ANGEL, RACER X, ROTTWEILER, WARCRY, WARNING *from San Francisco* , LIEGE LORD, GRIFFIN etc...

I always wonder what would've happened if radio had latched onto this sound? I love these bands.

I was DNA and chromosomes in '83. My soul was in the process of re spawning after a mighty battle against the Visigoths.

In high school. Never really was a fan, but there was a few songs that I guess were okay.

I liked some of it and disliked other bands. I remember thinking Ratt and Cinderella had some cool songs. I liked Dokken and Motley Crue's early stuff was cool. The only time the glam thing irritated me was when I would deal with people that assumed it covered the entirety of metal - "Oh, heavy metal? Nah, I can't stand that crap. All those poofy-haired guys that wear makeup and look like chicks..."

tohostudios wrote:

I love glam/sleaze, both old and new.

I especially dig the new wave of bands coming from Scandanavia. Hardcore Superstar, Babylon Bombs, Backyard Babies, Gemini Five, Wig Wam...there's a ton of 'em.

and I am a disciple of Toho

I was a little sperm swimming around in my dads scrote sack at the time.

1983 for me as well (though I lumped it together as Pop Metal). The first batch of groups were pretty cool, just extensions of the Van Halen thing (Ratt, Crue, Dokken)...the more batches that came out the worse they became. manny summed it up best, the whole scene became a huge parody of itself.

By the time early 84 rolled around I was heading in a different direction though. I was just discovering the NWOBHM stuff...and the thrash scene just exploded at the time. That music made all these pop metal acts seem pretty silly by comparison, so I mostly ignored it.

However, I went to many glam shows for the sake of 'tang.

'83-'84 MTV was probably my introduction. By the late eighties I was a secret fan who hid my love of it. I have always loved the second and third tier bands that never made it far. A ton of hidden gems from that era.

I really need look into the current crop of glam/sleaze bands. I'm probably missing out on some great stuff.

I remember being at church camp as a naive 14-year old and hearing one of the older kids drive in with Stryper's Yellow and Black Attack blasting from the open windows of his VW Beetle ( one of the old ones ) and I ran over and said " What is that? " He showed me the tape case and my mind was blown. From there I got into Ratt and Dokken and all the others previously named in this thread. I still like some of it, but the songwriting doesn't hold up for some of those bands.