What really happened to 80s metal

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There were a few hardcore "underground only" mo-fo's who deemed you a 'poser' if you listened to, say, Motley Crue or Twisted Sister instead of Metallica or Slayer

We had a coupla of those guys too, but they didn't hang with us much. As for the rest of us, sitting down by the train tracks on a Saturday night with a boom box, a bottle of Nighttrain and a case of Busch, it was whatever we wanted to hear as long as it had loud guitars and thunderous drums. We'd even let the ballads play if there was a chick or 2 with us.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

As a metalhead of the late 80's and early 90's, the group of people I hung with were pretty diverse in all the hard rock and metal of the day. We could just as easily listen to Dokken and Warrant, then switch to Megadeth and Anthrax without anyone batting an eye. Maiden, Priest and Ozzy mixed in with WASP, Suicidal Tendencies, Brittny Fox, Cinderella, or Metallica.

Noone seemed to care as long it wasn't Madonna or Milli Vanilli.

Same here. There were a few hardcore "underground only" mo-fo's who deemed you a 'poser' if you listened to, say, Motley Crue or Twisted Sister instead of Metallica or Slayer, or inferred that if you listened to the former you somehow "weren't allowed" to listen to the latter. None of that ever made sense to me, I listened to what I liked, cuz I liked it, and said screw the cliques/trends/genre splitters.

i knew some people like that. I never got the 'it must be heavier than anything else to be good' argument. I like all kinds of metal and they just kinda shut themselves off because it wasnt heavy.

I'd go and check out everything that was playing in the local scenes when we pulled into an area to gig. In the early/mid 80's, you'd see more of the same folks at various types of shows. By the late 80's, it was alot more segregated. In So. Calif circa 1982 for example, you'd see the same folks at Motley Crue and Dokken shows that you'd see at Armored Saint, Metallica and Slayer shows. A mere few years later, bands playing those heavier styles either moved farway or at least to south bay area and the valley. Leaving the strip to the pretty boy bands.

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I listened to what I liked, cuz I liked it, and said screw the cliques/trends/genre splitters.

I wish more people would follow this mindset now! Then maybe we wouldn't need to hear albums described as "post-black-metal goth-progressive-grind" or whatever meaningless combination can be assembled this week.

S.D. wrote:

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I listened to what I liked, cuz I liked it, and said screw the cliques/trends/genre splitters.

I wish more people would follow this mindset now! Then maybe we wouldn't need to hear albums described as "post-black-metal goth-progressive-grind" or whatever meaningless combination can be assembled this week.

S.D. wrote:

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I listened to what I liked, cuz I liked it, and said screw the cliques/trends/genre splitters.

I wish more people would follow this mindset now! Then maybe we wouldn't need to hear albums described as "post-black-metal goth-progressive-grind" or whatever meaningless combination can be assembled this week.

Meh, I dunno. As open-minded as I like to think we were back then, we still had our pregudices. Prog rock, Christian rock, alt rock, hippie/jam band stuff, or basically anything that wasn't "heavy" or "metal" was firmly rejected by our little pack of miscreants. We might have covered a broader spectrum as to what was hard & heavy, but we still had bounderies.

If someone tried to slip an REM or Grateful Dead tape into the boom box, they would have had their asses handed to them. We had our own set of "acceptable music". Maybe our tastes were a little broader, but we're we just as guilty of music snobbery and genre labelling.

I had friends like that, but if you looked at my CD collection in 1989 you would have found The Cure, R.E.M., Love & Rockets, Al DiMeola, Weather Report, CSN&Y, Yes, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Ministry, Hendrix, Robin Trower, The Beatles, Bach, Paganini and others...mixed in with my Coroner, Slayer, Metallica, Venom, Iron Maiden, Savatage and Suicidal Tendencies discs.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

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I listened to what I liked, cuz I liked it, and said screw the cliques/trends/genre splitters.

I wish more people would follow this mindset now! Then maybe we wouldn't need to hear albums described as "post-black-metal goth-progressive-grind" or whatever meaningless combination can be assembled this week.

Meh, I dunno. As open-minded as I like to think we were back then, we still had our pregudices. Prog rock, Christian rock, alt rock, hippie/jam band stuff, or basically anything that wasn't "heavy" or "metal" was firmly rejected by our little pack of miscreants. We might have covered a broader spectrum as to what was hard & heavy, but we still had bounderies.

If someone tried to slip an REM or Grateful Dead tape into the boom box, they would have had their asses handed to them. We had our own set of "acceptable music". Maybe our tastes were a little broader, but we're we just as guilty of music snobbery and genre labelling.

I dont think listening to what you like and not to what others say is good is a lack of open-mindedness. I am prejudicial regarding the music I listen to - I dont listen to stuff that i dont think sounds good. My tastes have changed over the years but i dont listen to what makes others happy.

S.D. wrote:

I had friends like that, but if you looked at my CD collection in 1989 you would have found The Cure, R.E.M., Love & Rockets, Al DiMeola, Weather Report, CSN&Y, Yes, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Ministry, Hendrix, Robin Trower, The Beatles, Bach, Paganini and others...mixed in with my Coroner, Slayer, Metallica, Venom, Iron Maiden, Savatage and Suicidal Tendencies discs.

Well yea, but you're weird.

exact33 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Quote :

I listened to what I liked, cuz I liked it, and said screw the cliques/trends/genre splitters.

I wish more people would follow this mindset now! Then maybe we wouldn't need to hear albums described as "post-black-metal goth-progressive-grind" or whatever meaningless combination can be assembled this week.

Meh, I dunno. As open-minded as I like to think we were back then, we still had our pregudices. Prog rock, Christian rock, alt rock, hippie/jam band stuff, or basically anything that wasn't "heavy" or "metal" was firmly rejected by our little pack of miscreants. We might have covered a broader spectrum as to what was hard & heavy, but we still had bounderies.

If someone tried to slip an REM or Grateful Dead tape into the boom box, they would have had their asses handed to them. We had our own set of "acceptable music". Maybe our tastes were a little broader, but we're we just as guilty of music snobbery and genre labelling.

I dont think listening to what you like and not to what others say is good is a lack of open-mindedness. I am prejudicial regarding the music I listen to - I dont listen to stuff that i dont think sounds good. My tastes have changed over the years but i dont listen to what makes others happy.

Certainly. I wouldn't limit myself these days. Who cares what I listen to now? I only started listening to Pink Floyd about 3 years ago. But in high school, trying to find that group to fit in with, is a different story. And I still won't listen to REM. F**k those guys.

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I still won't listen to REM. F**k those guys.

you said it man! I hate those guys so bad..

R.E.M were for booksmart idgets w/ NO common sense... whom thought way too much of themselves

Only REM album i like is Monster. Everything else is way too pretentious (well, ok, its the end of the world as we know it is a fun party song, thats about it though).

Saw this on another forum:

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MYTH No. 2: Nirvana Killed Hair Metal

REALITY: It was already dead. Blame Queensrÿche.

The legend of Nirvana has always demanded that the band be viewed as a sea change in popular taste -- the meaningless but oft-rehashed factoid that Nevermind knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous off the top spot on the album chart, as if sales turnover didn't exist until Kurt Cobain came along.

But the most enduring fable has always been the one about how Nirvana, and grunge in general, rid the world of foofy coiffures and pink guitars and power ballads overnight.

By the time Nevermind charted in October 1991, hair metal was already long on the way out.

Glam poodles had wiped off their mascara and were trying to get serious -- Cinderella's 1990 Heartbreak Station was a purist blues-rock record; Skid Row's Slave to the Grind, out in June 1991, was pop-shunning arena turbulence that went to No. 1 without a hit single.

A certain kind of boogie-based hard rock had also been on the way back ever since Guns N' Roses and the Cult broke through circa '88; Black Crowes' debut album reached No. 4 in 1990.

By the turn of the decade, even the breakthrough metal-leaning acts had a pronounced boho bent: Living Colour, black Manhattanites led by their slumming avant-jazz guitarist; St. Augustine–quoting Houston eggheadbangers King's X, led by their black ga-hey Christian bassist; proggish San Francisco reformed rap-punks Faith No More. And maybe most significantly, given the emerging Lollapalooza Decade, new-age L.A. sideshow beatniks Jane's Addiction, whose Ritual de lo Habitual went Top 20 in 1990.

One of the biggest rock hits the year before "Smells Like Teen Spirit" even came from Seattle-namely, Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity," a Pink Floyd pastiche by thinkers-of-big-thoughts more given to high-flown concept albums about technological conspiracy than lowbrow groupie gropes.

So what changed after Nirvana, exactly? Well, the haircuts, maybe. And within a couple years, radio and MTV were overrun by such innovative new bands as Collective Soul, Candlebox, Live, and Silverchair. The more things change...

I've said for awhile that the writing was on the wall in '89. Any scene that gets as bloated, boring and self-important as mainstream metal did in the late 80s deserves to have it's head lopped off.

The last paragraph is a great joke:

"INNOVATIVE bands like Collective Soul, Candlebox, Live & Silverchair".

S.D. wrote:

The last paragraph is a great joke:

"INNOVATIVE bands like Collective Soul, Candlebox, Live & Silverchair".

I think that was sarcasm, given the rest of the article...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

S.D. wrote:

The last paragraph is a great joke:

"INNOVATIVE bands like Collective Soul, Candlebox, Live & Silverchair".

I think that was sarcasm, given the rest of the article...

Oh, I know it was sarcasm, that's why I appreciated the joke.

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I've said for awhile that the writing was on the wall in '89

I was just reading Five Against One which is about Pearl Jam, but in the earlier part of the book going through the backstory they tell how after being together for only like 12 gigs Mother Love Bone created a bidding war solely based on the idea that the "hair" thing had passed and everybody had to sign up the next Cult or Jane's Addiction. So even the record companies had some people who could see where it was heading. And at that point metal still charted and sold.

jstate wrote:

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I've said for awhile that the writing was on the wall in '89

I was just reading Five Against One which is about Pearl Jam, but in the earlier part of the book going through the backstory they tell how after being together for only like 12 gigs Mother Love Bone created a bidding war solely based on the idea that the "hair" thing had passed and everybody had to sign up the next Cult or Jane's Addiction. So even the record companies had some people who could see where it was heading. And at that point metal still charted and sold.

Maybe hair metal should have been dead by 1991 or 1992, but this simply wasn't the case. FireHouse had won the award for Favorite NEW Heavy Metal/Hard Rock artist in 1992, some three/four months after Nirvana blew up with Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Werent Mother Love Bone considered a glam metal band though? Granted, i dont hear much of a hair metal sound, but even heavy harmonies (who are no fans of grunge) have them listed in their database as "Sleaze glam". Just because the members went on to grunge doesnt mean anything (Tom Morello was in a funk-rock band called Lock Up before RATM, doesnt mean Lock Up was rap-metal).

metalinmyveins wrote:

jstate wrote:

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I've said for awhile that the writing was on the wall in '89

I was just reading Five Against One which is about Pearl Jam, but in the earlier part of the book going through the backstory they tell how after being together for only like 12 gigs Mother Love Bone created a bidding war solely based on the idea that the "hair" thing had passed and everybody had to sign up the next Cult or Jane's Addiction. So even the record companies had some people who could see where it was heading. And at that point metal still charted and sold.

Maybe hair metal should have been dead by 1991 or 1992, but this simply wasn't the case. FireHouse had won the award for Favorite NEW Heavy Metal/Hard Rock artist in 1992, some three/four months after Nirvana blew up with Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Not quite accurate: Firehouse won the American Music Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band of 1991 in early '91 while "Smells Like Teem Spirit" did not start gaining serious momentum until later in '91 and by Christmas '91 Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week. It wasn't until 1992 that Nevermind went #1.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

metalinmyveins wrote:

jstate wrote:

Quote :

I've said for awhile that the writing was on the wall in '89

I was just reading Five Against One which is about Pearl Jam, but in the earlier part of the book going through the backstory they tell how after being together for only like 12 gigs Mother Love Bone created a bidding war solely based on the idea that the "hair" thing had passed and everybody had to sign up the next Cult or Jane's Addiction. So even the record companies had some people who could see where it was heading. And at that point metal still charted and sold.

Maybe hair metal should have been dead by 1991 or 1992, but this simply wasn't the case. FireHouse had won the award for Favorite NEW Heavy Metal/Hard Rock artist in 1992, some three/four months after Nirvana blew up with Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Not quite accurate: Firehouse won the American Music Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band of 1991 in early '91 while "Smells Like Teem Spirit" did not start gaining serious momentum until later in '91 and by Christmas '91 Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week. It wasn't until 1992 that Nevermind went #1.

What I stated was quite true. American Music Awards held on January 27th, 1992...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Music_Awards_of_1992

As the old saying goes, "Read em and weep"...

God I hated Firehouse!!!!

I loved all those Seattle bands and I used to buy RIP magazine, that labeled them, Jane's Addiction, King's X, The Front, and host of other bands as alternative metal.


Main difference is all these bands ( to me anyway) sounded newer and fresh, from lyrically perspective I could relate to them more then I could lyrics about Poison's groupie shagging antics, etc. The difference between my friends and I, is that I did sell Motley Crue, Slayer, Cinderella down the river like they all did.

Some of those douche bags claimed they never liked them in the first place.

I like Firehouse but they were very samey sounding like most of the hair invasion.