Hair Metal: TOP 10

Dokken are way too good of a band to be lumped in with the so called "Hair Bands". Don's peers were more like Klaus Meine and David Coverdale rather than Bret Micheals and Jani Lane....Ratt looked glam,but take away the hairspray and eyeshadow and they were still a kick a-s twin guitar attack hard rock-metal band.

1.) Whitesnake
2.) Dokken
3.) Ratt
4.) Def Leppard
5.) Europe
6.) Bon Jovi
7.) Cinderella
8.) Tesla
9.) White Lion
10.) Motley Crue

Honorable mention: Warrant

Ratt
Quiet Riot
Motley Crue
Dokken
White Lion
Europe
Bon Jovi
Stryper
Twisted Sister
Poison

troublezone wrote:

I prefer the term Arena Rock

Isn't arena rock more like Journey, Boston, and Foreigner?

spiritoradio wrote:

troublezone wrote:

I prefer the term Arena Rock

Isn't arena rock more like Journey, Boston, and Foreigner?

Possibly but in their heyday they were playing huge arenas and the term fits better. What is a hair band anyway when most of them were probably wearing wigs (Kevin Dubrow) or extenions. The term is dumb and they are basically just hard rock. I think i would rather hear the term glam instead.

troublezone wrote:

spiritoradio wrote:

troublezone wrote:

I prefer the term Arena Rock

Isn't arena rock more like Journey, Boston, and Foreigner?

Possibly but in their heyday they were playing huge arenas and the term fits better. What is a hair band anyway when most of them were probably wearing wigs (Kevin Dubrow) or extenions. The term is dumb and they are basically just hard rock. I think i would rather hear the term glam instead.

Yeah, i agree with TROUBLEZONE that other terms like HARD ROCK and GLAM METAL are far better then HAIR METAL (look at my post for explanation). I also agree with SPIRITORADIO that ARENA ROCK are bands like JOURNEY, TRIUMPH, RUSH, APRIL WINE, FOREIGNER, REO SPEEDWAGON,....and of course some of them were AOR/HARD AOR.

Don`t like the term Hair Metal, but I`m a huge fan of many bands in that may be labeled Hair.
Top ten in no particular order:
WHITE LION
BLACK N BLUE
QUIET RIOT
ICON
RATT
ROUGH CUTT
DOKKEN
KING KOBRA
STRYPER
CINDERELLA

W.A.S.P. would be my obvious favourite, but I don`t think they belong in this list. They are Heavy Metal to me, not Hair

TUFF LUCK
TIGERTAILZ
SMASHED GLADYS
ROCK CITY ANGELS
DOGS D'AMOUR
HANOI ROCKS
RATT
ROXANNE
SALTY DOG
JUNKYARD

Bang Tango
Alien
Dokken
Hurricane
King Kobra
Leatherwolf
Skid Row
Whitesnake
Winter's Reign
Motley Crue

EDIT: Ah crap! I forgot Lizzy Borden. Their album "Visual Lies" is one of my all-time favs.... I guess they could be interchangable with Winter's Reign or Alien then.

W.A.S.P. (although they are only hair metal for this list's purpose)
Dokken
King Kobra
Rough Cutt
Quiet Riot
Twisted Sister
Lion
Def Leppard
Ratt
Stryper

Fat Freddy wrote:

blackieboy wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

My top 10 glam/hair/sleaze bands (in no particular order)

Kix
Stryper
Cinderella
Babylon A.D.
L.A. Guns
Firehouse (only their first album though... the rest of their stuff pretty much sucks)
Warrant
RATT
Princess Pang
Dokken

Cool list! Kix would be my number 11 band! Seriously love that band!

Another one I love is Twisted Sister.

Kix is one of my all time favorites... I'd love to see one of their occasional "reunion" shows that they play around the Baltimore area one of these days.

A few others I could've mentioned... Love/Hate and Dirty Looks

I was just listening to Shotgun Messiah's SECOND COMING disc in the car this morning for the first time in a while, and realized that they should've been on my list as well! I love that album/band!!

Shotgun Messiah RULES!!!

Shiney wrote:

TUFF LUCK
TIGERTAILZ
SMASHED GLADYS
ROCK CITY ANGELS
DOGS D'AMOUR
HANOI ROCKS
RATT
ROXANNE
SALTY DOG
JUNKYARD

Thats a fantastic list of bands Shiney, but do you really feel comfortable putting Dogs D'Amour, Hanoi Rocks & Rock City Angels in a list of top 10 'Hair Metal' bands. I'm a major major fan of Dogs and Hanoi but i could never bring myself to call them Hair Metal, both bands music didn't have anything to do with metal or that era of Hair Metal and any comparisons to it would be purely superficial. Maybe i'm being to precious. But anyway at least you dig those great bands.

The Night Ranger debut is really an under-rated album; especially what we old-timers would call "side two". It rocks much harder than their reputation.

Hmmm...

Babylon A.D.
Cinderella
Def Leppard (all-time favorite)
Dokken
Extreme (very underrated)
Firehouse (all their albums are excellent)
Skid Row
Slaughter
Tesla
Winger

Can't say I think any of them are really hair metal, but that's what they're labeled.

Yeah, I sometimes refer to this stuff as "glam metal" or "pop metal", but hair metal is now the accepted term. I never called it that before though.

Poison
Motley Crue
Twisted Sister
Bon Jovi
Dokken
Slaughter
Skid Row
Winger
Def Leppard
Ratt
Stryper ...

1-Ratt
2-Motley crue
3-White Lion
4-Twisted sister
5-Warrant
6-Skid row
7-Cinderella
8-Poison
9-GNR
10-Whitesnake

Vinnie Vincent Invasion
Dokken
Ratt

Okay, I know the videos may look different...but there is no reason for Whitesnake to be considered a "hair metal" or "pop metal" band...or whatever term.

They were around WAY before this whole thing kicked off in the mid 80's, hell Slide It In is basically a Deep Purple album.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of hair/pop/glam metal so I'll skip this list.

But I do like T-Rex and David Bowie if that counts...

detuned wrote:

Okay, I know the videos may look different...but there is no reason for Whitesnake to be considered a "hair metal" or "pop metal" band...or whatever term.

They were around WAY before this whole thing kicked off in the mid 80's, hell Slide It In is basically a Deep Purple album.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of hair/pop/glam metal so I'll skip this list.

But I do like T-Rex and David Bowie if that counts...

I wouldn't count Whitesnake as a hair metal band based on one album, David Bowie and T.Rex I am huge fan of both, but you can maybe say they influenced a lot of the bands labeled hair metal, but both started as folkies and ended up as proto-type glam rockers.

manny wrote:

David Bowie and T.Rex I am huge fan of both, but you can maybe say they influenced a lot of the bands labeled hair metal, but both started as folkies and ended up as proto-type glam rockers.

I was basically joking about the Bowie/T. Rex...I was just trying to think of bands with semi-glam looks that I actually liked. I guess I could add Queen to that list as well.

Wow, where did this thread come from?

Mine INPO:

Warrant
Poison
Cinderella
Motley Crue
Dokken
Skid Row
Babylon AD
Hurricane
Bang Tango
Extreme

You may have been joking but alot of the 80's pop/hair metal artist did sight T. Rex, David Bowie, and of course Slade as a major influence. So I don't think your really off base, but pop/hair metal seems formulaic, you know have your anthem, than release your power ballad, and than watch your career get destroyed by Nirvana, so for that along Bowie, T.Rex and Slade would not fit in.

manny wrote:

You may have been joking but alot of the 80's pop/hair metal artist did sight T. Rex, David Bowie, and of course Slade as a major influence. So I don't think your really off base, but pop/hair metal seems formulaic, you know have your anthem, than release your power ballad, and than watch your career get destroyed by Nirvana, so for that along Bowie, T.Rex and Slade would not fit in.

I agree with this.

Not to be a genre Nazi but IMO, there's a big difference between glam and hair metal and Manny pretty much nailed it above.