Hair Metal: TOP 10

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.

Thank you thank you. Did I say thank you?

Actually all those early 80's WS albums with Paice and Lord are like DP albums minus Blackmore. I am committing blasphemy on my views but I think Moody and Marsden's work was much better than the work Blackmore did on the Coverdale DP albums. It's so obvious that Blackmore didn't like the Coverdale/Hughes mix in DP if you listen to those albums.

spectrefate wrote:

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.

Thank you thank you. Did I say thank you?

Actually all those early 80's WS albums with Paice and Lord are like DP albums minus Blackmore. I am committing blasphemy on my views but I think Moody and Marsden's work was much better than the work Blackmore did on the Coverdale DP albums. It's so obvious that Blackmore didn't like the Coverdale/Hughes mix in DP if you listen to those albums.

DIE YOU BASTARD!

Kix
Childs Play
Holy Soldier
Whitecross
Motley Crue
Junkyard
Badlands
Great White
Tesla
Tora Tora

Growing up I never used the term hair metal, we used call it pop metal, which I guess really isn't much of an improvement as far genre names, here is my list:

10. White Lion
9. Stryper
8. Poison
7. KIX
6. Hanoi Rocks
5. Quiet Riot
4. Ratt
3. Twisted Sister
2. Dokken
1. Motley Crue

I was not sure if Dokken belonged on a hair metal list since I thought the musicianship and songwriter better than most of the bands that are labeled as a hair metal band, same with Cinderella, who after their first album took on a more blues influence, and Skid Row IMO was never a hair/pop metal band.

kethdredd wrote:

Kix
Childs Play
Holy Soldier
Whitecross
Motley Crue
Junkyard
Badlands
Great White
Tesla
Tora Tora

Good bands there...but is Badlands REALLY a hair metal band??? I mean I know that Jake E. Lee had some impressive locks...but their music doesn't really fit the mold in my opinion.

Quote :

Good bands there...but is Badlands REALLY a hair
metal band??? I mean I know that Jake E. Lee had some impressive
locks...but their music doesn't really fit the mold in my opinion.

You could make that argument for a number bands listed in this thread. Hair metal is really more about a sound than a look to me.

Truth is, a number of bands that are really just straight up rock and roll got thrown in with the hair metal craze in hopes that they could pen a monster power ballad and make it big. A number of bands come to mind that fit this description, Tangier, Badlands etc.

I guess I lump them all together because they were really a part of the same movement, the same radio stations, tours, and time slots on MTV.

manny wrote:

6. Hanoi Rocks


I was not sure if Dokken belonged on a hair metal list since I thought the musicianship and songwriter better than most of the bands that are labeled as a hair metal band, same with Cinderella, who after their first album took on a more blues influence, and Skid Row IMO was never a hair/pop metal band.

Not having a go at you Manny....but you split hairs about Skid Row and Cinderella about not being Hair Metal bands and make no mention of the very contentious choice of Hanoi Rocks as a top Hair Metal band.

Perhaps an influence on a second wave of Los Angeles bands like Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Faster Pu$$ycat etc. and quite a few better sleazy and glammy fringe bands at that time too, all of which people might call Hair Metal but i refuse to call them that.

They were 'two steps removed' from that whole scene, even before it due to their isolation and their general being in their early 80's. There was the hair but no metal and way to out their at the time that a dolled up punk rock n' roll band like them were some how strangely accepted by the Metal crowd (English mainly) at the time when in all fact they should of been aligned with the Punk/New Wave crowd....where they probably wouldn't have fitted in either.

W.A.S.P.
Dokken
Whitesnake
Quit Riot
Twisted Sister
Stryper
Slaughter
Guns 'n' Roses
L.A. Guns

[quote="rattpoison"]

manny wrote:

6. Hanoi Rocks





Not having a go at you Manny....but you split hairs about Skid Row and Cinderella about not being Hair Metal bands and make no mention of the very contentious choice of Hanoi Rocks as a top Hair Metal band.

Perhaps an influence on a second wave of Los Angeles bands like Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Faster Pu$$ycat etc. and quite a few better sleazy and glammy fringe bands at that time too, all of which people might call Hair Metal but i refuse to call them that.

They were 'two steps removed' from that whole scene, even before it due to their isolation and their general being in their early 80's. There was the hair but no metal and way to out their at the time that a dolled up punk rock n' roll band like them were some how strangely accepted by the Metal crowd (English mainly) at the time when in all fact they should of been aligned with the Punk/New Wave crowd....where they probably wouldn't have fitted in either.

I can see where you are coming from since Hanoi Rocks cd first came out in 1980 or 1981, and they were influences were more Iggy Pop, New York Dolls, etc instead of what Americans were influenced by such as Kiss and Aerosmith. But I do see the influence that Hanoi Rocks had on Motley Crue, Faster Pussycats, and others, including Guns N Roses. I almost did not add them to the list but their influence on alot of bands that became important to that movement were directly influenced by Hanoi Rocks, not so much musicially as they were visually. I also feel that Hanoi Rocks have never gotten their fair deal, and you are right they are not really metal, but metal fans made up a huge portion of their audience and as did the metal/hard rock critics who were praising them at the time.

Actually all those early 80's WS albums with Paice and Lord are like DP albums minus Blackmore. I am committing blasphemy on my views but I think Moody and Marsden's work was much better than the work Blackmore did on the Coverdale DP albums. It's so obvious that Blackmore didn't like the Coverdale/Hughes mix in DP if you listen to those albums.[/quote]

I have to agree with Spec, of the two studio albums Blackmore did with the Mark III lineup of Deep Purple, "Burn" is excellent the band is on fire, by the time the second album with this line up "Stormbringer" Blackmore sounded disinterested and bored and left to be replaced by Tommy Bolin. In interviews Blackmore has stated that he hated the direction of " Stormbringer" and did not like the funk influence brought in by Glenn Hughes, and was the reason he left.

Fair enough Manny....no doubt an influence, although sadly more visually then musically (check out the Soho Roses, great UK band from the late 80's that was actually musically influenced by Hanoi... http://www.myspace.com/sohoroses).

Lots of great stuff mentioned


I'll start off with some of my favorite Christian glamsters from back in the day

no order in particular

ElijahJohn
Spectra
Isaiah Fox
Touche' Touche'
Eternyl Ryte
Holy Rite / Iron Wrath / Final Axe
Neon Cross (when Mitch was still in the band)
Holy Soldier / Hero (Robbie was so kewl)

and I dig some stuff done by Shotgun Messiah