Hair Metal

iamrockmusic

Of course 99% of you will say you hate hair metal, that you're too smart for it, or whatever but I know a lot more people than just me grew up listening to this stuff. I remember watching Headbanger's Ball every weekend so I could see all the best videos by the dudes with big hair. I know most fans of this music loved the really popular hair bands, like Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Poison, Warrant, etc. But I always had an appreciation for some of the other bands that wrote good catchy songs, but weren't as commercially appealing as the bigger names... and hence, never made it on the same scale as the aforementioned bigger names from this genre. So in honor of them, anyone else want to 'fess up to loving some of the more obscure 80s bands?

I loved:
Dangerous Toys
Bang Tango
Faster Pussycat
L.A. Guns
Badlands

This oughta be fun, just to see who responds.

Brainofdz

I was born in 79, so yeah, I liked it

but I was too young to know better

how bout
Danger, Danger
and Babylon AD

Coathanger Halos

I love a lot of it:

L.A. Guns
Spread Eagle
Skid Row
W.A.S.P.
Faster Pussycat
Motley Crue

releeseme

I was born in '72', so I was into it.

Cinderella
Ratt
David Lee Roth
Ozzy
Kiss
W.A.S.P.
Skid Row
Motley Crue

I am proud to say that PJ changed my musical tastes dramaticly.

surfanddestroy

I still like hair metal, my local pub has it on the jukebox and it gets played all the time.
Some of my faves are

Aerosmith
Motley Crue
Twisted Sister
Poison
Whitesnake
Skid Row
Thunder

Poncier

I hate the term "hair metal", but I enjoy a fair percentage of the music it refers to.
Why were these bands in the 80's termed "hair bands" while rockers form the 60's and 70's all had long hair, heck our beloved PJ boys all had long hair at the band's inception.

Just call it rock.

Some of the bands were good, some not so good.
Same thing can be said of the 90's bands.

For every Motley Crue or GnR there is a Poison and Warrant just like for every Pearl Jam or AIC there is a Creed or Nickleback.

transplant

Minus 2 bands so far in this thread, I have at least 2 CD's from each band mentioned (and the bigger bands listed, probably have most if not all of them). I think I even saw each of them live at some point. I grew up in the middle of it, so I will have a soft spot for it.

I saw Badlands when Jake had one leg in a full cast. Man, I haven't heard Badlands in at least 15 years

Dog Loyal

Does Megadeth count as hair metal? Because I listened to that, back in the day.

And Yngwie, that arrogant prick.

PissBottleMan

Poncier wrote:

For every Motley Crue or GnR there is a Poison and Warrant just like for every Pearl Jam or AIC there is a Creed or Nickleback.

I will defend Poison til the day I die.

Bret Michaels speaks for the workin' man.

I mean, I'm always working, slavin', everyday. I gotta get away from the same ol, same ol.



PBM

iamrockmusic

good stuff... i love all of it. the only one i actually had not heard of was Spread Eagle. i still see all these bands live, whenever they tour in some incarnation. in fact, i'm going to see Winger tonight, because i never saw them back in the day. i didn't even really LOVE their stuff, but just to hear the original members do songs like seventeen and madalaine will be cool. that's the one thing that irks me about this scene now. very few of the bands actually have the original members. there's 2 different touring bands right now calling themselves LA Guns. Same thing for Faster Pussycat. you never know the situation but i wonder why these guys just can't put their differences aside and get together again.

anyway, i'm glad to see all the responses and I definitely agree with the post that said PJ changed their musical tastes drastically. i was all about the 80s rock, but as soon as i saw the video for alive one night on mtv at like 1am, my life changed forever, literally... i had heard nirvana by then, but alive and PJ hit me much harder than kurt ever did, not that i'm bagging on nirvana..

and i think it's called hair metal because unlike the guys in the 60s, 70s, and 90s with long hair, these guys teased and spiked it up, wore makeup, etc... i don't mean it as a derogatory term at all... again, some of these guys are my heroes.. i mean, i'm azdrummerboy and the guys that inspired me to play the drums were guys like tommy lee, bobby blotzer and tommy aldridge... i was playing well before the seattle scene broke...

oh yeah, and if you're interested in that kind of sound and image, you oughta be a fan of buckcherry and vains of jenna. buckcherry is one of the best live bands i've ever seen and i'm not kidding. and vains of jenna has that whole sunset strip sound, but they're a new band. i'm going to see them thursday night here in town.

Brainofdz

how bout The Grim Reaper, "See you in Hell" was one of the more over the top vocal performances I've ever heard.

Drowned Out

:cool: Nice thread. Surpised no one has come here bashing these bands yet. I was born in 74, but that’s not an excuse. I still listen to some of these bands when the mood hits me.
Dangerous Toys…hahaha….Sportin a Woody – there is an 80’s classic.
I liked Faster Pussycat a lot too…
I saw Quiet Riot last year….amazingly, Kevin DuBrow had more hair than he did in the 80’s.
I still listen to Skid Row – STTG is a killer album.
Cinderella is a good band...
The Crue is still one of my fav bands – they were my PJ back in the day.
How bout WASP?
Don’t really consider them hair metal, but Tesla is a really good band from that era.


Trying to think of the more obscure ones….how ‘bout Pretty Boy Floyd? They were pretty alright.

Others I liked but wasn’t too into:
Kik Tracee
Shotgun Messiah
Nitro
Bulletboys
White Lion
Lita Ford
Lee Aaaron
Slaughter
Kix
Great White

…ahhh I could list a lot that I wasn’t that into.

Sathogwa

Skid Row was real good. They were like GNR . . . somewhat of a different breed than a lot of the other rock bands of the time.

I would much wrather listen to "hair metal" than a lot of the absolute shit that is popular nowdays like the indie/emo/screamo/post-punk/pop-punk/nu-metal/alternative bands.

fanch75

I love this thread and I hope it has legs for a long, long time. I'm always representing metal on this board, and the original poster has it totally right. There is a lot of elitism on this board and I'm sure somebody will eventually find their way in here in order to tell us how smart they are because they hate the Crue. Well, fuck them, I like the Crue, and I like this thread.

Anyway, I'll be posting in this one a lot, but my proper response won't be tonight. It'll take eight hours of sleep and a full meal in order for that to happen.

For now, I'll just list some of my favs:
Kiss (my favorite band since 1987 - I was 12)
The Crue
Cinderellla (they get no where near the respect they deserve - they still are incredible live with that rocking bluesy sound)
Dokken (George Lynch, fuck yes, he can play circles around anyone, even EVH)
WASP rulz
LA Guns were awesome. Still putting out great CD's.
Priest (not really "hair metal" but they get thrown into that genre)
Iron Maiden (see Priest, what a band and what great albums)
Van Halen
Dio (I'm seeing "Heaven & Hell" here in Cincy in May)
GNR - LEGENDS. the Chinese Democracy demos are incredible and could bring back the rock hero if Ax would ever release it and promote it right

To the original poster's point, some lesser-knowns I'm into:
The Cult
Enuff ZNuff (just saw them)
Slaughter, haven't listened to them in years though

gossardstradlin

Good thread.

Iron Maiden is my all time favorite even though they aren't necessarily Hair Metal.

I also like:

Ratt
Judas Priest
Motley Crue
Scorpions
L.A. Guns
Faster Pussycatt (Wake me when its over = fantastic album)
Dokken
Cinderella
Skid Row
Tesla
Tora Tora
Kiss
Ozzy

Long live metal, props to all those on the board!!!

Hated White Lion!!!! That song "Wait" sucks!!!

gregkitefan

I don't own an Ipod.
I have a five CD changer.

The 5 discs I have in right now...........

WASP - The Last Command
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Whitesnake - Whitesnake
Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry

Still love this music!

Brainofdz

gregkitefan wrote:

I don't own an Ipod.
I have a five CD changer.

The 5 discs I have in right now...........

WASP - The Last Command
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Whitesnake - Whitesnake
Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry

Still love this music!

geez, all 5 slots oozing pure mercury!

and btw I'd take Herb Williams over Greg Kite any day.

iamrockmusic

so, as mentioned before, i went and saw winger tonight.
they fucking ROCKED... i swear, kip can still hit and hold all of those high notes. reb nailed all of his solos, rod still sounds great on the drums and their new guitarist was great too. it was a good, tight performance all around, they played all the favorites... great stuff. if you have the chance to see them, i recommend. they did an in-store at a local record store today too. not a lot of people that showed up, but the guys in the band were very cool, very gracious with their fans. always good to see when people from these bands aren't ego-trips...

i'm going to see vince neil with slaughter in a few weeks. vince's voice has lost a lot, but who knows how much more we'll get to see him again. plus, slaughter had a lot of good tunes... and as mentioned before, i'm going to a vains of jenna show later this week... great new band that carries on that sound from the sunset strip in the 80s.

i love the feedback this post is getting... great responses from all...

these videos and songs are the reason i love vh1 classic so much. and if they keep getting together and touring, i'll keep paying money to see these bands. maybe i won't follow them around like i do with PJ, but i still love seeing these guys when they come back around to phoenix...

transplant

Vain. I think they only had one CD however I listened to it 24/7 back in the late '80's.

Saigon Kick is another one. though I might be getting away from the Hair portion (debatable).

Tiger Tailz - probably the worst name in music history. they were supposed to be Britain's answer to Posion. Looked as fruity as they did however their music was harder. I can't believe I am even mentioning them.

Drowned Out

I didn’t list Maiden or Priest cause I didn’t think they fit the category either, even tho they were probably numbers 2 and 3 behind the Crue.…but I guess Maiden were one of the front-runners in the spandex revolution, so ya gotta count em…never counted Kiss either, but I guess if we’re just going by what other people consider hair metal, they’d have to be there… to me, that’s like calling Zep or Sabbath hair metal. Speaking of Sabbath, I guess Ozzy had his hair period too (ULTIMATE SIN!) RATT were awesome.

Nice call on the Tora Tora! Phantom Rider is a fuckin deadly song.

Oh – Kick Axe and the Killer Dwarfs! Canadian metal! I guess Helix fits that bill too…

How ‘bout some Accept?

I’m mentally scanning all of my old VHS tapes (man I wish I still had all of them)…that’s how I used to find bands (MM videos, Friday Night Videos, and Circus / Hit Parader)…I’d tape every vid on Much Music’s Power Hour (hosted by John (JD) Roberts – still weirds me out to see him as a major network news anchor), and if I decided the song sucked half way through, I’d rewind the tape to the end of the last vid and start recording the next vid…was still doin that when I first saw Alive, that’s how I found PJ…I must have had 15 hours of metal vids from the 80’s.


and azdrummer...don't worry about Vince's voice, he's dubbing now

Jamgo Fett

My mate used to love this kind of stuff, i tended to be a bit more picky than him though! Here's some more that haven't had a mention yet...

Extreme
21 Guns
Tyketto
Sven Gali (total Skid Row rip-off merchants!)
and Dan Reed Network..., who i used to love and saw at the London Forum once. One of their tunes came on my iPod this morning on the way to work, it actually made me cringe! Thank god for grunge!!!

transplant

Loudness. Heavy Chains, Street Life Dreams......all great songs.
Lizzy Borden. Master of Disguise, Visual Lies.....great CD's.

anyone going to admit to listening to Stryper?

Jeremy1012

I actually despise hair metal but something about Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone by Cinderella is hilariously brilliant. I think it's the singer's voice. overwrought much?

catchy though.

MagnusonPark82

Anyone remember

Krokus
Tygers of Pan Tang
Accept

?

gabers

releeseme wrote:

I was born in '72', so I was into it.

Cinderella
Ratt
David Lee Roth
Ozzy
Kiss
W.A.S.P.
Skid Row
Motley Crue

I am proud to say that PJ changed my musical tastes dramaticly.

I'm right there with ya. I'd like to think PJ put a nail in the coffin for my tastes for hair metal as a young man. I just liked rock music. I grew up in the midwest where exposure to the fringe music just really wasn't there. I grew to appreciate groups like The Cure, The Smiths, The Fixx, The Pixies, all the "The" groups, toward the end of hair metal days. I'd like to think I just didn't know any better. But I did like, nay love, most of your aforementioned groups once upon a time. Some more than others. (Don't forget Poison!) This is a big reason why I wish I was born in 1980 instead of 1972, if for any other reason then because my coming of age music would have been PJ, Nirvana, Soundgarten, etc. instead. I try to listen to those bands these days and I will listen for nostalgia's sake for a short while but for the most part I just can't stomach it.