What hair metal song/video finally nudged you into grunge?

[Axewielder]

OK so we all know that hair metal kicked ass from 1984 to 1986 or so, had cracks in the armor in 1987 - 1988, and was really falling apart by the early 1990's. But, what was the song that really made you throw in the towel and jump on the grunge bandwagon? For me, it was FireHouse's 1990 masterpiece "Don't Treat Me Bad". Yeah yeah they might be decent musicians...blah blah...but this song really killed it for me. The bad hair, the fingerless gloves on the guitarist, the formulaic clean/heavy/clean song structure, the banal lyrics, that fuckin sung high note, the endless repetition on MTV, ARGH! It sucked so hard, I can actually remember the time and place where I first heard it (ITZA Pizza in Potsdam, NY: 1990 or 1991). They really ruined it for me. I was all about Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam after that. Fuck those assholes!

[Hellbat]

That was awful.

I think G&R killed hair metal well before grunge to be honest. It made smashed/stoned sloppy playing recorded with a live band feel all the rage and killed that super produced corporate shit. Grunge just kind of picked up where they left off as they imploded.

[tomanyjacksons]

What hair metal died? Say it isn't so. Bwahahaha. Yeah Hellbat your right. At least in my opinion.

[AdRock]

I just pretended that grunge wasn't there.

[xenophobe]

Grunge? Ew.

I've never liked grunge at all. I was part of the Bay Area Thrash scene during that whole time with the bands that influenced many people to get into death and black metal. Exodus, Possessed, Vio-lence, Death Angel, Forbidden, Epidemic, etc... and a few of the southern Cali bands... Slayer, Dark Angel, Megadeth, etc... Before that I was into Hirax, Destruction, Kreator, Carnivore... stuff like that. I was also into hardcore punk during that time... DRI, GBH, BF, etc. Usually "show buddies" with members from more than a few of the norcal bands. Paul Baloff of Exodus was going to manage one of my bands until he had complications from snorting his brains out. Got lessons from Steve Smythe of Testment/Dragonlord/Nevermore/Forbidden/Sweet Leaf/etc... also took lessons from one of the local nameless Jazz legends that I'm positive influenced Brian Carroll. So, I've been making fun and plain outright shit talking grunge bands back in the battle of the bands days. We all used to make fun of them. Yeah, I guess I've been an elitist musical snob most of my life.

Sorry.

[Cygnus X1]

What killed it?
Unskinny Bop was the nail in the coffin for me.
Especially because my wife liked it....Arg.

Grunge?
Some good in there, not much.
I listened to Pantera, Tool, AIC, and "found" Metallica during those years.

[xenophobe]

LOL Pantera.

The first time I saw them, they were wearing lipstick and spandex and sounded nothing like their albums. They were originally Road Warrior Rock. If you could imagine their first two albums, but played really gay, I mean REALLY gay, then you might come close. That's when hair metal was just starting to fade and when the Thrash scene here just started picking up. Cowboys from Hell was like Brokeback Mountain Cowboys from Hell. That changed with Far Beyond Driven. They dropped their multi-colored ripped fishnet stockings covering their ripped up spandex shirts and pants and their fishnet hairbands with fishnet tails, super perms and makeup.

They were actually pretty freaking hilarious to watch. Road Warrior Rock. No bullshit.

[CowboyFromHell]

They did have their spandex days, yes, but Cowboys From Hell was a kickass album. In fact I'd go as far as to say Pantera carried the torch for metal through the grunge years.

Edit: Btw, Perry Richardson played bass in one of the cheesiest hair bands ever but his personal listening taste was alot different than what Firehouse played. In fact, as Up Spook Hill, we were the first band signed to 3930 Records when he started it.

[chuckbat]

Grunge? Ew.

I've never liked grunge at all. I was part of the Bay Area Thrash scene during that whole time with the bands that influenced many people to get into death and black metal. Exodus, Possessed, Vio-lence, Death Angel, Forbidden, Epidemic, etc... and a few of the southern Cali bands... Slayer, Dark Angel, Megadeth, etc... Before that I was into Hirax, Destruction, Kreator, Carnivore... stuff like that. I was also into hardcore punk during that time... DRI, GBH, BF, etc. Usually "show buddies" with members from more than a few of the norcal bands. Paul Baloff of Exodus was going to manage one of my bands until he had complications from snorting his brains out. Got lessons from Steve Smythe of Testment/Dragonlord/Nevermore/Forbidden/Sweet Leaf/etc... also took lessons from one of the local nameless Jazz legends that I'm positive influenced Brian Carroll. So, I've been making fun and plain outright shit talking grunge bands back in the battle of the bands days. We all used to make fun of them. Yeah, I guess I've been an elitist musical snob most of my life.

Sorry.

+1. Everything you listed. That's awesome, I can't believe someone actually remembers GBH. Great music. We were into the same type. I think poison ruined it for hair metal. Not a fan. But I could tell decent players and did like Ratt. Except pearcy. Grunge never impressed me. That was more of a black era than hair metal IMO

[xenophobe]

+1. Everything you listed. That's awesome, I can't believe someone actually remembers GBH. Great music. We were into the same type. I think poison ruined it for hair metal. Not a fan. But I could tell decent players and did like Ratt. Except pearcy. Grunge never impressed me. That was more of a black era than hair metal IMO

I don't think you can really blame any band for hair metal dying. Bands just started getting gayer and gayer until they gayed themselves out of existence. Certainly Poison was one of the many reasons, but I think a lot of guys got caught up in the fad and realized at some point that they've been dressing nearly identical to many transvestites and that it's not really cool that you take more time and effort into taking care of your hair than your girlfriends or wives.

I can look back at those days fondly. I never wore spandex or wore makeup though... I did wear parachute pants. And by that I mean, predating MC Hammer pants. Parachute pants... those skinny-type skin tight pants with pockets and zippers all over made out of material very similar to parachutes. I always wore those. I pretty much started that trend in my area. After about a year everyone was wearing them. Hahaa.

Irony Alert: Oh and I just got back from a Y & T concert tonight. Except for a couple of horribly gay songs, they played some great hair metal. I hadn't seen them since I was a child at Great America in 1983. lol

[Larz]

Trixter

[chuckbat]

Trixter

Good call. They definitely suck wrinkles out of scrotum.

[tomanyjacksons]

Recording companies pushed them all into so much crap. The change for the recording companies to grunge was no big deal because it kept the money rolling in. It's not the first time they pushed something so hard that they ruined it, and I'm betting it's not the last.

[Vass]

For me it was really Warrant that did it more than any other band, and maybe Slaughter (look- I know some talented dudes in there but....."I'm the one" or whatever that song was....enough).

Pearl Jam was fine with 10. Soundgarden, fine. Despised Nirvana. Over rated cry baby shit IMO. It wasn't so much the music as the whining of grunge that got me. We went from "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS" to "Rape Me". Fuck, life has enough depressing moments. I don't need to import depression though some idiot's adolescent whining.

[Carbuff]

For me it was really Warrant that did it more than any other band, and maybe Slaughter (look- I know some talented dudes in there but....."I'm the one" or whatever that song was....enough).

Pearl Jam was fine with 10. Soundgarden, fine. Despised Nirvana. Over rated cry baby shit IMO. It wasn't so much the music as the whining of grunge that got me. We went from "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS" to "Rape Me". Fuck, life has enough depressing moments. I don't need to import depression though some idiot's adolescent whining.

Your second paragraph hits it on the head. I keep trying to tell my kids this but they still want to listen to all the emo cry baby bullshit that is out there. Music used to be about sex drugs and rock n roll. Somewhere along the line it turned into Waaaaa, the world isnt perfect like Barney told me it was. I just want to kick all those crybaby idiots in the teeth with steel toed workboots. I think I can relate better to most of the hip hop out there (not rap) allthough I cant stand the music and the autotune,etc. At least that music is about enjoying life and having fun. I just hate how it sounds.