What killed Hair Metal?

[yard dawg]

Smells Like Teen Spirit killed hair bands. Warrant was the top band being promoted at there label right before SLTS hit. Janie Lane said the day after it hit every poster of theres at the labels office was torn down and replaced. You can say Nirvana sucked but the kids bought it like crazy. Grunge killed hair metal. It gave the public another choice in music as hair metal was getting to be nothing but copy cat bands. Now all the has beens from the hair band days are in Nashville pumping out country cds now. Bon Jovi and The Eagles are country now hahahahaha.......

[Frigo89]

I never understood why Dokken was considered hair metal, I always felt Tooth and Nail (the song its self) was atleast as metal as anything of Slayer's Reign in Blood, and DEFINATELY a LOT more listenable (this coming from an Old Slayer Die-hard!)

I'd say the Image was alot of it, and it became too much about that, and once it was over, even the bands who didnt wanna be part of it got tossed in.

Enuff Z'Nuff was called the hottest band by Rolling Stone in 1991, and they have released great album after great album, and still get shut down for at one point looking like complete fags

[Dreamland_Rebel]

i think more had to do with the fact that a whole new genre of bands (like Nirvana) started coming out that looked and dressed like normal everyday people... shattering the Rock Star illusion, that "we're larger than life", image that almost all rock and metal bands had going on. this had an almost overnight effect on the whole scene. now the kids were making fun of how feminine the bands were dressing which drove the die hard fans to heavier music and the fickle fans followed the new grunge movement cause it said to them, hey anyone can do it, you can be a rock star too.



some may think this was for the better. but i feel the oposite. i want my metal bands to look like metal bands. i want them to seem larger than life. i don't want them to look like every other kid at the coffee shop. that isn't metal to me.

[Super_shredder]

Dude, if Prince is gay then you are the whole gay pride parade.

Aside from being a brilliant musician, amazing composer, and kick ass guitarist, Prince is a SERIOUS ladies man.

You, on the other hand, post pictures of men in makeup on the Internet.

whoop whoop for prince

[5074charvel]

The band Europe killed the hair movement. If you don´t believe me, listen to Final Countdown. That synthesizer vamp haunts me and the rest of my generation for 20 years now. It´s ringing again ... Stop Stop Stop.

[markD]

in my opinion, hair metal ran its course. labels signed EVERYONE that was even remotely close to being a "hair" band. the music became so dilluted, the song writing became cliched and redundant, the last wave of those bands just weren't as good.

as politics changed and we left the reaganonmics behind and entered the first gulf war, things got darker. the feel good music of the mid 80's was replaced by heavier, meaner stuff. nirvana was full of angst...the underground metal got more attention, and ALL music (including rap) got more violent and "heavy".

simply put, the times changed. when people are in the midst of a war (regardless of how long it lasts) and the economy begins to change, people get angrier...

a lot of people decided to get political in their music and stop singing about parties and getting laid. not neccessarily a bad thing in my opinion. i couldn't STAND that music when it was popular. now, many years later, i get hair metal and realize it was meaningless fluff and pointless self-gratification!!!

[Endrik]

Don Dokken is as metal as castrated bunny... very cheesy band with AWESOME players who were seriously hold back by the lead singer... I listened them ONLY because of George's awesome riffs and solos... I very rarely listen to a band only because of the guitarist but I think George is very special...
All the other projects that George, Jeff or Mick has been involved were a lot better than Dokken and they didn't sound like Dokken at all wich means they probably didn't cared about the band's (Don's) direction much either.
Now Lynch Mob was fantastic hard rock band, too bad George didn't hook up with a real rock singer 10 years earlier.
Dokken just looked ridiculous and they didn't even have their own tour, they always were the opening band. And I agree, they didn't sound like most hair bands, they sounded even worse, they sounded like corny Mid-European heavy metal band.

Now Extreme is another band that many can't stand because of the singer... but at least the other members could do pretty much whatever they wanted.
I don't mind Gary but I think Nuno is much better singer.

Some people mentioned Whitesnake... they were a classic blues based hard rock band for a decade.... and a pretty good one... they turned into a glam with Slip Of The Tongue wich came out in '89.
'87 album with Sykes had the best riffs and solos after the first four VH albums, and the singing blew all the Brett Michaels, Don Dokken, Marc Slaughter, C.J. Snare (Firehouse) etc. crap away that it wasn't even funny.

btw. Rolling Stone magazine is a bigger joke than Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame, they were the douchebags who couldn't start talking shit about Led Fucking Zeppelin when they came out and thought it's cool to place the most influental player after Hendrix on the bottom on their retarded motherfucking 100 greatest guitarists list.

[sonicsamurai]

re 5047charvel:

thats a daft statement

firstly they were earlier technicaly - the record is only 86 - and they were never really part of glam metal. they were more outsiders, and final countdown the reason john norum left. that aside the album has some great tracks. time has come, cherokee, carrie, rock the night - all great tracks. their stuff afterwards is more glam. and prisoners in paradise is a great album. if they killed glam how come no other glam bands tried to be like them? and if u think thats got too much keyboards try listening to quiet riot three - that has even more - again they weren't part of the scene really either, althought they adapted their style on their later 2 albums to be more akin to glam.

[Endrik]

The band Europe killed the hair movement. If you don´t believe me, listen to Final Countdown. That synthesizer vamp haunts me and the rest of my generation for 20 years now. It´s ringing again ... Stop Stop Stop.

Absolutely, it still amazes me how a decent Thin Lizzy inspiered band turned into shit like that... fucking final countdown and the video of cherokee... no wonder Norum left... kinda funny that the leading Swedish jazz-fusion player Kee Marcello joined them... what a joke... now they try to sound like Black Label Society

[sonicsamurai]

if u are dissing dokken prepare to DIEEEEEEE!!!

don had a great voice, and a great guitarist. i think he was definately one fo the best singers in the genre, and really helped to set the band apart from their contempoararies.

secondly their recent stuff has been great too, apart from long way home i think. john levin is a great guitarist and i really like what they did on hell to pay, and the new album coming out soon



And whitesnake were never realy glam either. their classic stuff is better. 1987 is a wo track album i think, one of which is just a rehash of an older song anyway, so really its aone track record - stil of the night. the rest of its a bit, uknow dull. and the next album with steve vai sucked.

[Endrik]

if u are dissing dokken prepare to DIEEEEEEE!!!

don had a great voice, and a great guitarist. i think he was definately one fo the best singers in the genre, and really helped to set the band apart from their contempoararies.

Don Dokken is one of the weakest singer I've ever heard, he should have been in AOR band... he's got the melody but no balls whatsoever.
He held his band back so much it's fucking ridiculous. I thought they couldn't groove to save their lives but when Mick played on the first Lynch Mob album I was like... holy fuck Mick can really play... why the fuck he spent that much time with Don.

Some Dokken songs are pretty good... like Sleepless Nights... and some of their albums have some of the best guitar tones ever... that being said they were still pretty lame.

[Endrik]

Stephen Pearcy is one of the worst singer ever yet he had some balls and he was a cool rock frontman... and he wrote tons of great songs wich made a lot of girls wet their panties. Don Dokken didn't had any of those qualities in my opinion...

[Endrik]

And whitesnake were never realy glam either. their classic stuff is better. 1987 is a wo track album i think, one of which is just a rehash of an older song anyway, so really its aone track record - stil of the night. the rest of its a bit, uknow dull. and the next album with steve vai sucked.

yeah dull, that's why it has more platinum records than I have fingers I can't find a weak spot on the '87 album.

[xenophobe]

lol @ all you fuckers defending the "primp, preem and perm" generation.

To give up your manliness just to score on chicks... Um. If you can't be yourself and get women and have to dress like a pretty girl, then that's gay. As gay as emo, IMO, and we can all pretty much agree that emo guys are homos even if they don't like guys.

You don't have to suck cock to be gay. Wearing tight spandex, makeup and making up your hair like a pop metal band is just as popular with the trannies in SF.

Any of you want to get made up like a girl and post your picture here?

Halloween is one day a year. Hair metal extended that for too many years.

So what really killed it? The image of guys dressing in the right neon paisley color combinations of spandex, belts and vests, and spending more time on their hair and makeup than their girlfriends.

[Szostak]

lol @ all you fuckers defending the "primp, preem and perm" generation.

To give up your manliness just to score on chicks... Um. If you can't be yourself and get women and have to dress like a pretty girl, then that's gay. As gay as emo, IMO, and we can all pretty much agree that emo guys are homos even if they don't like guys.

You don't have to suck cock to be gay. Wearing tight spandex, makeup and making up your hair like a pop metal band is just as popular with the trannies in SF.

Any of you want to get made up like a girl and post your picture here?

Halloween is one day a year. Hair metal extended that for too many years.

So what really killed it? The image of guys dressing in the right neon paisley color combinations of spandex, belts and vests, and spending more time on their hair and makeup than their girlfriends.

You have to remember, things were different back then ... take the mullet, for instance.