The great Hair Metal debacle.

It seems to me that over the last couple of years, the '80's hair metal bashing has somewhat subsided in popular culture. I dare say that I hear more and more of it's influence in modern rock, especially when discussing the "flavor of the day" bands like Asking Alexandra, who covered 2 Skid Row songs on the Life Gone Wild EP.

This is probably a natural progression, as just about all music nerds look back at the '70's disco craze with rose colored glasses these days, which was not even close to the case for a very long time after the "Disco Sucks" era of the early 80's.

Today, big Hair Metal festivals like Rocklahoma continue to prove that the genre is not forgotten. Poison still draws big numbers during their annual romps, and whether or not Bon Jovi admits it now, he was a Hair Metal king from 1984 through 1991. Same with Def Leppard and other bands that continue to draw (larger than club) crowds.

Beg your pardon miss, but you fancied those blokes as bloody wankers, didn't you? Cheerio!

Despite the fans, Hair Metal is still absolutely ignored and shunned by the elite rock media, hipsters and rock snobs abound. It is all residual damage from the implosion of a scene that was rampant with PG promises of a rockin' good time and dreamy fairy tale love. To them, Hair Metal's death was a mercy killing. As a rock snob myself, I partially lean that way these days.

I admit openly that I was caught up in this trend during it's heyday. Mostly because I became a pre-teen at the height of it (I turned 12 in 1986). However, Metal fans at the time were not as complex as today. I could like Motley and Metallica, and no one would bat an eye. Eventually Metal became something harder on the street level, and hair metal became all about the female fans.

With that in mind I can say that we as kids loved Thrash Metal (Megadeth), loved Heavy Metal (Iron Maiden) and liked Hair Metal (Dokken). It was not equal in value because we recognized cock rock for what it was. However the lines were not as clear as they are today in hindsight. Even the mighty Judas Priest fell victim to the trend.

Judas Priest in 1986



Somewhere along the way the Heavy definitely took a back seat to the Hair. Big corporate money began pumping out sub-par bands just to make a buck, which was sad. I did not understand it myself at the time. How anyone could call a band like Danger Danger "Metal" was beyond me. It was crappy pop music with a guitar solo.

By the early '90's, the trend became so diluted that it was hard to find anything heavy about it at all. My mind needed much more then the fluff of what Chest Hair Metal had to offer. Even the greats of the early '80's succumbed to the allure of big corporate ca$h.

Motley Crue 1983:

Motley Crue 1989:

It took 6 years to transform Motley from Hanoi Rocks evil little brother into Styx's sissy little cousin.
 

We all know the story from here: along comes Grunge and goodbye Hair. Heavy Metal retreated to the underground to lick it's wounds save the mighty Pantera from Texas. Pantera (themselves a reformed Hair band) showed metal fans the way, and no one looked back for many years. It was a time of expansion for the aging teens of the '80's, as all bets were officially off. I personally soaked up music like a sponge from all genres. I was always a metalhead, but it took me a few years to discover how good Metal had gotten from being underground (ie: Nevermore, Iced Earth etc...)

There again, the lines were not as clear at the time. Alice in Chains were a Metal band, right? Soundgarden sounded like Zep-Sabbath, and Cinderella became southern rock.

Nowadays I view it all with the wisdom of an old dude and the benefit of hindsight. I can separate the great Metal Cheese of the early 80's from the Marshmallow Fluff of the early '90's. I understand that Firehouse had as much to do with killing this genre as Grunge did. Somehow these dudes lost their way and ditched the devil for chest hair. For the record: Love of a Lifetime is a horrible song.

But I still scratch my head about how we went from this in 1980:

 

To this in 1990: 

It had something to do with LA and Aquanet, or so we are told.

Much of the popular music of that genre is still taboo to my ears, but when Ratt's Lay It Down shows up on my XM, I crank it. Same with anything off of Skid Row's Slave to Grind. I have never wavered in my love for Twisted Sister and if Dirty Look's Cool From the Wire were on my I-pod, I would play it right now.

In conclusion, I am finding that I am softening to parts of genre that I left for dead years ago. I can't promise that I will ever be able to not vomit when Danger Danger comes on the radio, but I will once again leave room in my playlist for Tom Keifer. If he can still write tunes, then why not?

 

More than nerds..... is all you have to do to make it real.

Currently Playing:

Michale Graves - Vagabond LP

Jason Newstead - Metal EP

CCR - Cosmo's Factory

Cancer Bats - Bat Sabbath/Bastards of Reality