I am sick to death of hearing about how Nirvana killed Hair Metal. Artists, journalists and fans have it mostly wrong. I was there. I witnessed it on the ground level. Hell, I welcomed it! Here what really happened from where I stood:
Prequel: let's dispel the myth that Hair Metal went out in the 80's. It was alive and breathing well into 1992. Slaughter never released an LP in the 80's. Skid Row's Slave to the Grind debuted at #1 in June of 1991, and a new breed of Hair was on the rise with bands like Steelheart, Trixter and Ugly Kid Joe. Scorpions had a massive hit in 1991 with Winds of Change, and Queensriech blew up the radio with their Empire LP.
Granted, Grunge was embraced by MTV, and for a minute it was cool to be depressed and flanneled, but before anyone realized that it was its own thing, the grunge bands had air play on Headbangers Ball. To me, Soundgarden had more in common with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin than Neil Young (who somehow became the godfather of Grunge).
If Grunge took the piss out of chest hair Metal (that means you Kip Winger) then Metal deserved it. Life is not some big sex party, and for me, it was getting hard to see any of the last wave of hair as cool. Thrash was the answer for me.
It started with Van Halen, and ended with Danger Danger. I failed to see even a remote connection between the two. Seriously, by the end it was all Acoustic driven, and bands like Tesla forgot how to plug in and ride the lightning (that's a quote stolen from Dee Snyder, I wish I came up with it).
There is just so much more to the story.
Here's how I saw it implode in 5 acts:
1. The big brother band: Metallica.
Once Metallica slowed down and made music palatable to mainstream, hair metal didn't stand a chance.
The leaders of the thrash movement had substance, melody and drive. Pepper in a little production and walla! Everyone bought the Black Album. 16 Million units sold in the US, 30 million Globally.
The Black Album outsold Nevermind in the US by 5 million copies.
2. The snotty little brother Band: Guns and Roses:
Guns were a throwback to a looser, cooler and more rebellious class of metal. One part Hanoi, one part Aerosmith, they capitalized on being the alternative to the God awful Danger Danger bands of the era. 1987 was a pinnacle year for the death of Hair, Appetite for Destruction was released.
The songs were great. The band was dangerous, and that mattered a great deal to an era that spawned bands like Steelheart. Substance and rebellion were not new concepts, and Hair Metal had more in common with Air Supply than Black Sabbath toward the end.
Guns popularity reached a fever pitch and propelled them to legends in the face of the grunge movement. They fell just as fast, but being the last true LA band, and probably the best LA band period, Guns made good by showing the world a road map between Hair and Grunge.
#3: The Fucking Hostile Southern Cousin band: Pantera.
What do you get when you cross thrash with hardcore and zz top? One of the most loved, most copied, and baddest fucking bands to ever call themselves Metal.
Capitalizing on a sound rumbling up from the Thrash movement, Dimebag and Co. ruled an underground that was less pretentious and more likely to punch you in the face. They absolutely got it. Groove and "Fuck you" mixed with straight up rebellion. It was exactly what the disenfranchised youth that hated grunge needed. Not everyone believed that Billy Corgan was deep, Pantera fans knew he was just some pussy. They ruled the underground throughout all of the 90's, and gave a middle finger to every trend that popped up during their heyday.
4. Firehouse and the last wave of hair.
These bands were so awful. Cartoon theme songs and wedding dances. Barry Manilo heard Nelson and was like: "those guys are soft."
Any band gaining popularity toward the end of Hair Metal deserved the fall from grace they got. Shame on you all. If you want to lose a youth culture, focus your genre around shit ballads and take your medicine.....
5. Bon Jovi got a Haircut.
As Grunge started to blow up, the old metal guard started distancing themselves away from the term "Metal." Steven Pearcy, Nikki Sixx, Jack Russell, Bon Jovi and many other dudes were all saying shit like "we're not really a Metal band, we are Hard Rock," but no one really meant it, except for in the case of Bom Jovi.
By 1992, JBJ was leading the charge in running the hell away from Metal, but since '86, his camp operated a level above the rest of them anyway. In a way, a lot of the pussification of Metal is due to him, yet he was the only one to transcend it. Way to go Jon.
JBJ absolutely started his career as a vocalist in a metal band. 7800 degrees F. was pretty Dokken, and to think that Bon Jovi wasn't a part of the whole scene is silly. They have done an excellent job of NEVER EVER acknowledging it.
Once Jon cut his hair, the masses followed him. The barber shops filled up and AquaNet lost huge dividends. "Keep the Faith" looks like a Pearl Jam album and sounds nothing like "New Jersey." Jovi's band went from Wuss Metal to Wuss Alternative overnight. The record companies took notice and pressured their metal acts to do the same.
I need to do an entire Bon Jovi blog.
There was an underground of bands that made good during the worst of it. Faith No More, Dream Theater, Primus, Sepultura, White Zombie, Marylin Manson and several others found a niche and capitalized on a dying trend of lipstick, while at the same time helping to draw lines that lead to the overflow of sub-genres we see today.
MTV's embracing of Grunge was important, don't get me wrong, but if it killed Hair bands, it was just the last nail. Hair was on its way out way before Kim Deal was a big deal and the grunge movement didn't even make it half as long as Hair did.
I guess Beavis and Buthead deserve a little credit also...
Standing down.
Nago
