"Hair Metal" vs Grunge

Romulus

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For me Youtube is as good as the internet search engine and I don't think I have ever not found a particular artist or music on this fantastic youtube. Ofcourse the biggest attraction is that its free unlike Tidal, Spotify or equivalent streaming stations. I am from the old ways and cannot fathom paying direct debit (payment for ever) for music which I will not own...? Youtube has opened my world to music so I do not have to rely on services like Roon. My music collection consists of vinyl and cds (which are so cheap nowadays) and am hoping to ressurect my old turntable so I can play vinyl again.
 

Marla 1976

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Nirvana to me is like The Ramone’s we’re in the 70’s, raw, in your face and making no apologies. Nirvana was needed at that time to shake things up a bit. We could really use a band like that today.
Are you serious? You can say how "Grunge" was good for Rock but in no way can an emergence that killed it be considered a good thing for Rock. Looking at it in retrospect shows how devastating it truly was.The emergence of the alternative style stifled Rock's growth and continuance as a cultural force. I can't help but think how much Rock has become a caricature of itself as a result.
I really do believe 80's early 90s Hair/Heavy Metal was Rock's last good era. When Grunge/Alternative came into popularity circa 1992 and onward, the era of modern rock began. Rock has never been the same since then. From a composition standpoint the genre declined big time. I believe that this decline in compositional standards and overall musical content that occurred with the rise 90's alt rock era contributed to the declining popularity of rock music today, e.g. why so many young youths today prefer Rap, R&B, and Pop. The Rock genre had nothing astounding going on post 1992. The people that grew up in the 90's and later had no Led Zeppelin I, Disraeli Gears or Are You Experienced? of their own to make them go out and pick up an instrument and do better than what came before them. 1993 was the last year before Rock essentially died.

Sure the lyrical subjects of hair bands were rather shallow, concentrating on partying, drugs, and sex, but the music was kick-ass hard rock/heavy metal, pulling from influences such as Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, and Black Sabbath. It was entertaining, exciting and made you feel good, versus the "I'm depressed and hate the world for no reason" message of Grunge.
Explain to me how grunge was any more creative than "hair" metal? Personally, Bret Michaels singing "Nothin' But a Good Time" - as derivative as that may be - is infinitely preferable to an unwashed, flannel-shirted Vedder bellowing his angst over recycled Sabbath/Zeppelin riffs. I just I miss the good highschool times rockin to crue and leppard..aerosmith..poison ..in the parking lot before class started.long live 80s/early 90s Heavy Metal. History speaks for itself. Right before grunge, Rock had one of the widest mass appeals at that point. It appealed to males, females and to all ages. Fact is "hair metal" lasted longer and was more successful than most other sub-genres in rock - that alone makes the detractors bitter and twisted. Plus most of the band members were better looking than those who constantly attack them!!
 

OldHippie

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Are you serious? You can say how "Grunge" was good for Rock but in no way can an emergence that killed it be considered a good thing for Rock. Looking at it in retrospect shows how devastating it truly was.The emergence of the alternative style stifled Rock's growth and continuance as a cultural force. I can't help but think how much Rock has become a caricature of itself as a result.
I really do believe 80's early 90s Hair/Heavy Metal was Rock's last good era. When Grunge/Alternative came into popularity circa 1992 and onward, the era of modern rock began. Rock has never been the same since then. From a composition standpoint the genre declined big time. I believe that this decline in compositional standards and overall musical content that occurred with the rise 90's alt rock era contributed to the declining popularity of rock music today, e.g. why so many young youths today prefer Rap, R&B, and Pop. The Rock genre had nothing astounding going on post 1992. The people that grew up in the 90's and later had no Led Zeppelin I, Disraeli Gears or Are You Experienced? of their own to make them go out and pick up an instrument and do better than what came before them. 1993 was the last year before Rock essentially died.

Sure the lyrical subjects of hair bands were rather shallow, concentrating on partying, drugs, and sex, but the music was kick-ass hard rock/heavy metal, pulling from influences such as Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, and Black Sabbath. It was entertaining, exciting and made you feel good, versus the "I'm depressed and hate the world for no reason" message of Grunge.
Explain to me how grunge was any more creative than "hair" metal? Personally, Bret Michaels singing "Nothin' But a Good Time" - as derivative as that may be - is infinitely preferable to an unwashed, flannel-shirted Vedder bellowing his angst over recycled Sabbath/Zeppelin riffs. I just I miss the good highschool times rockin to crue and leppard..aerosmith..poison ..in the parking lot before class started.long live 80s/early 90s Heavy Metal. History speaks for itself. Right before grunge, Rock had one of the widest mass appeals at that point. It appealed to males, females and to all ages. Fact is "hair metal" lasted longer and was more successful than most other sub-genres in rock - that alone makes the detractors bitter and twisted. Plus most of the band members were better looking than those who constantly attack them!!
I've been through many many changes in music since I first watched the Beatles as a ten year old in 1964. I've been through the scourges of Bubblegum, disco and a few more. None of these have been successful in defeating good old guitar driven Rock and Roll. I just don't get your hatred towards Nirvanna. They were successful in bringing grunge to the forefront. I like grunge. It was the voice of a whole generation, not my generation but I still liked it. Rock is not dead, it's not even sick.



 

RISING66

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I too grew up with Hair Metal...enjoyed it very much although we didn't call it that name back then but it was great music up until around 1992. What killed hair metal was the lack of new material or lack of quality of new material from those bands. I grew up with bands like Tesla, Skid Row, Motley Crue, Kix, Warrant, Poison, Cinderella, Dokken, Ratt, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns. I had posters of hair bands all over my walls in the mid to late 80's. Bands I enjoyed throughout my early teens but as the early 90's came around you would be hard pressed to find a decent album by any of these bands. Maybe one good song and the rest filler. Basically hair metal killed itself not grunge doing it in. Grunge helped but the time had come for something fresh and new for the next generation of fans. For me it started with bands around 1989 like Faith No More, Janes Addiction and Nine Inch Nails that sparked my interest with their energy and new sounds. Then when grunge came it blew the door right open for other styles of music to come out in the 90's...a very eclectic decade for music. I didn't even view bands like Nirvana and Alice in Chains at the time as something called grunge. I heard sounds of metal and punk in their music and was drawn in by that. Grunge was good for rock music at that time. It was a much needed kick in the ass and I am so glad I was able to experience it all in person. Some of my best memories are going to concerts during those days. I still have a fondness for hair metal and still listen to it to this day but I also love grunge and all the music that followed in the 90's.
 

Bonham'ssqueakypedal

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First of all Def Leppard, GnR and Aerosmith were not(and are not) hair metal. Aside from that not all of it is horrible but I will still take grunge rock over it. To me there's a huge difference between regular hard rock/heavy metal and hair metal. As Eddie Trunk has said "hair metal" wasn't even really metal. I agree. It was more like melodic hard rock(at best)with an emphasis on appearances over the music. Not that there weren't or aren't women who were into megadeth, metallica, iron maiden, slayer etc but "hair metal" or glam metal was pretty obviously(imo)geared towards a female audience. Maybe that's why most guys including myself don't like it.
 

Marla 1976

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First of all Def Leppard, GnR and Aerosmith were not(and are not) hair metal. Aside from that not all of it is horrible but I will still take grunge rock over it. To me there's a huge difference between regular hard rock/heavy metal and hair metal. As Eddie Trunk has said "hair metal" wasn't even really metal. I agree. It was more like melodic hard rock(at best)with an emphasis on appearances over the music. Not that there weren't or aren't women who were into megadeth, metallica, iron maiden, slayer etc but "hair metal" or glam metal was pretty obviously(imo)geared towards a female audience. Maybe that's why most guys including myself don't like it.
I was in high school 1990-94, and we called it Metal. It was always good to have a few trash metal albums around for when boys would come around. But if they weren't around it was Poison, Winger, Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, Cinderella, Warrant, Slaughter, Def Leppard, etc. Hair metal was popular as soon as Metal Health and, to a slightly lesser extent, Pyromania were released - that was early 1983. Hair metal reigned for a decade or more. Glam metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, but still metal. As i said many times, the term 'Hair Metal' only came about as a derogatory term so people could put down a band, a sound, or a look they didn't like or understand. In the "definitive metal family tree" of his documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, anthropologist Sam Dunn differentiates pop metal, which includes bands like Def Leppard, Europe, and Whitesnake, from glam metal bands that include Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister and Poison.
Hair metal is another of those stupid terms that was applied to the genre YEARS after the fact, most likely by hipster journalists. In the 80s/ early 90s it was METAL. All hair metal is heavy metal.
Judas Priest was really the first band to define heavy metal, in both music and image. Rob Halford basically invented the image of what people would equate with heavy metal, and musically, Priest was the first to pretty much disregard blues influences for the most part, which separates them from Sabbath, Zeppelin etc. And nobody could credibly say that Judas Priest is not a real Heavy Metal band. In the '70s there was no distinction made between heavy metal and hard rock and any band that featured any aggressive guitar riffs could get hit with the tag. Bands like Heart and Queen were getting called metal, which is kinda ridiculous in retrospect.

That said, it is unfair to say that the difference is that Hair Metal is about image and Heavy Metal is not. Just different images.
 

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