Is Van Halen a hair band?

[Foxhound]

Thumper:

But you see I learned all those terms from you and your buddies and your debating partners on the forums! I never watched MTV or read the music "press" and I wasn't even aware that there was any dichotomy between the glam/hair metal bands of the eighties and the grunge bands of the nineties! Everybody from Van Halen to Guns 'n Roses to Nirvana to Nine Inch Nails all just sounded like heavy metal to me. In fact, when I asked a girl tending bar back in the mid nineties what kind of music she liked and she said alternative, my response was "Alternative to what?" Because of course any band can be considered an alternative to any other so the term isn't exactly loaded with specific meaning.

So you have to accept part of the blame for teaching me all about these subcategories! You yourself corrupted me. Previously I innocently just lumped all the bands beginning with Van Halen right on up through Nirvana to Nine Inch Nails as just heavy metal thrash bands of some sort or other. Now I've been educated - but I'm not sure that's a good thing.

 

[Groovy Man]

Jock Cock rock

Never heard that one before...just thought it sounded funny.

 

[Aktivator]

Now I've been educated - but I'm not sure that's a good thing.

judging by the fact we know you will ask more questions. Nope not a good thing.

ugh this thread is giving me a hair band headache.

 

[METALPRIEST]

But it's not just David Lee Roth when it comes to Van Halen. What about this guy?

Where's his shirt? And was Eddie Van Halen not the very poster boy for guitar excess in the eighties?



But look at this fellow:



Doesn't Peter Townshend's nose act to offset Roger Daltrey's outrageous getups?

Did not Michael Anthony offset??

 

[METALPRIEST]

ugh this thread is giving me a hair band headache.

Easy solution to this

 

[Foxhound]

Did not Michael Anthony offset??

Michael Anthony!? You mean he's the one who took poor Eddie's shirt?

 

[Magic]

LOL....Foxhound you remind me of an anteater, scratching really hard to find one ant buried really deep in the ant hill.

 

[Dairenn]

It's an interesting question. IS Van Halen a "Hair Band?" I think that a "true" hair band is, essentially a band that did not invent its own style, but was assigned one by the industry for the primary purpose of making money.

For me to understand the association between rock and long hair, I have to think about the origins of rock. The development of rock music in America was and is closely tied with whatever the current cultural issues were of the day. Furthermore, counter-cultural rebellion has always been a major reason for the popularity of rock 'n roll among young people. Therefore, though rock pioneers like Chuck Berry/Elvis Presley wore suits and ties with conservative hairstyles, the controversy was in "suggestive dance" with all that pelvic movement, and that it was loud and energetic. So what was the controversy over long hair? As far as I can tell, it wasn't (just) a fashion statement, but a rejection of the military, thanks to the draft, one of the most socially visible aspects of those apart of the military was the crew cut hairstyle. It seems like for at least a couple of decades, long hair was associated with hip, cool, peaceful and passionate while short hair was associated with the opposite adjectives... A square, militaristic, cold.

So, as the sound of rock began to evolve into what they were calling "heavy metal" in the 1980s, the hair simply came along with it... Guys like Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and later Whitesnake, already had the hair because that seemed to be the scene--whether you were a musician, or just a fan. Just take a look at any concert photos or video you can find where you can see the fans and they looked just like the band!

But again, my theory on rock music is that besides what it sounds like, it is a social tool for expressing counter-cultural feelings and ideas. So once MTV successfully commercialized long-haired rock music entertainment, I think counter-culture music fans did what they do, and rebelled. From what I could see, shaved heads, goatees and tattoos was the new look of rock as the form of rock du-jour became alt-rock, UK/NY punk and Seattle's grunge. Part of that rebellion against what became mainstream rock was, apparently, ridicule, and thus the "hair band" pejorative had developed as part of the joke to mock the scene, as far as I can tell.

These days, I think the "hair metal" term is now playfully applied to the audiovisual style between approximately 1982-1992 just as a way to differentiate it from "metal" as it has come to be defined by today's hard rock bands like Avenged Sevenfold, and not necessarily derisively anymore. Just like how progressive metal is a term (which I don't think has ever been interpreted as a musical "slur") to draw a distinction between your 4/4 timed, 2-verse/3-chorus 4 minute radio rock single and 7+ minute "epics" with time signature changes and virtuosic instrumental performances.

But if "hair bands" were essentially templated rock groups assembled by record industry-types to feed MTV between '87 and the era's end in '93, then Van Halen is most certainly not a hair band. It probably just looks that way because hair bands from the late 1980s heavily borrowed from the audiovisual styles of Van Halen, along with Led Zepplein, Motley Crue along with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. In my opinion the first, or one of the first "hair bands" (in terms of being a group designed to be a stylistic clone for the benefit of MTV) was possibly Poison.

 

[LG]

^^I agree with Dairenn's epic post. Game set and match Fox, VH is Not a Hair band, but you could call the members Hairy if you wanted.

 

[aeroplane]

They were on the scene too early to be called a hair band, as far as I am concerned. If I had to label Van Halen, I'd call them classic rock.

People could argue that Kiss and Alice Cooper jumped on the hair band train whole hog with their music in the 80's and early 90's. Look at photos or music videos of either band. For that matter, just listen to the music. It happened. That doesn't mean those artists are hair bands, though.

When you overthink this sort of topic, one could bring up one of the later day Van Halen videos (either from Balance or the Twister movie) in which a couple VH members were dressed like guys from a "Seattle" band. Wish I could remember it, but I recall watching it on one of their dvd's startled at how different it looked from their videos with Dave or even stuff early on with Sammy.

Kids who were growing up in the 80's and saw a few AC/DC videos, without knowing a thing about the band, could have easily called them a hair band. I saw an interview with Brian Johnson from a few years back in which he commented that during the Blow Up Your Video days, their record label tried multiple times to get the band to wear spandex and leather jackets in their videos, to no avail.

Same thing with Aerosmith. Some 11-year old kid watching their 1980's music videos on MTV who didn't know anything about Aerosmith's work in the 70's could have easily come to the conclusion they were a hair band, given some of the videos we saw from Pump and Permanent Vacation.