Need to state this up front…  I have a love/hate relationship with hair metal.  For one, I hate the name-  just a fancy marketing term that a large number of bands from the 80s have been lumped into.  And that’s another reason:  I get the hair bit but METAL?  Ummm…  no.  Although I guess it flows a little better than “hair rock” or “hair hard rock” but hey, it’s just semantics.  And those power ballads?  Uggggh… Oh yeah, I did say that I love some of it too.  Let’s highlight some of the ups and downs of a genre that you couldn’t escape from roughly 1983-1991.

1.  1983-1986 were the best years

IMHO, the years 83 to 86 were the peak of the genre:  the LA scene was really kicking into high gear at this time with many bands looking to become the next Van Halen, KISS, or Aerosmith.  Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken, Quiet Riot, Great White, etc were signed and releasing their first records during this period, Bon Jovi was debuting on the East Coast, and Def Leppard were already veterans but were soon refining their approach to songwriting.  At this point the genre was still fresh and the bands appeared to be more in control of their destiny.

2.  New guitar heroes were being born

As I’d mentioned previously, Van Halen was a HUGE influence on the newest batch of six stringers and many of them ended up being lumped into the genre due to the technical wizardry of Eddie Van Halen.  Some of these players, like George Lynch, were peers of Van Halen and started at the same time although his influence on bands throughout the 80s cannot be denied.  Other artists such as Warren DeMartini of Ratt, Jake E Lee of Ozzy Osbourne, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, and Reb Beach of Winger (just to name a few) were taking the best of VH and putting their own spin on things and adding other 70s influences like a Ritchie Blackmore, Ace Frehley, or Michael Schenker.  These players were (and still are) quite dynamic in both the lead and rhythm department and were able to add fresh new sounds during the 80s via their playing styles and songwriting structures.

3.  Influence on older bands was…  hit or miss

Let’s talk three specific bands whose careers changed quite a bit during the hair era:  KISS, Whitesnake, and Aerosmith.  1983 was an interesting year for KISS-  the band was now down two original members as Ace Frehley was long gone and replaced by Vinnie Vincent, but the shock of all shocks was the decision to “unmask” and drop all vestiges from the past.  Whether due to declining sales or seeking an opportunity to showcase a hot new band via what was then a two year old MTV, the band did a decent job over the next few years and released a handful of albums that did quite well for the time.  Not as influential as the earlier years but they had no problem hopping on the bandwagon, often taking many of the new hot bands on tour with them.  While I don’t view them as a hair band, they most definitely were an influence on the genre strictly due to their over the top performance, entertaining stage show, and “KISS” songwriting format (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Aerosmith was another matter-  down and out due to drug excess, the Boston bad boys had gathered their sea legs again via 1985’s Done With Mirrors LP but it wasn’t until Run DMC’s remake of the ‘Smith’s “Walk This Way” that really brought the band back to worldwide attention.  Shortly thereafter, newly clean and sober, the band released a couple of albums at the tail end of the 80s that revived their career with help from Geffen A&R guru John Kalodner (John Kalodner) and hit doctors such as Desmond Child and Diane Warren.  The hooks were hookier and the rough edges sanded down, leading to even greater fame than ever before.

As for Whitesnake…  a British institution since 1978 led by former Deep Purple (Mk III) vocalist David Coverdale, the band had a somewhat stable lineup until 1984’s great Slide It In album, which was the first attempt to crack the American market.  However, two key factors in play for their self titled album released in 1987 that really put the band over the top:  1) the sacking of ALL members of the previous band and bringing on more MTV friendly fare (i.e., skinny rockers with long hair and MUCH younger); and 2) model (and soon to be Coverdale’s wife) Tawny Kitaen’s presence in three band videos.  The combination of the hot new band and the hot model sent Whitesnake sales soaring and forever linking that band to the hair metal genre (unfairly, in my estimation).

4) The hair got higher, the makeup more glammy, and pusses became more poutier 

Did I say I have a love\hate relationship with hair metal?  Most definitely.  At some point around 1986, the image (most definitely crafted for MTV) started to take over moreso than the music.  Suddenly you had bands singing and gesticulating/gyrating TO the camera instead of to a fake video audience, all topped off with a mix of pretty boy closeups, and often incredibly silly antics.  Focus on the Bon Jovis, the Warrants, and the Poisons seemed to be more about the glamorous looks of the band members or their fashion sense instead of the music, plus many bands seemed to be trying to outdo their contemporaries with one video trick or another (bigger hair, slow motion camera dramatics, more and more video vixens, etc).  And those power ballads?  Every hair band HAD to have one or two per album (gross).

5) Guns N Roses almost saved the genre

Never really a hair band per se but forever linked to the era, the Gunners took more of a street lethal approach to the music and performance aspect of the video format but also kept certain elements from their counterparts.  For as much badassery on display musically, they also had their own visual appeal that was far apart from other bands of the time as they looked relatively unwashed ‘n unkempt in comparison.  Sure, Axl had the big hair in their smash “Welcome To The Jungle” and Slash had the trademark top hat but these guys were out to slay performance wise and show you what a great rock band could be.  Fellow bands started to drop the fashion sense in favor of regular T shirts and jeans.

6)  Grunge didn’t kill hair metal…  the industry killed it and tried to kill metal in general

As someone who worked in a record store at the onset of grunge, I can honestly say that the music industry tried to kill ALL semblance of metal.  Sure, hair metal was still riding high on the charts in the early 90s with a mishmash of very good to not so good new blood plus the music genre started get a little more alternative (but still heavy in some ways) via bands like Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Hell, you could see bands like Alice N Chains and Soundgarden on Headbanger’s Ball and I never thought twice as I was digging the fresh new sounds.  However, once Pearl Jam and Nirvana hit it big a lot of 80s metal bands were dropped from major labels like a bad habit, and not just the hair bands.  Some of those bands tried to get with the times and tried to write more darker themed material and adopted the downtuned guitar approach and some of the thrashier bands tried to follow the Metallica path in writing more straight ahead tunes instead of the complex cacophony and riffery from their earlier years.  The entire industry really shifted focus during this time as it dropped the colorful, extroverted, and often over the top aspects of the genre (and its sense of fun) for more of an inward looking, darker, and sometimes bleaker one.  Unfortunately, there was no room for that “early light” to mix with the “new dark” in the label’s eyes.

All that said…  hair metal has seen quite the resurgence over the past ten years and possibly longer.  Some bands from the genre continued to slug it out during those lean years while many of them broke up only to reunite (sometimes with new members) within the past decade or so.  Also, many of these bands go out on summer package tours to hit the larger outdoor venues while some will often play larger “hair metal festivals” in various parts of the country (Rocklahoma anyone)?  Even the spirit of the 80s lives on in a band like Steel Panther, who adopt the good clean fun of the times with a lot of tongue in cheek silliness that walks that fine line between parody and tribute.

I guess it’s like we heard from people about the 60s…  in order to really understand it you had to be there!