Once fully realized, hair metal bore little resemblance to any form of its partial namesake heavy metal. After all, the former stripped away most traces of the dark explorations of bands like Black Sabbath and the mystical fixations of Led Zeppelin or Iron Maiden in favor of a fun-in-the-sun mentality. Therefore, hair metal songs tended to focus on lighter and more shallow subjects than genuine metal, including romantic relationships, parties, glitz and glamour.
As MTV began to take notice of early hair metal bands like Motley Crue, the subgenre's popularity took off like a rocket. As a result, aspiring rock bands began to see the advantage of putting on same makeup, teasing or curling their long hair and primping on stage or before the camera. After all, a gritty and very masculine band like Twisted Sister even jumped on the makeup bandwagon after years of pointless toiling in clubs.
The genre rapidly lost mainstream interest from 1991 to 1993 with the rise of grunge and the release of albums such as Nirvana's Nevermind.
The term "pop metal" is routinely used as a synonym to "glam metal" but sometimes refers to a related but separate movement, especially according to Canadian anthropologist Sam Dunn and website Allmusic. Allmusic refers to glam metal as "hair metal", whose characteristics are flashy clothing and heavy makeup (as embodied by Poison, Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe), whereas pop metal refers to the whole pop-tinted hard rock and heavy metal scene of the 1980s (including Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Europe). In the "definitive metal family tree" of his documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, anthropologist Sam Dunn also differentiates glam and pop metal, with glam metal bands including Mötley Crüe, Poison, Twisted Sister and Hanoi Rocks, while pop metal bands include Def Leppard, Europe, Lita Ford and Whitesnake.
Hair metal is a derogatory, derisive umbrella term encompassing the whole 1980s glam metal scene; use of the term started in the early 1990s, as grunge took over the popularity at the expense of 1980s metal. However, the term is used in a non- or semi-derogatory sense by Allmusic to refer to glam metal.
Stephen Davis claims the influences of the style can be traced back to acts like Aerosmith, Kiss, Boston, Cheap Trick, and The New York Dolls. Particularly Kiss, but also the shock rock style of such acts as Alice Cooper, served as a major influence on the genre. Finnish band Hanoi Rocks have been credited with setting a blueprint for the look of hair metal.
Van Halen has been seen as highly influential on the movement, emerging in 1978 from the Los Angeles music scene on Sunset Strip, with a sound based around the lead guitar skills of Eddie Van Halen. He popularized a playing technique of two‐handed hammer‐ons and pull‐offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen. This sound, and lead singer David Lee Roth's stage antics, would be highly influential on glam metal, although Van Halen would never fully adopt a glam aesthetic.
Often categorised with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, in 1981 Def Leppard released their second album High 'n' Dry, mixing glam-rock with heavy metal, and helping to define the sound of hard rock for the decade. The follow up Pyromania , reached #2 on the American charts and the singles "Foolin'", "Photograph", and "Rock of Ages", helped by the emergence of MTV, reached the Top 40. It was widely emulated, particularly by the emerging Californian scene.
Glam metal (also known as Hair metal and often used synonymously with Pop metal) is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene. It was popular throughout the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, combining the flamboyant look of glam rock and playing a power-chord-based heavy metal musical style.
The genre rapidly lost mainstream interest from 1991 to 1993 with the rise of grunge and the release of albums such as Nirvana's Nevermind.
In the early 1980s a number of bands from across the US began to move towards what would become the glam metal sound, including Kix from Western Maryland, who released their eponymous debut in 1981. From San Francisco Night Ranger's first album Dawn Patrol (1982), reached the top 40 in the US, but their breakthrough album was 1983's Midnight Madness, which included the top 5 single "Sister Christian". From New York Twisted Sister, originally formed as a glam rock band in 1972, released their first album, Under the Blade in 1982.
The most active scene was in the clubs on Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, including The Trip, the Red Velvet, the Whisky a Go Go, and Starwood, all of which began to avoid booking punk rock bands because of fears of violence, and were colonised by metal bands, usually on a "pay to play" basis, creating a vibrant scene for hard rock music. One of the first groups to emerge from this scene were Mötley Crüe, with their albums Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983). Quiet Riot's US debut Metal Health (1983) was the first glam metal album, and arguably the first heavy metal album, to reach #1 in the Billboard music charts and helped open the doors for mainstream success by subsequent bands.
Increasing numbers of L.A. bands were able to produce début albums in 1984, including Ratt with their breakthrough Out of the Cellar (1984), Dokken, with Tooth and Nail, Great White with their eponymous album, Autograph with Sign in Please and W.A.S.P. with their eponymous album. In addition Black 'n Blue, formed in Portland, Oregon released their eponymous debut and New York-based Danish band White Lion produced Fight to Survive (1984). All of these bands played a prominent part in the developing the overall look and sound of glam metal.
By the mid-1980s, glam metal had begun to be a major mainstream success. Los Angeles continued to foster the most important scene around the Sunset Strip, with groups like London, which had originally formed as a glam rock band in the 1970s, and had seen future members of Mötley Crüe, Cinderella and Guns N' Roses pass through its ranks, finally releasing their début album Non Stop Rock in 1985. Philadelphia also produced successful bands, with Poison and Cinderella releasing their multi-platinum début albums, respectively Look What the Cat Dragged In and Night Songs in 1986. Stryper, formed in 1983 in Orange County, California, made their mainstream breakthrough in 1986 with their platinum album To Hell with the Devil and brought Christian lyrics to their hard rock music style and glam metal looks. Van Halen released 5150 (1986), their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, which was #1 in the U.S. for three weeks and sold over 6 million copies. The anthemic The Final Countdown (1986) by Swedish group Europe reached the top ten in several countries, including the U.S. and while the title single hit number one in 26 countries.
The most commercially significant release of the era was Bon Jovi from New Jersey, with Slippery When Wet (1986), which mixed hard rock with a pop sensitivity, and spent a total of 8 weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, selling over 12 million copies. It became the first hard rock album to spawn three top 10 singles, two of which reached #1. The album has been credited with widening the audience for the genre, particularly by appealing to women as well as the traditional male dominated audience, and opening the door to MTV and commercial success for other bands at the end of the decade. During the mid-to-late 1980s, glam metal bands were in heavy rotation on the channel, often at the top of MTV's daily dial countdown, and some of the bands appeared on the channel's shows such as Headbanger's Ball, which became one of the most popular programs with over 1.3 million views a week. The groups also received heavy rotation on radio shows such as KNAC in Los Angeles By second half of the decade, despite mostly negative critical reviews and being shunned by certain sections of the music industry, glam metal had become the most reliable form of commercial popular music in the United States.
Mötley Crüe with Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) continued their run of commercial success, and Def Leppard with Hysteria (1987) hit their commercial peak, the latter producing a hard rock record of seven hit singles. L.A. band Faster Pussycat released their eponymous début, but the greatest success was Guns N' Roses, originally formed from a fusion of bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, who released the best-selling début of all time, Appetite for Destruction (1987). With a "grittier" and "rawer" sound than most glam metal, it produced three top 10 hits, including the #1 "Sweet Child O' Mine". Such was the dominance of the style that Californian hardcore punk band TSOL moved towards a glam metal sound in this period.
In the last years of the decade the most notable successes were New Jersey (1988) by Bon Jovi, OU812 (1988) by Van Halen, while Open Up and Say... Ahh! (1988) by Poison, spawned #1 hit single "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", and eventually sold eight million copies worldwide. Britny Fox from Philadelphiaand Winger from New York released their eponymous débuts in 1988. In 1989 Mötley Crüe's produced their most commercially successful album, the multi-platinum #1 Dr. Feelgood. In the same year eponymous débuts included Danger Danger from New York and Dangerous Toys from Austin, Texas, who provided more of a Southern rock tone to the genre. L.A. débuts included Warrant with Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1989), and Skid Row with their eponymous album (1989), which reached #6 in the Billboard 200, but they were to be one of the last major bands that emerged in the glam metal era.
Glam metal entered the 1990s as one of the major commercial genres of popular music. In 1990 débuts for Slaughter, from Las Vegas with Stick It to Ya and FireHouse, from North Carolina, with their eponymous album reached #18 and #21 on the Billboard 100 respectively, but it would be the peak of their commercial achievement. Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (both in 1991) and Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) showcased the genres popularity. In 1992, Def Leppard followed up 1987's Hysteria with Adrenalize, which went multi-platinum, spawned four Top 40 singles and held the #1 spot on the U.S. album chart for 5 weeks, the only hard rock album to reach that position that year.
The 1988 film The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years captured the L.A. scene of successful and aspiring bands. It also highlighted the excesses of glam metal, particularly the scene in which W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes was interviewed while abusing vodka on an inflatable raft in a swimming pool as his mother watched. As a result it has been seen as helping to create a backlash against the genre. In the early 1990s glam metal's popularity rapidly declined after nearly a decade of success. Several music writers and musicians began to deride glam metal acts as "hair farmers," hinting at the soon to be popularized term hair metal. Another reason for the decline in popularity of the style may have been the changing popularity of the power ballad, a slow, emotional song that gradually builds to a strong finale. While the use of the power ballad, especially after a hard-rocking anthem, was initially a successful formula, in the late 1980s and early 1990s audiences lost interest in this approach.
Perhaps the most significant factors in the decline was the rise of grunge music from Seattle, with bands including Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. This was particularly obvious after the success of Nirvana's Nevermind (1991), which combined elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a dirty sound that made use of heavy guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback, along with darker lyrical themes, a stripped-down aesthetic and a complete rejection of the glam metal visual style and performance. Many major labels felt they had been caught off-guard by the surprise success of grunge and had begun turning over their personnel in favor of younger staffers more versed in the new scene. As MTV shifted its attention to the new style, glam metal bands found themselves relegated more and more often to and late night airplay, and Headbanger's Ball was cancelled at the end of 1994, while KNAC went over to Spanish programming. Given glam metal's lack of a major format presence on radio, bands were left without a clear way to reach their audience. Other non-grunge bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction also helped further supplant the popularity of the genre.
In the new commercial climate many glam metal bands like Europe, Ratt, White Lion, Britny Fox, Stryper, Skid Row and Cinderella broke up and while many of these bands would re-unite again in the late 1990s or early 2000s, they never reached the commercial success they saw in the 1980s or early 1990s. Other bands such as Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Slaughter saw personnel changes which impacted their commercial viability. In 1995 Van Halen released Balance, a multi-platinum seller that would be the band's last with Sammy Hagar on vocals. In 1996 David Lee Roth returned briefly and his replacement, former Extreme singer Gary Cherone, was fired soon after the release of the commercially unsuccessful 1998 album Van Halen III and Van Halen would not tour or record again until 2004. Guns N' Roses' original lineup was whittled away throughout the decade. Drummer Steven Adler was fired in 1990, guitarist Izzy Stradlin left in late 1991 after recording Use Your Illusion I and II with the band. Tensions between the other band members and lead singer Axl Rose continued after the release of the 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident?. Guitarist Slash left in 1996, followed by bassist Duff McKagan in 1997. Axl Rose, the only original member, worked with a constantly-changing lineup in recording an album that would take over ten years to complete.
During the late 1990s and the 2000s glam metal began to enjoy something of a revival, with some established acts managing to weather the storm, others reforming and new bands emerging to emulate the glam metal style. Bon Jovi were still able to achieve a commercial hit with "It's My Life" (2000).[45] They branched into country music with a version of their 2005 song "Who Says You Can't Go Home", which reached #1 on the Hot Country Singles chart in 2006 and the rock/country album Lost Highway which reached #1 in 2007. In 2009, Bon Jovi released another #1 album, The Circle, which marked a return to their hard rock sound.[45]
Mötley Crüe reunited with Vince Neil to record the 1997 album Generation Swine and Poison reunited with guitarist C.C. DeVille in 1999, producing the mostly live Power to the People (2000), both bands began to tour extensively. There were reunions and subsequent tours from Van Halen (with Hagar in 2004 and then Roth in 2007), The long awaited Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy was finally released in 2008, but only went platinum, produced no hit singles, and failed to come close to the success of the band's late 1980s and early 1990s material.
Europe's "Final Countdown" enjoyed a new lease of popularity as the millennium drew to a close and the band reformed. Other acts to reform included Ratt, White Lion, Britny Fox, Night Ranger, Stryper (annually), Skid Row and Cinderella. Beginning in 1999, Monster Ballads, a series of compilation albums that feature popular power ballads, usually from the glam metal genre, capitalised on the nostalgia, with the first volume going platinum. The VH1 sponsored Rock Never Stops Tour, beginning in 1998, has seen many glam metal bands take to the stage again, including on the inaugural tour Warrant, Slaughter, Quiet Riot, Firehouse, and L.A. Guns. Slaughter also took part in the 1999 version with Ted Nugent, Night Ranger, and Quiet Riot. Poison and Cinderella toured together in 2000 and 2002 and in 2005 Cinderella headlined the Rock Never Stops Tour, with support from Ratt, Quiet Riot, and Firehouse. In 2007 the four day long Rocklahoma festival held in Oklahoma and included glam metal bands Poison, Ratt, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot and Britny Fox. Warrant and Cinderella co-headlined the festival in 2008. Nostalgia for the genre was evidenced in the production of glam metal themed musical Rock of Ages, which ran for in Los Angeles in 2006 and in New York in 2008.
By the early 2000s, a handful of new bands began to revive glam metal in one form or another. The Darkness's Permission to Land (2003), described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s glam", topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum. One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back (2005) reached #11, before the band broke up in 2006. Los Angeles band Steel Panther managed to gain a following by sending up 80s glam metal. A more serious attempt to revive glam metal was made by bands of the sleaze metal movement in Sweden, including Vains of Jenna, Hardcore Superstar, H.E.A.T. and Crashdïet. Other new acts included Beautiful Creatures and Buckcherry, whose breakthrough album 15 (2006) went platinum and spawned the single "Sorry" (2007), which made the top 10 of the Billboard 100.
Hair Metal Pioneers:
Motley Crue
Bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee formed Motley Crue in 1981. They soon recruited guitarist Mick Mars, and eventually hired Vince Neil as their singer. The Crue quickly become of the most successful bands to emerge from the Sunset Strip. Their legendary partying drew almost as much as attention as their music. They had a string of successful albums, including Shout At The Devil, Theatre Of Pain, Girls Girls Girls and Dr. Feelgood. After turmoil and member changes in the '90 and early 2000s, the classic lineup is back together, touring and releasing new music. They also started their own summer touring festival Crue Fest in 2008.
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot formed in the late '70s, and their early lineup included guitarist Randy Rhoads, who ended up joining Ozzy Osbourne's band before his tragic death in a plane crash. The band's first two albums didn't do much, but their third release Metal Health hit number one on the Billboard album chart, the first heavy metal album to do so. That opened the floodgates, ending up in hair metal's massive commercial popularity.
Quiet Riot's reign of success only lasted a few years, and they had a lot of lineup changes and a couple of breakups. They still toured until recently, when vocalist Kevin DuBrow died of a drug overdose in 2007.
Hanoi Rocks
In Europe, Hanoi Rocks mixed glam rock, punk and the big hair and makeup of vocalist Michael Monroe. The Finnish band got their start in the late '70s and quickly rose through the ranks. They were on the verge of breaking through when tragedy struck. In 1984, drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley was killed in a car accident (the car was driven by Motley Crue's Vince Neil). The band was never the same. Their status as a true "hair band" is disputed by some, but there's no doubt they greatly influenced the genre, and should be considered pioneers.
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