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Glam metal

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Hair metal is a type of heavy metal music that arose in the late 1970s, in the United States, and was a strong force in popular music throughout the 1980s and early-1990s. It is also called glam metal or glam rock. Pejorative terms for hair metal include poodle rock, due to the teased, bushy hair of many performers, or cock rock, due to the frequent fixation on sexual lyrics and deeds.

Origins

Throughout the 1970s, heavy metal languished in obscurity. Several bands maintained large followings, like Queen, Led Zeppelin, KISS, Aerosmith, and Ted Nugent, and there were occasional mainstream hits, like Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper". Music critics overwhelmingly hated the genre, and casual listeners generally avoided it because of its strangeness. This changed in 1978, with the release of the hard rock band Van Halen's ground-breaking debut. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen's innovative technique, and vocalist David Lee Roth's fun-loving, mock-carnal presence provided a template for hair metal. Countless bands relocated to Los Angeles to follow their example, and formed a colorful scene centering around the Sunset Strip.

Hair Metal in the 1980s

In the early 1980s, heavy metal spawned several sub-genres, including thrash metal and black metal; however, hair metal became its most popular manifestation. Bands like Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Dokken, and W.A.S.P. rose to fame. Their music was aggressive, with lyrics often focusing on girls, drinking, drug use, and the occult. Musically, hair metal songs often featured distorted guitar riffs, "hammer-on" solos, anthemic choruses, frenzied drumming, and complimentary bass. Hair metal performers became infamous for their debauched lifestyles, their long, teased hair, and highly feminized use of make-up, clothing, and accessories, (somewhat reminiscent of glam rock.) Following Def Leppard's wildly popular Pyromania, and Van Halen's seminal 1984, hair metal became ubiquitous on radio and television. Many other hair metal bands were one-hit wonders, or as David Lee Roth once said of them, "here today, gone later today," (for example, Europe and Autograph.)

By the mid-1980s, hair metal drew inspiration from other sources, such as the romantic rock of the late-1970s. Bands like Boston, Journey, and Foreigner, influenced Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Poison, among others, prompting them to record power ballads. Despite hair metal's popularity at the time, many considered it unimportant or derisory due to a perception that bands seemed more focused on make-up, clothing (usually spandex), lyrics, and stage shows, than on their music. By the mid-1980s, a discernible formula developed in which a hair band had two hits--one a power ballad, and the other a hard-rocking anthem.

In 1987, Guns n' Roses became hair metal's standard-bearers, with the release of the extremely popular Appetite for Destruction. Though debatably hair metal in music and attitude, Guns n' Roses changed the genre's image and sound by incorporating influences from punk rock, and thrash metal.

The Decline of Hair Metal

In the early 1990s, hair metal became widely ridiculed, as hair metal became increasingly formulaic, (for example, the music of Firehouse, Vixen, and Slaughter.) In 1991, the surge in popularity of grunge music, performed by Alice In Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, led to a decline in hair metal's popularity. Ironically, hair-metal bands were signed to small independent labels--CMC International found a niche as the new home of Slaughter and Warrant, among other bands--as grunge and other alternative bands landed major-label deals[1].

Several hair metal bands, perhaps most notably Bon Jovi, have managed to stay commercially viable throughout the 1990s.

In recent years, certain bands associated with punk rock have scored hits with tracks that seem to evoke the anthemic hair-metal sound, such as the Offspring's Gone Away (1997) and AFI's Girl's Not Grey (2003). It is hard to discern whether these tracks are intended as sincere homages or ironic references. The British band The Darkness has attempted to revive the hair-metal style, albeit in a more tongue-in-cheek style, somewhat reminiscent of early Van Halen, and Queen.

List of hair metal bands

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