What was your favorite hair band?

[MegaBlue05]

Yeah I have a hard time with Whitesnake and Def Leppard on this list. Even though I put a Whitesnake song on here. Bon Jovi as well.


Some hair bands to me:
Poison
Faster Pussycat
Warrant
Slaughter
Skid Row.
Cinderella
Twisted Sister

I agree with most of this list. I have a hard time placing Skid Row. They had hair tendencies on the first album, while they got heavier for their second album.

I always lumped Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row and Tesla into a separate category. Cinderella was a damn good blues rock band, but their look screamed hair band.

 

[crashtestdummy]

maybe..... Tesla

 

[It'saDoneDeal]

Remember when Pantera tried so hard to be a hair band?

Then in the 90s they figured out it made sense to pretend to be all hard:

 

[the nail at the foul line]

I agree with most of this list. I have a hard time placing Skid Row. They had hair tendencies on the first album, while they got heavier for their second album.

I always lumped Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row and Tesla into a separate category. Cinderella was a damn good blues rock band, but their look screamed hair band.

I know none of us are going to agree on what a hair band is but to me Cinderella was the best hair band. Most of the rest of them were just garbage.

I mean somebody listed Alice Cooper as a hair band. Seriously.

 

[gamecockcat]

Here is mine below

Nailed it. x 10000.

Hair metal was an abomination. Just freaking dreadful.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

How are the Cowsills not on this list?

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

I know none of us are going to agree on what a hair band is but to me Cinderella was the best hair band. Most of the rest of them were just garbage.

I mean somebody listed Alice Cooper as a hair band. Seriously.

If you don't think "Poison" was hair metal, I don't know what to tell you:

Alice Cooper, 'Trash' (1989)
After surviving decades of decadence, shock-rock icon Alice Cooper sobered up, teamed up with a big-haired bassist named Kip Winger and staged a quiet comeback in the mid-Eighties on a couple of middling hard-rock albums that hovered below the Top 50. But he didn't have another platinum record until he teamed with glam-metal songwriting guru Desmond Child and a star-studded guest list (Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler and Kip Winger, who'd earned his own hits by then) for 1989's Trash. The hit quasi-ballad "Poison" contained lyrics lascivious enough for Kiss fans but snarky enough for Alice fans; "House of Fire," which Joan Jett co-wrote, is a perfectly dude-ly relationship song; "Bed of Nails" features gang-vocals singing "ow-ow-ow"; and "Only My Heart Talkin'" is the sort of hair-metal crooner Nikki Sixx would write if he could be contrite. "I would get into my Corvette, turn on the radio and hear all these great songs by Bon Jovi and Aerosmith," Cooper told Raw in 1989. "When I found out how many Desmond had been responsible for, I knew he was the man to get." K.G.

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

Guns and Roses
Motley Crue
Van Halen
Poison
Bon Jovi
Def Leppard
Kiss
Cinderella
Scorpions
Tesla
Dokken
Aerosmitth
Ozzy

 

[CatCall]

A dark horse

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I spent the night drinking with Dokken the night before they opened for Eddie Money in Rupp. From what I can piece together, I had fun and they were pretty cool. So I will go with Dokken too!

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

Nailed it. x 10000.

Hair metal was an abomination. Just freaking dreadful.

There was nothing better than a hair metal concert in the mid to late 80's. The energy was off the charts. Pyrotechnics, Girls, and riffs that would melt your face off. For those of us that lived it, I would not have traded it for any musical genre.

Screw Grunge and its fascination with depression, flannels, and wretched lyrics. No one cared about your feelings.

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll forever.

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

Fun Fact:

Did you know Look What the Cat Dragged In by Poison cost $10K and took 12 days to record?

It sold 4 million copies.

 

[Lexie's Dad]

GnR was considered the anti hair band. Less about the look and more about the music. The guys who wore all the makeup were hair bands like Poison, Ratt, Motley Cruel, etc.

Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil weren't hair albums. Even Ozzy looked like a poof in the 80s.

That said, how about some Christian hair metal?

 

[Double A-ron]

Warrant, Winger, Dokken, and the criminally underrated Danger Danger

 

[WildcatfaninOhio]

This hairband caused quite a news story back in the day.

 

[FargenBastich]

Hair metal done right. Video definitely NSFW.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

If you don't think "Poison" was hair metal, I don't know what to tell you:

Alice Cooper, 'Trash' (1989)
After surviving decades of decadence, shock-rock icon Alice Cooper sobered up, teamed up with a big-haired bassist named Kip Winger and staged a quiet comeback in the mid-Eighties on a couple of middling hard-rock albums that hovered below the Top 50. But he didn't have another platinum record until he teamed with glam-metal songwriting guru Desmond Child and a star-studded guest list (Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler and Kip Winger, who'd earned his own hits by then) for 1989's Trash. The hit quasi-ballad "Poison" contained lyrics lascivious enough for Kiss fans but snarky enough for Alice fans; "House of Fire," which Joan Jett co-wrote, is a perfectly dude-ly relationship song; "Bed of Nails" features gang-vocals singing "ow-ow-ow"; and "Only My Heart Talkin'" is the sort of hair-metal crooner Nikki Sixx would write if he could be contrite. "I would get into my Corvette, turn on the radio and hear all these great songs by Bon Jovi and Aerosmith," Cooper told Raw in 1989. "When I found out how many Desmond had been responsible for, I knew he was the man to get." K.G.

Poison was absolutely a hair band.

You mean the song. Sorry.


You need to write on the board 1,000 times "I'm sorry for calling Ozzy hair metal."

 

[goukcatsgo]

GNR
Poison
Motley Crue

 

[Nitro 882]

Hair metal done right. Video definitely NSFW.

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Steel Panther is great!

Motley Crue would get my vote as the best of the era.

 

[GnarlsBarkley]

In terms of live shows from that era. The two that stand out the most were Aerosmith and Extreme. They both brought the house down.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

to me this is the ultimate hair band song. It really sucks.

As opposed to something by Cinderella.

 

[DSmith21]

Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil weren't hair albums. Even Ozzy looked like a poof in the 80s.

Have to disagree about Shout at the Devil released at the end of 1983. This is when the hair band phase took off and the Crue was all in (on the look) Here is one of the hits from that album. Looks pretty glam to me. I do like their music.

 

[Jeff Drummond]

"She got the looks that kill... that keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeluhhhhhhh."

 

[420grover]

I'm probably the biggest 80's rock/metal fan in here. I got my first guitar at age 13 in 1987. They might have looked like chicks but those guys could play the hell out of a guitar. My first real concert was RATT, Kix, and Britney Fox. I loved damn near all of it and still do love most of it.

At the time, my favorite band was Mötley Crüe. The one I listen the most now is Cinderella.

Favorite guitarist - Warren DeMartini
Favorite vocalist - Michael Sweet
Favorite bassist - Rudy Sarzo(hell, he was in damn near every band named in the thread at one point)
Favorite drummer - Tommy Lee

GNR are definitely not in the same category, they(original 5) are simply the best rock and roll band of all time not named The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.

 

[420grover]

"She got the looks that kill... that keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeluhhhhhhh."

I remember Nikki saying once that he didn't care if Vince could sing or not because the ladies loved him.

 

[Mojocat]

GnR effectively ended the hair band/glam era. At least that is what Vince Neal claimed in one of the Crue's bios.

I thought it was accepted fact that Kurt Kobain ended the hair band era - and in an instant, when the Smells Like Teen Spirit video came out.

Probably not great music, but I was a teenager, so I didn't know it. There were some good songs (Runaway, Alone Again mentioned in this thread) - is that simply nostalgia? Likely. But what makes good music or a good song? It's all subjective anyway.

 

[It'saDoneDeal]

Blondie
Barbershop Quartet (various)
The Combovers Band

 

[cawoodsct]

Favorite guitarist - Warren DeMartini

👍

 

[Father Torque]

I agree with most of this list. I have a hard time placing Skid Row. They had hair tendencies on the first album, while they got heavier for their second album.

I always lumped Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row and Tesla into a separate category. Cinderella was a damn good blues rock band, but their look screamed hair band.

Yeh, that's why I liked Cinderella so much, they had such a huge blues influence and sound to their music.

 

[warrior-cat]

The Bangles:

 

[812scottj]

Dude from Cinderella had some pipes

 

[812scottj]

No love for Quiet Riot?

 

[buster3.0]

I was a RATT man.

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IMO, that opening is one of the most kick ass riffs ever, And one of the most kick ass openings to a song.

 

[Lexie's Dad]

Have to disagree about Shout at the Devil released at the end of 1983. This is when the hair band phase took off and the Crue was all in (on the look) Here is one of the hits from that album. Looks pretty glam to me. I do like their music.

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Oh, I get it about the look.

IMO the music was too hard to be "hair" music. Like WASP - sure they looked it, but they were too heavy.

I think of the "radio metal" bands as hair bands - Autograph, Europe, Winger...

 

[Jeff Drummond]

“Hair band” gets a little tough to define along the lines of “grunge” bands. We needed a term to lump everything together, but a few separated from the pack in both categories. I’d never think of GnR as a hair band or Pearl Jam as a grunge band. (At least not now on the latter. They grew beyond it.)

 

[ukalumni00]

Sucked that the times called for gimmicks such as the hair and makeup because there were a lot of talented bands during that era. At least 1 gym day a week is all hairband music on the headphones.

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

You need to write on the board 1,000 times "I'm sorry for calling Ozzy hair metal."
[/QUOTE]

Definitely not hair metal

Shot in the Dark

BTW...I love this f'ing song.

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil weren't hair albums. Even Ozzy looked like a poof in the 80s.

That said, how about some Christian hair metal?

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This.

Motley went full on hair metal for Theater of Pain.

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

Yeh, that's why I liked Cinderella so much, they had such a huge blues influence and sound to their music.

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From what I have heard Cinderella will never reunite. True shame.

I think I have seen them live 4 times. Three of the four times they were opening acts and absolutely blew the headliners off the stage.

 

[Diggers_Matching_Highlighter]

Anyone planning on going to the Stadium Tour?

I have tickets for Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. (come on vaccine!)

It probably wont be the only show I see on the tour.

 

[ukalum01]