Is the most demonized music of the ’80s finally poised for a comeback?
With a successful Mötley Crüe reunion tour, the ascent of revivalists such as The Darkness, and appropriately themed videos by artists diverse as Sum 41 and the Backstreet Boys, it seems hair metal is out of the cellar and ready to rock out again. Even at Queen’s, its presence can be felt, lurking at the fringe of musical tastes. Walk around campus for a while and you’ll see students wearing T-shirts for ’80s bands like Guns N’ Roses and Poison (whose frontman, Bret Michaels, will be playing Stages on Sept. 30). Go to a kegger and somewhere you’ll probably hear a hair metal anthem like “Pour Some Sugar On Me” or “Cherry Pie.” So what exactly is hair metal? The name can be misleading, for as any self-described “metal” fan will tell you, there’s a world of difference between Slayer and Bon Jovi. Nevertheless, the name was coined in the 1980s to describe a genre of music characterized by loud, Van Halen-influenced guitar solos, anthemic choruses, and lyrics fixated on sex, drugs, alcohol, the occult and adolescent rebellion. The performers of hair metal were easily identified by their massive teased hair and the excessive “glam” look—overdone makeup, lots of leather, and spandex pants being the fashion accessories of choice.
Van Halen was perhaps the prototype hair metal band—their 1978 debut album pointed the way forward with Eddie’s mind-bending solos and David Lee Roth’s sleazy persona. Shortly thereafter, Mötley Crüe unleashed their aggressive sound and glam look onto Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, which became the centre of the hair metal movement.
Over the course of the ’80s, hair metal rose to vast popularity—with the help of MTV—while also becoming steadily more formulaic. The commercialism was most noticeable in power ballads, a crossover phenomenon described by metal critic Martin Popoff as “vomit on vinyl.”
It all came crashing down in the early ’90s, when grunge and alternative rock skyrocketed to the top of the charts. Overnight, many hair bands went from playing packed arenas to entertaining patchy crowds in seedy clubs.
But hair metal did not die completely. Certain acts, such as Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, were able to change with the times and still maintain great popularity.
Guns N’ Roses entered the classic rock pantheon. By the new millennium, hair metal was able to capitalize on a rising nostalgia for the 1980s with many successful reunion tours.
Although hair metal is still not as popular as ’60s and ’70s classic rock, it’s my personal favourite music genre. Living in an age of rap, punk and emo, I tend to see hair metal as the last great era of classic rock ’n’ roll, where bands did more drugs, had more sex, and played louder than anybody before. There’s a mythic grandeur in the stories of all those small-town losers who chased their dreams to Los Angeles and became rock stars. I love hair metal precisely because it seems so much larger than life, especially compared to modern bands who take pains to present themselves as sensitive, regular guys. The ’80s bands, on the other hand, took everything people loved about classic rock and “cranked it up to 11,” as they would say in This is Spinal Tap. The outrageous clothes, spectacular live shows, over-the-top lyrics and posturing all make for a hugely entertaining rock experience without any of the self-pity that has come to dominate rock in the 21st century.
While the technique of many guitarists today starts and ends with power chords, their ’80s equivalents regularly played solos that would melt your face off in the middle of songs that were still heavy on catchy pop melodies and memorable choruses.
Finally, the ’80s was perhaps the last time when rock ’n’ roll really scared the elder generation, prompting investigations into “dangerous” bands like Twisted Sister, who seem relatively harmless today. Today, rap is more commonly the perceived musical threat, but the message is much the same. Who is Eminem but a hip-hop version of Axl Rose?
Hair metal may be cheesy, but that’s exactly what’s so great about it. Rock ’n’ roll isn’t about critical respectability or articulating deep emotions. In its most basic form, it’s about forgetting your troubles and belting it out on a Saturday night. In the end, what could be so horrible about music that simply invited us to have, in the words of Poison, “nothin’ but a good time?” Postscript would like you to embrace your inner Bon Jovi.
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