Without the hair metal scene we would've never gotten Pantera

Say what you want about, but Ratt, Crue, Van Halen, Dokken, LA Guns, Cinderella, and so many more glam bands had amazing and awesome timeless classics.

Don't care how we let that happen, I want to know how to bring it back!

"Let hair metal happen"? This is revisionist history. The music was very popular and many people who claimed they never liked it actually did. Even though I was MUCH more likely to listen to Exodus, Testament etc. I can say the first 2 Ratt albums still sound incredible.

happens because 1. Really good songs 2. Fun as Hell

How did we let loudwire get big

I graduated high school in 1986 and I can tell you for certain it was all just metal. I made no distinction between Metallica, Megadeth, Priest, Savatage, Cinderella, Poison or Ozzy, it was all metal and I love it.

All the people disliking hair metal/glam are just kids going through their edgy phase of wanting everything to be dark and moody because it appears mature to them. Once you get older and acquire a taste, nothing provides a good/fun time like hair metal. That's all people want , fun.

Hair metal rules. I love all metal. Nothing wrong with having some hair metal in your playlist here and there to break up all the seriousness from death and black metal, sometimes you just need to have some fun with it. That’s the beauty of metal, it’s so diverse.❤️

I loved and still love hair metal. It was good harmless fun.

It's true. Early rock and metal built MTV and then they dumped it for reality shows and garbage TV.

I remember a tribute Dee Snyder gave when Lemmy passed. Twisted Sister was a new band, was having their first ever performance in England, and didn't even have record out yet, opening for Motorhead at a soccer stadium. At the time bands that wore makeup were being bottled from the stage. The crowd was ugly, Dee and the band were terrified, the arms were going back holding bottles of urine, and Lemmy walked on stage, and said; "These are some friends of mine from America, give 'em a listen. Twisted Sister." And the rest as they say is history. So I find it ironic Joe DiVita is wearing a Motorhead T. Because Lemmy saved Twisted Sister's career.

Dude, the fact that you don't blink with those crazy eyes makes them look even more crazy...

It was pretty cool having girls at shows.

It’s a good genre. Mötley Crüe, Van Halen, Ratt, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Poison... many good bands to choose from.

I love glam metal, it's absolutely rebellious when it comes to visuals and the sound is imo refreshing. And also glam metal introduced me to the metal scene as a whole so I'm kinda biased but idgaf

Hair metal is one of those bogus terms like grunge anyway. They were just hard rock / metal bands that happened to look and dress a certain way which was the fashion at the time. Many of them were damn good musicians and made good music (depending on your taste), and never got the respect they deserved because they had big hair at one time and got labeled "hair metal".

I love hair metal, hate me if you want but it’s my opinion. These bands are what i grew up listening to.

Hair Metal rule, great musicians, great talents, timeless classics... unfortunately music is f*cked since late ‘90s. Bye

I'd consider Twisted Sister as a Heavy Metal band in a Glam esthetic.

If a buch of bald guys cover motley crüe,does it still count hair metal?

Q: How did we let hair metal happen? A: We liked Led Zeppelin and KISS. That's how it happened. Plus, hair metal produced some of the greatest vocalists and guitarists in all of music, so, it wasn't a total loss.

this is a pretty narrow minded and revisionist version of what happened in the 80s. i was there, literally bought the t-shirts. sure it's fun to look 30 years back and mock music genres. gordon lightfoot was a star in the 70s? the 60s monkees? don't be so judgmental, twisted sister, ratt, g n'r, poison, crue, whitesnake, scorpions, priest...they were monumental game changers in their time. they all brought hard rock to a new audience,.... expanding upon deep purple, black sabbath, led zep, etc. who had all reached their peak in the 70s. the new bands combined the classic sounds with punk and metal including the glitter rock you seem to trumpet in this video.

“How did we let hair metal happen?” Proceeds to speak about hair metal in reverential tones for 10 minutes.

Hair metal to death metal, it's all great.

I love hair metal, or glam metal, or pop metal... whatever you want to call it. Amazing lead singers... and many of the best guitar players in rock history are classified in that genre. I'd give my life to replace all the shitty mainstream music in 2020 for those bands.

"True" headbangers? I'll admit, I love hair metal. But I also love thrash, and all sorts of other genres. Demeaning fans because they dig the mainstream stuff as well as the not-so-mainstream is having tunnel vision.

The dude blinked.... finally.. he blinked. My eyes were hurting watching him speak

Well let me conclude: *It's just cool!*

I loved Twisted Sister and yes, I grew up at 80s. Their own style of comic-like glam rock (they called it Hid-Rock, (from Hideous)), was absolutely amazing, as a scenic presence - performance! Inspired by KISS (and their outstanding commercial success), they had their personal signature and gave their own version of this kind of metal.

I liked Reign In Blood and Look What The Cat Dragged In. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The question is: "How did we let all that growl and grunt bullshit happen?"

The way things are going, I'm not bitching about anything metal. At least they were playing instruments.

I love hair metal, don’t care what the haters say

Hair metal was full of excitement, which is something that is severely lacking so far in this century

Thank you for featuring Tom keifer of Cinderella. He has put out 2 fantastic albums in the last few years that shows what a great songwriter and musician he is!

When people ask what my favorite genre is, I usually want to say AOR, but due to confusion and how close aspects of them are I end up saying hair metal. A lot of my favorite bands are hair metal bands (Def Leppard, Van Halen being my favorite big ones and also smaller bands like Steelheart and Hurricane as well), but the aspects I love so much about it also fit into AOR. I love high vocals, particularly with pretty harmonies. I love really thick, heavy guitars with lots of reverb and delay in the solos. Harmony guitars are super cool. I love huge sounding drums, from actual kits or from drum machines, but preferably mixed. (as long as someone can actually play them live, you know? It's the playing that matters more than what the instrument is made of for me). Hair metal doesn't really capture everything I love in music, with the more AOR things I enjoy like the synths/keyboards and other such instruments mixed in, but I can't really see why any rock or metal fan wouldn't enjoy listening to it. It's less focused on being heavy and more on being 'juicy' I guess would be fair to say. Anyway, I don't know what my point was. Just saying I like it.

The enemy isn’t hair metal, the enemy is record companies. Bands like Twisted Sister, WASP, and Crüe were just metal bands in drag. Record companies used bands like Cinderella, Def Leppard, and Slaughter to turn these bands into awful commercial ballad machines.

Hair metal gave me Tom Keifer and Jani Lane . And soooo much more. Rock anthems , classic ballads .. To each their own .

It was called GLAM METAL back in the day. All metal bands had long hair back then. The term "hair metal," which would not have literally specified glam metal as opposed to thrash (again, because they ALL had lots of hair), was popularized by music journalists around the early 2000s looking back on the glam metal scene of the late 80s and early 90s. "GLAM METAL" refers to the actual scene centered around the Sunset Strip, which was heavily influenced by the GLAM ROCK scene of the early and mid 1970s. "Hair metal" can mean whatever the person using it wants it to mean.

Personally, I think Dokken was probably the most respectable, likable hair metal band.

I always considered Twisted Sister as a geniune rock band that made a parody of Hair Metal rather than a hair metal act.

"Hair metal is something that was hated" - A Millenian with the music taste on his feets! "Imma bad, goin to speak bad about hair metal to look more manly" - A short hair dude

I don’t care what anyone says hair metal always had epic solos and riffs !

You wanna know where Hair Metal even came from? It came from a band called The Sweet. The Sweet started EVERYTHING.

HEY! excuse me hair metal is great xD

The 80s music scene was the best thing that ever happened to the music industry,They made hundreds of millions of dollars,this is the BS generation,Big shows good music lots of beautiful white women good musicians..Mann the 80s was a very happy time for music way better than it is now,mann I wish I had a time machine Cause She got the Looks that kill,everybody was trying to outdo one another Mann we had some good music back in the day,Motley Crue and Ratt,Def Leppard,Whitesnake,Judas Priest,Posion Queensryche,Ozzy Osbourne,Van Halen,White Lion,Mann I just wanna cry now...

For guitar players and drummers, the 80s showed us how to do it and how important technical capability was. Huge Marshall stacks, Floyd Rose equipped guitars, and 9 piece minimum double bass drum kits with 20+ cymbals on boom stands or hanging from drum racks. Steve

Will never forget the scene from joe dirt where kid rocks yells Def Leppard sucks lol makes me laugh every time

More like - "why did we let hair metal die?"

I love hair metal lol I’ll take a solo from George Lynch, Mick Mars, Jake E Lee, Warren Demartini, Steve Vai, CC DEVILLE, JAY JAY FRENCH SCOTT IAN BRUCE KULICK and Slash over ANYTHING Kurt cobain put out... I love JERRY CANTRELL

More like how did we let a derogatory term for metal become an established genre name.

Hipster metal heads are the worst! Hair bands had some of the most technical guitar shredders in metal!

Hair metal is great.

Skid Row?? Skid Row was a fuckin' Rock n Roll band. Everybody had hair back then; you can't lump them together bands like Ratt or whoever you mentioned. Crüe, sure, but anyone else, I respectfully disagree.

Thank God we did!!! I love hair metal and I'm not the only one!!! I wish I could live forever in the 80s and just listen to these songs!

Im now 30 and hair metal has stood the test of time with me over most thrash metal. If I want heavy I go for death metal, If Im drinking beers in the backyard I go for hair metal.

it was awesome, thats how

No one let hair metal happen. It just was what it was. Some of the music was really good. Seeing some of the looks from back then, especially in music videos, yeah, it's a little cringey, but the chicks went wild for it. It's the same thing that boy bands were aimed at in the 90s. The girls. What girls like in music has always been a high priority. Don't forget, when 'hair metal' was happening, that was the popular music of the time. Yep, 'metal' was pop music. Because what the girls like, the boys want to be, so the girls will like them. It's just how it went down at the time of music videos going mainstream.

Let's all be real here: For every good band that came out of the genre, there was another bad one.

I wasn't even into Hair Metal, but to mock it now is stupid.

I'm 14 and fucking love hairmetal. I always put as much hairspray in my hair as possible, and dress like a glammetalstar. and spend a lot of money on cd's posters and other merchandise.

My all time favorite genre. Crüe, Ratt, Dokken, Van Halen, Poison , they all rule 🤘

Love good old hair metal days!!!! I miss it. We had so much fun back then.

If it wasn't for the pioneers and the risk takers from the 70s and 80s then what we call metal wouldn't exist today. Like it or not they have played an integral in the music we listen to today.

For me, Motley Crue's 'Shout at the Devil' was the pinnacle of that type of metal for me, then W.A.S.P., I love that whole blood guts, more blood and more guts type of glorified hair metal!

Hairy Metal Rules!

A time that will never be forgotten!! 🤘🏻

probably because we used to have the compacity to let others do as they please without caring too much because freedom of expression was everything. which led to a lot of people copying whatever was big thus the emergence of hair metal bands. now everybody is all rulesy and picky in terms of whats metal and whats not so freedom of expression is smothered in pretentiousness and uppity metalheads who think they have the right to deem what is and what isnt metal... i mean i dont like hair metal myself but i could care fuck all if anyone else likes it. do whatever

I think it was great... it put rock on the charts... and as a genre that’s currently dying we need more chart-worthy rock bands...

Stryper, Cinderella´s 1st album, Motley Crue (first two albums, Shout at the Devil is a masterpiece riff collection), Hericane Alice, Nitro, CODA (from Mexico, awesome band: check "Enciendelo" album), WASP, Queensryche, Europe, Dokken, Loudness, ... Great stuff!

I wish new documentaries were made on this particular genre

Hair metal rules

I miss it. Fun times...

Hair metal is awesome. Always has been. Big time talent and cool looks.

At least there was something to listen to on normal radio back then.

I like the motörhead t shirt guy

It was a hell of a fun time to be alive

It was more.like a heavier pop alternative to regular pop. This was radio music at the time. You still had an underground, punk, thrash etc etc

I’m so grateful I got to live the 80’s UK hair metal era. Got to see so many amazing bands from across the whole of metal in those years… Wouldn’t change it for the world.

Hey now hair metal is cool this should be why did we let black metal become a thing if there was no hair metal there would be no crue of the motley

I'm 14 and hair metal is what realy got me into metal, 2 years ago I went with my mom to a Bon Jovi concert and I loved it, so after that I went listening to other bands like mötley Crüe. Then I went to maiden, priest, metallica. And without even noticing it I was already listening to metal.

Although not a big fan of any particular band, I did enjoy the popular hits they all had on the radio. Just like the 70's with pop, folk, disco, rock, soft rock, hard rock & country cross overs, there's room for all styles & tastes.

My family members think im nuts when I go from playing bands like Cannibal corpse, Obscura, Necrophagist, and Death to Poison, bon jovi, and white snake. They're music is just good!

"Kiss Is Heavy Metal, What Are You Talking About?" - A Boomer

I'll listen to hair metal over nu-metal any day.

Hair metal had crazy high gain searing solos and wicked riffs, I don’t understand why anyone would ever hate it.

I love how they purposely avoid Bon Jovi, when we all know they were the biggest hair band of all

There was nothing wrong with glam/hair metal. It was far better than the boring, pretentious and depressing grunge movement in my opinion. Bands like Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Poison, Warrant, Ratt, Dokken, Cinderella and W.A.S.P. knew how to have a good time and write songs that were uplifting and fun. Sure some of the material was weak, but every genre has that. In some ways it took more courage to wear drag than spikes and leather because they made themselves more vulnerable to ridicule than thrash metal bands. People get too wrapped up in the aesthetics and forget that the music was solid too. If I had the choice of seeing Nirvana or Twisted Sister in their prime, I'm going to see Sister. I want a show, not a sleeping potion.

It was a great time! Different music for different moods. Nothing wrong with a party. Now do hip hop.

Personally, I love hair metal. The way music is going, I'd rather listen to Motley Crue than anything on the radio right now.

I LOVE hair metal!!! Always have!!! If I'd been a teen in the 80s, I would've been listening to all these groups, going to their shows, & wearing the t-shirts!!!

Kiss was the blue print for what came after. Anyone who says otherwise is out of their minds. Their finger prints are all over it. Makeup, check. Big hair, check. Big lighted logo, check. big stage, check. Cheesy songs about sex, check. Pyro out the ass, check. The entire 80s metal scene was a carbon copy of kiss. And the ones that stood out? Either kiss either took them out on tour and got them exposure, got them record deals, and so on. Vh? Motley Crue? Acdc? Judas priest? Slaughter? Bon jovi? Yeah. all were either discovered and signed or got huge exposure from touring with them.

The music scene is so absolutely atrocious today that I’m sure we’d all KILL to have hair metal in the mainstream again.

I have a vivid memory of Motley being huge at my high school. It was very rebellious stuff back then. All the girls had the big hair

Good to see Tom Keifer, he's still putting out good music today, if you haven't checked out his two recent solo albums it is worth it to do so. Long Cold Winter was an excellent rock album and is still in rotation in my household. Hair metal happened because if you can look past the over saturation, there was a lot of good music released over that decade, even towards the end.

My nostalgia comes from a lot of hair metal....so all hail Hair!!!!!!

First off, hate the term “hair metal”, it takes away from some actual good music!! Did the look become a big part in the late 80’s with labels signing everything that looked like a band, yes!! To say the music was secondary is just wrong!! First two Motley albums were great, straight forward head rocking albums!! Metal Health was never an album that belonged in the category it’s been put in!! That was a great metal album, as was the first two TS albums!! W.A.S.P. had a crazy look & stage set but the music was not what you call pop metal!! The self titled Ratt EP is nothing close to the polished sound of Out Of The Cellar!! The want for drugs & sex is what the labels used to control the bands to be what the label wanted!! Nikki Sixx talks about that in some older interviews & he actually hates theater & Girls albums!! Maiden stayed true to their music, but from 82-85, they wore the spandex like the others did!! Manowar is another band that let image lead the way on their first two albums & it did hurt with a lot of metal fans!! I laughed & did not take them seriously when I saw the Tarzan look from early on but man, Battle Hymns is a fantastic metal album!! By stripping away the image, you focus on the music that defined a generation!! Do I think Tommy Thayers band was good, no & it showed as time has gone on!! They can’t fill a clue now because they just weren’t that good!!! It’s those bands that helped the labels kill the music then & helped give birth to a genre most of us hate, grunge!!! That was the complete opposite of what 80’s metal was & people were looking for different!! That’s also where good music in America ended & why we now have a hard time getting good bands exposure over here!! Hell, Helloween, a pioneering band in power metal plays everywhere around the world to big crowds but come to America & we are lucky they do & play only a handful of dates!! The push for the popular metal styles in America needs to share that with the push of other styles like power, symphonic, traditional & neoclassical metal!!!

Here's a shout out to all us guys and gals who were the luckiest generation ever for having been in our teens and early 20's during the 80's! I don't think there are very many of us who wouldn't give a second thought to going back if we could!

"If you came here for fucking make up and fuckin.... spandex, you chose the wrong band!" James Hetfield, 1985