The paradox of “hair metal” is that anyone who claims to be a fan of the subgenre is aware of it isn’t actual.

It’s a catch-all time period for the pop-infused exhausting rock that dominated the Sunset Strip and commanded airwaves in the ’80s. Critics of this brighter, frothier pressure of “metal” dismissed bands for caring extra about their large hair and ridiculous clothes than their music — therefore, “hair metal” emerged as a well-liked pejorative after the scene’s drastic decline in the ’90s.

The drawback with “hair metal” is that it reduces a decade’s value of bands to a derogatory two-word phrase. Critics unfairly lumped Van Halen, Motley Crue, W.A.S.P., Queensryche, the Cult, Extreme, Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith and quite a few different bands beneath the identical umbrella, despite the fact that all of them had distinctive takes on the exhausting rock du jour.

Still, whether or not you settle for or reject the “hair metal” label, there isn’t any denying that it is taken root in the pop-cultural lexicon. And simply as thrash metallic had its Big 4, this subgenre had its tentpole bands that got here to outline a motion. Read on to see the Big 4 of Hair Metal.

Motley Crue

Hair metallic, glam metallic, pop-metal — no matter you need to name it, Motley Crue is the rock upon which a complete subgenre was constructed. Their debut album Too Fast for Love showcased a scrappy mix of metallic, punk and bubblegum pop that bristled with youthful naivete and unrepentant sleaze. Their sophomore album, Shout at the Devil, launched them to stardom and helped set the template for the relaxation of the decade with its mammoth hooks, metallic riffs and theatrical, occult-lite aesthetic. As the ’80s exhausting rock scene turned extra cartoonish, so did Motley Crue, and Theatre of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls verge on self-parody with their hedonistic party-metal anthems and pretty-boy posturing. Following Nikki Sixx’s near-fatal overdose (they even perfected the artwork of rock ‘n’ roll extra), Motley Crue sobered up and capped their decade-long sizzling streak with the chart-topping Dr. Feelgood, whose standout singles “Kickstart My Heart” and the title observe rank amongst not solely their finest work, however highlights of the hair metallic style.

Def Leppard

Def Leppard obtained their begin as New Wave of British Heavy Metal-adjacent exhausting rockers, however their recognition exploded tenfold after they embraced their pop instincts on their diamond-selling third album Pyromania. Together with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, they reworked songs like “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph” into stadium-sized anthems, full of hovering vocal harmonies and flashy guitar heroics. Just when it appeared like they could not get any greater (and following an accident that price drummer Rick Allen his left arm), Def Leppard rebounded with Hysteria, one other diamond-selling sensation that spawned six Top 20 hits (together with the chart-topping ballad “Love Bites”) and have become the exhausting rock Thriller. Def Leppard’s emphasis on ironclad songwriting and sterling musicianship, and their embrace of musical parts exterior the exhausting rock realm, made them one of the largest and most aspirational bands of the hair metallic period.

Bon Jovi

No band put the “pop” in pop-metal fairly like Bon Jovi. After their first two albums underperformed commercially, they teamed up with producer Bruce Fairbairn and songwriter Desmond Child and watched their profession explode with 1986’s mega-selling Slippery When Wet, which spawned a triptych of generation-defining hits in “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Bon Jovi was by no means not well-known once more after that, harnessing their momentum on 1988’s New Jersey (which produced 5 Top 10 hits, a report amongst exhausting rock albums) and tweaking their sound throughout a collection of platinum and multiplatinum ’90s and 2000s albums. Jon Bon Jovi’s supermodel beauty and vocal dynamism, Richie Sambora’s gritty blues-guitar licks and an ear for pop hooks cemented Bon Jovi’s standing as one of the largest and most enduring successes of the hair metallic era.

Poison

If anyone not intimately accustomed to hair metallic was requested to explain one of its bands, that imaginary group would most likely look precisely like Poison. The Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania quartet epitomized the style’s garish excesses with their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, whose cowl options all 4 band members dolled up with make-up that will make pageant queens blush. Poison by no means presupposed to be a band of virtuosos, however the songs on Look What the Cat Dragged In and its follow-up album, Open Up and Say … Ahh!, epitomize the younger, dumb, carefree angle of the hair metallic period. “Talk Dirty to Me,” “Nothin’ but a Good Time” and the 1990 Flesh & Blood reduce “Unskinny Bop” are traditional party-metal singles, whereas the chart-topping “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is arguably the quintessential hair metallic ballad. And, once more, we won’t stress this sufficient: Just take a look at that hair, and people garments.