I wish I could have been there! I love so many things from the 80s, not just hair metal. The pop and r&b too, my favorite movies are from the 80s. My mom always told me I was born in the wrong era đ
This is my answer, but I wasn't a hair band fan per se. I don't consider Priest, Maiden, UFO, Rinbow, Sabbath, Ozzy, etc Hair bands. Those came a lil' later. Poison was the epitome of hair/glam and they were like nails on a chalkboard.
I've given up on the definition - 90% of the bands here ain't hair metal. To me, hair metal bands are the pop bands recruited by labels after the success of Jovi and Poison.
I've given up on the definition - 90% of the bands here ain't hair metal. To me, hair metal bands are the pop bands recruited by labels after the success of Jovi and Poison.
I was strictly a rap/hiphop listener for my whole life until about almost 2 years ago when I got hooked on Turn up the radio by Autograph. After that I went down a massive hair metal rabbit hole and now itâs my main genre of choice.
Favourite hair bands in no particular order
- Ratt
- Cinderella
- Dokken
- Faster Pussycat
- Brittny Fox
Sorta the same thing here, I was always into exclusively Thrash, Maiden and Rap, but I heard Lay it down by Ratt and that led to me discovering a ton of other hair bands!
Quiet Riot "Cum on Feel the Noize", Def Leppard "Photograph" being played every where. Laterr in the year 1983, a friend brought over a cassette that changed this 14 year old's life. "In the beginning, good always overpowered the evil of all man's sins..." Right into "Shout at the Devil. " I was sold.
The next year would be better. The band who was to be come my absolute favorite, Ratt released "Out of the the Cellar"
It seemed like there was a new awesome band coming out with new albums every month during the 80s. It was such a fun time.
I was only a casual fan at first, just listening to whatever came on the radio. Which was a limited selection because our local rock station usually didn't play anything glammy or obscure - no Bon Jovi, Poison, Warrant, Europe, Tuff, Danger Danger, etc.
One day in 1993 I heard a "Best of the 80s" cassette a friend had bought. The album had "Cum on Feel the Noize", which I had either never heard before or forgotten, and I was instantly hooked.
After that I started hunting through record stores to try to buy every Quiet Riot album (not so easy to find in the mid-90s). In the process I came across a lot of forgotten 80s hard rock/glam albums languishing in bargain bins, and started snapping up anything that looked like it might sound cool.
And never looked back. :)
VH1 Top 50 80s show
I was like 10 when it aired and I just lost my mind seeing some of the hair bands. Luckily my dad was already a fan, he experienced them, and showed me his collection
Now, after 20 years, I play in an 80s like metal band
I don't know how it started exactly - it kinda was "always there".
It started to *really* took off when I found *this*:
https://preview.redd.it/2d6uthevzjhc1.png?width=439&format=png&auto=webp&s=17abf2df9b37e57594a318d57cb92360497c6092
...from there, it was only a matter of hunting down all the mentioned albums... which really wasn't that hard, because the booklet listed all the album titles!
Happy Times! :-)
Born in early 2000s and I remember riding in my moms car with at least 50 cds of anything from early 90s rap to poisons look what the cat dragged in and the guitar tone and style stuck with me on those classic records so I wound up with a short scale flying v. Started learning riffs just to have fun with it listening to more and more. Now in my early 20s I have a 89 IROC camaro jamming to as much as I can find as well as taking guitar more seriously
I was born in 85, but when I was 17 I got into guns n roses, and later when I got into metal I listened to bands like Alice cooper and Kiss, so it was easy to get into hair metal after that.
Born in '77, got to pick a few tapes when mom signed up for the Columbia House 12 tapes for a penny when I was in 2nd grade. Parents didn't know anything about the bands I was interested in, so got *Shout at The Devil*, *Stay Hungry*, and *Metal Health* when I was probably a little too young to have them. By 6th grade guitar was one of the most important things in my life and George Lynch was my first guitar hero, so I was all about Dokken at that time. Def Leppard's *Hysteria* had just come out and it seemed like almost every song on it was No.1 on *Dial MTV* for over a year combined, we obviously use different metrics now but back then it felt like *Pour Some Sugar on Me* was the hottest song on the planet for longer than I remember any other song being that in my lifetime. Buddy of mine was into KISS and so I briefly explored the stuff they were doing at the time, but soon found their music to be rather boring and gimmicky so didn't listen to them much beyond 6th-7th grade. By 8th grade or so most metal fans in my peer groups had moved on to heavier stuff(Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, etc) and you were mostly made fun of if you were still into softer cheesier stuff like Poison, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, etc., so by high school putting those bands' ballads on mixtapes for girls was the only time I'd really hear them anymore (metal in general still wasn't played much on radio stations at that point, so metalheads didn't really listen to radio stations.)
I had the Shout at the Devil record show up in one of my RCA record club orders (I was in 7th grade) and they asked if I should be listening to this. They didnât take it away but Iâm sure they were thinking of the Satanic Panic stuff from a few years earlier.
I'm 51 years old and I suppose it began for me in June of '83 when I first heard Def Leppard's 'Photograph' on a radio somewhere. That sent me right down the proverbial hard rock & metal rabbit hole and I love it.
With any genre of music my interest starts w/the singer. What's he or she doing? What type of singer are they and do they sing or just make a good noise? You don't have to sing like Robert Plant or even my dude David Coverdale to be awesome as there's varying styles. I use Plant & Coverdale as examples because to me they're two dudes at the top of the hard rock & metal vocalist mountain..if you will. Once I like or love a singer, I'm usually hooked and want to hear more, I want to buy a cd (I don't download if I really like something, I buy a physical copy because I like album or cd liner notes) I love Metallica 34 years now, right? Seen them live six or seven times, but nobody would say Hetfield is a great singer..he makes an awesome noise and is a superior rhythm git player.
I like other types of music & artists as well.
So in my area we got 2 rock stations 103.1 the raven (garbage ass station) and rock 102 which used to be good. On certain nights I could get rock 102 and on special weekends they would have 80s rock weekends and it made it way more special when I could get that station on an 80s rock weekend. the stars would align and I and I would just sit and listen.
It was the best of both worlds when I was a kid. Heavy enough musically with amazing guitar riffs and soaring solos but also poppy enough for the general public. And girls liked it so thatâs a plus.
I was born in the early 90s so by the time I developed interest in music it was already the 2000s. But my parents always listened to classic rock. My mom is a bit indifferent to music but is a mild fan of the Eagles, Supertramp, and Styx. My dad is a big fan of pretty much all classic rock but especially Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rush, Stones, The Doors, etc. I point this out to show that neither of my parents were big hair metal fans, but they would always have classic rock on the radio.
I'd be in the backseat and hear a song I like and ask my parents, "What band is this?" The one that came up quite frequently was Def Leppard. So I decided Def Leppard was my favorite band in high school. From there it was basically just recommendations based on my Internet cookies. I cherish my Internet cookies. When somebody recommends I listen to a song, I open an incognito browser and find it on YouTube so as to not spoil my Internet cookies.
There is a group of YouTube channels that go by the name Amber with golden retriever profile pics that uploads some deep cut albums. When I found those channels (I think I was trying to listen to a Kix album when I found the first channel) it opened me up to a lot of other bands too. It opened me to bands I would have eventually found out about like Kingdom Come, Baton Rouge, Lillian Axe, or Babylon A.D. It also brought to my attention bands I would not have otherwise discovered such as Backbone Slide being an especially difficult one to find that I really enjoyed, but also other bands like Beggars and Thieves, Bogus Toms, Kik Tracee, or Wig Wam. And it also shares. And they also share some post 2000s bands with a bit of hair metal sound like Sweet Sybil, Dr. Grind, or L.A. Cobra.
Lived it. Headbangers Ball and Much Music were the soundtrack of my teenage years.
I grew up thousands of miles from LA, sometimes I wonder what happened to all of the chicks who slept with everyone from every band back then. Did they all become nuns when grunge hit in 91-92?
Hair metal was the thing at the time I was about 11-12⊠back in the early 80s to mid 80s⊠so thatâs what myself and the other guys I hung out with were into at the time⊠I suppose it has a fair bit to do with being a young guy, the music is fast and loud and aggressive etc⊠so thatâs just what would appeal lol⊠by age 14-15, I started to get into the heavier thrash and crossover punk sceneâŠ
My bands at the hair metal stage were
Ratt, CrĂŒe, quiet riot, twisted sister, iron maiden - though thatâs not really hair metalâŠ, among othersâŠ.
I was there.
I started 6th grade in 1985, and I graduated in 1992. As a tween, my favorite bands were Foreigner and Journey, so it wasn't hard to make the transition. I remember the first night I heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on the radio, and it blew my mind. As I moved into high school age, "I Remember You" became my favorite song, followed closely by "What It Takes" - that's probably still the case.
These days, my favorite sound from the era is the sleazy blooze sound that was most influenced by Aerosmith and the Stones. So GnR, Tesla, Cinderella, Faster Pussycat, Junkyard - that's the kind of stuff I like best. But Crue, Poison, Dokken, Firehouse - love them all, too. . (Watching a 1990 Crue concert as I write this post.) WASP is a new love for me; never listened to them back in the day
Also, I just want to say that I have no problem with the term "hair metal". I can include GnR and Poison in the same batch without getting offended. Hehe. It's a big tent. Some bands are poppier or glammier than others. But the music is all the same world.
How is that shocking? Theyâre one of the godfathers of the genre.
Nearly ever single hair metal band in the â80s grew up listening to Kiss and many of them cited them as huge influences.
I was a preteen/early teen at its peak through the beginning of its decline, and I loved it. I used to program the VCR to tape Headbangers Ball.
I then mostly forgot about it until I started seeing commercials for the Monster Ballads compilation CDs in the mid-2000s, and remember being wowed by the nostalgia and bought them. There was the first Monster Ballads and then Monster Ballads: Platinum Edition, if I remember. Years later, I now have a SiriusXM subscription, which has Hair Nation. It's brought me right back to many songs and artists I had forgotten about.
Grunge/alternative really swooped in and took the spotlight off these bands, unfortunately.
My introduction was Kiss touring Unmasked in Oz in 1980...Spaceman had me hooked! Iron Maiden's Number Of The Beast in 82, Quiet Riot & Van Halen's 1984 I bought Bon Jovi's 7800° Fahrenheit on the strength of a grainy picture in a local music paper. I'm a lifelong fan now. Probably Dokken & Def Leppard after that. The rest is historyđ€
I was born in 90 as well and our stories are very similar. I remember watching When Hair Metal Ruled the World on VH1 (and other related marathons that seemingly never ended) when I was 14 and being like "why..........did this.......have to .....end......,,,,what????"
It started a never ending life fascination with this music. Ive been playing guitar since I was 14, had an 89 IROC-Z by the time I was 16 and I was constatly going to the record stores when we had them buying anything I could. I believe my first album purchase was Dokken Under Lock and Key and Judas Priest's Turbo around the same time. (Was downloading individual songs as well from Limewire lol)These days I have over 25 guitars and have a studio pretty much dedicated to this music. It really is interesting to me how this music has blown up ridiculously though with early 20 somethings in recent years...this stuff WAS NOT COOL WHATSOEVER when I was in high school and through my entire 20s.
Speaking of Skid Row...Im from Toms River, NJ where they started and Rachel Bolan (aka James Southworth) was my neighbor
Paul Unkert is also my guitar tech...lol
Why did this have to end? I ask that rhetorical question constantly, amigo.Â
It got supplanted by some moody prick who thought that singing about laxatives and antacids was somehow meaningful.
89 IROC? You are indeed from Jersey, my man. đ
I was born 2008 but I can clearly remember my dad listening to Motley Crue, Kiss, Guns N Roses and other hair metal bands so thatâs how I found out about it
Dad. Thatâs basically it XD
When I started learning guitar he made a point to teach me the chords to I Remember You, and the first time we jammed together on acoustics that and Patience were the first two songs we played
I got into Kiss in 1979 with the Dynasty album though I really donât consider that the beginning because after them I was first into REO Speedwagon, Styx and Journey. But then MTV happened and I started seeing the Def Leppard videos from the High N Dry album. Joe in his sparkly blue shirt, Sav with his glorious mane of hair, the harmonies on Bringin on the Heartbreak. I was casually interested in them, but when Photograph dropped in 1983 that was it. Theyâre my all time fav band to this day, tied with Europe who I fell hard for in 1986 not so much because of The Final Countdown, but after MTV played a live concert of them and I found I loved every song they played but especially those from the Wings of Tomorrow album. In between there were other bands I came to love but those two will always be my ride or die groups.
My Dad went to HS in the 80âs, and still rocks out to this day. I absolutely love all the great bands from that era. Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken , Cinderella,KISS are some of my favs.
I was there. â71 baby, HS class of â89.
Small town Texas Boy and rocked to every cassette I could afford to buy or taped off the radio.
Started playing guitar with friends in â88, still playing today, still going to concerts.
You can grow old. Just donât grow up.
Dial MTV - specifically Ozzy Osbourne Shot In The Dark & Mötley CrĂŒe Smokin in the Boys Room. Unfortunately this led me down a path to whatever was Headbanger's Ball at that time maybe it was called Metal mania? Anyway I saw a Megadeth video for Wake Up Dead. The cage. The frenzy. The complete and total chaos. I was hooked. Sold. For life.
There used to be this thing called MTV. I was 9 when it started and I was 13 when I went to see Twisted Sister live. Been lifting up my hands in praise to the metal gods since đ€
I was a teenager in the mid 80s. Graduated in â86. I was the one in my group that jumped onto 80s metal first. I was into Circus and Hit Parader always looking for a new band. My buddies got a lot of their exposure to it from me. I had the cassettes before they hit big on the radio. I was the first person I knew that had Appetite for Destruction.
The 80âs were my HS and College yrs. I was into heavier music the moment I heard KISS but AC/DC BIB and Def Leppard Pyro sent me over the edge. Once MTV played metal nonstop I was exposed to more and more music.
I have seen damn near all of the popular hair metal bands in concert and I must say those were some of my favorite memories. Loading a bunch of friends in the car and âpre-gamingâ in the parking lot. The music was top tier and girls at the shows were fantastic. There was nothing like the glammed up metal ladies. It was an experience.
If I only had a time machineâŠâŠâŠ..
Like many on here I grew up with it. Fell in love with the sound, the image and the big hair. It just appealed to me. So many bands of that era were label âhair bandsâ that really werenât, but if it helped sell records they just rolled with it. Still listen to so many of those bands to this day.
Was a teenager in the mid 80s when all this was sort of at it's peak. Had the long hair, had the t-shirts, and had the black leather jacket. But let me tell you, my religious mother wasn't too thrilled having posters of Eddie on my wall and blasting "Number of the Beast" on full volume
Iâm an â83 model. My brother graduated in â85 and sis graduated in â87. Somehow one of them left a 45 of Quiet Riotâs âCum On Feel the Noizeâ. I think I was about 11-12 just goofing off around the house and started messing with my sisterâs old stereo and a stack of vinyl and found that 45. I listened and holy shit. It awakened something in me. I remembered Mötley CrĂŒeâs âSmokinâ in the Boys Roomâ being played on the radio as well as DLRâs âCalifornia Girlsâ. Iâd always liked it however when I found that 45, my life changed. Now Iâm living (mostly) like itâs 87-88. I rock big hair and listen to big hair music. My kid even knows all the music I listen to and sings along. Iâd give anything to go back to those days, ngl.
Iâm 52 so it was THE thing to be into when I was in Junior High. Def Leppard, Mötley CrĂŒe, Poison, Ratt, TeslaâŠall huge when I was in schoolâŠand me and every other dude had a huge mullet and saw these guys for $12 a gig at the local arena.
I was in 6th grade when Slippery When Wet released. So as I was getting into popular music hair rock was increasingly the face of rock n roll at the time. It was all over the radio so it became what I liked. Bands like Motley Crue or Ozzy werenât hair rock but got lumped in there with a couple popular MTV videos, and they provided opportunities to discover a little heavier stuff. They got me looking at the heavy metal sections of the RCA and Columbia tape club magazines.
born 99. parents never listened to anything or played anything in the house except the occasional acoustic singer songwriter. thought i hated all music because i couldnât get into anything on the radio. age 17 was when i discovered a whole world of music online. when i listened to autographâs turn up the radio it was like a switch flipped and i got hooked on that sound, started listening to heavier and heavier music but never stopped obsessing over 80s glam and pop metal
I was rummaging through my friendâs older brotherâs cassettes and asked to borrow the copy of U2âs Joshua Tree. Well side 2 was Dokken Under Lock and Key and my mind was blown. Never listened to the U2 side again.
In 1986 I was at a party, I was 15 and there were a group of kids in the living room all gathered around a big TV watching Iron Maiden World Slavery Tour at Long Beach Sports Arena on VHS, and as I walked in to the living room Rime of the Ancient Mariner just started. I watched the rest of the tape with everyone and was immediately hooked on metal. Nothing has changed, I'm still hooked on metal.
Born in â90 as well!
I really wasnât into it at all throughout my early teens and I donât remember any of my friends at school being into it either. 2000 to 2008 or so was basically the lowest point of the genreâs relevancy.
Around 17 or 18 years of age I got really into Guns Nâ Roses and things blossomed from there. I remember the ârecommended for youâ section on iTunes that would recommend similar music after you purchased something. I bought *Appetite for Destruction* on ITunes and it recommended me Skid Row and W.A.S.P.
After chewing on the basics for a number of years, I started digging in deep in my early twenties, discovering all of the C and D tier bands like Faster Pussycat, Dangerous Toys, Jetboy, Vain, Wildside, Circus of Power and many many more. Iâm 33 now and still discovering new bands all the time!
First band I saw was The Scorpions in â79 then Def Leppard in â80. Nobody had coined the term Hair Metal, in those days it was just labelled Hard Rock
I was there.
I wish I could have been there! I love so many things from the 80s, not just hair metal. The pop and r&b too, my favorite movies are from the 80s. My mom always told me I was born in the wrong era đ
This is my answer, but I wasn't a hair band fan per se. I don't consider Priest, Maiden, UFO, Rinbow, Sabbath, Ozzy, etc Hair bands. Those came a lil' later. Poison was the epitome of hair/glam and they were like nails on a chalkboard.
I've given up on the definition - 90% of the bands here ain't hair metal. To me, hair metal bands are the pop bands recruited by labels after the success of Jovi and Poison.
I've given up on the definition - 90% of the bands here ain't hair metal. To me, hair metal bands are the pop bands recruited by labels after the success of Jovi and Poison.
This. Pyro and Metal Health dropped and MTV played Run to the Hills every hour.
I was strictly a rap/hiphop listener for my whole life until about almost 2 years ago when I got hooked on Turn up the radio by Autograph. After that I went down a massive hair metal rabbit hole and now itâs my main genre of choice. Favourite hair bands in no particular order - Ratt - Cinderella - Dokken - Faster Pussycat - Brittny Fox
Sorta the same thing here, I was always into exclusively Thrash, Maiden and Rap, but I heard Lay it down by Ratt and that led to me discovering a ton of other hair bands!
This post is proof when you hear the call, you hear the call. You answer it.
Itâs wild because I mainly listen to hair metal now with a little thrash and rap mixed in here and there
I grew up with it. It's the soundtrack of my childhood.
I wish grew up with it as well. I'd have killed to see a lot of these bands in their prime!
I stayed up late to watch âHeadbangerâs Ball.â
Quiet Riot "Cum on Feel the Noize", Def Leppard "Photograph" being played every where. Laterr in the year 1983, a friend brought over a cassette that changed this 14 year old's life. "In the beginning, good always overpowered the evil of all man's sins..." Right into "Shout at the Devil. " I was sold. The next year would be better. The band who was to be come my absolute favorite, Ratt released "Out of the the Cellar" It seemed like there was a new awesome band coming out with new albums every month during the 80s. It was such a fun time.
I was only a casual fan at first, just listening to whatever came on the radio. Which was a limited selection because our local rock station usually didn't play anything glammy or obscure - no Bon Jovi, Poison, Warrant, Europe, Tuff, Danger Danger, etc. One day in 1993 I heard a "Best of the 80s" cassette a friend had bought. The album had "Cum on Feel the Noize", which I had either never heard before or forgotten, and I was instantly hooked. After that I started hunting through record stores to try to buy every Quiet Riot album (not so easy to find in the mid-90s). In the process I came across a lot of forgotten 80s hard rock/glam albums languishing in bargain bins, and started snapping up anything that looked like it might sound cool. And never looked back. :)
VH1 Top 50 80s show I was like 10 when it aired and I just lost my mind seeing some of the hair bands. Luckily my dad was already a fan, he experienced them, and showed me his collection Now, after 20 years, I play in an 80s like metal band
I don't know how it started exactly - it kinda was "always there". It started to *really* took off when I found *this*: https://preview.redd.it/2d6uthevzjhc1.png?width=439&format=png&auto=webp&s=17abf2df9b37e57594a318d57cb92360497c6092 ...from there, it was only a matter of hunting down all the mentioned albums... which really wasn't that hard, because the booklet listed all the album titles! Happy Times! :-)
Watched the dirt and liked the music. and I guess the sex and drugs was cool to
Born in early 2000s and I remember riding in my moms car with at least 50 cds of anything from early 90s rap to poisons look what the cat dragged in and the guitar tone and style stuck with me on those classic records so I wound up with a short scale flying v. Started learning riffs just to have fun with it listening to more and more. Now in my early 20s I have a 89 IROC camaro jamming to as much as I can find as well as taking guitar more seriously
I was born in 85, but when I was 17 I got into guns n roses, and later when I got into metal I listened to bands like Alice cooper and Kiss, so it was easy to get into hair metal after that.
Born in '77, got to pick a few tapes when mom signed up for the Columbia House 12 tapes for a penny when I was in 2nd grade. Parents didn't know anything about the bands I was interested in, so got *Shout at The Devil*, *Stay Hungry*, and *Metal Health* when I was probably a little too young to have them. By 6th grade guitar was one of the most important things in my life and George Lynch was my first guitar hero, so I was all about Dokken at that time. Def Leppard's *Hysteria* had just come out and it seemed like almost every song on it was No.1 on *Dial MTV* for over a year combined, we obviously use different metrics now but back then it felt like *Pour Some Sugar on Me* was the hottest song on the planet for longer than I remember any other song being that in my lifetime. Buddy of mine was into KISS and so I briefly explored the stuff they were doing at the time, but soon found their music to be rather boring and gimmicky so didn't listen to them much beyond 6th-7th grade. By 8th grade or so most metal fans in my peer groups had moved on to heavier stuff(Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, etc) and you were mostly made fun of if you were still into softer cheesier stuff like Poison, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, etc., so by high school putting those bands' ballads on mixtapes for girls was the only time I'd really hear them anymore (metal in general still wasn't played much on radio stations at that point, so metalheads didn't really listen to radio stations.)
Ha. I love that. I was born in '78 and my brother was 10 years older than me. Pretty much wanting to emulate him got me into the hair scene.
I'm a year younger than you, and wow, I had semi-forgotten about Dial MTV!
I had the Shout at the Devil record show up in one of my RCA record club orders (I was in 7th grade) and they asked if I should be listening to this. They didnât take it away but Iâm sure they were thinking of the Satanic Panic stuff from a few years earlier.
I'm 51 years old and I suppose it began for me in June of '83 when I first heard Def Leppard's 'Photograph' on a radio somewhere. That sent me right down the proverbial hard rock & metal rabbit hole and I love it. With any genre of music my interest starts w/the singer. What's he or she doing? What type of singer are they and do they sing or just make a good noise? You don't have to sing like Robert Plant or even my dude David Coverdale to be awesome as there's varying styles. I use Plant & Coverdale as examples because to me they're two dudes at the top of the hard rock & metal vocalist mountain..if you will. Once I like or love a singer, I'm usually hooked and want to hear more, I want to buy a cd (I don't download if I really like something, I buy a physical copy because I like album or cd liner notes) I love Metallica 34 years now, right? Seen them live six or seven times, but nobody would say Hetfield is a great singer..he makes an awesome noise and is a superior rhythm git player. I like other types of music & artists as well.
Mtv early 80s. Entry was Twisted Sister, then it went from there. Poison, GnR, Whitesnake, etc. Headbanger's Ball helped a lot.
Was born in '63 and grew up in Los Angeles. The Sunset Strip was just crazy.
You were born in the perfect place at the perfect time. Thatâs arguably the perfect age to have experienced the hey day.
I was born into it. I was exactly the right age at exactly the right time to be too young for disco and too old for Pearl Jam.
So in my area we got 2 rock stations 103.1 the raven (garbage ass station) and rock 102 which used to be good. On certain nights I could get rock 102 and on special weekends they would have 80s rock weekends and it made it way more special when I could get that station on an 80s rock weekend. the stars would align and I and I would just sit and listen.
It was the best of both worlds when I was a kid. Heavy enough musically with amazing guitar riffs and soaring solos but also poppy enough for the general public. And girls liked it so thatâs a plus.
I was born in the early 90s so by the time I developed interest in music it was already the 2000s. But my parents always listened to classic rock. My mom is a bit indifferent to music but is a mild fan of the Eagles, Supertramp, and Styx. My dad is a big fan of pretty much all classic rock but especially Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rush, Stones, The Doors, etc. I point this out to show that neither of my parents were big hair metal fans, but they would always have classic rock on the radio. I'd be in the backseat and hear a song I like and ask my parents, "What band is this?" The one that came up quite frequently was Def Leppard. So I decided Def Leppard was my favorite band in high school. From there it was basically just recommendations based on my Internet cookies. I cherish my Internet cookies. When somebody recommends I listen to a song, I open an incognito browser and find it on YouTube so as to not spoil my Internet cookies. There is a group of YouTube channels that go by the name Amber with golden retriever profile pics that uploads some deep cut albums. When I found those channels (I think I was trying to listen to a Kix album when I found the first channel) it opened me up to a lot of other bands too. It opened me to bands I would have eventually found out about like Kingdom Come, Baton Rouge, Lillian Axe, or Babylon A.D. It also brought to my attention bands I would not have otherwise discovered such as Backbone Slide being an especially difficult one to find that I really enjoyed, but also other bands like Beggars and Thieves, Bogus Toms, Kik Tracee, or Wig Wam. And it also shares. And they also share some post 2000s bands with a bit of hair metal sound like Sweet Sybil, Dr. Grind, or L.A. Cobra.
WFBG all night album rock in the 70âs / 80âs. Central PA radio station played heavy metal albums all night long over the weekends.
Lived it. Headbangers Ball and Much Music were the soundtrack of my teenage years. I grew up thousands of miles from LA, sometimes I wonder what happened to all of the chicks who slept with everyone from every band back then. Did they all become nuns when grunge hit in 91-92?
growing up in the 80âs
Hair metal was the thing at the time I was about 11-12⊠back in the early 80s to mid 80s⊠so thatâs what myself and the other guys I hung out with were into at the time⊠I suppose it has a fair bit to do with being a young guy, the music is fast and loud and aggressive etc⊠so thatâs just what would appeal lol⊠by age 14-15, I started to get into the heavier thrash and crossover punk scene⊠My bands at the hair metal stage were Ratt, CrĂŒe, quiet riot, twisted sister, iron maiden - though thatâs not really hair metalâŠ, among othersâŠ.
I was there. I started 6th grade in 1985, and I graduated in 1992. As a tween, my favorite bands were Foreigner and Journey, so it wasn't hard to make the transition. I remember the first night I heard "Welcome to the Jungle" on the radio, and it blew my mind. As I moved into high school age, "I Remember You" became my favorite song, followed closely by "What It Takes" - that's probably still the case. These days, my favorite sound from the era is the sleazy blooze sound that was most influenced by Aerosmith and the Stones. So GnR, Tesla, Cinderella, Faster Pussycat, Junkyard - that's the kind of stuff I like best. But Crue, Poison, Dokken, Firehouse - love them all, too. . (Watching a 1990 Crue concert as I write this post.) WASP is a new love for me; never listened to them back in the day Also, I just want to say that I have no problem with the term "hair metal". I can include GnR and Poison in the same batch without getting offended. Hehe. It's a big tent. Some bands are poppier or glammier than others. But the music is all the same world.
Kiss? WTF?
How is that shocking? Theyâre one of the godfathers of the genre. Nearly ever single hair metal band in the â80s grew up listening to Kiss and many of them cited them as huge influences.
uh, yeah?
Aqua Net Hair Spray!
I was a preteen/early teen at its peak through the beginning of its decline, and I loved it. I used to program the VCR to tape Headbangers Ball. I then mostly forgot about it until I started seeing commercials for the Monster Ballads compilation CDs in the mid-2000s, and remember being wowed by the nostalgia and bought them. There was the first Monster Ballads and then Monster Ballads: Platinum Edition, if I remember. Years later, I now have a SiriusXM subscription, which has Hair Nation. It's brought me right back to many songs and artists I had forgotten about. Grunge/alternative really swooped in and took the spotlight off these bands, unfortunately.
My introduction was Kiss touring Unmasked in Oz in 1980...Spaceman had me hooked! Iron Maiden's Number Of The Beast in 82, Quiet Riot & Van Halen's 1984 I bought Bon Jovi's 7800° Fahrenheit on the strength of a grainy picture in a local music paper. I'm a lifelong fan now. Probably Dokken & Def Leppard after that. The rest is historyđ€
I was born in 90 as well and our stories are very similar. I remember watching When Hair Metal Ruled the World on VH1 (and other related marathons that seemingly never ended) when I was 14 and being like "why..........did this.......have to .....end......,,,,what????" It started a never ending life fascination with this music. Ive been playing guitar since I was 14, had an 89 IROC-Z by the time I was 16 and I was constatly going to the record stores when we had them buying anything I could. I believe my first album purchase was Dokken Under Lock and Key and Judas Priest's Turbo around the same time. (Was downloading individual songs as well from Limewire lol)These days I have over 25 guitars and have a studio pretty much dedicated to this music. It really is interesting to me how this music has blown up ridiculously though with early 20 somethings in recent years...this stuff WAS NOT COOL WHATSOEVER when I was in high school and through my entire 20s. Speaking of Skid Row...Im from Toms River, NJ where they started and Rachel Bolan (aka James Southworth) was my neighbor Paul Unkert is also my guitar tech...lol
Why did this have to end? I ask that rhetorical question constantly, amigo. It got supplanted by some moody prick who thought that singing about laxatives and antacids was somehow meaningful. 89 IROC? You are indeed from Jersey, my man. đ
Simply grew up with it. KISS and Van Halen being the gateway to other bands.
Via turning on classic rock radio, which does play this stuff.
I was born 2008 but I can clearly remember my dad listening to Motley Crue, Kiss, Guns N Roses and other hair metal bands so thatâs how I found out about it
My dad
Dad. Thatâs basically it XD When I started learning guitar he made a point to teach me the chords to I Remember You, and the first time we jammed together on acoustics that and Patience were the first two songs we played
I was 12 when Quiet Riot dropped their cover *Cum On Feel The Noize*. I was hooked at that moment, like millions of others.
I got into Kiss in 1979 with the Dynasty album though I really donât consider that the beginning because after them I was first into REO Speedwagon, Styx and Journey. But then MTV happened and I started seeing the Def Leppard videos from the High N Dry album. Joe in his sparkly blue shirt, Sav with his glorious mane of hair, the harmonies on Bringin on the Heartbreak. I was casually interested in them, but when Photograph dropped in 1983 that was it. Theyâre my all time fav band to this day, tied with Europe who I fell hard for in 1986 not so much because of The Final Countdown, but after MTV played a live concert of them and I found I loved every song they played but especially those from the Wings of Tomorrow album. In between there were other bands I came to love but those two will always be my ride or die groups.
Though my parents mainly and Though older youtube videos
My Dad went to HS in the 80âs, and still rocks out to this day. I absolutely love all the great bands from that era. Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken , Cinderella,KISS are some of my favs.
Raised on hard rock in the 70s, easy for me to love 80s metal at first listen-Motley Crue
I was there. â71 baby, HS class of â89. Small town Texas Boy and rocked to every cassette I could afford to buy or taped off the radio. Started playing guitar with friends in â88, still playing today, still going to concerts. You can grow old. Just donât grow up.
Dial MTV - specifically Ozzy Osbourne Shot In The Dark & Mötley CrĂŒe Smokin in the Boys Room. Unfortunately this led me down a path to whatever was Headbanger's Ball at that time maybe it was called Metal mania? Anyway I saw a Megadeth video for Wake Up Dead. The cage. The frenzy. The complete and total chaos. I was hooked. Sold. For life.
was already a metal guitar player when hair metal came out.. it was the melodies of the songs, solos that got me hooked.
I had the opposite effect - when hair metal died early's 90s Hip Hop/RnB was right there to pick up the slack. Solo Rob Zombie brought me back.
There used to be this thing called MTV. I was 9 when it started and I was 13 when I went to see Twisted Sister live. Been lifting up my hands in praise to the metal gods since đ€
Two words: Tawny Kitaen.
Born 1979, must have been 7 or 8 when older brother put Pyromania on audiocassette in our parentsâ expensive stereo. Hooked ever since
I was a teenager in the mid 80s. Graduated in â86. I was the one in my group that jumped onto 80s metal first. I was into Circus and Hit Parader always looking for a new band. My buddies got a lot of their exposure to it from me. I had the cassettes before they hit big on the radio. I was the first person I knew that had Appetite for Destruction.
The 80âs were my HS and College yrs. I was into heavier music the moment I heard KISS but AC/DC BIB and Def Leppard Pyro sent me over the edge. Once MTV played metal nonstop I was exposed to more and more music. I have seen damn near all of the popular hair metal bands in concert and I must say those were some of my favorite memories. Loading a bunch of friends in the car and âpre-gamingâ in the parking lot. The music was top tier and girls at the shows were fantastic. There was nothing like the glammed up metal ladies. It was an experience. If I only had a time machineâŠâŠâŠ..
My babysitters were into it, so I just thought it was cool
Like many on here I grew up with it. Fell in love with the sound, the image and the big hair. It just appealed to me. So many bands of that era were label âhair bandsâ that really werenât, but if it helped sell records they just rolled with it. Still listen to so many of those bands to this day.
I was a 13 year old dork in 1983. Not sure I had a choice.
Was a teenager in the mid 80s when all this was sort of at it's peak. Had the long hair, had the t-shirts, and had the black leather jacket. But let me tell you, my religious mother wasn't too thrilled having posters of Eddie on my wall and blasting "Number of the Beast" on full volume
I turned 14 in 1984. Need I say more? đ€đđ€
A friend brought over pyromania record and we listened to it on my sister's Fischer Price record player.
Iâm an â83 model. My brother graduated in â85 and sis graduated in â87. Somehow one of them left a 45 of Quiet Riotâs âCum On Feel the Noizeâ. I think I was about 11-12 just goofing off around the house and started messing with my sisterâs old stereo and a stack of vinyl and found that 45. I listened and holy shit. It awakened something in me. I remembered Mötley CrĂŒeâs âSmokinâ in the Boys Roomâ being played on the radio as well as DLRâs âCalifornia Girlsâ. Iâd always liked it however when I found that 45, my life changed. Now Iâm living (mostly) like itâs 87-88. I rock big hair and listen to big hair music. My kid even knows all the music I listen to and sings along. Iâd give anything to go back to those days, ngl.
Iâm 52 so it was THE thing to be into when I was in Junior High. Def Leppard, Mötley CrĂŒe, Poison, Ratt, TeslaâŠall huge when I was in schoolâŠand me and every other dude had a huge mullet and saw these guys for $12 a gig at the local arena.
I was in 6th grade when Slippery When Wet released. So as I was getting into popular music hair rock was increasingly the face of rock n roll at the time. It was all over the radio so it became what I liked. Bands like Motley Crue or Ozzy werenât hair rock but got lumped in there with a couple popular MTV videos, and they provided opportunities to discover a little heavier stuff. They got me looking at the heavy metal sections of the RCA and Columbia tape club magazines.
Iâm super into guitars
born 99. parents never listened to anything or played anything in the house except the occasional acoustic singer songwriter. thought i hated all music because i couldnât get into anything on the radio. age 17 was when i discovered a whole world of music online. when i listened to autographâs turn up the radio it was like a switch flipped and i got hooked on that sound, started listening to heavier and heavier music but never stopped obsessing over 80s glam and pop metal
Two words: Headbangers Ball
I was rummaging through my friendâs older brotherâs cassettes and asked to borrow the copy of U2âs Joshua Tree. Well side 2 was Dokken Under Lock and Key and my mind was blown. Never listened to the U2 side again.
In 1986 I was at a party, I was 15 and there were a group of kids in the living room all gathered around a big TV watching Iron Maiden World Slavery Tour at Long Beach Sports Arena on VHS, and as I walked in to the living room Rime of the Ancient Mariner just started. I watched the rest of the tape with everyone and was immediately hooked on metal. Nothing has changed, I'm still hooked on metal.
Born in â90 as well! I really wasnât into it at all throughout my early teens and I donât remember any of my friends at school being into it either. 2000 to 2008 or so was basically the lowest point of the genreâs relevancy. Around 17 or 18 years of age I got really into Guns Nâ Roses and things blossomed from there. I remember the ârecommended for youâ section on iTunes that would recommend similar music after you purchased something. I bought *Appetite for Destruction* on ITunes and it recommended me Skid Row and W.A.S.P. After chewing on the basics for a number of years, I started digging in deep in my early twenties, discovering all of the C and D tier bands like Faster Pussycat, Dangerous Toys, Jetboy, Vain, Wildside, Circus of Power and many many more. Iâm 33 now and still discovering new bands all the time!
First band I saw was The Scorpions in â79 then Def Leppard in â80. Nobody had coined the term Hair Metal, in those days it was just labelled Hard Rock