MovieChat Forums > Rock of Ages (2012) Discussion > 80s hair bands or 90s grunge bands?

80s hair bands or 90s grunge bands?


what kind of rock music you like better and why?

I much prefer the 80s hair bands cause the music was a lot more fun, carefree, has more of an upbeat, high energy feel to it, the musicians and the vocal harmonies were also a lot better

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There's a reason Pearl Jam had a film by Cameron Crowe made about them (PJ20) and why they still pack arenas and have solid record sales when they release albums 20 years later. Soundgarden also can still pack arenas and even after being gone for 13 years were approached to write the lead single for one of the biggest films of all time (the Avengers). Alice In Chains, even with their lead singer gone, came back and released a hit album with 2 hits on rock radio and ended their most recent album tour by headlining arenas. Also Nirvana obviously are still incredibly popular even though Kurt Cobain has been dead for 18 years.

You'd never see a film about Poison, Warrant, etc. accomplishments (Like Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam 20 film) nor would you see any of them approached to write a new song for a major soundtrack (Soundgarden for the Avengers). Hair metal is corny stupid music for stupid people who don't really want to think when listening to music. The only way any of them make money is stupid nostalgia tours where they tour together. I think a band like Bon Jovi, while having hair metal tendencies, weren't necessarily a part of hair metal which is why they've had continued success. Guns N' Roses weren't part of it either, not by a long shot. They were a great band. Early Van Halen were a great band as well, sure there was cheese but there was great musical talent there as well. Van Hagar and David Lee Roth's solo career is when they basically gave in to the hair metal fad. Metallica/real metal thrived into the 90's because it's timeless, the same reason Pearl Jam is still popular now.

Also if you listen to modern rock radio stations (like KROQ in LA) half of the music they play is Grunge because most new music is garbage and most Grunge era stuff doesn't sound dated because it is timeless, just like classic rock in the 60's/70's. Grunge picked back up where they left off with some punk rock ethos thrown in. It's music (classic rock and Grunge) for people who want to think.

You'd never see a 'Rock of Ages' movie about Grunge because it was actually a period of great artistry where musicians took their music seriously and poured their souls into it, rather than singing about stupidity like getting a blowjob or partying. There's no way to make a movie mocking it because of that.

The reason Grunge bands didn't last that long is because of drug addiction and anti-commercial/anti-fame outlooks. Kurt Cobain killed himself because he couldn't kick heroin which caused Nirvana to end, Pearl Jam refused to release music videos (even for some of their biggest hits like Better Man) or tour Ticketmaster venues for years, Alice In Chains' original lineup disintegrated because Layne Staley was addicted to heroin and died because of it, Stone Temple Pilots went on a 2-3 year hiatus due to Scott Weiland's drug addiction, Smashing Pumpkins had to fire members due to drug addiction, etc.

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Oh please, the nihilistic whingings were no deeper than anything else. And all of their deep thinking didn't exactly lead them to good places, how deep is destruction?

And it's easy to say that just because something if more upbeat or fun that nobody took what went into making it seriously, but it's often not true.

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Hair metal is corny stupid music for stupid people who don't really want to think when listening to music.


- That's not entirely accurate, though perhaps generally the point of the eighties hair bands was to have fun i.e. "Nothin' But A Good Time" - Poison

There are some standout eighties hair band songs that are more than the glut of shallowness often played on the radio back then. Among them:

Slaughter - "Fly To The Angels"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iheeQ2KKPMo

They sing about the pain of losing a girlfriend who died.



Skid Row - "18 And Life"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc4HdwJEYMs

About a kid who accidentally shot someone and went to jail.

(btw I hate Skid Row, but the song does have depth)



Scorpions - "Still Loving You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyarcp5LtU

A song about love lost, not ground breaking, but certainly soulful. After all, about 10 years later, No Doubt sang "Don't Speak" about the same basic thing, with an intro that sounds to me like it was ripped off from Aerosmith's "Dream On".



Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oohFGOmcxuo

I think that many people can identify with the central theme and message: sometimes faith in God and walking alone, pressing on, is what makes life meaningful - if lonely.


Bon Jovi - "Living on a Prayer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXsmGSnq3lE

A well-told story of a young couple struggling with dreams vs practical demands of everyday life. Not thought provoking, but certainly worth consideration. I am still wondering what happened to Tommy and Gina, do they stay together, does Tommy go on to become a musician that can earn a living and support Gina?



"If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it copy this and make it your signature!"

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I was more of grunge kid than rocker because I was a teen in the mid 90s, but I love 80s hair bands. I think both are great.....so much better than rap crap.

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90's, because that was the era I was born into 88'. In fact, my birthday is today :D


I'll take Metallica and Black Sabboth any day though!

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'80s hair bands always! '90s grunge was just depressing noise that brought everybody down.

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+infinity

Grunge bands sounded sort of like depressing noise, but of course since they were depressing and, most importantly, had no trace of fun or carefree or upbeat or happy, the hipster/grungy types think it was a much deeper, more complex genre of music on the level of Mozart of something.

We went from fun, upbeat hair bands and 80s pop and rock to boy bands,grunge, gangster rap and hip-hop and suddenly everyone thought they were either some sort of a deep-thinking hipster or they were some kid living in a fancy house who had had a rainbows and puppies childhood and who started worshipping the gansta-life and thinking he was a real bad mofo and if only he could just live on the streets and become a drug addict and get murdered by the end of the week instead of swim around his in ground pool after driving home in his BMW from school his life would be so much better :).


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90s most definitely. It just had a bigger impact on me.

80s was fun, especially for drunk white males who only wanted to party. There's something about the 80s hair bands that I find too shallow, and it eventually just became a caricature of itself.

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Meanwhile the hard rock that grunge "killed" is still touring in the biggest arenas and stadiums like Def Leppard, Poison, Motley Crue, Van Halen, Journey, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, etc., that's just a few from this summer. I can't think of a single platinum or gold 80s metal band that isn't still rocking like Dio was from 1957 til the day he died, Ozzy and Black Sabbath and Judas Priest since the 60s. Hell, even Germany's Accept is from the 60s and sold 27 million albums with their highest charter their most recent even though nobody in USA knows anything other than their one hit in the 80s. Iron Maiden's recent album was their highest charting ever even in USA despite zero airplay, and recent tours are their biggest, even when they play only the new stuff nobody's heard of. Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Queensryche, LA Guns, Dokken, Cinderella, Great White, Kix, Skid Row, Enuff Znuff, Warrant, Winger, Whitesnake, and every one hit wonder that ever got played on MTV like XYZ, Bang Tango, Loudness from Japan, and all the rest, still here. Even if members die or leave and form other groups, everyone just keeps going, it just means there are even more of these bands. That's because they're real musicians with real fans unlike those whiny lib grunge "rock" bands.


Well said, flattax

That's goddamn right... I was able to stomach some of the grunge movement but it was so force-fed, and even people like Cameron Crowe (who I DO admire for some of his movies) are still hanging on and it's freakin' pathetic. A movie dedicated to Pearl Jam - how intriguing. When crap like this hits the scene, the force-feeding that they're doing is the same thing they rallied against saying a band like Journey was "corporate" and it was force fed. Give me a goddamned break - and like I said before - cry me a river and go fetch my Starbucks, you insignificant serf.

Just because the 90s music was depressing doesn't mean it was sooooo deep. And who cares anyway? Music, like movies, can be for escapism as well as just enjoying a song for the way it makes you feel. I don't care if it's Soundgarden, Lady Gaga, Dream Theater or ABBA - listen because you LIKE it.

Oh and one more thing to the "metal detractors" - I don't see a long-running program on any TV station called "That Grunge Show".... there's a GOOD reason why.




"Loser! Idiot! Wimp! Degnerate! SSSSSSSSSLUT!!!!"

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The 90s were a much more diverse decade of music. Most of the best selling artists from the decade are from the late 90s, after Cobain was dead and grunge was gone, then bubblegum pop became popular, which is why Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears are on there. There was music for everyone. Although I much prefer the 80s bands that are listed than the 90s popstars listed, there is still much more diversity in the 90s section. The only rock bands on there are Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day and that might be it. But just because a certain genre of music isn't as popular in one decade doesn't mean it didn't exist. Actually a lot of the 90s artists on there are legendary in their respected genres. Mariah Carey and Celine Dion are both a couple of the greatest singers of all time, Shania Twain has the best-selling female album of all time, Britney was able to make a comeback and turn her life around and she's as good as she's ever been, and lots of those people are still making music and are still relevant today.

Hi. I'm an 18-year-old female, so don't call me an idiot.

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A musical with Catherine Zeta-Jones or some other big celeb singing "Come As You Are" would be intriguing. I'll go with the 90s grunge.

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"People like carefree, happy, music void of cynicism."

The same could be said about disco, but then the 80s glam rock and metal came about as a way of doing away with all of that. There's no reason why multiple genres of music can't co-exist without another coming in to claim it's better than the other or that the earlier stuff sucks. Sure, what's a little promiscuity. LOL

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