MovieChat Forums > That Metal Show (2008) Discussion > Proof Grunge Didn't Kill Hair Metal.

Proof Grunge Didn't Kill Hair Metal.


Or hair metal... the truth has to be told. After decades of hearing that Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains etc. Destroyed so called hair and glam metal. The truth should be told... a lot of those bands just sucked. And stopped writing decent enough pop tunes to keep others interested.

Poison, Warrant, Cinderella, Bango Tango, Dangerous Toys, Trixter, Slaughter, Hanoi Rocks, Stryper etc. Have cried for years that grunge killed their careers. Yet there were plenty of glam/hair metal bands ont he charts in 91 and 92.

Mr. Big had a number 1 hit with ''To Be With You'' in 1991. They also had a top 40 hit in 1992. And a hit in 1993 with a cover of Cat Steven's ''Wild World''

Firehouse had a top ten hit with ''Love Of A Lifetime'' in 1991. And another top 40 hit ''Don't Treat Me Bad''

And a top 10 hit in 1992 with ''When I Look Into Your Eyes''

Motley Crue had a top ten album in 1994. Even with then new lead singer John Corabi.

Def Leppard (they were a hair metal band. Lets me real here y'all) Were scoring hits untilt he mid 90's.

Cinderella was on the famous Wayne's World soundtrack in 92.

So there was still hair/glam metal in the charts during the early 90's. But they still act like grunge murdered it all on arrival. Why did these bands all have big hits then? :lol:

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Hair metal sucked. Need I say more?

"Flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep"-Cogsworth

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It shouldn't be called "hair metal". "Glam metal" is more accurate. And a lot of the bands categorized as such were great. No one can tell me that guys like George Lynch were not great guitarists just because they had big hair and wore make-up back in the '80s.

Jaan Pehechan Ho

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Nah, there was no longer a market for hair metal in the 1990's. Bands like GNR, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue weren't hair bands. They actually wrote hard edged music. You can't compare them to bands like Warrant, Poison, and other POP hair bands of the 80's. Besides, the examples you listed don't count if you're siting their hits being from 1991/1992. Grunge only starting becoming popular around that time and hit it's peak in 1993/1994, at which point, NO glam hair bands from the 80's were putting out pop songs anymore. Again, Crue's 94 album's hit was hard edged.

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Bang Tango and Dangerous Toys weren't that big.

Stryper were a novelty act.

Were Hanoi Rocks popular in the United States? I think many fans would not have heard of them if their drummer hadn't been killed by Vince Neil in a drunk driving accident or their catalog hadn't been reissued on Guns 'N Roses label.

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You're so right, I wouldn't know who Hanoi Rocks were if it weren't for Vince.
Glam was Dying, it was inevitable, Grunge or not ? It would've died off regardless.

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I was still listening to glam in the 90's. I was also into Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine. I laughed at Nrvana and Pearl Jam, and viewed them as music for the depressed cheerleader crowd. Alice in Chains wasn't grunge in the truest sense. They were more like a new form of metal that encompsses more from bands like Black Sabbath and Lucifer's Beard in being more bass guitar driven, instead of relaying on lead solos. Overall much of the grunge scene sucked because much of it sounded like whiney crybabies bitching the world sucked, but offered no solutions to fix it.


I leave Symbols to the Symbol minded

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It didn't kill "hair metal" as you call it. It killed metal in general. The glam stuff could not last forever. That was going to die anyway. Grunge just put the final nail in the coffin sooner. Metal was on a major downswing in the 90's. Thrash, death metal, and the more traditional metal took a major hit while all these long time so called metal fans all abandoned it and went with the latest trend. Till this day, I just don't get it. I saw at the time all these metal fans all of a sudden going to these clubs that play alternative music and buying Nirvana tapes. It was hard to understand why or exactly what was happening, but I stuck with the metal and saw the crowds dwindle. But it survived and it made a huge comeback in the early 2000's and is still strong. So I guess in the end it all worked out for the best. But it still baffles me when I think about what happened in the early 90's almost out of nowhere.

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