Glam Metal

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I do not really find Guns N Roses all that serios... sure, they might've been more serious and more musician-like, not just for the looks of it, but their music still was in that glam metal category, blending some songs with more serious lyrical content together with party anthems. Guns N Roses had a bad boy attitude as oppossed to the sissy attitude of the earlier glam bands. That is what made the difference (same with Skid Row, which I consider far better and more serious than Guns). As for being darker... I really have trouble in seeing something dark in this music, really. The only real dark glam band (that was more at the edge of the scene in their hey day) was WASP. Both in atmosphere and in lyrical content (especially in the late 80s - early 90s).

Same like in thrash, glam metal suffered from being formulaic. You can go as far as it did with repeating the same album and the same songs. It did not matter how good they were in what they were playing, it is just that people get fed up and want something new, and new generations come up with their own views and tastes.

I do not agree with the assumption that glam metal could not reinvent itself and lives on nostalgia. Yeah, the 80s bands, very few of them can cope with their 80s playing style and very few of them managed to reinvent themselves. But there is a whole new palette of glam/sleaze band still going strong like Steel Panther, Crashdiet and so on. This kind of music is part of the popular culture, so I doubt it will ever fade away. It will change, but in essence it won't fade away.