History Main / HairMetal

* Music/{{Heart}} (starting with their self-titled album in 1985 and continuing until ''Desire Walks On'' in 1993)

+ TraditionalHeavyMetal, HardRock, {{Pop}}

A subset of HardRock and HeavyMetal, crossed with pop (think of lighters-aloft power ballads), it was popular mainly during TheEighties, so called because of the tendencies of the musicians to sport teased, dyed and moussed EightiesHair. Some bands accentuated this by wearing androgynous clothing, spandex and sometimes makeup as well. While none of this was actually originated by Hair Metal itself, the decade's emphasis on visual presentation and stage spectacle has made the style synonymous with the term (which, today, is commonly used in a decidedly derisive tone). To the ire of fans of other metal sub-genres, hair metal codified the general public's image of metal; when a layperson refers to "heavy metal" (or even "hard rock"), [[SmallReferencePools they most likely mean this genre]], when they don't think of some weird, heavy Frankenstein of DeathMetal, BlackMetal, and Music/{{Slipknot}}.

It is worth noting that hair metal came into vogue around the same time ArenaRock was on its way out (indeed, Music/BonJovi's breakthrough album ''Slippery When Wet'' was released in the same year as ''Raised On Radio'', the last Music/{{Journey}} album to feature Steve Perry on lead vocals for nearly ten years) and consequently inherited much of that genre's penchant for melodicism which leavened its heavier riffs, vocal harmonies and guitar pyrotechnics.

* Yngwie Malmsteen (for his albums ''Odyssey'', ''Eclipse'' and ''Fire and Ice'')

* Music/{{Annihilator}} (in one of the rare ThrashMetal examples of this trope, "Set the World on Fire" was considerably more commercial then the band's previous two albums, with it being more HardRock then Thrash, particularly songs like "No Zone", "Don't Bother Me" and the PowerBallad "Phoenix Rising")

** Music/DavidLeeRoth's solo career also qualifies, especially ''Eat Em And Smile'' and ''Skyscraper''.

* Music/{{Pantera}} (yes, ''that'' Pantera. Their first three albums with singer Terry Glaze are pure glam, while their first outing with Phil Anselmo straddles the line between heavy metal and glam. Since the release of their massive breakout album ''Cowboys From Hell'' in 1990, the band completely disowned their glam era, treating it as OldShame until way after their official breakup)

* Music/{{Girlschool}} (Started out as a female version of Motorhead, then went for more of a Hair Metal sound starting with 1983's ''Play Dirty'' and continiuing until their self-titled 1992 album, where they went back to their punk-metal roots. Today they're mostly notable for being the [[LongRunner longest lasting]] all-female band of all time)

* Music/{{Pantera}} (though [[OldShame they'd rather you forgot they were]].)

* London (a band with [[RevolvingDoorBand constant line-up shifts]]. At different times, the band included [[Music/MotleyCrue Nikki Sixx]] and [[Music/GunsNRoses Izzy Stradlin]], but neither lasted long enough in the lineup to appear on one of their records.)

+ GlamRock, PunkRock, ProtoPunk, PowerPop

* Music/UFOBand, like Scorpions, created a lot of the riffing and vocal style and phrasing conventions, and it's ''damn'' hard to find a glam guitarist who wasn't influenced by Michael Schenker. The band would dabble in this genre with "Misdemeanor" in 1985.

* Music/{{UFO}}, like Scorpions, created a lot of the riffing and vocal style and phrasing conventions, and it's ''damn'' hard to find a glam guitarist who wasn't influenced by Michael Schenker. The band would dabble in this genre with "Misdemeanor" in 1985.

* Babylon A.D.(not to be confused with the Vin Diesel film)

* SammyHagar(went into this with ''VOA'' and ''I Never Said Goodbye'')

* Saxon (Started out as HeavyMetal then started showing traces of this on "Crusader" before going more commercial with "Innocence is No Excuse" and continuing until "Forever Free")
* Music/{{Scorpions}} (went into this starting with ''LoveAtFirstSting'' up until ''FaceTheHeat'', mostly known for being the most successful intercontinental band of all time and one of the longest lasting bands ever, having formed in ''1965''! As mentioned above, the later Uli Jon Roth and early Matthias Jabs-era material was also a massive influence on the genre.)

* T.S.O.L. (They made their name for themselves as a gothy hardcore punk band, but changed their style a few times in the late 1980s; First to hard rock with ''Revenge'', and then to hair metal for ''Hit and Run'' and ''Strange Love''. By the time that last album was released, the band was without any original members. When the band's next album came out in 2001, they were back to a lineup that included original members and had returned to their punk sound)

* UFO (went into this with ''Obsession'')
* Uriah Heap (''Equator'', ''Raging Silence'', ''Different World'')
* Music/{{Whitesnake}} (lead singer David Coverdale is one of the rare singers associated with hair metal who has a baritone voice; they jumped on the hair bandwagon in the late 1980s when Coverdale recruited a succession of flashy guitarists, including John Sykes, Adrian Vandenberg, Vivian Campbell and Steve Vai, but they'd been around for years as the successor band to Deep Purple, the band Coverdale had been singing with in the late 1970s, and had performed as Whitesnake for a number of years playing a style of blues rock which Coverdale characterised as "progressive R&B").
* Y&T (started out as HeavyMetal and started showing traces of this on "In Rock We Trust" and went completely into it in "Down for the Count", "Contagious" and "Ten", eventually they went back to their old sound in "Musically Incorrect").

* Alice N' Chainz (Yep, ''that'' Music/AliceInChains, ''Facelift'' is SLIGHTLY less dark than their later albums and has noticeable traces of their glam era, particularly on the second half. The box set has a few demos from before they found their own sound)

* Kix (started out as NewWave before moving firmly into this territory with "Midnite Dynamite" and staying there)

* Kix

* Music/ElectricSix (Mixes this with GarageRock, {{Disco}}, {{NewWave|Music}}, PunkRock and several other styles)

* Music/ElectricSix (Mixes this with GarageRock)

* Music/{{Crashdiet}} (A fusion of Hair Metal and punk, currently active as of 2013, having replaced vocalists due to Dave Leppard's death)

Often associated with GlamRock. PostGrunge could be considered its SpiritualSuccessor, being a similarly commercialized derivative of a less accessible subgenre and sharing similar lyrical content. Almost all of these bands also overlap with HardRock, as contrary to the name, it is mostly the '80s equivalent of hard rock, with few metal elements.

* Y&T

* Nitro, a StealthParody band which took all of Hair Metal's aspects to their logical extreme.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Most bands are in the 5-6 range, with a few getting up to 7.
** A couple of the more thrash-oriented bands have approached ''eight.'' Those would be Loudness and Sex Machineguns, ''especially'' in their post-80s work.

* AmbiguousGender: Many artists early on. Some of them would eventually change into a less androgynous appearance as they matured.

* Snake Hammer in ''FuggetAboutIt''