History Main / HairMetal

-->--'''Music/{{Poison}}''', "Nothin' But a Good Time"

Hair Metal bands often became as famous, if not more so, for their [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll hard-partying lifestyles, involving drugs, alcohol and promiscuity]], as for their music, as befitting the "decade of excess". The media response was a moral panic about metal’s allegedly harmful influences on youth.

* Music/DamnYankees (a supergroup featuring Music/{{Styx}}'s Tommy Shaw, Music/NightRanger's Jack Blades, Music/{{Accept}}’s Michael Cartellone and solo-star Music/TedNugent)

* Iron Weasel (from the Disney XD series ''Series/ImInTheBand''

* Iron Weasel, an InUniverse group for the DisneyXD series ''Series/ImInTheBand''

* Fifth Angel

* Music/JudasPriest (''Turbo'', though it was heavier then most examples)
* Music/{{KISS}} (during their 1983-1996 unmasked phase)

* Raven (during the mid-80s. Otherwise a straight-up metal band.)

* Music/{{TSOL}} (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)

* Music/MotleyCrue(as well as Vince Neil's solo career)
* Music/MrBig

* Music/VanHalen (arguable trope-makers along with Hanoi Rocks, they were at least were ''very'' influential in its creation, and the brothers in particular influenced virtually every single guitarist and drummer in the genre)

The genre pretty much died out by 1993. There were many reasons, but the best remembered one being the success of Seattle {{Grunge}} band Music/{{Nirvana}}'s ''Nevermind'' album late 1991 ushering in a sea change in the public's taste for rock music from hair bands to AlternativeRock. Not only that, but fans of hard rock were becoming tired of hair metal, and some felt the genre was leaning too much towards mainstream pop, particularly due to its reliance on big hit power ballads. The metal scene's savior also came in 1991, in the form of Music/{{Metallica}}, a thrash metal band whose dark, technical style had gained them critical acclaim and a fanbase so large that they could pack stadiums without much in the way of radio hits. Metallica released their self-titled Black Album one month before ''Nevermind'', and it too became a monster smash, paving the way for other darker, heavier, faster, technical and/or less glammy bands like Music/{{Pantera}}, Music/{{Slayer}}, Music/{{Megadeth}}, Music/{{Sepultura}} and Music/{{Tool}} to have major success in the 1990s. Hard rock fans looking for a happy medium between alt-rock and the newer metal bands could find that in AlternativeMetal, a combination of the two genres, which supplanted hair metal on rock radio in the '90s with the success of artists like Music/{{Primus}}, Music/KingsX, Music/WhiteZombie and Music/FaithNoMore.

* Music/{{WASP}} (Blurred the line between hair metal and ShockRock on their first few albums. They began taking a TraditionalHeavyMetal turn as time went on, and by the late 80s they had dropped most of what little hair metal influence they had.)

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; PowerMetal also has a similar HardRock-influenced sound and intentional cheesiness. 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.

As for the hair bands? Some of them gave up the ghost entirely, while others switched their sound to adapt with the times. Music/BonJovi was the biggest success in this regard, completely changing their style to adult contemporary while retaining much of their popularity and fanbase. Other big name acts like Music/MotleyCrue and Music/{{Ratt}}, [[WereStillRelevantDammit failed in their new, darker 90s guises]], which both [[UnpleasableFanbase alienated their old fans and got them mocked relentlessly by grunge and newer metal fans]]. Some hard rock bands whose sounds were tangentially connected to Hair Metal (either in style, their influence or the public's perception),like Music/DefLeppard and Music/GunsNRoses, continued to be concert draws without changing their sound for the times.

* Music/MotleyCrue

As for the hair bands? Some of them gave up the ghost entirely, while others switched their sound to adapt with the times. Music/BonJovi was the biggest success in this regard, completely changing their style to adult contemporary while retaining much of their popularity and fanbase. Other big name acts like Music/MotleyCrue and Music/{{Ratt}} and [[WereStillRelevantDammit failed in their new, darker 90s guises]], which both [[UnpleasableFanbase alienated their old fans and got them mocked relentlessly by grunge and newer metal fans]]. Some hard rock bands whose sounds were tangentially connected to Hair Metal (either in style, their influence or the public's perception),like Music/DefLeppard and Music/GunsNRoses, continued to be concert draws without changing their sound for the times.

* Krokus (''The Blitz'', ''Change of Address'' and ''Heart Attack'')

* Music/NewYorkDolls certainly helped create the image, and their combination of trashy glam aesthetics and raw, sloppy, attitude-driven protopunk was a major influence on acts like Hanoi Rocks, Motley Crue, and Guns N' Roses; furthermore, [[Music/{{WASP}} Blackie Lawless]] was a brief live member near the end of their original run.

* Night Ranger (had most of their success - including their hit single "Sister Christian" - as an arena rock band, and are often incorrectly labeled as a hair metal band because they happened to be performing hard rock music at the same time the genre was popular. Only recorded a single album in the genre, 1988's ''Man in Motion'', long after their success had waned.)

* Music/ManicStreetPreachers (the Welsh band started out as this along with a fusion of GlamRock and PunkRock for their first album ''Generation Terrorists'', before going a more {{Grunge}} sound with their follow up ''Gold Against The Soul'' along with a GothRock / PostPunk influenced sound for ''The Holy Bible'' before having their biggest success in the 90s {{Britpop}} scene for ''Everything Must Go'' and ''This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours'' and has remained a successful British AlternativeRock band)

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, in many ways being its spiritual successor.

* Bad English (A supergroup that included solo star John Waite as the lead vocalist and two members of Music/{{Journey}}. Best known for their #1 hit "When I See You Smile")

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

* Music/{{Extreme}} (influenced by funk metal; attempted to become a deconstructive parody in the early 90s. Creator/ToddInTheShadows referred to them as "Franchise/BillAndTed Rock" instead of hair metal due to their funk and alternative influences, and grouped them with Music/FaithNoMore and Music/{{Primus}} instead of the hair bands.)

* Aldo Nova (started out as AOR and started going into this territory with "Twitch" before fully embracing it in "Blood on the Bricks").
* Alleycat Scratch(one of the latest entries in the genre, not releasing their debut until 1993)

* Babylon A.D.(not to be confused with the Creator/VinDiesel film)
* Badlands(mostly BluesRock, though their singles like "Dreams in the Dark" showed hints of this)

* Black-Eyed Susan(fronted by former "Britny Fox" vocalist Dean Davidson, one of the more bluesy examples of the genre with Dean using a significantly more clean and less raspy voice then the one he used for his former band).

* Gilby Clarke (The former lead guitarist for the obscure band Candy, who got a big break in 1991 when he replaced Izzy Stradlin in Music/GunsNRoses. He was fired in 1994, but has continued to maintain a high profile. His 1994 solo album ''Music/PawnshopGuitars'' is a mix between alt-rock and glam metal)

* Music/{{Dokken}}(plus Don Dokken's solo album and George Lynch's own band "Lynch Mob")

* Electric Boys(predominately Funk/Psychedelic with elements of this)

* Music/{{Extreme}} (influenced by funk metal; attempted to become a deconstructive parody in the early 90s)

* Music/LivingColour (plays GenreRoulette with Hair Metal, FunkMetal, {{Funk}}, HipHop and PunkRock)

* Nelson (led by the twin sons of 1950s teen idol Ricky Nelson. Their sound often bordered on straight-up pop music. The twins mentioned that their sound was too heavy for pop radio yet too light for rock radio, which resulted in their success being short-lived)

* Phantom Blue(one of the heavier examples of the genre, despite looking like other all-female 80s rock groups like Vixen and Rock Goddess they were heavier then most of those bands, going into straight up HeavyMetal on their sophomore release "Built to Perform")

* Saigon Kick (similar to Enuff Z'Nuff, they were never really Hair Metal but marketed as such, they had a myriad of different styles including HeavyMetal, but most people assumed they were Hair Metal since their one big hit happened to be the PowerBallad "Love is on the Way". Saigon Kick were also possibly the least glammy of any band associated with this genre; [[https://www.last.fm/music/Saigon+Kick/+images Vintage photos]] show them looking more like a long-haired alt-rock band than anything to do with metal.)

* Ugly Kid Joe (crossed this with {{Grunge}} and FunkMetal)

* Mother Love Bone (along with grunge; like Alice in Chains, they were a bridge between glam and the more metallic side of grunge. Split up when their lead singer Andrew Wood died of a drug overdose just before their debut album was to be released. Just a few months later, band members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard formed Music/PearlJam.)

* Music/{{Scorpions}} (went into this starting with ''Love at First Sting'' up until ''Face the Heat'', 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.)

* Music/{{Scorpions}} created many of the riffing conventions, while Klaus Meine's vocal approach and the flashy leadwork of Uli Jon Roth and (later) Matthias Jabs also proved influential, as did the melodic ideas of their power ballads.

* Music/{{TNT}} (Have dropped in and out of the genre's purview. In the band's beginning they were a very bluesy Traditional Metal group. When they actually began to fall into this, they kept prog-rock elements[[note]]the band made extensive use of almost-choir-like backing vocals, and almost Queen-inspired pomp[[/note]]. By the mid-90s the band slipped into an almost "Alice In Chains-meets-The Beatles" style of music, and the band themselves have denied actually being glam)