History Music / DefLeppard

Recently the band have experienced something of a career resurgence with well received collaborations with TimMcGraw and TaylorSwift introducing them to a new audience.

* GoshDarnItToHeck: "Let's Get Rocked".
* HairMetal: The band themselves deny that they were part of the genre and Joe Elliott has been somewhat dismissive of other hair bands when asked about Leppard's association with the style. They count the British glam bands from the 1970s, such as T. Rex and Sweet, as key influences. However it seems more a reaction to ignorant media types pigeonholing the band than genunine animosity as Leppard have toured with MotleyCrue, Poison and SteelPanther amongst others.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: In their beginnings and on ''Pyromania'', they were a solid 5, sometimes even a 6. By the time Hysteria rolled around, they had softened to a 4. ''High & Dry'' seems to be a 7. Perhaps a weak one, but most of the time it's clearly metal, and ''On Through the Night'' is slightly stronger on that front. Phil Collen has remarked on the trend ("We were always halfway between heavy metal and Music/DuranDuran").

** "Rock of Ages has the following lines referencing NeilYoung's "Hey Hey My My"

!!This band provides examples of:

* ChorusOnlySong: "Pour Some Sugar on Me".

* CrossOver: With '''Music/TaylorSwift''', of all people, via ''CMT Crossroads''.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: They have four pretty good singers (Rick Allen only tends to do backing vocals during live shows), so it's no surprise that somebody other than Joe took the opportunity to sing lead for a couple of songs on ''Yeah!'' Sav does the lead vocals on their cover of "[[Music/{{Queen}} Dear Friends]]", while Phil sings and plays all the instruments on "[[Music/{{Faces}} Stay With Me]]".

* LighterAndSofter: Their first two albums were definitely Music/HeavyMetal, but starting with their third album ''Pyromania'' they adopted a more radio-friendly hard rock sound. Their fourth album, ''Hysteria'', moved even further in this direction due to nearly half the songs being [[PowerBallad ballads]].

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: In their beginnings and on ''Pyromania'', they were a solid 5, sometimes even a 6. By the time Hysteria rolled around, they had softened to a 4. High & Dry seems to be a 7. Perhaps a weak one, but most of the time it's clearly metal. Phil Collen has remarked on the trend ("We were always halfway between heavy metal and Music/DuranDuran").

* AGoodNameForARockBand: They were originally called Atomic Mass, which was changed to Deaf Leapord. They became Def Leppard on Joe Elliott's suggestion after he joined the group as a tribute to Music/LedZeppelin (who deliberately misspelled the first word in their name) and to differentiate themselves from punk bands who named themselves after animals.

* MyspeldRokband

* EpicRocking: They often include one or more long songs on they're releases. ''Pyromania'' has "Die Hard the Hunter" at 6:17, ''Hysteria'' has two equally long songs with "Rocket" and "Gods of War" both at 6:37, ''Adrenalize'' chips in with "White Lightning" at 7:03, ''Slang'' gives up "Pearl of Euphoria" at 6:21, they're longest song by far is "Overture" from ''On Through The Night'' though they dialled back the song lengths on more recent albums.

* EpicRocking: Starting with ''Pyromania'' they often include one or more long songs. ''Pyromania'' has "Die Hard the Hunter" at 6:17, ''Hysteria'' has two equally long songs with "Rocket" and "Gods of War" both at 6:37, ''Adrenalize'' chips in with "White Lightning" at 7:03, ''Slang'' gives up "Pearl of Euphoria" at 6:21 though they dialled back the song lengths on more recent albums.

* Vivian Campbell wrote and played the guitar parts on [[Music/RonnieJamesDio Dio]]'s "Holy Diver" and moonlights as a member of Music/ThinLizzy.

* TheEighties
* EpicInstrumentalOpener : "Gods of War" has a fifty second instrumental intro, followed by nearly a minute of the main tune being played before Joe begins singing.

* HairMetal: The band themselves deny that they were part of the genre and Joe Elliott has been somewhat dismissive of other hair bands when asked about Leppard's association with the style. They count the British glam bands from the 1970s, such as T. Rex and Sweet, as key influences.

* Creator/{{Hipgnosis}}: Did the cover art for ''High 'n' Dry''.

->''[[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Gunter gleben gloussen globen...]]''

* ChorusOnlySong: "Sugar".

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: They have four pretty good singers (Rick Allen only tends to do backing vocals during live shows), so it's no surprise that somebody other than Joe took the opportunity to sing lead for a couple of songs on ''Yeah!'' Sav does the lead vocals on their cover of "[[Music/{{Queen}} Dear Friends]]", while Phil sings and plays all the instruments on "[[Music/Faces Stay With Me]]".

* WordSaladLyrics: "Sugar".

* ExecutiveMeddling: Pressure from higher-ups resulted in a huge sum of money being paid to bring JimSteinman in to produce ''Hysteria'', in spite of the band's protests that he was primarily a songwriter rather than a producer. Steinman later got fired and they reunited with their previous producer [[Music/{{AC DC}} Robert John "Mutt" Lange]].

* TroubledProduction: ''Hysteria'', partly due to Rick Allen's car accident, among other factors.

* Vivian Campbell wrote and played the [[EpicRiff guitar parts]] on [[Music/RonnieJamesDio Dio]]'s "Holy Diver" and moonlights as a member of Music/ThinLizzy.

* BrokenBase: Just about every Leppard fan loves ''Pyromania'', but other than that they're split between people who prefer what came before it and people who like what came after it.

* EpicRiff: Many.

* FaceOfTheBand: Joe Elliott is the face, and Phil Collen is known for appearing with him in most interviews. Rick Allen is recognised for obvious reasons.

* NarrativeNonSequitur: "Bringin on the Heartbreak".

* LighterAndSofter: Their first two albums were definitely HeavyMetal, but starting with their third album ''Pyromania'' they adopted a more radio-friendly hard rock sound. Their fourth album, ''Hysteria'', moved even further in this direction due to nearly half the songs being [[PowerBallad ballads]].

* HairMetal: The band themselves deny that they were part of the genre and Joe Elliott has been somewhat dismissive of other hair bands when asked about Leppard's association with the style. They maintain that they're influenced by the original glam rock stars like Marc Bolan and Slade, but the music comes before the image.

* LighterAndSofter: Their first two albums were definitely HeavyMetal, but starting with their third album ''Pyromania'' they adopted a more radio-friendly hard rock sound. Their fourth album, ''Hysteria'', moved even further in this direction due to nearly half the songs being ballads.