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glitter_n_goreStudded leather. Hairspray. Fright makeup. Gang vocals. Welcome to the era of Glam Metal.
Also sometimes called Hair Metal, but there are a few subtle differences between the two. What you need to remember is this is when image started to become important. The aesthetic of Glam is almost as central to the genre as the sound itself. IMO, Hair Metal is what happened when the image overtook the sound entirely. To simplify things, let's just call this the Bill & Ted era. If Wyld Stallyns had their t-shirt, it goes in this category.
Bill & Ted playing air guitar with text "EXCELLENT!"
Source.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Remember what I said in the intro post, about Screamin' Jay Hawkins creating a wild, over-the-top style to go with his sound? That tendency towards flamboyant excess was brought to 11 with Glam Metal. Again, the influence of horror movies cannot be overstated. But who says you can't scare people and look good doing it?
Let's start with Alice Cooper, without whom there would be no Eric Draven:
The cartoonish stage persona of Alice Cooper is just that: a stage persona. By all accounts, he's actually a really nice guy in person. He was on The Muppet Show for crying out loud. Alice Cooper is not nearly as scary as he looks. And that is, of course, the whole point. There's a self-aware cheekiness to Glam, which is part of the appeal.
Another part is the way the lyrics lean into horror fandom. One thing I've noticed non-horror fans don't seem to understand is, for those of us who enjoy this sort of thing, being scared is fun. Cooper gets that, and takes advantage of it every chance he gets. This is about the same time Goth and New Wave started to creep into the airwaves. The aesthetic is similar, but not the sound. Not quite.
KISS takes the fright makeup to a whole other level. Also, they were one of biggest acts to move the lyrical content away from monsters and magic and more towards rock, and the power of rock, and rocking all night (or "nite") long. These are anthems designed to be shouted into a packed stadium with every member of the black-clad faithful screaming along.
Where exactly is the line between Art and Artifice? When the music kick this much ass, who cares? Ironically, my favorite KISS song, "Unholy," didn't come out until the Unmasked era in 1992 (there's an excellent cover by the Black Veil Brides, whom I will talk about AT LENGTH somewhat later). And despite my snarking earlier, I think their cover of "God Gave Rock & Roll To You" is fantastic--also from the Unmasked era. Music is magic and that comes through loud and clear in that track. Read into that what you will. However, I think equating a more subdued appearance with better quality music is a mistake. Correlation is not causation. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's talk about Mötley Crüe.
This is what I'm talking about: the imagery is there, as is the fun attitude, but also this bizarre, bro-y attitude that after a certain point started to leak into the music, not just the off-stage shenanigans of the band. The lyrics became about how awesome they are and how many groupies they had.
Don't misunderstand me: I like Mötley Crüe. I am not putting any bands in these posts that I don't like. But this aggressive, macho posturing started to replace that self-aware cheekiness I mentioned earlier, and while the songs are still fun, there's a vibe. There are fewer songs about demons, either fictional or metaphorical, and more about unfocused anger at the world, sex, drugs, sex, sex, political upheaval, sometimes love, and also sex. The audience they're playing to is less DnD nerds and more jock-jerks.
Counterpoint: this was also the era of the Power Ballad. And despite all the much-deserved scorn Hair Metal gets overall, this trend of big, loud, epic-sounding love songs filled a void. This was the era of Heart's "What About Love?" and Whitesnake's "Is This Love?" and Roxette's "Listen To Your Heart." That trend spilled over into Glam in some interesting ways.
I have gotten flack before for saying nice things about Guns 'n Roses, and I understand where it comes from. Axl Rose is problematic as hell all by himself, and the fact that he is still touring blows my damn mind. (Please no one tell him I said that; I have enough problems.) Slash, though. Slash is one of those once-in-a-decade guitarists who can pull an instantly classic melody out of his comically large hat, and no one would even be surprised. I'd even go as far as to say that GnR lasted as long as they did purely because of that riff. Honestly, I think GnR is both overrated by the general populace, and unfairly despised by the Metal community at the same time.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "November Rain" is a much better example of a Power Ballad. And that's true. I picked "Sweet Child O' Mine" because A) I like the song better, and B) the "Where do we go?" breakdown still has that Blues influence swimming in its veins. Don't forget that: All roads lead back to the Blues.
But music in the 80s was getting smoother and synthier. This is most obvious on a song like "Jump" by Van Halen, but the point is keytars and effects pedals were worming their way into rock and metal from the dance-pop corner from which they emerged. And have you noticed the frontmen are getting prettier?
Listen: I. Love. Synths. Those Doot-Doots and "Whoaaa-oooohhhs!" do not bother me. This cheesier, poppier style is still very much my jam. But it's . . . different. More mainstream, more accessible, less dangerous. Hold this up next to Alice Cooper and it's not hard to spot the difference. Bon Jovi stuck it out into the 2000s, Guns n Roses have done the breakup-reunion thing a few times, and Alice Cooper will NEVER die, but bands like Warrant, Poison, and Ratt only had a few years of glory before an inventive, young punk named Kurt Cobain showed up to destroy them all.
. . . kind of.
Metal did not go away when Kurt Cobain and Nirvana claimed the airwaves for Grunge. Their first album, Bleach, is a lot darker and sludgier than you might realize. Nirvana owes as much to Black Sabbath and Lead Belly as any of the other bands I'm covering here.
But Metal got a hard reset in the 90s. And it's only partially Cobain's fault.
(Cross-posted torhoda_rants.)
Also sometimes called Hair Metal, but there are a few subtle differences between the two. What you need to remember is this is when image started to become important. The aesthetic of Glam is almost as central to the genre as the sound itself. IMO, Hair Metal is what happened when the image overtook the sound entirely. To simplify things, let's just call this the Bill & Ted era. If Wyld Stallyns had their t-shirt, it goes in this category.
Bill & Ted playing air guitar with text "EXCELLENT!"
Source.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Remember what I said in the intro post, about Screamin' Jay Hawkins creating a wild, over-the-top style to go with his sound? That tendency towards flamboyant excess was brought to 11 with Glam Metal. Again, the influence of horror movies cannot be overstated. But who says you can't scare people and look good doing it?
Let's start with Alice Cooper, without whom there would be no Eric Draven:
The cartoonish stage persona of Alice Cooper is just that: a stage persona. By all accounts, he's actually a really nice guy in person. He was on The Muppet Show for crying out loud. Alice Cooper is not nearly as scary as he looks. And that is, of course, the whole point. There's a self-aware cheekiness to Glam, which is part of the appeal.
Another part is the way the lyrics lean into horror fandom. One thing I've noticed non-horror fans don't seem to understand is, for those of us who enjoy this sort of thing, being scared is fun. Cooper gets that, and takes advantage of it every chance he gets. This is about the same time Goth and New Wave started to creep into the airwaves. The aesthetic is similar, but not the sound. Not quite.
KISS takes the fright makeup to a whole other level. Also, they were one of biggest acts to move the lyrical content away from monsters and magic and more towards rock, and the power of rock, and rocking all night (or "nite") long. These are anthems designed to be shouted into a packed stadium with every member of the black-clad faithful screaming along.
Where exactly is the line between Art and Artifice? When the music kick this much ass, who cares? Ironically, my favorite KISS song, "Unholy," didn't come out until the Unmasked era in 1992 (there's an excellent cover by the Black Veil Brides, whom I will talk about AT LENGTH somewhat later). And despite my snarking earlier, I think their cover of "God Gave Rock & Roll To You" is fantastic--also from the Unmasked era. Music is magic and that comes through loud and clear in that track. Read into that what you will. However, I think equating a more subdued appearance with better quality music is a mistake. Correlation is not causation. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's talk about Mötley Crüe.
This is what I'm talking about: the imagery is there, as is the fun attitude, but also this bizarre, bro-y attitude that after a certain point started to leak into the music, not just the off-stage shenanigans of the band. The lyrics became about how awesome they are and how many groupies they had.
Don't misunderstand me: I like Mötley Crüe. I am not putting any bands in these posts that I don't like. But this aggressive, macho posturing started to replace that self-aware cheekiness I mentioned earlier, and while the songs are still fun, there's a vibe. There are fewer songs about demons, either fictional or metaphorical, and more about unfocused anger at the world, sex, drugs, sex, sex, political upheaval, sometimes love, and also sex. The audience they're playing to is less DnD nerds and more jock-jerks.
Counterpoint: this was also the era of the Power Ballad. And despite all the much-deserved scorn Hair Metal gets overall, this trend of big, loud, epic-sounding love songs filled a void. This was the era of Heart's "What About Love?" and Whitesnake's "Is This Love?" and Roxette's "Listen To Your Heart." That trend spilled over into Glam in some interesting ways.
I have gotten flack before for saying nice things about Guns 'n Roses, and I understand where it comes from. Axl Rose is problematic as hell all by himself, and the fact that he is still touring blows my damn mind. (Please no one tell him I said that; I have enough problems.) Slash, though. Slash is one of those once-in-a-decade guitarists who can pull an instantly classic melody out of his comically large hat, and no one would even be surprised. I'd even go as far as to say that GnR lasted as long as they did purely because of that riff. Honestly, I think GnR is both overrated by the general populace, and unfairly despised by the Metal community at the same time.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "November Rain" is a much better example of a Power Ballad. And that's true. I picked "Sweet Child O' Mine" because A) I like the song better, and B) the "Where do we go?" breakdown still has that Blues influence swimming in its veins. Don't forget that: All roads lead back to the Blues.
But music in the 80s was getting smoother and synthier. This is most obvious on a song like "Jump" by Van Halen, but the point is keytars and effects pedals were worming their way into rock and metal from the dance-pop corner from which they emerged. And have you noticed the frontmen are getting prettier?
Listen: I. Love. Synths. Those Doot-Doots and "Whoaaa-oooohhhs!" do not bother me. This cheesier, poppier style is still very much my jam. But it's . . . different. More mainstream, more accessible, less dangerous. Hold this up next to Alice Cooper and it's not hard to spot the difference. Bon Jovi stuck it out into the 2000s, Guns n Roses have done the breakup-reunion thing a few times, and Alice Cooper will NEVER die, but bands like Warrant, Poison, and Ratt only had a few years of glory before an inventive, young punk named Kurt Cobain showed up to destroy them all.
. . . kind of.
Metal did not go away when Kurt Cobain and Nirvana claimed the airwaves for Grunge. Their first album, Bleach, is a lot darker and sludgier than you might realize. Nirvana owes as much to Black Sabbath and Lead Belly as any of the other bands I'm covering here.
But Metal got a hard reset in the 90s. And it's only partially Cobain's fault.
(Cross-posted to
rhoda_rants.)