Who ended Hair Band craze?

[Alecto]

People may wish to reflect upon this: Garth Brooks' ascendancy (and the recognition of New Country's sales might) was due to the launch of SoundScan. This is simple history; check the album charts the weeks prior to SS's launch, and then after. As for the Nirvana stuff ... I knew Kurt (the K still seems affected) and Dave a bit; I worked at Sub Pop "back in the day." Every time some piker says nasty {censored} about Nirvana, I love thinking about how utterly jackassed they'd feel saying the same thing in front of the band. Because they truly would have laughed. One reason grunge "killed off" hair metal was not simply that labels needed a new cash cow to milk (though whomever wrote about the posters being changed overnight is so spot-on ... I could tell you stories about guys at Reprise yelling into a phone "they have to have LONG HAIR .... no, no hairspray ... and they have to BE FROM SEATTLE") .... No, grunge killed hair metal *on purpose.* If you saw Mark Arm's stage patter in 1989, or listened to Kurt ramble about indie rock in the interviews set up around the release of "Nevermind," those guys despised hair metal culture. Despised it the way punks hated Jethro Tull. So even though Perry was doing some amazing things with Jane's and the world loved "Nothing's Shocking," think about it: does Dave Navarro REALLY look like the anti-Warrant? Their cultural stance - for whatever reason(s) - didn't get so specifically defined. Don't forget Kurt's baiting of Gn'R from time to time in the press (a genuine pain in the ass for many who worked with John Silva on their management team) ... as they say, "the hate was real." Nirvana were certainly marketed in ways they did not care for (Dave, now quite powerful, has a legendary distaste for ALL marketing types), but at the core was a true desire to beat that music out of popular culture. Which happened, which is sort of amazing. I'm going from memory here, but I believe Nevermind and Gish were released within six weeks of one another in 1991 - each of them absolutely packed with singles, each of them with Butch Vig's fingerprints all over them. It was a watershed moment for music - led directly to the Mays' family buying up listenership through Clear Channel, which led to Randy Michaels, which led to Selector and the death of Commercial Radio. People like to blame file sharing, and that had an impact, but Music Inc. had already started nailing their own coffin shut. Hair metal is highly dependent on a major-label type system for it's success (forget falling way out of cultural fashion) -- it's an *expensive* genre from a start-up POV.

 

Wow, that's a great perspective. Thanks for sharing.

 

I don't know if anyone here has watched Metal Evolution (I just bought it on iTunes) but the episode on Grunge is hilarious, especially their take on "hair farmers."

 

Kim Thayil (Soundgarden): "(hair metal bands) sounded like The Partridge Family with fuzzy guitars!"

 

Melissa Auf der Maur (bassist: Hole, Auf der Maur): "(hair metal) was so ridiculous . . . dumbass . . . it was jock mixed with metal and that was not okay for intelligent people."

 

Steve Albini (producer): "All that hairspray music was a total {censored}ing joke to us . . . that was music for retards."

 

Yeah, I'd say Nirvana killed hair metal but bands like Trixster and Warrant were already digging the grave.

[Dr. Scottie C]

The winter and spring of 1991/1992 when MTV played Teen Spirit once an hour...... bands like Extreme, Poison, Great White (insert any other generic band keeping Aqua Net in biz here) pretty much boarded up the doors, and called it a day.

[DarthElvis]

 

A contributing factor no one has brought up yet is that a lot of the major bands started sucking. There were hair band records released post-1991, it's just that they didn't deliver.

 

 

The power ballad. The antithesis of everything hard rock should be. You'd buy an album from a previously decent band and half of the {censored}ing thing would be some sappy pile of {censored}. Every Rose has it's Thorn? More Than Words? Who gives a {censored}.

 

No wonder everyone left hair-metal in droves. Hard rock is supposed to be edgy, not some whiny assed bitches in womens clothing warbling about their hurt feelings. I remember thinking "sack up bitch, get to the good stuff". After awhile, there wasn't much good stuff.

[primemover12]

The simple answer is that people stopped buying, listening, and watching it. Lots of the reasons why have been discussed.

 

 

 

The genre exhausted itself.

 

It seems like every music genre begins out of dissatisfaction with the limits of the previous one. When bands like Van Halen and Def Leppard came out, they were a welcome change from the boring, head-up-your-ass prog-rock and blues-rock that had been popular in the 1970s. Listen to Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Styx and then listen to Van Halen. The newer music was louder, faster, and honestly more fun. It incorporated punk's aggression, disco's aesthetic, and made the music singable. And of course, the guitar playing became incredibly flamboyant and exotic. But like all genres, success breeds imitation and the way to differentiate yourself seemed to be to exaggerate all of the idiosyncrasies of the new music. So bands went from stylized to over-stylized. In 1983, David Lee Roth was wearing leather chaps and mesh tank tops but the rest of the band were typically in jeans more mainstream stuff--the emphasis for the rest of the band was the music; in 1989, it was practically required that every member in your band wear spandex and leather. By 1987, every hard rock singer was David Lee Roth x 100. Every song needed an over the top guitar solo. And frankly, the music was taking a backstage to the show. It was like a nuclear arms race--each band had to outdo the rest in terms of stage show, charisma, guitar solos, and music videos. Eventually, the new genre becomes as limited and sharply defined as the last one.

 

The music no longer resonated with young people.

 

Despite its image as a decade of greed and consumerism, the 1980s would also be known as a decade of increasing inequality, war, and disease. Black Friday, Iran Contra, the AIDS crisis, and the S&L scandal marked the public consciousness. By the end of the decade, it was getting really hard to hum along to major-scale melodies all the time. Even though every hair metal song seemed to be about sex, not much of it was being had given the general hysteria over HIV/AIDS. People, especially college-aged kids, were no longer hearing their lives reflected in rock lyrics.

 

Its core audience was stolen by other genres

 

Nirvana gets a ton of credit for putting hair metal to bed, but bands like REM, U2, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, and Pearl Jam had already proven that there was a viable market for darker, angrier, funkier, and moodier music.

 

Maybe more importantly, two previously marginal genres became mainstream. Rap music, especially gangsta rap music, was appealing to the same audiences that used to look to hard rock and metal as ways of rebelling. The folks who liked hair metal for the good-times party music and the sappy ballads found pretty much the same stuff in pop country. In fact, the guy who engineered Def Leppard's choir-plus-heavy-metal sound on Hysteria went on to produce Shania Twain.

 

The big artists declined

 

The biggest bands of the 1980s either broke up or fell apart. Success and substance abuse was creating a lot of formulaic, coked-out, boring music. Van Halen lost Roth and put out a string of increasingly sentimental and disappointing albums. Def Leppard lost Steve Clark to alcohol and released a lackluster album in Adrenalize. Guns N Roses (who eschewed the looks but were still part of the LA scene) fell apart after Use Your Illusion. Ratt's stuff got increasingly formulaic starting with Reach for the Sky. Dokken broke up in 1989. Whitesnake lost Sykes and Vandenberg and ended up really soft by Slip of the Tongue in 1991. The list goes on and on. Point is, there weren't any really great albums coming out of that scene by the early 1990s.

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

i had a revelation moment tonight after a Brooklyn Cyclones game. there were fireworks after the game and it was to some inoffensive 80s music. the song that opened the door to grunge? "The Heart of Rock n Roll is Defeated" by Huey Lewis & the News. he was right. the 80s punks listened and made their own noise. that became grunge.

[DaveAronow]

 

i had a revelation moment tonight after a Brooklyn Cyclones game. there were fireworks after the game and it was to some inoffensive 80s music. the song that opened the door to grunge? "The Heart of Rock n Roll is Defeated" by Huey Lewis & the News. he was right. the 80s punks listened and made their own noise. that became grunge.

 

 

That's cool, except the song is The heart of Rock n roll is still beating, not "defeated".

 

Kind of an important little misobservation on your part because the lyrics are exactly opposite to what you thought they were, and exactly opposite to the point you were trying to use them for.

 

Irony.

[butterguitar]

 

The simple answer is that people stopped buying, listening, and watching it. Lots of the reasons why have been discussed. The genre exhausted itself. It seems like every music genre begins out of dissatisfaction with the limits of the previous one. When bands like Van Halen and Def Leppard came out, they were a welcome change from the boring, head-up-your-ass prog-rock and blues-rock that had been popular in the 1970s. Listen to Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Styx and then listen to Van Halen. The newer music was louder, faster, and honestly more fun. It incorporated punk's aggression, disco's aesthetic, and made the music singable. And of course, the guitar playing became incredibly flamboyant and exotic. But like all genres, success breeds imitation and the way to differentiate yourself seemed to be to exaggerate all of the idiosyncrasies of the new music. So bands went from stylized to over-stylized. In 1983, David Lee Roth was wearing leather chaps and mesh tank tops but the rest of the band were typically in jeans more mainstream stuff--the emphasis for the rest of the band was the music; in 1989, it was practically required that every member in your band wear spandex and leather. By 1987, every hard rock singer was David Lee Roth x 100. Every song needed an over the top guitar solo. And frankly, the music was taking a backstage to the show. It was like a nuclear arms race--each band had to outdo the rest in terms of stage show, charisma, guitar solos, and music videos. Eventually, the new genre becomes as limited and sharply defined as the last one. The music no longer resonated with young people. Despite its image as a decade of greed and consumerism, the 1980s would also be known as a decade of increasing inequality, war, and disease. Black Friday, Iran Contra, the AIDS crisis, and the S&L scandal marked the public consciousness. By the end of the decade, it was getting really hard to hum along to major-scale melodies all the time. Even though every hair metal song seemed to be about sex, not much of it was being had given the general hysteria over HIV/AIDS. People, especially college-aged kids, were no longer hearing their lives reflected in rock lyrics. Its core audience was stolen by other genres Nirvana gets a ton of credit for putting hair metal to bed, but bands like REM, U2, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, and Pearl Jam had already proven that there was a viable market for darker, angrier, funkier, and moodier music. Maybe more importantly, two previously marginal genres became mainstream. Rap music, especially gangsta rap music, was appealing to the same audiences that used to look to hard rock and metal as ways of rebelling. The folks who liked hair metal for the good-times party music and the sappy ballads found pretty much the same stuff in pop country. In fact, the guy who engineered Def Leppard's choir-plus-heavy-metal sound on Hysteria went on to produce Shania Twain. The big artists declined The biggest bands of the 1980s either broke up or fell apart. Success and substance abuse was creating a lot of formulaic, coked-out, boring music. Van Halen lost Roth and put out a string of increasingly sentimental and disappointing albums. Def Leppard lost Steve Clark to alcohol and released a lackluster album in Adrenalize. Guns N Roses (who eschewed the looks but were still part of the LA scene) fell apart after Use Your Illusion. Ratt's stuff got increasingly formulaic starting with Reach for the Sky. Dokken broke up in 1989. Whitesnake lost Sykes and Vandenberg and ended up really soft by Slip of the Tongue in 1991. The list goes on and on. Point is, there weren't any really great albums coming out of that scene by the early 1990s.

 

 

 

 

{censored}ing THIS

[tlbonehead]

I'm going to say the very minute I heard Welcome to the Jungle it was all over....... I know I know Metallica right?

UNINTENTIONAL SUICIDE.

[Mesa/Kramer]

This was the first shot

 

1B32oFR0_bo

 

 

Followed by this

 

71zsRJR_X4E

 

 

Followed by this

 

wGiTPgvKktM

 

 

Then the final blow here

 

hTWKbfoikeg

 

 

And a Final parting shot

 

icqibIqr-b8

[DrunkPunk]

Hair bands committed suicide. The method? Power Ballads.

[tlbonehead]

Hair bands committed suicide. The method? Power Ballads.

I think it was pretty much everything they overdid. Foot-up-on-the-monitor solos that didn't fit the song at all, clothes, hair, you name it.

[Danhedonia]

I caught a lot of {censored} at one point for not adoring the early Soundgarden stuff; what can one do ...? And let's not forget Nirvana (all 3) regularly belittling Pearl Jam, who were seen (along with AIC) as less worthy of respect for courting mainstream stardom. (By the way, I was juuuuust smart enough at the time to realize that was bull{censored}, but no matter as no one gave a {censored} what I thought about cultural parameters).

 

The person who quoted Kim Thayil and Kurt and the others - notice something there: those quotes in one way or another mention the FANS of hair metal. While you can definitely find musical ties that put a lot of late 80's/early 90's Seattle bands together, there was a definite cultural delimiter: were you FOR the perceived mainstream (personified by guys who got the girls, had cars, jocks, etc.) or had you rejected it? Nirvana (and Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, and Tad, and the Screaming Trees) HATED - just hated - the people who (for lack of a better phrase - someone help me here) were popular in high school. Where they grew up, those folks listend to hair metal and classic rock and etc. etc. etc.

 

One thing I find terribly ironic is that my limited experience in working with metal musicians (hairy and otherwise) is that many of them came from EXACTLY the kind of grim circumstances from which many grunge rockers came. So much more alike than they would all like to know ...

 

And here's what's always mystified me about people who make disparaging remarks about Nirvana's lack of chops (dumb, in Grohl's case, he's a {censored}-hot player) or word-salad lyrics. I'd make a case for Kurt being a great melodicist, but those things are subjective. What I do think is inarguable is the purity of the *artistic* statement, which was basically this: I've been treated as utterly disposable and unimportant, and it's left me miserable, angry and confused. Kids whose parents were part of the tidal wave of 60's hangover divorces related. Poor kids related. Really, anyone who knew what it meant to truly be powerless and despised and ugly and unwanted related.

 

Don't you all remember Sub Pop's infamous t-shirt? It wasn't the label's logo. Nope. It simply said "Loser."

 

Nirvana were a bunch of losers (god gawd, just LOOK at the YT footage of the early in-stores ... ) who tapped the emotion for something better. They wrote some good tunes, captured a little sonic lightning in a jar, hit it big. But they never stopped feeling for those LOSERS who had nothing better. That's why millions adored them; they gave them a voice, a little legitimacy.

[Mermph]

alternative bands pre-Nirvana were getting a lot of airplay as others ahve noted. The Cure's "Disintegration" was like a Top 10 record in the US in 1989. But bands like that were too quirky to provide a template that others could readily imitate. Nirvana was simple, and also feasible to imitate. It had the head-banginginess of metal and the chorus-pedalyness of the Cure.