Originally Posted by Lilja

Music is just about evolution. As I said, Heavy Metal is big here in Sweden. Was it big in the 80s? Yes. 90s yes. 00s? Yes. It all depends on where you are from?

Is Europe still big here? Yes, but not as big as they were in the 80s. Primarily because their music was just apart of a sound that was popular at the time? Were all their songs happy? Have you not heard their song "Cherokee"? Pretty much banned in the US if I remember right. Nelson's "After the Rain"? Not very happy. But on the whole , yes, Hair Metal was happy. But maybe people on the whole were not happy or looking for something to identify their generation from the previous one ie Alternative rock. Plus you had alternatives to alternative rock getting mainstream play then such as Industrial..but that is a whole nother subject.



Hair Metal was awesome. I am glad you found your genre. You don't have to like all genres of music. (And I am assuming the whole Eurodance phase of the 90s pretty much won't be mentioned here...although that was awesome people! )

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Maybe he is Eddie Vedder.

Note: my comment about talent didn't (necessarily) refer to anyone other than Warrant. I had the misfortune to listen to their latest, Louder, Faster, Harder, recently, and it's a real misnomer, unless you append to the title "some of the many things this album is not". They're an embarrassment, and they should be forgotten and just **** off.

Oh, and...


It should be noted I have no time for grunge bands either: I'm a prog head. But your concerns do not worry me in the slightest.

Originally Posted by Nick1976

"untalented" musicians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebP3Vz0wdk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-R1OaUrMf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAcCc9AGfBA

Originally Posted by grindy

I guess now we can just move this thread to "Music was better in the glorious day of yore". Sad.

Originally Posted by Nick1976

So, what about Van Halen? GN'R? Crue? They arguably were good songwriters and musicians and also experimented with different styles.
Everything "Hair Metal" did was first explored by Zeppelin, down to the power ballad structure. I also liked the sincerity and lack of irony in hair metal. When grunge and alternative came in, a sense of irony and we-know-better crept into rock that never really left.

Some ugly classism was present in all this too. Metal was the music of lower-class kids (mostly white guys), while grunge and alternative was music that kids from the colleges "approved" of. So college-educated rock critics, for the most part, dismissed the hair bands and offered high-holy praise for grunge.

But that just means they could relate to the latter better on a more cultural level; doesn't necessarily mean it was better. The dismissive attitude of critics is a large reason the music isn't thought of highly today. I'll grant you that the other big reason is the ridiculous hair and clothes the groups wore. But, then again, when didn't pop musicians trade in ridiculous styles?

Speaking of grunge, its politics might have been more "correct" and the lyrics better. But with a few notable exceptions, the songs themselves were simply not as catchy nor as pop-friendly. Which is why by 1998 we had a new wave of Disney-pop that pretty much wiped rock off the map as a cultural force. Permanently.

IMO the 80s/early 90s was the golden era of heavy metal and glam is the most honest genre in all of metal.

Originally Posted by Blank.

That's what this thread always was.



Critics hated Grunge too. The term Grunge came from a critic mocking the genre. Plus grunge wasn't for the music of rich people, it was the music for the rejected. It was meant for people who felt rejected by society. It becoming mainstream is actually hysterical when you think about it.

Originally Posted by Nick1976

I love Winger but I'm convinced that the main reason Winger got slammed so hard was because of Kip's ballerina moves in videos. Certainly wasn't because they didn't have good songs or Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstein couldn't play. Acting like a jackass and/or exploiting the image du jour might enable a band to initially reach a high level of success, but ultimately it will bring that band down.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by MicShazam

Glam was embarassing and I'm glad it didn't stay in the mainstream. I'd take the pop music that's on the radio now over 80's cock metal any day of the week.

Originally Posted by Nick1976

This band ruled during a period where you'd be at a concert standing next to a jock who was standing next to a preppie who was next to a head banger, etc., and no one gave a crap - we all enjoyed the fun, music and atmosphere and barely any crap ever happened. Funny how we live in a time of such political correctness but we've never been so biased, divided and prejudicial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXG0q0qesRw

Originally Posted by Nick1976

This band ruled during a period where you'd be at a concert standing next to a jock who was standing next to a preppie who was next to a head banger, etc., and no one gave a crap - we all enjoyed the fun, music and atmosphere and barely any crap ever happened. Funny how we live in a time of such political correctness but we've never been so biased, divided and prejudicial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXG0q0qesRw