Hair metal, to sum it up, is an AWESOME genre of music. Hair metal is not exactly metal, though the musicianship has some simillarities. However, as opposed to black metal and death metal, the lyrics tend to be more
upbeat and focused on "sex, drugs, and rock n' roll," as opposed to death and other gloomy, borderline Satanic lyrics, and unlike speed metal the musicianship is more intricate (listen to the guitar part for "
Sweet Child O' Mine"). Hair metal actually is closer to the
classic rock of the
rolling stones and other bands like them than anything else
Here's a quick fact for you: Grunge did NOT kill hair metal. Far from it. Hair metal competed with grunge briefly, and then
Kurt Cobain killed himself. Grunge has since then lost lots of it's popularity (don't even TRY comparing Hole or even Pearl Jam, a pretty decent band, to Nirvana). And I, and lots of people I know, like both genres.
Hair metal is disliked by hipsters today, who seem to find it's huge popularity proof that it is "corporate." Fine. You go on listening to belle and sebastian and le tigre, and we'll see who people listen to ten years from now and who is residing in the "where are they now" files. Listen to the guitar playing of Eddie Van Halen and Slash and try saying indie rockers are more talented.
Besides lyrics focused on fun and sex, hair metal has gotten political sometimes. For example, listen to twisted sister's song "we're not gonna take it."
