A term used to describe the commercialized, watered-down form of
late-stage glam metal (hair metal) that was
popular from the end of the '80s through the early '90s.
After Motley Crue's song "Home Sweet
Home" became a smash
hit in 1985, it became customary for every glam metal and hard rock
band to record a slower, softer "power ballad" to sell more albums. The music industry saw these types of songs as highly profitable, making them the new selling point of glam bands; oftentimes, a label would sign a band, record an album, release a hard
rock song as the first single, before following it up with a
slow-tempo, pop-influenced, wave-your-lighters-in-the-air power ballad. This was a highly successful strategy that defined the careers of later glam bands like Skid Row, Warrant, Nitro, Winger, and FireHouse. As the 80s ended and the 90s opened, most glam metal hits were ballads rather than actual metal songs, to the point that it could hardly even be called metal. In fact, some early-90s metal hits, such as Extreme's "More Than
Words", were acoustic ballads. By this point, actual heavy metal had already moved on, with albums like
Metallica's Black Album redefining the genre in the public consciousness. Needless to say, by the time Nirvana came out with "Nevermind" in 1991, glam metal had been squeezed dry by the corporate music industry, and as
grunge swept the nation, the genre went out with a whimper.
