Glam metal, also known as hair metal, is a metal sub-genre that gained popularity in the late 70's and early 80's. Influenced by 70's glam rock, shock rock, and hard rock bands like sweet, KISS, ac/dc, aerosmith, slade, david bowie, alice cooper, etc... Glam metal style included teased-up hair, leather, accessories, etc... The music included distorted guitar riffs, sing-a-long anthems, hard-hitting drums, and guitar solos, etc... The glam metal style was more about the lifestyle than the music even though the music played a HUGE part of it. It all started on the LA sunset strip.. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and formerly of Metallica used to say glam stood for "Gay LA Metal". It was very popular throughout the late 70's, the 80's, and very briefly in the early 90's.. The 90's hit glam metal like a freight train.. Nirvana's "Nevermind" album hit big along with other grunge bands Pearl jam, alice in chains, etc.. The glam metal genre was unpopular in the early 90's through the mid 90's until around 1997 some hair bands got back together and the genre was popular again.. Since '97 glam metal has remained underground, but still has a lot of great glam metal bands today.
Some popular 80's Hair bands include: Motley Crue, KISS, Poison, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, Scorpions, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Dokken, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Cinderella, Skid Row, Van Halen, Tesla, Stryper, Warrant, LA Guns, Night Ranger, Nitro, Great White, etc...
Some new glam metal bands include: Crashdiet, Dirty Penny, Steel Panther, Hardcore Superstar, etc.....
Some new glam metal bands include: Crashdiet, Dirty Penny, Steel Panther, Hardcore Superstar, etc.....
by Smity Worben Man Jensen June 30, 2009
Hard rock originating from LA. Defined by bands wearing excessive ammounts of clothing with teased hair. Associated with the phrase 'sex, drugs and rock n roll'.
Got more action then every hater of the genre will ever get.
Got more action then every hater of the genre will ever get.
by Time Consumer June 10, 2008
The greatest genre of music ever! A lot of people have been giving this genre shit saying it's "not metal." Those losers are only judging a book by its cover and not listening to the music itself. Some kick ass guitarists who are heavily underrated for being part of the scene are: C.C DeVille, Vito Bratta, Richie Sambora, Tracii Guns, Joey Allen, Reb Beach, George Lynch, Nuno Bettencourt, Mick Mars, Oz Fox, Ronni Le Tekro, Vinnie Vincent, even Slash! I could go on forever. And there are some awesome vocalists like Sebastian Bach, Michael Matijevic, David Coverdale, Bret Michaels, etc.
On a side note: what the hell does everyone have against Poison? Just because they wore makeup, they are gay? Just because Bret Michaels is an amazing singer, he is effeminate? Just because they were mainstream with hits like "Nothin But a Good Time" (my favorite song), "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", "Talk Dirty to Me", "Unskinny Bop", etc, they are crap sellouts? People should just appreciate the music for the music itself. Value what a guitar legend C.C. DeVille was and still is. Maybe people are just jealous because they have never gotten laid before.
Furthermore, I think people are coming of as huge hypocrites when they say they hate glam metal but think Van Halen Guns N Roses and Def Leppard are metal gods.
On a side note: what the hell does everyone have against Poison? Just because they wore makeup, they are gay? Just because Bret Michaels is an amazing singer, he is effeminate? Just because they were mainstream with hits like "Nothin But a Good Time" (my favorite song), "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", "Talk Dirty to Me", "Unskinny Bop", etc, they are crap sellouts? People should just appreciate the music for the music itself. Value what a guitar legend C.C. DeVille was and still is. Maybe people are just jealous because they have never gotten laid before.
Furthermore, I think people are coming of as huge hypocrites when they say they hate glam metal but think Van Halen Guns N Roses and Def Leppard are metal gods.
Some great Glam Metal Bands: Poison, White Lion, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Winger, Warrant, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Ratt, Dokken, Extreme Firehouse, Steelheart, Faster Pussycat, W.A.S.P., Van Halen, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, Quiet Riot, LA Guns, Twisted Sister, Bulletboys, Britny Fox, Europe, Whitesnake, TNT, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, Danger Danger, Enuff Z'Nuff, Great White, Trixter, Roxx Gang, Slaughter, Pretty Boy Floyd, Kix, Tesla, Stryper, Vixen, and Autograph. Kiss, Aerosmith, and Alice Cooper are NOT glam metal.
by shadesgordon January 12, 2011
Around 1980 in LA, bands began to combine the aesthetics of bands like Hanoi Rocks, The Sweet with the musical style of bands like Van Halen and AC/DC. These bands quickly grew to dominate the scene, most famously at the club The Whisky-a-Go-Go. Motley Crue's Too Fast For Love was the album that got the scene going, but it wasn't until Quiet Riot's Metal Health that glam metal entered the mainstream. Much of this had to do with the image-centricity of the bands, and the attention they received from the just-starting MTV. For the next few years, glam would still be only a moderate success. All this would change with the release of Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet in 1986 and Guns N‘ Roses Appetite for Destruction in 1987. Subsequently, glam metal became the dominant music genre, going on to rule the rest of the 80’s.
By the 90‘s, glam had become so successful that any band with a blond front man and a power ballad was signed. Great White, Poison, Warrant, Tuff, Skid Row, etc. began to dominate the scene, infesting the radio and MTV with countless power ballads and cheesy videos. The scene that had once taken pop music by storm had become a lame parody of itself, and overnight was cast aside in favor of newer rock.
With the release of Nevermind, Nirvana took MTV and the radio by storm faster than any band since GnR, opening the floodgates to alternative rock. Besides GnR and Van Halen, LA bands fell off the face of the Earth.
By the 90‘s, glam had become so successful that any band with a blond front man and a power ballad was signed. Great White, Poison, Warrant, Tuff, Skid Row, etc. began to dominate the scene, infesting the radio and MTV with countless power ballads and cheesy videos. The scene that had once taken pop music by storm had become a lame parody of itself, and overnight was cast aside in favor of newer rock.
With the release of Nevermind, Nirvana took MTV and the radio by storm faster than any band since GnR, opening the floodgates to alternative rock. Besides GnR and Van Halen, LA bands fell off the face of the Earth.
Stevie Rachelle (frontman for glam metal band Tuff) - "Yeah I saw you and your grunge band. When are you gonna learn, dirtball, that you can never mess with the likes of Twisted Sistah!"
Me - "Yeah, except that Dee Snider actually said several times that he liked grunge, moron. Go back to playing in bowling alleys and writing articles for that website nobody goes to, you disgruntled untalented retard."
Me - "Yeah, except that Dee Snider actually said several times that he liked grunge, moron. Go back to playing in bowling alleys and writing articles for that website nobody goes to, you disgruntled untalented retard."
by VegettoVai December 29, 2011
Classified by its catchy, uplifting, headbanging, sing-along choruses and melodic hypersonic guitar solos, Glam Metal had the most talented musicians in metal. Glam metal songs have stood the test of time and age like fine wine. Contrary to thrashers and grungers, glam metal is not gay. Glam musicians sex with more women than both thrash metal and grunge combined!! Those genres were just jealous because they couldn't get any. Glam metal musicians have pushed guitar solos beyond what was humanly possible even for today's standards. Go listen to George Lynch, Reb Beach, Michael Angelo Batio, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kee Marcello, Warren DeMartini, Chris Holmes, Mick Mars, Steve Vai, Adrian Vandenberg and that's not even half of the virtuosos, I could keep going on forever! No one can deny the talent of these musicians. David Coverdale, the lead singer of Whitesnake, is said to have the greatest voice in the history of rock n' roll (Still listen to "Still of the Night" by Whitensake and you'll what I mean). In short, as Joe Perry put it: "Glam/hair metal is American Rock N' Roll taken to the extreme." So show some respect...
Dokken, Ratt, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., Europe, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Poison, Bon Jovi, L.A. Guns, Cinderella, Winger
Grunge person (All alone, depressed, smells like grease and crap): We don't play guitar solos, those are stupid
Glam Metal Musician (Surrounded by hot blonde groupies with huge tits): No, its not that you don't play them, its cause you can't play them!! hahahahahah!! Loser!!! Hahahahah!!!
Grunge person (All alone, depressed, smells like grease and crap): We don't play guitar solos, those are stupid
Glam Metal Musician (Surrounded by hot blonde groupies with huge tits): No, its not that you don't play them, its cause you can't play them!! hahahahahah!! Loser!!! Hahahahah!!!
by Gunsnroses118 February 1, 2009
A great genre of metal.
Doesn't matter how many people discard it at not metal, it truly is apart of metal history.
If anything, Nu-metal should be getting the criticism, this is how i see it.
Nu-metal is alienated from metal, musically, because it is based on alien musical influences, namely rap. Glam metal may have been "watered down" for commercial consumption, but it never pretended to fuse metal with anything. To change a Poison song into something that would be universally regarded as traditional heavy metal you need only speed it up, thicken the guitars, change the vocals and tweak the rhythms and such. To change a Korn song into traditional heavy metal you have to completely deconstruct it, and remove something fundamental to it--namely, the rap elements. There is thus a great musical difference between glam metal and Nu-metal.
So, For those who don't agree that glam metal is metal and prefer to call it rock music, I would suggest you are attempting to re-write history. Calling bands from this genre un-metal or unworthy would ruffle many feathers of longtime fans of metal that know glam metal does have it's place in metal.
Doesn't matter how many people discard it at not metal, it truly is apart of metal history.
If anything, Nu-metal should be getting the criticism, this is how i see it.
Nu-metal is alienated from metal, musically, because it is based on alien musical influences, namely rap. Glam metal may have been "watered down" for commercial consumption, but it never pretended to fuse metal with anything. To change a Poison song into something that would be universally regarded as traditional heavy metal you need only speed it up, thicken the guitars, change the vocals and tweak the rhythms and such. To change a Korn song into traditional heavy metal you have to completely deconstruct it, and remove something fundamental to it--namely, the rap elements. There is thus a great musical difference between glam metal and Nu-metal.
So, For those who don't agree that glam metal is metal and prefer to call it rock music, I would suggest you are attempting to re-write history. Calling bands from this genre un-metal or unworthy would ruffle many feathers of longtime fans of metal that know glam metal does have it's place in metal.
Shout At The Devil By Motley Crue was Voted Number 9 On Rolling Stone's "Top 100 Metal Albums Of All Time"
Glam Metal Was The Most Dominant Genre Of Music In The 1980's
Glam Metal Was The Most Dominant Genre Of Music In The 1980's
by kylexclusive July 11, 2008
Glam Metal/Rock, also known by the MTV term "Hair Metal", is, contrary to popular belief, a Rock N' Roll fashion statement, and not a genre.
The first band to use it were the finnish Hard Rock band Hanoi Rocks, and was made popular in the 80's by Mötley Crüe, but the whole concept behind it was probably influenced by KISS.
Glam Metal/Rock bands are neither more nor less than just Hard Rock or traditional Heavy Metal bands.
The first band to use it were the finnish Hard Rock band Hanoi Rocks, and was made popular in the 80's by Mötley Crüe, but the whole concept behind it was probably influenced by KISS.
Glam Metal/Rock bands are neither more nor less than just Hard Rock or traditional Heavy Metal bands.
Glam Metal/Rock bands that are, or were atleast at some point, Heavy Metal:
- Twisted Sister
- Dokken
- Quiet Riot
- Mötley Crüe
- Icon
- W.A.S.P.
- Seduce
Glam Metal/Rock bands that are Hard Rock:
- RATT
- Cinderella
- Poison
- Britny Fox
- Warrant
- Guns N' Roses
- Bon Jovi
- Twisted Sister
- Dokken
- Quiet Riot
- Mötley Crüe
- Icon
- W.A.S.P.
- Seduce
Glam Metal/Rock bands that are Hard Rock:
- RATT
- Cinderella
- Poison
- Britny Fox
- Warrant
- Guns N' Roses
- Bon Jovi
by theonewholovesmusic January 12, 2012