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The Music was Good, But the Hair was Magnificent
An ’80s hair metal Rate-A-Record
When The Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, one of the first things that parents across America thought was that the lads all needed a haircut (if they could have only foreseen that in just a few years those mop tops would look short). From that pivotal moment, hair became inextricably linked with rock and roll, and never was it so intertwined than during the glorious 1980s, a decade that became known for the musical subgenre called (usually derisively) hair metal.
It’s safe to say that most of the bands themselves hated the designation (as well as its sister term, glam metal), but it stuck. Bands like Great White, Hanoi Rocks, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Dokken, and even the Christian metal band Stryper will forever be considered, fairly or not, hair metal bands. Others that began life as hair metal bands had the staying power to outlast the moniker, persevering long enough to move into the more hair-reasonable 1990s and beyond.
There is considerable debate to this day about whether or not some bands should be considered “hair metal.” Ian Astbury of The Cult has always said that the band was never hair metal, preferring the term “goth rock.” Def Leppard and Bon Jovi would likely argue that they were always just “hard rock.” And for…
