But it’s hard to decide what is and what isn’t considered hair metal. Is Van Halen hair metal? Their’ first few albums may not be, but 1984 might be. 1980’s Scorpions kinda is…but 1970’s Scorpions is not. Post 1988 Bon Jovi is not…but pre 1988 might be.
As I said in a post above, the term "hair metal" didn't really come into use until the early 90s when grunge & alternative were taking over the hard rock genre. In the 80s, we didn't really have one blanket term for "non-serious" hard rock that was kind of metal-ish, but with a lot of power ballads, radio-friendly pop hooks, and androgynous pretty-boy hairstyles & costumes. We called some bands "chick metal," "pussy metal," "poseur metal," and "glam," but "hair metal" was used mainly
in retrospect, to describe a scene that was pretty much already dead.
That said, we knew what bands we considered "real metal" (Maiden, Priest, Scorpions, Metallica, Motorhead) and what bands we thought were not real metal but just using metal fashion to sell poppy hard rock (sometimes with fucking
keyboards, ew) to "chicks" and "poseurs" (Warrant, Winger, Poison, Bon Jovi). And then there were borderline bands that we mostly accepted as metal because they had songs that genuinely rocked hard and heavy, but maybe went a little overboard with the hair & makeup (Cinderella, Ratt, Vinnie Vincent's Invasion) or had a few too many pussy power ballads (Dokken, Extreme).
So applying the "hair metal" label in retrospect to our metalhead standards at the time, and applying it only to the "poseur" and borderline bands: Scorpions & Van Halen were not "hair metal" -- they had proven themselves as rockers. Same for Guns N Roses (their only "hair metal" nod was Axl's hairstyle in the Welcome to the Jungle video). Def Leppard were kind of borderline, but only on
Hysteria and afterward. Crue was borderline only because of "Home Sweet Home" - they were legit metal on
Shout at the Devil -- and they did have the hair & fashion, but then again they were the band that all the other "hair metal" bands copied their visual style from and expanded on. Y&T was mostly not "hair metal," except for maybe "Summertime Girls" with the keyboards. Ratt was borderline - they didn't have a power ballad, but they had the hair & fashion and the pop hooks. Tesla didn't have the visual style, and their first album was great hard rock all the way through, but they did go a little pussy-metal with "Love Song."
One vastly underrated "hair metal" album is Ratt's
Dancing Undercover, from 1986. "Dance," "Slip of the Lip," "7th Avenue," and a few other very good songs.
One of the weirdest concert bills I remember from those days was Warrant (on their first album tour) opening for Queensryche, toward the end of the the Operation Mindcrime tour in May 1989. It was not a good fit at all. The crowd reaction to Warrant ranged from indifferent to hostile. I kind of felt sorry for the guys -- even though I wasn't digging the music I half-respected them for making an effort to win over a difficult crowd (they didn't succeed).
