80's Hair Metal

Ah yes, 80's hair metal bands. The radios aired them, the girls loved them, the boys wanted to be them and the hairspray manufacturers cashed in on them!

Hair metal was certainly about style and appearance, to the point where those who dislike the genre claim it was style over substance. But while it's undeniable that the excessive and gaudy style died a quick death in the 90's, the music itself marches on.

Beyond the waist-length locks of hair, two-inch thick mascara and cherry red lipstick lied proficient musicians that mastered the art of taking the intensity of metal and blending it with a pop/commercial swirl.

From Def Leppard's power ballad Love Bites to Quiet Riot's rousing cover of the anthem Cum on Feel The Noize, it's time to relive the days of ripped jeans, hairspray-stiffened hair and loud guitars.

Band Spotlight - Quiet Riot

Quiet Riot rocketed into the spotlight with their third album, Metal Health, and deservedly so. The album's popularity was due to their expertly performed cover of Slade's Cum on Feel the Noize, though their title track Metal Health was also a remarkable track that has remained a favorite of 80's metal fans. Due to the smashing success of this album, they became the first metal band to hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts.

Having obtained an overnight success, everything looked peachy for this band and they quickly returned to the studio to strike another album while they were red-hot. Unfortunately the result of their fourth album, Condition Critical, was anything but impressive, for it sounded like an uninspired rehash of their previous release. Fans turned up their nose to the album and suddenly people wondered if the band just struck it lucky with Metal Health.

The band gave it another go in their fifth album, QR III, incorporating some much needed progression with the introduction of synthesizers and keyboards. Their new sound was a departure from their previously aggressive style, coming much closer to other melodic metal/AOR bands such as Europe. Whereas the album was a solid piece of work, old fans didn't necessarily want Quiet Riot injecting melody and/or glam elements into their formula, so the album was deemed a failure and largely ignored.

With the second commercial failure in a row, tensions within the band rose to a new height until finally Kevin DuBrow, the controversial and opinionated lead singer, was unceremoniously dumped from the band. The remaining members snatched up the ex-vocalist from Rough Cutt, Paul Shortino, and attempted to raise the band from its commercial death by releasing a self-titled sixth album. To say the album was horrible is being too kind; its complete lack of anything resembling innovative musicianship made it easily Quiet Riot's worst album of the 80's.

Eventually Quiet Riot was reformed in the 90's, once again under the leadership of Kevin DuBrow, and continued to rock into the 2000's, but the band hasn't ever been able to reclaim its past glory. Despite their rocky career, when Quiet Riot hit the target they hit it with a vengeance, and for this reason their standout tracks on Metal Health will forever remain emblazoned within the minds of 80's fans.

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