The worst band ever

They probably don't want to see their favorite groups in the same top twenty as all these shit artists.

 

I think you misunderstand EDM. The beauty of EDM is that it's not really a genre, it's an umbrella term and abbreviation for Electronic Dance Music. So everything from the Acid house that was coming out at the time of those hair metal bands you adore to the future bass of today can all be classified as EDM. One of the stronger points of EDM is that at festivals, there will usually be at least 3-4 different genres being played, so it doesn't hinder itself by solely going by what's hot at the moment. There is a whole subculture surrounding it to which I think help sets it up for longevity.

 

There has been seriously mainstream (CD/label) production of EDM since a little before the turn of the millenium. I'd say it went big (such that you'd see it in Virgin Megastores or Tower Records when there still were such stores) around the turn of the century. Amoeba (for those who live in California) has probably always had it though. Actually I don't know how long they have been around.

But even before they coined the term "techno" there was electronic music. It was a little more avant garde in its early beginnings... There's an interesting article about "Musique Concrete", but it's Wikipedia. Here it is though... Musique concrète - Wikipedia

Oh so my point in saying all this stuff about EDM and the new millenium... It's not going anywhere.

 

Kinda funny to hear a glam rocker talking about music with no substance. Remember when every hair band had to have its own "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"? I'm not sure who started the trend of the hair band soft ballad. Pretty good tunes, though.

 

CC DeVille looked pretty much exactly like my grandmother at the time

 

Actually I don't listen to much grunge or metal. I like classical and World music but I don't post that on this forum.

 

Glam Metal is a tolerable term. Hair Metal is completely crucifying. Perhaps, some day, a writer will refer to Punk as Snot Rock and have that linger for decades. Nobody called this music "hair metal" in the early 80s...or the mid 80s...or the late 80s... or the early 90s in fact I never heard it until the mid 90s and I definitely don't recognize it as an actual musical term. It's a b.s. phrase cooked up as a derogatory comment. The holy trinity of glam metal influences are as follows:
1) Van Halen--Biggest contributions: guitar technique, frontman persona, background vocal style.
2) KISS--Biggest contributions--stage design and pyrotechnics, lyrics about decadent rock lifestyle, template for making heavy songs poppy.
3) Cheap Trick--Biggest contributions: outlandish guitar designs, strong pop melodies, adding mugging goofiness to heavy rock, prototypical "pretty" blonde male singer.

Other major influences in creating the style would include Aerosmith, AC/DC, New York Dolls, Sweet, and of course Led Zep and Deep Purple. I would go further and say that Van Halen may be to metal what the Velvet Underground was to alternative rock. They literally launched several sub-genres of metal on their own. There were very few viable metal acts prior to Van Halen's first album. Within 3-4 years, metal was all over the place, with most of the bands bearing much more of a resemblance to Van Halen than Black Sabbath, although many of these acts that followed also owed a heavy debt to Judas Priest. Van Halen inspired the US metal stuff. They also inspired a legion of guitarists. Their influence remained on all the hard rock/glam rock/glam metal/stuff the major labels and MTV loved. Also Michael Schenker was a huge influence on glam metal. You don't get that 8th note riff style being so prominent in the music without him. In that sense, I think a lot of 80s heavy metal guitarists grew up on UFO.

But also big influence on metal was still British. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Venom, Motorhead and rest of NWOBHM which inspired the thrash movement. I have never considered Grunge as a true genre. The actual music made by "grunge" bands is not easily or consistently distinguished from bands in the wider rock genre. It was all thrown into the more comprehensive ¨alternative¨ bag later in the 90s. It was a fashion description that got transferred to the music to make it easier on lazy magazine writers and marketing departments. That the term came to describe almost any band from Seattle was a bit ridiculous. None of them sounded the same. I mean, Alice In Chains had next to nothing in common with bands like Nirvana or Pearl Jam. We keep forgetting/ignoring how Rock was reduced to being on life support thanks to Grunge. Celebrate the death of "hair metal" all you want but in the process Rock was reduced to a status it has yet to recuperate from commercially and artistically. Not something I want to celebrate.

 

Stairway To Heaven has all the elements of what power ballads were to become. The slow build up, emotional guitar solo, and the dramatic ending. Aerosmith's Dream On may have ushered it in, but in the 80s rock scene when Dokken's Alone Again became a huge hit then the tidal wave REALLY hit when Motley Crue did Home Sweet Home which was so huge that MTV had to retire it from the video countdown because it was number one every day for so long. From that point on it was mandatory that every 'metal' album had to have at least one power ballad. The power ballad was ALWAYS released as the second single. Funny thing is a lot of times it was their biggest hits. Motley Crue and Home Sweet Home for example, Still Loving You by the Scorpions, Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison, and Close My Eyes Forever by Lita Ford & Ozzy and just a few examples of Monster ballads. I think people only hate them because you couldn't get away from the stereotypical power ballad in the late 80's and early 90's. Too much of a good thing can eventually grow stale.

 

Snot Rock for Punk LOL.

Van Halens 5150 was an awesome album, still play that now and then

And one of my fav metal bands of the 80s everyone always forgets to mention:

 

To each their own.

Personally, I like being eclectic and hope I never get stuck in a musical rut like that. Punk, hip hop, indie, alternative, rock, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s...I like it all.

 

Uh huh, and how much modern music are you listening to?

 

I agree that there are some good bands in modern rock and metal but too many musicians out there today lack a grounded understanding of where music has been and where it is going, both in history and in theory. Now the talentless have taken over the void that came about after rock 'n' roll disappeared from the "youth music" industry. These talentless acts got to be big strictly by conveying the rock star attitude and lifestyle, but it had nothing to do with their crappy music. The grunge bands killed the bling effect of rock and the music industry sat on their hands too long on how to deal with internet sales/protection... they screwed themselves. I grew up in the 70's and 80' where you have to pay 15$ for a Cd or Album.
Musicians today cannot make a living playing music. The club scene has changed, to the point that you need a day job as well. We will never again see bands such as Led Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Motley Crue,Metallica, Guns n Roses etc. why? Because these kinds of bands were made on playing for many years in local clubs and living off that money, while they gelled as a band. We might still see flashes of greatness, thanks to the internet but the glory days of music are over. Sad, very sad.

 

Metallica is still going Strong!!

 

Sinead, you're not only stuck in the eighties with your music taste but also in your views of what makes a good or succesful metal band and how the music industry is supposed to work.

You also give grunge and nu metal (and esp. 1 band like Nirvana) far too much credit for killing glam metal. It just was time for that subgenre. If it wasn't new bands would have kept emerging. But it appears there wasn't money in it anymore after it had its heyday on tv/in the mainstream. Did the new fad of grunge help? Sure.
Many new subgenres emerged in the 90s besides grunge and nu metal, and its out of the question most bands that made it were less talented as the average (or even the best ) glam metal band. So putting it as simple as you do is just silly. And a lot of those bands that made it in the 90s/2000s did so without the convenience of being part of the new fad on tv/in the mainstream. Should tell you something.
You also made the assertion that these new metal bands and/or their fans didn't want it to be popular lol. No, they want to be. But they cared less about being fed to the mainstream/being on mtv. It was indeed seen as a good thing that a new sound in metal could make it without whoring themselves through the mainstream/pop channels. I guess glam metal partly caused this mindset

Were the eighties the golden age of metal? I guess so. Not primarily because glam metal was so popular though (except for fans of that genre i guess) or because metal in the decades after it is less good, but mainly because heavy metal developed as a real genre in that decade.

 

Grunge might have symbolized the death knell for hair metal but I think the emergence of Hip Hop and the Rave Movement are understated in their importance for shifting the zeitgeist of the times. Both Hip Hop and Rave had a DIY spirit to them which I think made it more down-to-earth and relatable to a lot of youth compared to the Big hair, guys wearing tons of makeup and lavish stage shows of Hair Metal.

Hip Hop provided a novel voice of rebellion and aggression to Black Music that had not really been heard since perhaps the birth of Rock n Roll.

The Rave Movement provided a neo-psychedelic environment that tapped in to the burgeoning popularity of the Personal Computer and technology, "designer drugs" and a dance environment you didn't have to dress to the nines to be accepted in.

 

I love Winger but I'm convinced that the main reason Winger got slammed so hard was because of Kip's ballerina moves in videos. Certainly wasn't because they didn't have good songs or Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstein couldn't play. Acting like a jackass and/or exploiting the image du jour might enable a band to initially reach a high level of success, but ultimately it will bring that band down. I love Warrant. Check out their record Dog Eat Dog which many people say is their best work. It got kinda pushed under the rug because it came out right at the grunge explosion, sad because the direction they were headed was really cool. Great songwriter, killer guitarist, and certifiable pussy black hole (once it gets within his range, none can escape). Musically they were a pretty solid pop metal band. Jani Lane was an amazing songwriter .

 

Sometimes this pertains to an entire subgenre.

 

I absolutely love WASP.
I have it all.

The Headless Children and the S/T debut album are MUST haves. The Last Command and Inside The Electric Circus are good but not as good. Love most of the band's catalogue, except 1999's Helldorado. Very underrated band imo, Blackie's voice is one of the best, check out Keep Holding On from Still Not Black Enough (1995). Their cover of Somebody To Love is pretty amazing as well.
I even like Easy Living, even though I know most don't. Blackie's bridge vocals take your breath away!

 

I don't like Labels !
I realise that doesn't add anything to the thread so I will say "Otway and Barrett " are the worst ever ! But they are also the best ??