WHAT SAY YOU … Did Grunge Really Kill Hair Metal? The Final Answer(s) from The Stars!

[MetalSludgeCEO]

WHAT SAY YOU …
Did Grunge Really Kill Hair Metal? The Final Answer(s) from The Stars!
#grunge #hairmetal #whokilledwho #seattle #hollywood #80s #90s #didgrungekillhairmetal #hairbands #herewegoagain #kix #nightranger #ratt #laguns #queensryche #cathouse #mtv #hbb #headbangersball #rikitrachtman #eddietrunk #kaneroberts #gilbyclarke #markslaughter #stephenpearcy #phillewis #laguns #vinnieappice #jackrussell #greatwhite #bobbyblotzer #sludge #johncorabi #kaneroberts #slaughter #greatwhite #metalsludge
https://metalsludge.tv/what-say-you-did ... the-stars/

$ludge

[Rocker4Real]

Did Alternative/Pop Punk/Nu-Metal kill Grunge?

[StateOfShock]

I have said it for decades now:

Metallica's Black Album put them in the grave and grunge covered them with dirt.

[Fat_Elvis]

The gatekeepers (MTV) killed hair metal.

[MotleyKaos]

This topic should be the next "Who Killed WCW?" documentary for VICE. We can get The Rock to weigh in again!

Who killed hair metal?

Was it Kurt Cobain?

Kurt Loder?

Chef?

The 1989 Denver Broncos?

[daveg]

I think we can all mostly agree that it needed to go away..or at least cut all the dead weight. The best bands still moved on, and there were some that plugged along with some some moderate success into the 90's (Firehouse, Tesla)

I do believe that video for Teen Spirit was probably the turning point. It was heavy, dark...was close enough to hard rock that it didn't alienate rock fans. And that opening riff was/is still incredible every time I hear it.

I got the music, but never got the whole "let's be pissed off at the world/everything is dark' thing.

[whammybar]

Fashion and trends change every few years, it's just a natural part of the music business.

[Silentbutdeadly]

By the time “Grunge” came along “Hair Metal” was on about their 5th generation of bands copying the VH formula; ie. obnoxious front man fronting a guitar driven band. There was next to no creativity as we’d seen it all before a thousand times. The Seattle bands filled the void as something different.

In retrospect a lot of the mid to late 80’s stuff is just dreadful, to my ears. A few bands stood well above the rest of a largely forgettable era.

Same can be said for most eras of popular music though.

[LurkingAtWork]

The Chronic killed Rock. It hung around on life support for a few years, wimpy, room temperature acts like Oasis and Maroon 5 scoring some hits but the writing was on the wall. Hip Hop has dominated everything for 3 decades now.

[TeslaFan]

Metal is coming back soon. I don’t care if you call me crazy. We will all be wearing acid wash jeans, hair long and teased up with Aqua-Net( those of us who still have hair), Members Only will be all the rage. Bands like Poison, AC/DC and Ratt will be at the top of the charts. In a year, rap music will all but die. Taylor Swift will be a has been. Streaming sucks and it will die. Sam Goody and Musicland will be in comeback mode. The place to hang will be The Mall. I feel it. It’s just time.

[DonJuanDeMarco]

Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Goddamn they don't make em' like they used to.
Cassidy: Fuckin' 80's man, best shit ever !
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Bet'chr ass man, Guns N' Roses! Rules.
Cassidy: Crue!
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Yeah!
Cassidy: Def Lep!
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Then that Cobain pussy had to come around & ruin it all.
Cassidy: Like theres something wrong with just wanting to have a good time?
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: I'll tell you somethin', I hate the fuckin' 90's.
Cassidy: Fuckin' 90's sucked.
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Fuckin' 90's sucked.

[Wild Obsession]

Danger Danger "Screw It" CD is what "killed" Hair Metal for me.

[SterileEyes1]

I love The Wrestler but always found this narrative weird.

Did a bunch of Poison and Ratt fans burn their Poison and Ratt CDs and cassettes to make room for Nevermind and Ten?

Trends come and go. Same as it ever was. Nothing really “killed grunge” either. It had its time, and that was that.

[Bono Nettencourt]

"Stars." Chuckle.

[Velvis]

Fashion and trends change every few years, it's just a natural part of the music business.

This 100%.

Most people change and move on with their lives. (obviously this place is an exception)

If you were 13 in 1983, ten years later you have finished college. You aren't necessarily looking to see what Motley Crue is up to.

Kids who were 13 in 1993 werent looking for bands that had been around 10 years already.

It had nothing to do with grunge (the music) or grunge (the image) it was just a new generation of kids looking for "their" music.

[WOLF]

Shitty, 3rd generation, copy cat, formulaic hair metal killed hair metal. People got sick of the same old same old. 1st single = mid-tempo rocker; 2nd single = power ballad; 3rd single = fast rocker; 4th single (if applicable) = 2nd ballad. Same clothes, same stage moves and banter, etc. Grunge just happened to be the readily available side chick.

[Tyketto Meniketti]

The Chronic killed Rock. It hung around on life support for a few years, wimpy, room temperature acts like Oasis and Maroon 5 scoring some hits but the writing was on the wall. Hip Hop has dominated everything for 3 decades now.

Hard to fathom. There are so many AWFUL hip-hop acts that make Nelson appear to be hall of famers.

There's never been a backlash against that genre like what happened in hard rock. Basically, sweeping up Def Leppard, Tesla, Journey and other mainstream rock acts with deserving bands like LA Guns, label them as "hair bands," and dumped them all in the radio trash bin. Worked in radio at the time and the backlash was swift AND WIDE.

A few like Firehouse and even Bon Jovi had a couple radio hits. But Warrant with the stellar Dog Eat Dog, among others, had no chance at all.

Makes no sense. Nobody labeled Avett Bros, Mumford & Sons and most of the Bro Country groups as "hair bands," even though they all have ridiculous uniforms of bushy beards, horn rim glasses, not to mention a trite formula.

The absolutely terrible hip-hop acts that can't hold a tune live, rely on tracks, mumble and frankly sound like garbage aren't really weeded out. Instead, you get these festivals like Dreamfest filled with a couple good performers and 90% talent-less rubbish.

[dmbrocker]

Metal is coming back soon. I don’t care if you call me crazy. We will all be wearing acid wash jeans, hair long and teased up with Aqua-Net( those of us who still have hair), Members Only will be all the rage. Bands like Poison, AC/DC and Ratt will be at the top of the charts. In a year, rap music will all but die. Taylor Swift will be a has been. Streaming sucks and it will die. Sam Goody and Musicland will be in comeback mode. The place to hang will be The Mall. I feel it. It’s just time.

In that case, can we bring back Aladdin's Castle and Tilt Arcade, too, while we're at it? Can't bring back the 80's without a video arcade!

[TeslaFan]

Metal is coming back soon. I don’t care if you call me crazy. We will all be wearing acid wash jeans, hair long and teased up with Aqua-Net( those of us who still have hair), Members Only will be all the rage. Bands like Poison, AC/DC and Ratt will be at the top of the charts. In a year, rap music will all but die. Taylor Swift will be a has been. Streaming sucks and it will die. Sam Goody and Musicland will be in comeback mode. The place to hang will be The Mall. I feel it. It’s just time.

In that case, can we bring back Aladdin's Castle and Tilt Arcade, too, while we're at it? Can't bring back the 80's without a video arcade!

That too. DigDug, Astroids, Space Invaders, and Galaga. Save all your quarters.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Shitty, 3rd generation, copy cat, formulaic hair metal killed hair metal. People got sick of the same old same old. 1st single = mid-tempo rocker; 2nd single = power ballad; 3rd single = fast rocker; 4th single (if applicable) = 2nd ballad. Same clothes, same stage moves and banter, etc. Grunge just happened to be the readily available side chick.

Isn’t that more the record company suits and the powers at MTV formula than the bands? The Grunge guys all had the same image. They also had a music formula that worked as did the rap artists. Why do we bust on the hairbands for it but not the other genres?

[Love_Industry]

Shitty, 3rd generation, copy cat, formulaic hair metal killed hair metal. People got sick of the same old same old. 1st single = mid-tempo rocker; 2nd single = power ballad; 3rd single = fast rocker; 4th single (if applicable) = 2nd ballad. Same clothes, same stage moves and banter, etc. Grunge just happened to be the readily available side chick.

Add to that classic bands making weak records and / or losing key members in the 1990s and you have the Great Hair Metal Suicide.

[sirthx2]

Hair metal killed Hair metal.

[alecjonsludge]

Hair metal killed Hair metal.

Bret Michaels screwed Bret Michaels.

[DonJuanDeMarco]

I love The Wrestler but always found this narrative weird.

Randy the Ram was an 80's wrestler himself that went from playing arenas to living in a trailer playing dives. Plus, he had the long hair and listened to 80's rock. I always took the movie as a close relative to what happened to a lot of bands from that time.

I guess the real answer is the 90's killed the 80's! We are focused on the music here, but TV shows changed too. Cassettes and VHS got replaced with CD's and DVD's. Phone and computer technology changed. The cereal aisle changed. You name it. The list goes on and on.

[Domino]

of course grunge killed Hair Metal. And as for every trend it was well decided from someone above.... it was time to stop people party and enjoy life, with fear and depression you can control the mass much better!

[Neil Diamond Dave]

I remember getting both Janes "Nothing's Shocking" and Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" on the same day and thinking this was the future. Big, glitzy, pretentious corporate rock was going to be over soon. I also remember getting Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Slayer's "Reign in Blood" a little before those and thinking, death was coming to big, glitzy, pretentious corporate rock soon.

And even though GNR turned into big corporate rock, I do believe they started out spitting in the face of it all, and were a big part of the start of the funeral parade.

I think it was a slow funeral from Thrash/GNR to Alt to Grunge. Nirvana was just the keystone flag that was finally planted at the end.

[Danzig in the Dark]

of course grunge killed Hair Metal. And as for every trend it was well decided from someone above.... it was time to stop people party and enjoy life, with fear and depression you can control the mass much better!

Who decided?

[Tyketto Meniketti]

I remember getting both Janes "Nothing's Shocking" and Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" on the same day and thinking this was the future. Big, glitzy, pretentious corporate rock was going to be over soon. I also remember getting Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Slayer's "Reign in Blood" a little before those and thinking, death was coming to big, glitzy, pretentious corporate rock soon.

And even though GNR turned into big corporate rock, I do believe they started out spitting in the face of it all, and were a big part of the start of the funeral parade.

I think it was a slow funeral from Thrash/GNR to Alt to Grunge. Nirvana was just the keystone flag that was finally planted at the end.

Slayer didn't kill anything popular. They're in a totally different scene. The tuneless, hookless scene. Metallica, Anthrax and the like obviously crossed over. Slayer never did. They had nothing to do with radio stations/MTV cutting off Def Leppard and Great White videos cold.

As noted above, every genre has it's formula. 80s hard rock got (gets) bagged on worse than most. Only disco had it worse.

[SexxAtraxxion]

It was a cold night on September 29, 1991, when 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' debuted on MTV. By the next morning, the proverbial writing was on the wall for hair metal. No more puffy hair, no more pink guitars—the landscape of music had changed overnight.

[Love_Industry]

Slayer didn't kill anything popular. They're in a totally different scene. The tuneless, hookless scene. Metallica, Anthrax and the like obviously crossed over. Slayer never did. They had nothing to do with radio stations/MTV cutting off Def Leppard and Great White videos cold.

If anything, grunge killed Thrash. Thrash seemed like the next big thing for a while with Metallica already mainstream big, Anthrax and Megadeth going platinum and a ton of bands on the way up, from Exodus and Testament to Helloween and Sepultura. Obviously the few bands that made it before grunge continued to be successful but the next wave never even made it to Trixter / Steelheart level.

But with Metallica being mainstream metal, Slayer and Megadeth are what keeps thrash from being barely a footnote in metal history.