What's the biggest "What if...?" in the history of hair metal?

[Mister Freeze]

Just stumbled across the video for Enuff Z'Nuff's "New Thing" and god damn, that song's catchy and still sounds great.

Not sure if it was released at the right time. One of those singles that could've gone to #5 or #65 on the Billboard charts, depending on how the wind blew that month. (Just checked. It peaked at #67. I was close on the low end.) And not releasing "For Now" as a follow-up single is such a wasted opportunity.

This band had a killer lineup and the songs for the long haul (as we saw on the following albums). I'm not going to say they deserved to be arena headliners, but in an alternative universe they got the same top-10 status Mr. Big did.

[Van Ailin']

1) Had EZN been out 2-3 years earlier, they might have really gotten huge.

2) What if Randy Rhoads had done Bark At the Moon and then left Ozzy just as the Guitar For the Practicing Musician age was happening to do his own thing? Maybe wouldn't have been hair metal.

3) What if Yngwie had stopped drinking, subsumed his ego, and cut in Jeff and the Johansson brothers on the band deal (so they'd stay) and had a more consistent thing building through those years? It would have been bigger and would have more of a legacy today.

4) What if Saigon Kick had been 1-2 years earlier and gotten the payola push the Warrant and Slaughter did?

5) What if Quiet Riot has been 6-12 months earlier with Condition Critical and had 1-2 more solid songs on it?

6) What if Krokus had not pissed off headlines and continued with Chris von Rohr in the lineup after a long opening stint for Def Leppard?

7) What if Twisted Sister had a solid original tune on their followup album that had been a hit?

And the big one: what if Van Halen and David Lee Roth had put out a record in Fall of 1985?

[Tommy]

What if Axl wasn't such a head case control freak?

What if Motley Crue became a 5 piece?

What if half these bands didn't give themselves pigeonhole names? (Looking at you Tom Kiefer)

What if MTV and radio didn't just throw away a lot these bands while also embracing the changing rock scene?

[tylamonroe]

What if Mother Love Bone had continued into their deal instead of splitting into Pearl Jam.

[Rocker4Real]

What if Nikki died from his OD? Would the other guys continue? How would the songwriting change?

[fromanotherplace82]

What if TSOl had put out ''Strange Love'' two years earlier and changed their name.

What if Contraband had Jack Russell or Glenn Hughes sing for them.

What if Don Dokken had put out "Up From the Ashes'' as the fifth Dokken album.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Just stumbled across the video for Enuff Z'Nuff's "New Thing" and god damn, that song's catchy and still sounds great.

Not sure if it was released at the right time. One of those singles that could've gone to #5 or #65 on the Billboard charts, depending on how the wind blew that month. (Just checked. It peaked at #67. I was close on the low end.) And not releasing "For Now" as a follow-up single is such a wasted opportunity.

This band had a killer lineup and the songs for the long haul (as we saw on the following albums). I'm not going to say they deserved to be arena headliners, but in an alternative universe they got the same top-10 status Mr. Big did.

Funnily enough, I saw EZN open for Mr. Big in '89 in a club in Philly. They looked like a bunch of green radioactive fairies. Nobody there cared about them.

[JizzySynatra]

What if Ray Gillen stayed in Blue Murder?
What if Judas Priest allowed Reckless to be on the Top Gun soundtrack?
What if the Vai material was what Ozzy finished and released instead of Ozzmosis?
What if Zakk joined Gn'R?

[Black Stuff]

What if.......grunge never happened?

[tooth]

What if GG Allin stayed out of serious trouble?

[kytepunches]

What if….Hanoi Rocks had never met the mentally challenged Vince Neil ? They were able to fully tour “Two Steps From The Move “ and record a follow up ?

[BulletProofPoet]

What if Mother Love Bone had continued into their deal instead of splitting into Pearl Jam.

What if Andrew Wood never died!!

What if Jellyfish didn’t break up?

What if Razzle never died and Hanoi Rocks has continued on?

What if Jeff Buckley never died?

[LAglamrocker]

What if..Hang On Lucy was more iconic than Welcome To The Jungle

[SexxAtraxxion]

What if Steve Clark hadn't died? Would Def Leppard have released Slang, or would they have kept their old sound?

[FreddyFender]

"New Thing" is a great song but wasn't ever gonna be a hit in the 80s. There was some 60s revival going on in the college rock scene, but that was light years away from Enuff Znuff's target audience.

I've wondered if it would have fared better in 1996 than 1989. It has a lot more in common with brit-pop than 80s bands.

I fucking hate Enuff Znuff, but can't deny "New Thing" is a perfect rock song.

[GoodJudge]

What if….Hanoi Rocks had never met the mentally challenged Vince Neil ? They were able to fully tour “Two Steps From The Move “ and record a follow up ?

A bigger and more realistic one is: what if Vince had got the very long jail sentence he deserved? Motley either fold or get a new singer but would a new singer in 1985 have given them the eventual career that Vince did? At the least it would have delayed TOP by months whilst they auditioned people. And whoever they got, we'd not have had the band or music that person gave us in our actual timeline.

I don't know how much of TOP was recorded by then but the tour, if it happened, would be fronted by someone else, there'd be no Dr Feelgood, and what would that mean for the hair scene in general? Would there have been a big enough scene for GNR to have got as big as they did? Let alone all the bands inspired by Crue and GNR.

If they split up instead Nikki could have OD'd for real due to losing his dream, Tommy wouldnt have married Pam, then would there even have been much of a hair metal scene?

We also wouldnt have had the Nuclear Assault song Buttfuck.

[Nate S Axel]

What if Stevie Rachelle's first concert experience was the King of Country GEORGE STRAIT?

Would we be on Country Sludge now?

[pieceofme]

What if….Hanoi Rocks had never met the mentally challenged Vince Neil ? They were able to fully tour “Two Steps From The Move “ and record a follow up ?

The band was pretty much falling apart anyway. Doubt it would have made much of a difference.

If anything that accident made them more famous.

So if they had not met Vince they would have been even more of a footnote in 80s hair metal history than they actually were. And this is coming from someone who loves their original run of albums.

[pieceofme]

What if Stevie Rachelle's first concert experience was the King of Country GEORGE STRAIT?

Would we be on Country Sludge now?

Well, you would be. Doubt anyone else here would be.

[Nate S Axel]

What if Stevie Rachelle's first concert experience was the King of Country GEORGE STRAIT?

Would we be on Country Sludge now?

Well, you would be. Doubt anyone else here would be.

This is deep. Where would you be? He almost sold the board or shut it down once upon a time.

I wonder who would have played at Country Sludge Extravaganza 9.

[Chip Z'Hoy]

Oh man, that alternate universe is wild to think about. LorettaMcEntire on the Hussy Board, telling us about Alan Jackson's hog.

[superglide88]

What if Slash joined Poison?

What if Tracii stayed with Axl and Duff?

[pieceofme]

What if Stevie Rachelle's first concert experience was the King of Country GEORGE STRAIT?

Would we be on Country Sludge now?

Well, you would be. Doubt anyone else here would be.

This is deep. Where would you be? He almost sold the board or shut it down once upon a time.

I wonder who would have played at Country Sludge Extravaganza 9.

Wasting my time on other message boards. Not country ones though.

[p86]

What is Motley didn’t fire Vince? Nothing they’ve done since then has compared to the first five records and DoD, even though the 94 album was good musically. They got close with New Tattoo but it just been one disappointment after the next with their releases since 92.

[Billy Jack]

What if Bon didn't die and if not then what would Back in Black sounded like??

[LAglamrocker]

What if…I Hate Kissing You Good-Bye went #1 on Dial
MTV for a day?

[daveg]

What if Bon didn't die and if not then what would Back in Black sounded like!!

This is the best "what if" so far

[VinnieVincentsVag]

Oh man, that alternate universe is wild to think about. LorettaMcEntire on the Hussy Board, telling us about Alan Jackson's hog.

[pieceofme]

What if Bon didn't die and if not then what would Back in Black sounded like??

Worse. Brian Johnson was able to get AC/DC to the next level.

[Mato]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news. It was 1988/1989. The peak of Hair Metal. It didn’t do much. So, no…it just wasn’t meant to be.