Do we have many heavy metal fans on After Hours?

Magaggie wrote: »

Big Spinal Tap fan me.

Haven't seen that in years! Personally, my big go-to movie(s) for metal/rock-based comedy happens to be Wayne's World.
A little Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone? :pac:

Opeth.

Links234 wrote: »

Bad News perfected it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wM58YXp2x0

That was ****ing woeful. Truly. :eek:

On the subject of rock-themed movies, anyone here ever see Airheads? I have vague memories of being strangely attracted to Steve Buscemi's glorious main of hair...

Yes

This thread has me listening to old classics again,as much of a loose cannon that Dave mustaine was he's a genius with a guitar,had this album cover as a back patch.

Not much mention of the uber-80's cliché: Glam Metal.

This is the music I love. It's my "go-to" music. It's just insanely fun. It's catchy as hell. It gets a lot of bad press from a lot of quarters due to being silly, overblown and "wuss-metal".

Fair enough on the "wuss-metal" charge; this kind of heavy metal was insanely commercial. It was not as heavy as other heavy metal out there at the time. It was not as "metal" as some liked. But Glam Metal paved the way for heavy metal becoming one of the most popular musical genres in the world. Metal was suddenly sexy and popular.

On the other charges (being silly and overblown), however, that's a moot argument. Isn't all heavy metal inherently overblown and silly? Even the most seemingly un-silly metal bands actually are, if you dissect them down a bit more.

This much maligned genre of heavy metal has given us some of the biggest legends of heavy metal, and some of the more (in)famous moments of heavy metal history. Bands like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Guns N Roses, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister, Europe, WASP, White Lion, etc. all came from the glam school. Sometimes, it can be argued that they weren't, but for the most part, they were. Even bands like Van Halen and Judas Priest succumbed to the glam bandwagon and tarted their image up in the mid-80's in order to capitalise.

Also, glam metal is home to some of the greatest so-called "guilty pleasure" songs that people love. Think:

'The Final Countdown'
'Livin On A Prayer'
'You Give Love A Bad Name'
'Pour Some Sugar On Me'
'Home Sweet Home'
'Is This Love'
'Here I Go Again'
'I Wanna Rock'
'We're Not Gonna Take It'

and so on.

It has not been mentioned much, some people think it's silly and undeserving... but glam metal/hair metal/whatever is as much a piece of the intricate history of heavy metal as thrash, nu-metal, grunge or black metal. In fact, it was the era of glam metal that brought heavy metal fully onto the public consciousness and contributed hugely to the status that heavy metal enjoys today. Even for people who hated it, it spurred them on. Bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer (even though they, in their early days, wore makeup!), etc. were all formed as a metallic response to the glam bands, in order to give metal legitimacy again (in their own eyes anyway).

Fair enough, it DID become awfully predictable and formulaic towards the tail end of the 1980's and the music had become stale. The glam bands based their successes upon teenage girl fans. Winds of change (both societal and hormonal) meant they were building a house of straw. Underground bands (grunge bands) had built incredibly strong grassroots fan bases by the late-80's/early-90's. It was only a matter of time before one or more of them broke big.

There was never a genre in the history of music like glam metal; it was so huge, so popular, sold so much, had so many fans... and then *POOF*. Overnight, it was gone. It was staggering. It evaporated from the airwaves and the public consciousness in an instant. It was like a mirage. Very few glam bands survived the onslaught intact. Arguably only Bon Jovi weathered the storm, being perennially popular for the last 20-odd years or so, regardless.

Despite its meteoric rise, and ignominious fall, glam metal is forever engrained upon the psyche, as a stereotypical piece of the 1980's.

Despite all its flaws, it was actually brilliant and I think it's time to give Slippery When Wet a blast!

Drone/Doom Metal FTW!

Magaggie wrote: »

DazMarz, there's nowt wrong at all with some Def Leppard and Whitesnake tracks.

Seeing as they're my two favourite bands... I would be inclined to agree with you!

I love glam metal, btw. :cool: