The Big Book Of Hair Metal

"An oral history and timeline of the popular 1980s heavy metal subgenre, including its prehistory and decline, profusely illustrated with relevant photographs and memorabilia"--

Music journalist Martin Popoff celebrates a decade of heavy metal debauchery in this illustrated history of Hair Metal bands. In the 1980s, heavy metal went mainstream. The dark themes and brain-busting riffage of bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple suddenly fell out of favor—replaced by a new legion of metalheads whose themes of girls, partying, girls, drugs, and girls were presented amid shredding solos and power ballads and who were somehow more acceptable to the masses. In this ultimate guide to the subgenre, acclaimed heavy-metal journalist Martin Popoff examines hair metal in an all-encompassing oral history jacked up by a kaleidoscope of outrageous and previously unpublished quotes, anecdotes, photos, and memorabilia. The Big Book of Hair Metal features the observations of dozens of musicians, producers, promoters, label execs, and hangers-on in examining hair metal’s rise and fall as well as all the bands that kept Aqua Net in business through the Reagan recession: Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, Poison, Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Warrant, Great White, Whitesnake, Cinderella, Vixen, Skid Row, L.A. Guns, Guns N’ Roses, and dozens more. In crafting a narrative of hair metal, Popoff also examines the factors that contributed to the movement’s rise (including MTV, Reagan’s “morning in America,” and a general move toward prudish morals); the bands that inspired it (the Sweet, New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, and KISS, for a start); and the scenes that nurtured it (the Sunset Strip, anyone?). The ride finally ended circa 1991, when hair metal was replaced by grunge, but what a ride it was. Here it is in all of its primped-up glory.

From 1983 until 1991, Glam Metal was the sound of American culture. Big hair, massive amplifiers, drugs, alcohol, piles of money and life-threatening pyrotechnics. This was the world stalked by Bon Jovi, Kiss, W.A.S.P., Skid Row, Dokken, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Ratt and many more. Armed with hairspray, spandex and strangely shaped guitars, they marked the last great era of supersize bands. Where did Glam Metal come from? How did it spread? What killed it off? And why does nobody admit to having been a Glam Metaller anymore?

“We gotta get out of this place.” —Any kid in the ’80s trying to make it playing rock and roll. Mix one dash of high school and two jiggers of teenage angst with a metric ton of heavy metal, and you have the recipe for the improbable wild ride of five kids with limited means and big dreams. Seventeen-year-old Sean needs a lot of things: He needs his parents to stop hassling him. He needs his car to actually start. He needs his Jewfro to grow out into heavy metal hair. But most of all, he needs a band... Without one he isn’t sure that he’s ever going to make it out of this two-horse town. He’s been trying to put a band together for as long as he can remember, but finding like-minded metalheads in rural America has been challenging. Finally the stars align and a band is born. It’s magic. But can these five talented metal kids keep things together long enough to play the show of a lifetime? If you are a fan of heavy metal music and grew up in the 1980s (or just wished you had) this story is for you.

Extravagant visual tribute to the spandex, rouge and eyeliner days of 80s glam rock glory. Colour photographs, interviews, lyrics and keepsakes of the uninhibited teased-hair days of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Steven Blush edited the successful punk rock history American Hardcore (Feral House) and also wrote the screenplay to the feature-length documentary of the same name that debuted at Sundance and will be distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.

An intoxicating chronicle detailing the sensational arc of one of the history's most polarizing and successful musical genres-the '80s-born hard rock and heavy metal circus affectionately known as Hair Metal. Spotlighting bands such as Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, and many others, prepare for an electrifying journey of enormous highs, unspeakable lows, and the improbable comeback of one of rock 'n' roll's most extraordinary and influential eras.Rising from the gutters of Los Angeles in the early '80s, an explosive new style of music was unrelentingly thrust upon the world. Fusing the rebellious aggression of traditional heavy metal with upbeat hooks and melodies, "Hair Metal" would emerge over the coming decade as one of the most successful and dominant forces the music industry had ever seen.Defined by shredding guitars, flamboyant frontmen, fist-pumping anthems, and an extravagant fashion sense, bands like Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses dominated the landscape, selling millions of albums and playing to sold-out arenas of frenzied fans across the globe. "Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was taken to new extremes as excess in all forms ruled supreme in one gloriously outrageous celebration.Then, seemingly out of nowhere in the early '90s, Hair Metal violently imploded in a stunningly mind-blowing fall from grace. The genre struggled with near-extinction for the better part of the decade as Grunge served as a new God to worship, representing the complete antithesis of everything '80s rock had come to symbolize. Many hair bands futility attempted to change with the times; most simply disintegrated.Finally, at the turn of the century, Hair Metal miraculously sprung back to a renewed lease on life, rising from the ashes and establishing a stable platform upon which it has proudly stood to service its legion of devoted followers for the past twenty years.Strap in for Hair Metal's thrilling ride, with an in-depth look at the music, artists, and behind-the-scenes stories comprising an extraordinary era that impacted millions of lives. A time when real-life rock 'n' roll was truly more remarkable than fiction.