Grunge VS Hair Metal

[Memory]

I always hear that the grunge movement ruined 80s hair metal bands, which in my opinion was one of the greatest things that ever happened to music. I'll admit that hair metal was one of the things that got me into older rock music but I can't stand to listen to it anymore today, except for a few bands. In your opinion what is better "Grunge" or hair metal? By Grunge I'm meaning bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, and by hair metal I'm talking about bands like Motley Crue, Poison, and WASP.

[8bit Fighter]

Hair metal, it was more fun than Nirvana's music, though it was bit childish (hair metal) and Dave Mustaine once called it G.L.A.M. (Gay LA Music)

[El Lobo]

Of course Hair. I love "hair metal". Lots of fun.

PS.That said, I love grunge as well.

[ComputerGod]

Hair Metal

[rar]

Hair metal. My definition of Grunge is Nirvana, and its far too depressing. I mean that's coming from a Sabbath fan, so its pretty depressing, whereas Hair Metal is so much more upbeat and happier.

[Eternal Idol]

Originally Posted By: rar Hair metal. My definition of Grunge is Nirvana, and its far too depressing. I mean that's coming from a Sabbath fan, so its pretty depressing, whereas Hair Metal is so much more upbeat and happier.

Hair metal "ive been quoted " !

[-z-]

i'm not telling which i voted for hehehe. i think both genres
have their own merits and downfalls. some of Nirvana's songs
were upbeat or fun. and they always had a huge sense of humor
about the whole thing as well. i do not think grunge
killed hair metal. hair metal was becoming a
corporate whore and boring. grunge poped up on the
map and was fresh and new raw and exciting
people latched onto it . of course it became
a sickening parody of itself and suffered the same
fate as hair metal. the difference is hair metal
has a chance to make a comeback. it's healthier
and more wholesome. glamorous, decadent.it's in your face
yet thankful to those that allow it to be. it's "bigger than us"
yet attainable. it deserves more credit than i or most
are willing to give it. it gives hope.

[62_SG]

I really hate them both, but atleast the music in Grunge has some balls.

[Ray Rules]

Originally Posted By: 8bit Fighter Hair metal, it was more fun than Nirvana's music, though it was bit childish (hair metal) and Dave Mustaine once called it G.L.A.M. (Gay LA Music)

[MarcStitz]

Hair Metal

[Ray Rules]

Originally Posted By: MarcStitz Hair Metal

I thought you liked rap music...

[murshidm]

Hair Metal Rulez.. Grunge is some stupid shitcrap

[Orion]

Originally Posted By: Memory I always hear that the grunge movement ruined 80s hair metal bands, which in my opinion was one of the greatest things that ever happened to music. I'll admit that hair metal was one of the things that got me into older rock music but I can't stand to listen to it anymore today, except for a few bands. In your opinion what is better "Grunge" or hair metal? By Grunge I'm meaning bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, and by hair metal I'm talking about bands like Motley Crue, Poison, and WASP.

I'm astounded WASP is being classed in the same genre as the Crue & fuckin' Poison! Motley Crue were hard rock. Poison were pop/wimp rock. WASP were metal. In fact, WASP were often heavier than Sabbath.

Metal had the life (and distortion) strangled out of it by the record companies & the teeny-bopper 12 year-olds the companies fed. The poppy rock song morphed into the power ballad which in turn morphed into the herpes of hard rock, the accoustic ballad. Grunge took off because at least the depressed bastards had their guitars plugged in! Unfortunately grunge took any glam, image & attitude out of rock, so kids started turning to rap/hiphop/whatever else the shit is called.

Fuck grunge. It was a cancer.

[Sir Kenneth]

I don't like either, but unlike hair metal, grunge had a good band or 2. Those 2 bands being TAD and AIC.

[Ray Rules]

Originally Posted By: Orion

Originally Posted By: Memory I always hear that the grunge movement ruined 80s hair metal bands, which in my opinion was one of the greatest things that ever happened to music. I'll admit that hair metal was one of the things that got me into older rock music but I can't stand to listen to it anymore today, except for a few bands. In your opinion what is better "Grunge" or hair metal? By Grunge I'm meaning bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, and by hair metal I'm talking about bands like Motley Crue, Poison, and WASP.

I'm astounded WASP is being classed in the same genre as the Crue & fuckin' Poison! Motley Crue were hard rock. Poison were pop/wimp rock. WASP were metal. In fact, WASP were often heavier than Sabbath.

Metal had the life (and distortion) strangled out of it by the record companies & the teeny-bopper 12 year-olds the companies fed. The poppy rock song morphed into the power ballad which in turn morphed into the herpes of hard rock, the accoustic ballad. Grunge took off because at least the depressed bastards had their guitars plugged in! Unfortunately grunge took any glam, image & attitude out of rock, so kids started turning to rap/hiphop/whatever else the shit is called.

Fuck grunge. It was a cancer.

Indeed. Wasp is so cool and funny sometimes.. I mean, Animal (FuCk Like A Beast)... it's SO cool! Plus, they opened for Sabbath at the Seventh Star tour, and for that they earn more 2 respect points!

[Memory]

To me it feels like all the hair metal bands were in it to do drugs and party with girls. Grunge was more about the art. I know there were alot of grunge artists who died because of drugs but it seems like they were doing it to be more creative (and it was more creative compared to hair metal).

[62_SG]

Grunge brought it down from the squealing solos and keyboards of Hair Metal. From Grunge came Nu-Metal though, which sounds like shit.

[Memory]

^alot of Grunge songs still had guitar solos. Nirvana was probably the band with the fewest, but most of Pearl Jams songs still had solos in them.

[Rover]

Seriously, I really like neither of these. Anyways, I never liked any particular genre of music as a whole, just individual bands.

[62_SG]

Grunge had guitar solos, but they were a bit rarer.

[Psychophobia]

Grunge. I don't care for either genre, but Cobain and the boys did us a favour by giving heavy metal a much-deserved kick in the 'nads at the dawn of the 90s. Hair metal is a farce... like the Spice girls, it's music best enjoyed with the sound turned down, so that you can just sit back and laugh at the visuals. The grunge music itself may have been dull - though I still enjoy a couple tunes - but it forced metal to go back to its roots, for which I'm greatful.

[St Vitus]

Grunge. Only because of Nirvana.

I never liked either though (In all fairness though, I haven't heard much hair-metal, or grunge for that matter)

Off-topic, but how is Nirvana's music depressing? I always found it fun and catchy.

[jackstripper]

Hair Metal died with Hanoi Rocks . Nirvana killed grunge

Nirvana influenced Stilskin & Nickleback

[Renaissance]

Hair Metal...I love Whitesnake, they're a kick ass band...what can I say?

[RLP4ever]

The ONLY glam-metal (a.k.a 'hair metal') band I ever remotely enjoyed and still listen to occasionally are the four rather respectable "unofficial" pre-'Cowboys from Hell' albums by Pantera before they made their famously sharp detour into the ultra-heavy thrashy-groovy style they made their own in the '90s. And I honestly gave glam metal a decent try by listening to quite a lot of bands and songs. BillM made a very pertinent comment in the "Best Hair Metal Band" thread about how there are tons of fans everywhere who somehow seem to faddishly exaggerate their 'hatred' for glam metal and how there has always been somewhat conflicting definitions of glam/hair metal in circulation. Yet, I still reckon a majority of fans know what they are roughly talking about when they say that they either love or hate (or don't care about) hair metal. And I genuinely detest---I can't exaggerate this, honestly-- most of everything glam metal represents musically. It always gives me nausea and I have long sworn myself off this music.

That said, I hardly much prefer a maddeningly mediocre and insipid style like Grunge either. However, for the sake of voting one way, I chose grunge over hair metal on this one, but only by a wafer-thin margin. I could only ever tolerate a bunch of Pearl Jam songs and perhaps Soundgarden's and a sprinkling of others too. Nothing else from other major grunge rockers that I've tried and failed to stomach so far. Kurt Cobain RIP, but I couldn't shed a single teardrop at the demise of an abomination that was his band---Nirvana--- or indeed at the eventual demise of Grunge itself. I often consider Nirvana's 'Nevermind' to be the MOST OVER-RATED RECORD OF ALL TIME. Grunge's only redeeming quality is its widely-acknowledged role in slaying something I dislike a bit more...hair metal.

Apart from the freakin' fuzzy guitars, the deadening muddy sound overall, the ridiculously slovenly image, just the seemingly uninspiring and uncool musicianship, I gotta say that the one thing about Grunge that I find the most grating on my nerves is the singers' vocals (and the often pretentiously political rantings of the lyrics). The trademark constantly shrill whining, the tantrum vibes and the alternately almost dazed, melancholic, droning delivery just bore me to tears everytime. Did I actually vote Grunge here??

[MetalMark]

If one considers "grunge" to be Alice In Chains, Soundgarden,
early Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees et al, then YES...I'll take
those bands over most hair metal anyday...although I was a
fan of early Motley Crue and early Ratt...

[soonerfan28]

100% grunge. They saved metal from the pussy metal called hair metal. Every once in a while there would be a good song from a hairmetal band. The rest sucked. They all sounded the same and the power ballads and stuff were so gay. They also looked like a bunch of girls with make up problems.

Grunge saved metal!!

[Memory]

^and then it died right after it saved it.

[Psychophobia]

Originally Posted By: Memory ^and then it died right after it saved it.

Hardly... you must be listening to the wrong bands from that era.

[Memory]

^what was a good metal band that got started after 1997?

[rar]

Originally Posted By: jackstripper Hair Metal died with Hanoi Rocks . Nirvana killed grunge

Nirvana influenced Stilskin & Nickleback

...whom both also suck.

Nirvana (basically) started and killed Grunge.

Hair Metal was much better. I still stand with what I said above.

[MarcStitz]

No way rar, Nickleback rocks!!!

[Psychophobia]

Originally Posted By: Memory ^what was a good metal band that got started after 1997?

I'll take System of a Down, Lacuna Coil, or even Disturbed, over hair metal any day of the week. Not great bands, but a helluva lot more listenable than the spandex and hairspray fluff of the 80s.

When you say '97 though, is that when you see grunge as dying out? I always point to '94 (Cobain's death) as the end of grunge. A lot of great metal bands started up during the grunge period and released their best work after '97, IMO... Opeth, Tool, Cathedral, RATM...

[62_SG]

Not all Hair Metal is bad. Don't forget dear old Spinal Tap, almost the greatest band of the 80s. If only they could keep it together, but Smell the Glove killed them IMO.

[Renaissance]

Originally Posted By: Psychophobia

Originally Posted By: Memory ^what was a good metal band that got started after 1997?

I'll take System of a Down, Lacuna Coil, or even Disturbed, over hair metal any day of the week. Not great bands, but a helluva lot more listenable than the spandex and hairspray fluff of the 80s.

When you say '97 though, is that when you see grunge as dying out? I always point to '94 (Cobain's death) as the end of grunge. A lot of great metal bands started up during the grunge period and released their best work after '97, IMO... Opeth, Tool, Cathedral, RATM...

Those are all pretty bad...compaired to the stuff of the 80's
Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, Black Sabbath, etc... After the 80's these bands faded away... and newer bands came and ruined everything!

[VikingChrist]

Originally Posted By: 62_SG Not all Hair Metal is bad. Don't forget dear old Spinal Tap, almost the greatest band of the 80s. If only they could keep it together, but Smell the Glove killed them IMO.

Shark Sandwich = Shit Sandwich

[62_SG]

Yeah, the only good song off of Shark Sandwich was Sex Farm. My favourite album of theirs is The Sun Never Sweats, even though tons of people hate it. I also like Brain Hammer.

[Psychophobia]

Originally Posted By: Renaissance
Those are all pretty bad...compaired to the stuff of the 80's
Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, Black Sabbath, etc...

Each of these bands that you mention, save for Yngwie, had their starts in the 70s, and merely carried over to the 80s. IMO, they don't qualify as products as the 80s. Though you could probably argue that they achieved more mainstream success in the 80s.

Quote: After the 80's these bands faded away... and newer bands came and ruined everything!

None of those bands faded away. Each of them continued to release albums on a pretty regular basis during the 90s, although not so much Whitesnake. (be greatful for small mercies! The less we hear of David Coverversion, the better...)

Sabbath released TYR, Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes, Forbidden, and Reunion during the 90s, and that lineup is nothing to sneeze at, even if you prefer the 80s stuff.

Purple had S&M, TBRO, Purpendicular, and Abandon in the 90s, plus Bananas and Rapture in the 00s.

Dio had LUTW, Strange Highways, Angry Machines, Magica... plus KTD, MOTM.

Even a shred-head like Yngwie released a plethora of albums during the 90s and 00s... at least 10 of them that I can think of.


All I'm saying is,I dont' think you can blame the 90s for "ruining everything", as you put it. Certainly metal has gone out of fashion in north America since then, and we've lost a bunch of the posers like Candy Roxx and The Bullet Boys, but just about everywhere else in the world, metal is still a very healthy genre, and you can see that in the fact that the best acts (like those above) are continuing to release solid albums.

[Benjo]

Meh, I don't like either labels, but I love some bands that are probably lumped in the hair metal category and same goes for grunge. Meh, I don't think I could ever learn to stomach Eddie Vedders voice and don't get me started on his clones - he lowered the bar for frontmen - even though Vedder does have talent I must admit, he's just not for me. Chris Cornell on the other hand, I absolutely dig his voice.

Anyway, real grunge was those 80's bands like Sonic Youth and Mudhoney - not that I was a huge fan of that stuff either.

I choose grunge anyway.

[BlackAdder]

It's grunge for me. There are some good songs from hair metal bands, but I just dislake their image. I prefer more Grunge's down to earth style... I remember liking Nirvana when they first came to public, but got bored later. These days i listen lot of Foo Fighters and right now I'm listening Alice In Chains...