For those dudes and dudettes into fishnets, leather pants, mini-skirts, high heels, eyeliner, animal prints, 80's metal & muscle cars, spikes, big hair, cassettes, bubble gum, and doggy style.

Kevin DuBrow R.I.P.
QUIET RIOT - The first glam metal act to reach number one on the Billboard Charts. They paved the way and set the model for later bands such as Ratt, Motley Crue, Def Lepard, Dokken, Cinderella, & Poison. A true glam metal icon, Kevin will surely be missed.

GLAM METAL

Stylistic origins: Heavy metal, Glam rock, Hard rock
Cultural origins: 1979 — 1983, Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, California and England. Fully emerged genre by 1983
Typical instruments: electric guitar (often two), bass guitar, drums
Mainstream popularity: 1983 — 1992. Underground following since. Revival in United States, UK, and Sweden in particular since late 1997
Subgenre: Sleaze rock

TIMELINE OF HEAVY METAL

Glam metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that arose in the late 1970s - early 1980s in the United States. It was a dominant genre in popular rock music throughout the 1980s and early 1990s(c.1983-1992).

The genre is also referred to, often by detractors, as hair metal (or sometimes pop metal). The term hair metal was popularized by MTV in the 1990s and derives from the tendency amongst some bands to style their long hair in a teased-up fashion. During its heyday, the genre was often referred to as heavy metal or simply metal.

CHARACTERISTICS

Generally, glam metal has hedonistic lyrics, often focuses on sex, alcohol, and drugs, and many of the first wave bands had songs pertaining to the occult. Musically, glam metal songs often featured distorted guitar riffs, shred guitar solos, anthemic choruses, hard hitting drumming, and complementary bass. Glam metal is often frowned upon by fans of other genres of metal as being too pop influenced. Nevertheless, this can vary from band to band and depends largely on which time frame they played the style.

Many glam metal performers became infamous for their debauched lifestyles, long, teased hair (hence the alternative hair metal tag) and use of make-up, gaudy clothing (chiefly consisting of tight denim jeans, spandex, leather and headbands), and accessories—traits somewhat reminiscent of glam rock, a music genre which first emerged in the United Kingdom during the early 1970s. However, the earlier groups of the genre also implemented some of the leather and studs imagery which had previously been made famous by Judas Priest.


ORIGINS

The genre took influence heavily from 1970s glam rock and heavy metal bands, with large sections taking influence from the likes of AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, KISS,
T. Rex, New York Dolls, Queen, The Sweet, Van Halen, Slade, Mott the Hoople and others.

A few bands had previously experimented with mixing glam rock and heavy metal prior to the 1980s when glam metal became emerged as a fully fledged genre. Angel, Starz, and Legs Diamond were prime examples of this. However, it wasn’t until the early 1980s (c.1983) that the genre truly began to gather speed and thus some of the earlier bands mentioned are not always viewed as part of it.

The first band of the 1980s to truly travel down the make-up and gaudy clothing route was Finnish group Hanoi Rocks. Credited as influences by countless bands, Hanoi Rocks followed the template laid down by hard rock bands of the 1970s and stuck to the make up and garishness of the New York Dolls.

In the United States, many fans credited that the movement on the Sunset Strip was kick-started largely by Mötley Crüe and Nikki Sixx’s former band London after the earliest years when they started as a glam rock band. Others credited that it is kick-started by Quiet Riot's Metal Health album when it reached 1 in the billboard music charts in the early 80s (c.1983) In any event, these bands played a prominent part in the genre’s direction and would go on to influence a lot of the bands who formed from the mid-1980s onwards.

During 1980 in England, the same year of Mötley Crüe’s forming, a band known as Wrathchild, fronted by Rocky Shades, also emerged. This band was known for playing glam metal style music and having a similar image; they also used pyro similar to that of shock rock sections of the genre and would eventually tour with W.A.S.P. in 1984. However, Wrathchild did not gain the same level of fame as their Los Angeles contemporaries.]


FIRST WAVE OF GLAM METAL

During the early 1980s, heavy metal spawned several sub-genre forms; glam metal became its most popular manifestation. The first wave of glam metal bands included the likes of Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe, Ratt, W.A.S.P., Twisted Sister, Stryper. Their music was less melodic than their younger contemporaries who would eventually emerge, like Cinderella and Poison, whose music and image ultimately became synonymous with the genre.


From 1983 to 1984 several important albums which would shape the genre, and change the course of music during the 1980s emerged, amongst them were:

Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Helix - No Rest For the Wicked
W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
Dokken - Tooth and Nail
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry

Around this time and the years following it, bands who had long been an established part of heavy metal and hard rock music during the 1970s and had ironically influenced many of the glam metal bands began to experiment with the genre’s stylings, examples of this are:


Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Judas Priest - Turbo
KISS - Lick It Up
Scorpions - Blackout
Van Halen - 1984

During the later part of the 1980s, many other acts would follow suit in a similar fashion; Alice Cooper in 1989 with Trash, Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation and Whitesnake with their 1987 self-titled album which featured the massively successful hit "Here I Go Again."


SECOND WAVE OF GLAM METAL

By the mid-1980s, glam metal could be defined by two major divisions. On the mainstream side were bands such as Bon Jovi, whose 1986 album Slippery When Wet was a huge success at Top 40 radio and MTV, as well as the band Europe, whose single "The Final Countdown" hit number one in 26 countries; the bands in this style were and still are described as pop metal.

Los Angeles fostered a more insular scene around the Sunset Strip, starting in 1984-1985. This movement eventually spawned bands such as Poison, Faster Pussycat, and L.A. Guns. Other bands were associated with that scene’s style but actually came from outside of Hollywood; Cinderella, a Philadelphia band, is an example.

There were also some groups who continued in the style originated by the earlier glam metal bands. King Kobra and Madam X are examples of this, the latter of which would eventually feature a future star of the genre, a young Canadian named Sebastian Bach.

The visual aspects of some glam metal bands became thought of as appealing to music television, particularly MTV when it was launched. During the mid-to-late 1980s, glam metal tracks were in heavy rotation on the channel. Glam metal bands often resided at the top of MTV’s daily dial countdown, and some of the bands appeared on the channel’s shows such as Headbanger’s Ball. The groups also received heavy rotation on radio shows such as KNAC in Los Angeles.

The second wave of glam metal would prove to be the most commercially successful for the genre as a whole, and enjoyed widespread success during the 1980s, but bands would sometimes find themselves on the wrong side of critics and certain sections of the music industry.

A notable example came in 1987 with the release of Mötley Crüe’s Girls, Girls, Girls. Before the establishment of Soundscan in 1991, Billboard’s album chart was decided by a combination of reports from retailers, wholesalers, and industry professionals, rather than on actual album sales. As the band related on MTV’s Week in Rock, the week that Girls, Girls, Girls peaked at 2 on the Billboard chart, it was actually the highest-selling album of that week. However, the industry professionals gave extra weight to Whitney Houston’s second album, allowing it to retain the top spot. In the band’s opinion, the industry simply wouldn’t allow their album to hold the 1 spot. (The band eventually conquered the top spot with their next album, Dr. Feelgood, which became the biggest album of their career.)

Glam metal continued to grow its fanbase as the 1980s progressed. Def Leppard’s 1987 album Hysteria spawned seven successful singles, and eventually sold more than 12 million copies just in the US. This would later become one of the most popular hard rock albums of all time, being one of the most popular albums in the 1980s. Poison’s second album Open Up and Say...Ahh! spawned a huge single in "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," and eventually sold eight million copies worldwide. Skid Row would later release their debut album in 1989, although they had been around since 1986 and had a harder hitting sound than many of the other bands in the genre at that point.


SLEAZE GLAM

Guns N' Roses completely changed the direction of glam metal in 1987. They incorporated the sounds of blues and punk into the music, while retaining some of the imagery of glam metal. Guns N’ Roses became a mega-success in 1988 thanks to singles such as "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child o' Mine," and went on to sell millions of albums. Other bands which arose around this time with similar musical styles are Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Roxx Gang, and Dangerous Toys. This offshoot of glam metal is dubbed "sleaze glam", "sleaze rock", and more recently "sleaze metal".

A similar movement also emerged in London, England at around the same time. Like Guns N' Roses, these bands were heavily influenced by early rock n' roll and punk rock. Like Hanoi Rocks, the bands from this English movement such as Dogs D’Amour and London Quireboys didn’t consider themselves heavy metal, but rather as rock n' roll, though they are sometimes incorrectly termed glam metal. Also, around this time British band The Cult moved their music away from their post-punk roots and began playing a more AC/DC influenced sound, touring the United States with Guns N' Roses and then later with Metallica.

During the 2000s the sleaze glam style has returned somewhat thanks to the likes of Buckcherry and Brides of Destruction, the latter of which features Nikki Sixx and Tracii Guns. Newer bands such as Vains of Jenna, Red Star Rebels and Jackviper are also beginning to gain a lot of recognition , also Gypsy Pistoleros who open Rocklahoma , helping to drive the scene and the genre forward.

BANDS REFORM

Mötley Crüe reunited with Vince Neil, and recorded the 1997 album Generation Swine, embarking on a successful U.S. tour. Poison reunited with C.C. Deville, and embarked on a successful 1999 tour of amphitheaters. A 2000 package tour featuring Poison, Slaughter, Cinderella, and Dokken sold extremely well.

In the 2000s, coinciding with the new blood of glam metal bands, more groups from the original movement continue to perform, and others that broke up have reformed. Bands such as L.A. Guns, Ratt,and W.A.S.P. have appeared in package tours together, and Mötley Crüe and Poison are continuing to record material and tour, reaching the upper parts of the Billboard 200 with compilation albums. The Monster Ballads compilation series has sold well, with the first volume peaking at 18 on the Billboard 200. It was announced that a large glam metal festival would be taking place in Oklahoma, during July 2007 named Rocklahoma, over three days.[4] Amongst the bands featuring are Poison, Ratt (reformed with Stephen Pearcy), Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Bang Tango, Vince Neil Band, Twisted Sister, Jackyl, Dokken, Quiet Riot, Britny Fox (reformed), Enuff Z'nuff and Y&T.