Did Grunge really kill hair metal?

[*jason*]

(01-24-2018, 08:50 PM)Devils Advocate Wrote: Much of today’s radio is pure crap. Very rarely do I find something worthwhile on the airwaves. However, there are some good new bands getting air; Caged The Elephant is one such band. The best source for great new music is Pandora or Spotify or something similar. Great music is still being made, it’s just not gonna find you, you’ve gotta find it.

I’m far from a country music fan, but for those that like music, check these two out

You should check out the Dead South along with Colter Wall, if you're not familiar. I'd start with Kate McKannon (Brewery Sessions) by Colter Wall, and We Run by the Dead South... Sturgill Simpson is great, but he's just the tip of the iceberg of some badass country music at the moment.

[*jason*]

I don't think grunge (whatever that means) killed the hairbands. MTV killed them. They started playing the hell out of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and packaged it as something new. There was literally nothing new about it. The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and the like had been doing it for years. MTV wouldn't play it.

I also think Appetite For Destruction by GNR helped to kill hair metal as well. They made just about everyone else look, and sound like phony trash. Metallica finally making a video also played a role. I doubt they would have expanded their following as much as they did if that video was for Shortest Straw and not One.

Do you see the common theme in MTV dictating what became popular?

[Donnyho]

(01-25-2018, 12:51 AM)jason Wrote: I don't think grunge (whatever that means) killed the hairbands. MTV killed them. They started playing the hell out of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and packaged it as something new. There was literally nothing new about it. The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and the like had been doing it for years. MTV wouldn't play it.

Pretty much this. The culture of the early 90’s was pretty cynical. “Hair Metal” was, at its core, good time party music, and that wasn’t the climate. So “grunge” is adopted by mass media and given to the masses.

And there was something new about Nirvana: Kurt Cobain wasn’t ugly. Take a look at Black Francis (The Pixies), Thurstun Moore (Sonic Youth) and J.Mascus (Dinosaur Jr.) in 1991. Let’s just say you weren’t going to see them on any glossy magazine covers. Shallow? Yup. But if you want to attract a mainstream female audience, it doesn't hurt to have a good looking guy. (Not saying every girl that bought “Nevermind” in 1992 did it because of how Cobain looked; just that it didn’t hurt)

Quote:I also think Appetite For Destruction by GNR helped to kill hair metal as well. They made just about everyone else look, and sound like phony trash. Metallica finally making a video also played a role. I doubt they would have expanded their following as much as they did if that video was for Shortest Straw and not One.

Do you see the common theme in MTV dictating what became popular?

GNR was a contemporary of the other hair bands. Look at Axel in the ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ video. That hair is pretty big. I agree that their sound wasn’t the same as, say, Warrent, but that’s how the label was marketing them. The biggest thing that saved GNR from hair bandom in my opinion, was NWA. They were “dangerous” and that was appealing people. I think their success had a huge influence on GNR. Not musically, but stylistically. So GNR became something of a surrogate NWA for segments of the market that weren’t listening to rap.