Poofy Hair Bands

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

OK, even Generation X is starting to get grey hairs and bald spots, so now is the time for a serious discussion about Poofy Hair Bands!

 

The "Reagan Youth "out there will know what I am talking about, even if they don't admit it. Bands like Poinon, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Winger, etc. who tried to be tough even though they had female hair styles.

 

I'm glad to say I never fell into this. However, there are some songs from that genre I still liked. All three videos have hot chicks and bands playing to empty stadiums. You also wouldn't know without reading the lyrics that these are actually love songs.

 

Whitesnake - Still of the Night

Not quite full-on poofy, as they had several albums prior to this single (although they weren't widely known). Longer than a typical song. What impressed me was you had snipets of 3 different melodies in the song and had a wide musical range. Some impressive work with the "shadow" of the lead singer superimposed on the rest of the video. Playing the electric guitar with a violin bow was an interesting touch. Follow-ups Here I Go Again and Is This Love were better than average for the genre.

 

Great White - Rock Me

Some interesting visuals in the video. Basically a girl turns into a mermaid and then goes hunting with a harpoon. I don't know why but the somg itself is addicting to listen to even though there isn't much special about it. The follow-up, Once Bitten Twice Shy, sucked and made this band a one-hit wonder.

 

The Jason Bonham Band - Wait For You

You may know this guy better as Bonham. You might know him even better as the son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. This prevents Bonham from being full-on poofy. A decent drummer in his own right but didn't play those in this song. The song is not bad but a bit longer than typical. There are some interesting rifts at the beginning of the song that don't really "blend" with the rest of the song. However, the visuals in the video are fantastic, especially with the band performing in front of a submarine that was launced into the air and crashed nose-first into a street and is stuck there.

 

So these are my three favorite Poofy Hair Band songs and videos. What are yours?

Edited May 4, 2009 by Lt. Van Roy

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

I love the 80's Hair Metal. It's a guilty pleasure, but it's also a Midwestern thing. Midwesterners are big into the hair metal bands. Love Poison, Firehouse, even Bon Jovi minus a few songs. However, Whitesnake is a traitor to the style. They tried to blend it too much with that awful awful AWFUL A Flock Of Seagulls type synth-pop style. Blech.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

No, I was living in the midwest when some of these songs came out and I'm pretty sure we got the same MTV as the other parts of the country.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Yeah, but how long has it been since you were here? The hair bands of the 80s can make a living nowadays just by touring the Midwest and doing all the old songs. Some years ago, Firehouse and Quiet Riot played a bar that was owned by the same people that owned the restaurant I worked at. I was so jealous because I was under 21 and couldn't go.

Edited May 12, 2009 by youbroughtheryouRiker

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

OK, I'll admit that in California it was pretty much the stoner crowd who liked the hair bands, and it was a little more mainstream in the Midwest, but neither group was really small compared to the music-listening population.

 

I lived in Omaha from Jan 87 to Aug 88. Then I was at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO from Sep 88 to sometime summer 90. You want to know why?

 

Because being a Private in the US Army is still better than being a civilian in Omaha! I spent 3 years in the military, including a tour in South Korea, just to get OUT of the midwest!

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Well, NE... I'd want to get out of that too, but I'd love to stay in the Midwest that was once called the Northwest Territories.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I've been a country music fan since the late 70's or early 80's so I never really got into the Hair Bands but like Roy there were a few songs here and there that I liked.

 

Here's a few:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIKPGVTwEY

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKTiwCez6Zs

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

I wouldn't really count GNR as poofy. Axl's hair was too stringy for that.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I wouldn't really count GNR as poofy. Axl's hair was too stringy for that.

Yeah, I had actually had a disclaimer in my post to begin with but then I watched the video and there was some poof from some of the others, Slash's hair can be pretty poofy.

 

Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child O' Mine and a little later Patience were all big right around the time I was in AIT (Fort Gordon, Ga).

 

Another one I forgot about that I'm pretty sure was around summer '88

 

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

OK, I'll grant that the rest of GNR is poofy.

 

Winger is straight on poofy. Heck, even Stewart from Beavis & Butthead liked them.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I didn't really like Winger, I thought that was a good song back in '88 but I couldn't name a single other song of theirs. I wasn't a huge fan of GnR either but all of my friends in Basic and AIT were huge fans so whenever we got the ability to get off post for the weekend or even in the PX they'd play GnR on the jukeboxes so those songs that were out then grew on me.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Most music snobs who hate 80s hair metal are a little more lenient towards Guns 'N' Roses and Van Halen because they were by far more talented than the rest of them. A few even give that credence towards KISS as well, and some don't consider one, two, or all three of those as hair metal for that reason. Whatever. I enjoy it all.

 

VABG--I would think, that as a former serviceman, you'd like Winger's other big hit, "Miles Away." During Operation Desert Storm, that was a HUGE song with the Armed Forces and their families. Local stations would even edit in messages from soldiers and families to each other that ran during the guitar break of that song.

[Stephen of Borg 2]

Motley Crue, RATT, Poison would probably be my top 3 choices. I actually saw Steve Pearcy(then ex lead singer of RATT) in concert about five years ago when he was doing his solo tour. He was awesome and I'm glad to hear that he has since reunited with the band

[Bethlehem 7]

Though not really a band you forgot Rod Stewart when he was young. Better music too.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Rod Stewart wasn't "Hair metal" which is what Van Roy is referring to. He had the bad hair, all right, but his music wasn't in the same genre as those bands.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Most music snobs who hate 80s hair metal are a little more lenient towards Guns 'N' Roses and Van Halen because they were by far more talented than the rest of them. A few even give that credence towards KISS as well, and some don't consider one, two, or all three of those as hair metal for that reason. Whatever. I enjoy it all.

 

VABG--I would think, that as a former serviceman, you'd like Winger's other big hit, "Miles Away." During Operation Desert Storm, that was a HUGE song with the Armed Forces and their families. Local stations would even edit in messages from soldiers and families to each other that ran during the guitar break of that song.

Seventeen is probably the only song of theirs I've ever heard. By the time of Desert Shield I was working 16 to 20 hours a day helping to prepae my battalion for deployment so I wasn't listening to the radio much and becasue of injuries sustained in training I didn't actually deploy myself, I retired. So when Desert Storm came along I was back home and the only music I was listening to was country.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

I'd suggest looking it up. Maybe you heard it and don't know it? Just a thought. If you liked Seventeen, I'd suggest Miles Away.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

I didn't really like Winger, I thought that was a good song back in '88 but I couldn't name a single other song of theirs. I wasn't a huge fan of GnR either but all of my friends in Basic and AIT were huge fans so whenever we got the ability to get off post for the weekend or even in the PX they'd play GnR on the jukeboxes so those songs that were out then grew on me.

I know what you mean. I got into the Alternative thing in high school. Back then Alternative really was Alternative - very hard to find, especially at an AAFES store in Missouri. So I had to listen to what everyone else was listening to, which was pretty much poofy hair bands, some harder rock (Metalica was just getting known back then.), and rap For a while I was the only white soldier in an all black squad (except for the squad leader who lived off post) and my rap knowledge got pretty good.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

Rod Stewart wasn't "Hair metal" which is what Van Roy is referring to. He had the bad hair, all right, but his music wasn't in the same genre as those bands.

He did have poofy hair, and he was a singer, but yeah, different genre. He was more easy listening rahter than a band trying to be tough and hard core that really weren't.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Rod Stewart wasn't "Hair metal" which is what Van Roy is referring to. He had the bad hair, all right, but his music wasn't in the same genre as those bands.

He did have poofy hair, and he was a singer, but yeah, different genre. He was more easy listening rahter than a band trying to be tough and hard core that really weren't.

 

Well, that's what he'd become by the mid-80s. But his days with Faces were a whole different story.