If it hasn’t been said enough yet and you really don’t know, Hair Metal ruled the 80’s!
A decade of excess used the genre as its soundtrack, its look and sound fitting the coveted rock star lifestyle. But as the beautiful people lived out their fantasy, their less glamorous ilk began to smolder underground. Hair Metal’s fanbase was primarily female, but as they grew older, they were replaced by a new generation that turned off Hair’s fiery glow and sought the purity of ’70s hard rock. The masses began to shy away from the flashy stuff, wanting to hear more raw power.
The death knell rang in the form of Old, New and Borrowed on September 24th 1991, with the release of three albums that laid the foundations for Hair’s demise and the rise of alternative.
Nirvana’s Nevermind hit the stores and charted at number 144. It started off slow and the band themselves didn’t see the excitement of the album, but while on tour in Europe, they got a big hit on MTV with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the album shot up the charts like a rocket. The album went to number one in January ’92 and sold over 30 million copies worldwide. The song and the band launched a hostile takeover of rock, collapsing hair metal under its own weight and becoming the standard-bearers of grunge, which would destroy it entirely within a year.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers released their fifth album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, their second to feature their standard lineup of Flea and Anthony Kiedis with the addition of Frusciante and Smith. The band had great success with “Under the Bridge” and “Give It Away,” which became worldwide hits, offering a funk/punk-infused rock counterpoint to the gritty sound of grunge. With this album and their appearance on the Lollapalooza tour, they had risen from underground darlings to rock titans, joining grunge and industrial music in sweeping the glam sound.
Closing out the day is AC/DC, who made their second comeback of their career with the release of “The Razors Edge.” Their 11th album took them from a disappointing end of the 80s into the 90s. The only album to feature drummer Chris Slade, it rocketed up the charts, reaching number 2 and instantly launched one of their greatest anthems, “Thunderstruck.” Capitalizing on a younger generation’s preference for 70s hard rock, AC/DC didn’t embrace the glam sound of the 80s, and it began to fade away in the mid-to-late 80s. However, their hard, driving sound was a perfect fit for new rock fans who wanted their music to be simple and raw, and the band found renewed success in the new decade.
The decline of ’80s hairstyles didn’t actually happen overnight, and the saturation of sounds and styles was expected to eventually collapse, but the rise of alternative needed a big bang to open the already rising floodgates, and one day in September, that’s what happened.
