EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
History of Rock, 1970-Present
John Covach, University of Rochester
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E 1980s Heavy Metal and L.A. Hair Bands Notes taken on October 3, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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heavy metal hits the big time
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bands from the first half of the 80s had decent success
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Van Halen
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Motorhead
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but there wasn't really a move toward heavy metal yet
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second half of the 80s, heavy metal becomes much more popular
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two bands that started off this trend, but not particularly thought of now as heavy metal
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Bon Jovi
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New Jersey
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Jon Bon Jovi
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Ritchie Sambora
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1986 Slippery When Wet
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many of the features of heavy metal rock from early 80s
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"You Give Love a Bad Name"
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"Livin' On a Prayer"
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"Wanted Dead of Alive"
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created a momentum that other groups were able to emulate
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Guns and Roses
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Los Angeles
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Axl Rose
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Slash
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1987 Appetite for Destruction
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that was the album that tipped the balance for heavy metal
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today not perceived so much as heavy metal
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"Welcome to the Jungle"
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"Sweet Child o' Mine"
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"Paradise City"
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1987 Headbangers Ball
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on MTV
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playing nothing but Heavy Metal
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L.A. Hair Bands
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bands that are glam-influenced in their use of clothing, bands that have this spandex thing going with feathered boas, leopard-skin vests, and all this kind of stuff starts to show up
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and make-up, and I don't just mean make-up to accent their eyes but make-up like womens' makeup, heavy makeup
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they've got teased hair, they have long hair and its flowing down and it all gets kind of teased up
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a distinct look that celebrates less glamour per se as in the 1970s, but a cheap kind of glamour more associated with strip clubs and cheesy bars
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that's the kind of stuff they were embracing
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it's not that they didn't know how to do the more sophisticated glamour kind of thing, they were embracing this element of the low night life
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this is what these bands were standing for
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Mötley Crüe
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a type of L.A. Hair Band
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Poison
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took it to an extreme
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1986 Look What the Cat Dragged In
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Talk Dirty to Me
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a good representative of Hair Bands
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a compact form
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not a long, extended tune
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has a virtuosic guitar solo, but not too long
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sexist lyrics typify Hair Bands, sexually predatory lecherous kind of attitude, almost exaggerated in cartoonish proportions
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1988 Open Up and Say...Ahh!
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Every Rose Has Its Thorn
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the power ballad
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arose out of the 1970s from e.g. Boston's more than a feeling
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every metal band has got to have the one tune, where the lead guitarist would pick up a 12-string guitar and start to play some open chords in a kind of stairway to heaven moment
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and the lead singer sort of shows his sensitive side
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yeah, I may pursue women and drink hard, but heck, I'm a sensitive guy, too
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then they sort of do that whole sensitive guy thing for a minute
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usually about two-thirds the way through the show to slow down the tempo before it picked up again for the grand finale
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in spite of the fact that these heavy metal L.A. hair bands seemed to dress up like women, almost as if they were in drag, it had the effect of actually attracting more women somehow
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they actually had a strong female following
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in spite of the fact that that is probably not what they were intending
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often when people make fun of stadium Heavy Metal from the 80s, what they are really making fun of are the Hair Bands from L.A. because they think bits of it were ridiculous
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Warrant
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Winger
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Skid Row