The 80’s and 90’s were when Hard Rock and Heavy Metal seemed to rule supreme. I can remember back in 1989 when MTV actually played music videos, I could get a daily fix of Hard Rock/Metal videos every afternoon with what they called the Hard 60. 60 minutes of headbanging and cock rocking bands 5 days a week only to be headlined every Saturday night with Headbanger’s Ball hosted by Adam Curry and then later the mighty Riki Rachtman. These were also the days when bands like Ratt and Warrant could play and actually fill an arena. To people who weren’t there for it, it’s impossible to believe that at one time these clowns could actually play arenas but for people like me, we witnessed it first hand. We also literally watched these bands plummet though the stratsophere at lightning speed to their demise.
So when did this decline begin? So many people say that Hard Rock/Metal started to decline when Nirvana finally made it out of their garage and won the world over with their “I don’t give a fuck and look like I just woke up” attitude. I actually believe that it’s a lot less dramatic than that. It’s nice to think that Metal and Hard Rock were killed by one band from Seattle but I believe it was actually suicide. Bands like Firehouse were being pinned as “metal/hard rock” yet they were completely neutered and lacked any kind of attitude. They were pretty boys that “looked” metal yet were nothing but air and fluff. I believe that bands like Firehouse, Warrant and Slaughter were just too much for the camels back and eventually it just broke. I can remember sitting in an arena watching Warrant play to 15,000 or so people and then not a year or two later saw them at The Masqureade here in Atlanta play to about 300 people. I saw Cinderella sell out Lakewood Amphitheater in 1990 and then in 1992 I saw them playing at Center Stage Theater to about 800 people. It seemed like in the blink of an eye the once mighty had fallen. How did this happen? Why did it happen?
For me, I believe that it was a massive drop in quality by certain bands. It was sort of a “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch” type of thing. For instance, I firmly believe that nobody loved Warrant because of their awesome musicianship or their ability to write an amazing song. I believe that bands like Warrant and Slaughter were huge because they were part of a trend that was cool at the time. You might also wonder why I keep mentioning Warrant and Slaughter. It’s because in my opinion they were the worst of the bunch and are the “bad apples” that I speak of. I think that what happened was these bands fan bases grew up. We were no longer high school kids in ’92 and all of the sudden we said, “Why are we listening to this crap?” Unfortunately, what happened then was that the really good bands of the bunch like Tesla, Skid Row, Cinderella, etc suffered because they were lumped in with those bad apples. Even though bands like Cinderella and Tesla could write some really great songs and actually play their asses off, because they were peers of the “bad apples,” they got shot down in flames along with the bunch of them.
It also didn’t help that towards the end, record companies were still signing metal bands right around the time the genre started taking bullets. This is really a shame because there were actually some great bands that came out. Bands like Life Sex & Death, Rhino Bucket, Raging Slab and Babylon A.D were completely lost in the ashes and rubble of this dying genre. They were prime cases of bands that would’ve probably experienced more success had they come out earlier but it was just too late for them. Even with videos in rotation on Headbangers Ball, they couldn’t escape the scarlet letter “H” for Hair Metal and they were all just looked down upon as a joke.
In a nutshell, I say that it is bands like Warrant, Slaughter, Firehouse and those other fluffy clowns that brought on their own demise and the demise of their peers. Those bands were so ridiculous and fluffy that because of their momentary popularity completely ruined the chances of the really good bands that would come out in their wake. As I mentioned above, there were quite a few bands that came out way too late that actually were really great bands but because of the clowns before them, they were never given an adequate chance. Trust me, I would’ve much rather seen Babylon A.D have a hit single that that craptastic Firehouse.
You may also notice that I didn’t talk about Poison in a negative way. The reason is because to me, Poison is the exception. Poison came out in the wake of early KISS and while they didn’t wear the same kind of make up they did, Poison was just a good time spectacle rock band. They did it in this generation first and did it better than the rest. I think of bands like the above mentioned Warrant, Slaughter and Firehouse as bands who came out in Poison’s wake but just couldn’t do it as good. The world already had one Poison. We didn’t need 5 others. Sorry fellas and thanks for playing.
These days, the ones who were once mighty are not so mighty. These days, in 2010, you can see bands like Ratt and Great White who were once arena names in Rib shacks and bowling alleys. I’m not shitting you. Ratt recently played here in Atlanta in a bar and grill and Great White played or will be playing the same venue. Wow. And these venues weren’t even in Atlanta but in the outskirts of Atlanta. These guys can’t even get booked in Atlanta proper. While its sad, its also kind of inspiring in the sense that these guys love what they do so much, they’re willing to look ridiculous playing tiny venues to anyone who will come out. Not all of our fallen heroes remained fallen. Poison found new found success as a nostalgia band and still plays outdoor sheds. Cinderella can play small theaters and House of Blues type venues to a dedicated fan base and other bands such as Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth still can play and fill arenas and theaters respectively. How funny is that? The bands that NOBODY thought would ever get big or stay around completely outsell the very bands that made fun of them back in the day. Kinda like Charlie Brown finally kicking the football.
Many people look at this in a positive light. If you would’ve told me back 20 years ago that Ratt would be playing in small clubs I would’ve never believed it. Some people just love to relive their glory days and getting to see these bands in a small club is a real treat. For me, I’d be afraid to see them and have my memories of them tarnished. I prefer to remember bands like Ratt, WASP and Skid Row as mighty bands who at one time were larger than life and could deliver a performance that I still remember to this day. To see these bands now would replace those memories with visions of them in dingy clubs with people sitting at a bar eating chicken wings and drinking beer. My memories of old are the ones that I prefer to keep and keep them I will.
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