Yes, different music genres come and go but for different reasons. I think part of the 80's metal downfall was lazy fans. By that, I mean fans picking up guitars that didn't want to put in the time and dedication it takes to be a solid guitarist, thus forming half ass grunge/alternative bands. I witnessed so many of my friends in the early 90's buying guitars and turning out this way. That is not to say all grunge bands have bad guitarists, just saying that laziness has played a small part in the downfall of musical technicality which glam metal has been known for besides cans of aquanet lol
GlamRock.com Forum » GLAM Music Forum
Why do you think Glam lost its popularity?
(87 posts)-
glamguitarist78
offlineMemberPostCount: 2
Posted 3 years ago # -
MotherOfPearl
offlineMemberPostCount: 3
Not sure I buy Musical Technicality. Some Metal is very Technical, but many struggle to enjoy it as music, in the same way as an engineers plans can be very technical (and have a beauty to them), but are not in the same category as a painting for most viewers.
I have a theory that music has resets built in. Punk was a re-set, (and a very glam one in places) but the best work came from these artists when they did learn to play their instruments and created post-punk. In the US perhaps Grunge was a reset. In the UK there is always a slightly different dynamic due to our education system. Lots of working class kids go to university (I did). So you get folks like Adam Ant and Ferry in the 70's from 'blue collar' backgrounds singing about philosophical concepts. A tension between rawness and the bohemian. Brit-Punk, Goth, Art-Rock, Glam all had a bit of this going on in places.
As does the best of the Indie scene once you scratch beneath the surface.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Panurge
offlineMemberPostCount: 104
OK, gotta chip in and fight the Punk Wars all over again:
Says MotherOfPearl:
In a way punk and goth are both subgenres of glam rock.
I can see this. No one wants to admit it, though. ;-p
I also tend to think that when bands stay on the experimental 'Art' side of things they stay fresh, but when they sell out to Stadium Rock they are stifled.
As a fan of Ye Olde Uncool Progge-Rocke, I'm quite familiar with this. OTOH, you can't really know. Maybe they just wanted to do something different and got lucky. Certainly Genesis couldn't have been thinking "hit single" when they wrote "Turn It On Again", whose A-section and out-chorus bar structure has thirteen counts in it, not to mention all the apparent metrical hiccups in the B section (starting at the line "I...I...get so lonely when she's not there"). Lots of bands like that had already tasted arena-level success doing just what they wanted, and it seems lots of them were convinced that they needed to Change With The Times and Stay Relevant if they wanted to keep up. Of course, many of those bands chose to do that exactly by "going new wave" to an extent. I can't blame them for not wanting to do exactly the same thing over and over, though I don't think they understood what power they had culturally, and I don't think any of them did the job they could've of making change serve them rather than the other way around (which is what inspires the charge of "sellout", ISTM).
Besides, don't forget that lots of those prog-rockers come from working-class backgrounds themselves. Jon Anderson of Yes drove a truck--excuse me, "lorry"--for a living before Yes started up.
I tend to feel hair metal was a bit of a dead end creatively.
Oh, I don't know. I certainly have my own ideas. You just have to accept a certain change in the music's "feel" or "nature", I guess. I mean, today's pop-punk seems like the same kind of dead-end to me.
As for "reset", that really seems to be a punk idea. But I've never seen it happen elsewhere. Where's the "reset" from punk? ...Exactly.
Besides, this is all as much an industry thing as anything. The reset can't take real effect on a mass level (or, alternately, Genre X can't "kill" Genre Y, whatever that means) unless the industry blesses it. More to the point, [SOUND OF AXE GRINDING] the central problem in '77 wasn't with basic esthetics, it was with the industry. Punk, to me, either conflated or outright confused the two issues. Punk, for example, was explicitly against progressive rock, and as such took credit for the results of the squeeze that the major-label industry had begun to put on prog a year or two before. AFAIK, few listeners put down their prog records to pick up punk.
Says glamguitarist78:
I think part of the 80's metal downfall was lazy fans. By that, I mean fans picking up guitars that didn't want to put in the time and dedication it takes to be a solid guitarist, thus forming half ass grunge/alternative bands. I witnessed so many of my friends in the early 90's buying guitars and turning out this way.Were they glam-metal fans before??
AIUI, much of the problem was that (1) everyone was practicing endlessly and no one was getting anywhere better career-wise because even though everyone was playing (lead) better, that in itself didn't open up any career opportunities, and (2) Shred Unto Death wasn't producing well-rounded players, just shredders. Enough people to make the difference were relieved that they could actually have lives instead of just playing guitar (and I do mean "guitar") all the time. The problem was that they overcompensated; they associated low chops with "feeling" (and no one wants to be accused of not having any feeling, right?), and in the process they forgot the part about being well-rounded.
Have you been to Metal-Sludge.com? There's a feature in there which reveals the hair-band histories (with photos) of many of today's hippest rockers. (Would you believe Rivers Cuomo was in the '80s hair-band scene in L.A.? He's not just a guy with an "ironic" Yngwie shirt; he was really part of it.) How do we know where his heart really is?? Are we sure he's not just doing Weezer for the money?
"Lives devoted to Beauty seldom end well." --Sir Kenneth ClarkPosted 3 years ago # -
MotherOfPearl
offlineMemberPostCount: 3
Not sure I want to fight the punk wars again. I certainly don't buy the 'I hate Pink Floyd' rhetoric. It certainly doesn't make that much sense once you listen to Public Image Limited!
Maybe you are right about resets. Punk does seem to reset itself in part. American Hardcore was a switch in one direction. Maybe Emotive Hardcore was a reaction against that (all to macho?). Riot Grrrl another switch (Punk has always seemed to be happier with women than metal - but a lot of that was lost). In a way Pop-Punk was aiming to get back to Punk being fun and listenable, but has headed in a Stadium Rock direction I guess.
I take on board what you are saying about the industry. I tend to think the best music is always just below the industries radar.
Posted 3 years ago # -
berGrm
offlineMemberPostCount: 16
I blame the crap glam metal bands. Good glam metal is amazing! But there was alot of poor immitations who just had big hair and didn't much give a shit about music. Then it got a rep. as "Hair metal" and people started to go off it.
¬_¬ darn webnet. It's spelt ÜberGr!m :'(Posted 3 years ago # -
Panurge
offlineMemberPostCount: 104
Well, I read someone recently suggesting that what you're describing is how culture usually changes--there's a reaction against just one aspect of things. Punk, in aspiring to wipe the slate clean, just succeeded in becoming a reactionary movement. TBH, to be "under the industry's radar" is essentially to be invisible; most of the new music I listen to now comes from genres where 10,000 copies sold is a big hit.
Oh, and punk may seem happier with women than metal, but don't forget Lita Ford and Doro Pesch!
"Lives devoted to Beauty seldom end well." --Sir Kenneth ClarkPosted 3 years ago # -
Scarlette_Emily
offlineMemberPostCount: 15
It's just how it goes I guess. I have noticed, however, that musitions no longer stay in the public eye for a sufficient amount of time and they industry just keeps churning artists out to meet peoples' needs, which undermines the artists as they are so easily replaced. Eventually pepople might start apprieciating music again. Although, I know a lot of 'Grunge and emo' type fans and they seem pretty dedicated to the bands they like which isn't all bad.
No farewells, no goodbyes. I never knew your rotting face.Posted 3 years ago # -
Livi_Lethal
offlineMemberPostCount: 5
I honestly think it was because it was different. People are afraid to be different and of what is different. Glam was everything but the normal, it was out there and bad ass. Most things these days are tame and normal.
Posted 3 years ago # -
rattandrollforever
offlineMemberPostCount: 21
glam bands faded out cause of kurt cobain with the grunge scene. when nirvana came out all the glam bands faded and a new generation of music was born. i personally am ashmed that my generation's music sucks! god i wish i could have lived through the 80s!
Posted 3 years ago # -
SleepawayCamper13
offlineMemberPostCount: 70
DAMN GRUNGE! people who cant play solos
ROKKEN WITH DOKKEN!Posted 3 years ago # -
rattandrollforever
offlineMemberPostCount: 21
i know right! god why couldent i have bbeen around for the great music and hottest men in the world!
Posted 3 years ago # -
SleepawayCamper13
offlineMemberPostCount: 70
i was born in the 1990....when music got shitter and shitter
i also wish i could have experienced the 80's at least the music never fades
ROKKEN WITH DOKKEN!Posted 3 years ago # -
rattandrollforever
offlineMemberPostCount: 21
you have a myspace i would love to become friends!"i was born in the 1990....when music got shitter and shitter
i also wish i could have experienced the 80's at least the music never fades"
- SleepawayCamper13Posted 3 years ago # -
XxTommyxthundersxX
offlineMemberPostCount: 26
as far as music is concerned its been around for to long we were going into a new age and a new generation people are going to get tired of it sooner or later and yea grunge was to blame thats why i despise the genre so much but its w/e glam still gets more props and fans that grunge ever will
Posted 3 years ago # -
SleepawayCamper13
offlineMemberPostCount: 70
"
"i was born in the 1990....when music got shitter and shitter
i also wish i could have experienced the 80's at least the music never fades"
- SleepawayCamper13you have a myspace i would love to become friends!"
- rattandrollforeverSure! its http://www.myspace.com/liam_notdeadyet
ROKKEN WITH DOKKEN!Posted 3 years ago # -
gunzzz
offlineMemberPostCount: 120
The new beat box hip hop shit and the new metal with cookie monster vocals they torcher us with on mtv and some radio stations.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Glamrockerfs
offlineMemberPostCount: 103
Probably cause by the year of my birth 1991, glam had been in mainstream popularity for definantly seven years aruguably more, which is pretty much longer then any other mainstream genre. I think that the industry knew this and were expecting a new thing to gain popularity, thats why the dumped all the glam bands so quickly. Because of the whole Radio/mtv/record/high management syndicate (il get into it later) MTV stoped being supportive and they all jumped ship. Because the music industry is so one track minded they won't give anything they don't see as "what the kids want" a chance to be commerically viable. It was the same back in 1982 when Cure first got signed. Electra tried to take them of the radio case they wanted "cold chisel" to be the next big thing cause NEw wave was in. Same now as you have to be emo, metalcore, pop punk, wierd pop, or acousticy rock to get any attention. And with the whole radio (all fm stations are owned by six comanies)/record/high managment complex (our answer to the military industrial complex) they think/thought they had it all figured out how to wreak profit. Though this is all chaning with the coming of the internet. Please excuse my lecture
Posted 2 years ago # -
kissfan78228
offlineMemberPostCount: 12
I remember back in 92-93, there were too many hair metal bands, it was overkill. I was a loyal viewer of the headbangers ball from back when it was called "Hard 30" and I saw a gradual change for the worse. the ball started playing bands like roxy blue, and hericane alice. I'm not ragging on those bands, but I just didnt like them. there were so many, then the ball would play nirvana and pearl jam along with the hair bands, and I think alot of people saw nirvana and pearl jam as something fresh, a freash new look. when I first saw smells like teen spirit, I liked it. and I was a fan of alice in chains also.
and MTV had so much to do with it also. they totally started to ignore the hair bands. MTV still played videos in those days, so if you werent getting played, you were in trouble.
and I kinda disagree with the term "comeback" for example Poison, yes they play to sell out crowds, cause people wanna hear the classics. but if Poison releases a new CD, it will not get played on the radio, and a music video, maybe VH1 would air it, and Rocklahoma draws a large crowd, cause you have 50 bands playing. its got to draw a large crowd. but could KIX sell out a medium sized venue on their own, no. could Keel, no. and I hate to say that, cause hair metal is my favorite style of rock. a comeback would be Warrant with the number 1 song on the VH1 top 20. sorry folks, but thats how I feel
Posted 2 years ago # -
Panurge
offlineMemberPostCount: 104
Don't look for a comeback from the old bands. The whole point is to get new bands out there with a new angle on things. Figure out what the issues were with the old music and resolve them, then take off from there.
EDIT: OTOH, if you don't feel like going into sociological problem-solving mode with something as potentially personal as your music, just go as your muse moves you.
"Lives devoted to Beauty seldom end well." --Sir Kenneth ClarkPosted 2 years ago # -
DazzleRoxx
offlineMemberPostCount: 32
grunge music is to blame when they came puff hair and skin tight latex was replaced by dead strait flannel hair bad musical skill and picnic blanket coats but soon glam will come back soon
CRASH BOOM BANG i'm a drummer Posted 2 years ago # -
Sparkii Silver
offlineMemberPostCount: 274
times change, people want different things.
stopped wanting to wear everything as tight as they could and tease their hair.dudes, check out my band at
Myspace- http://www.myspace.com/badshuckPosted 2 years ago # -
sleaze_disease
offlineMemberPostCount: 18
inbreeding/mental illness?
http://www.myspace.com/eric_griffin_rocks_dude <-- add if you think you're Rock N' Roll
[]==['''l'''l'''l''')>-----Posted 2 years ago # -
Sparkii Silver
offlineMemberPostCount: 274
"inbreeding/mental illness?"
- sleaze_diseaselol, i think youve hit the nail on the head there
dudes, check out my band at
Myspace- http://www.myspace.com/badshuckPosted 2 years ago # -
lexx_dymond
offlineMemberPostCount: 14
Im a big believer in the fact history will repeat its self.
Look at Steel panther Although a parody band, they are selling out Big venues. And i do believe they have give a big kick start to glam, it may be just wishful thinking but as we are soon to be coming into a new decade glam is going to make somewhat of a come back. i Think people have started waking up to that modern music has become really stale.
to say glam has truly lost it popularity is a lie. there are enough people on this site alone to to say it hasn't
I think we should channel our energy and time not to find out why glam lost its main stream popularity. but instead to get back its main steram popularity. if a record company can see in a new band that they can make money out of them, then they will get signed and there could be another wave of glam bands
and i think we would all love that now
http://www.myspace.com/concretekiss92 give us listen.Posted 2 years ago # -
Panurge
offlineMemberPostCount: 104
Steel Panther's an interesting story; before them, of course, there were CrashDiet (a non-ironic glam-metal band) and The Darkness (a somewhat-ironic '70s rawk-star band, not quite the same thing but part of the same lineage), and you could say they paved the way.
"Irony" is sometimes used these days to re-introduce something in a way that lets everyone save face if it all falls flat. That may be the case here, but I wonder if this means all glam-metal from here on out will have to have an "ironic" edge to it to get noticed. I hope not.
But yeah, things are really stale now. It's just stale with so much ENERGY and PASSION and AUTHENTICITY...! ;-P
"Lives devoted to Beauty seldom end well." --Sir Kenneth ClarkPosted 2 years ago # -
lexx_dymond
offlineMemberPostCount: 14
"Steel Panther's an interesting story; before them, of course, there were CrashDiet (a non-ironic glam-metal band) and The Darkness (a somewhat-ironic '70s rawk-star band, not quite the same thing but part of the same lineage), and you could say they paved the way.
"Irony" is sometimes used these days to re-introduce something in a way that lets everyone save face if it all falls flat. That may be the case here, but I wonder if this means all glam-metal from here on out will have to have an "ironic" edge to it to get noticed. I hope not.
But yeah, things are really stale now. It's just stale with so much ENERGY and PASSION and AUTHENTICITY...! ;-P"
- Panurgeyeah i dig what you are saying.
I think we will all have to see. i personally think its an exciting time. really much better than it was back in the early part of this decade. or maybe that's just me.
http://www.myspace.com/concretekiss92 give us listen.Posted 2 years ago # -
tocs100
offlineMemberPostCount: 1
Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Kiss (even the visually plain-jane Doors) drew upon decades of rock and pop merchandising, and centuries of literary/theatrical tradition. Poison basically just had a fragment of a concept: something like "No gluv no luv."
So yeah, having finished at least middle school appears to effect one's longevity...lol.
http://www.myspace.com/reveeler , http://www.myspace.com/hgrrecords (avatar pic is me, 1992)Posted 2 years ago #
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