Didn’t “hate” hair bands (except for Poison and Warrant) the latter because I preceived them as being perverted due to their hit Cherry pie video lol. The 3 groups you mentioned I didn’t even think of as Hair bands but yeah now that I picture them you’re right. I was thinking of the bands like Twisted Sister, Skid Row, Cinderella etc. I kinda liked a heavier rock like Metallica, AC/DC as opposed to them. But you’re right, the early ones weren’t bad at all. But I know some of the guys used to make fun of their girly hair and makeup and couldn’t take them seriously as performers because they looked funny:)
Perverted? Eeh, lighten up, rock and roll was never supposed to be church lady music!
But seriously, like most musical genres, they start out good and then fade out as the copycats come aboard. Motley Crue, Ratt, etc. were “hair bands” by today’s standards, but back then they were just metal. The way they dressed got them a lot of flak, but back then, it was definitely more acceptable for a guy to like the Crue or Dokken than Poison, Winger etc...the latter of which catered to a more female audience (I’m male BTW). Only when that music became “nostalgic” did it become more acceptable for a guy to listen to it.
Warrant, Poison, etc. were less serious bands, but still put on a good show of “fun” type music. Not as good as the earlier stuff as far as songwriting or musicianship, though.
Although I mentioned Motley Crue as the first commercially successful hair band (their first “real” album was released in 1981), what we know today as “hair metal” developed in the late 70s and early 80s from a convergence of 70s glam and hard rock (Kiss, Alice Cooper, Gary Glitter, Queen) and British Metal (Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard). In fact, it may be more accurate to say that Kiss was the “original” hair band. By the release of “Lick It Up” in 1983 (without makeup), Kiss was changing their sound to be more like the very bands they themselves had inspired.
I like Metallica and AC/DC too by the way, but I’m pretty eclectic in my tastes.
I have Sirius Satellite Radio, and my presets range from 80s pop, to hard rock, to “Hair Nation” (self-explanatory) and even a country channel. About the only thing I don’t like is rap and hip hop, but even there, I can tolerate the older (80s) stuff like Run-DMC.