10 Best Hard Rock Bands Of The 1980s
2. Def Leppard
In the late 70's, the lines between rock genres seem to be incredibly noticeable. You were either a metalhead, a singer-songwriter, or a glam rocker with not much in between. So when five lads from Sheffield arrived on the rock scene, what mantle would they take up? The answer: all of them.
Def Leppard's sound started out as a pretty straightforward hard rock act in the vein of AC/DC, but once they began work with superproducer Mutt Lange, they got their sound refined to near perfection. Across the albums High n Dry and Pyromania, the band were able to perfectly toe the line between stadium-shaking hard rock and hooks taken from British pop music.
Even after the firing of guitarists and their drummer losing an arm, the band trudged through the 80's and outdid themselves with 1987's Hysteria, which remains one of the best selling records to come out of the 80's. Hits like "Animal," "Photograph," and "Pour Some Sugar on Me" have now become landmark rock tracks, with guitar sounds that were hard rock, harmonies that were pop, but songs that were a bit of both. The perfect package of the best rock you could find in that decade.