10 Hard Rock Bands That Went Pop
2. Def Leppard
In terms of hair metal going pop, Def Leppard often get singled out as the genre's first culprits. While they may have started out as a straightforward rock act on albums like On Through the Night and High N Dry, the band slowly started to twist their formula around until they became pop superstars.
Even if the casual rock fans felt a little dejected, Def Leppard provided the example of how to transition into pop music in the exact right way. On albums like Pyromania, the band used their producer Mutt Lange to bounce off more unusual ideas, which led to a complete tunesfest once the band made Hysteria in 1987. With songs that go into pop, country, and back into rock, the entire record showed the band taking on new genres without ever compromising their artistic vision.
Though the band did eventually get accused of following trends on albums like Slang?, some of those initial experiments ended up working in their favor like on the pop-friendly effort X. It might be a little difficult to bang your head to Def Leppard's newer material, but these tracks still hold up as quality songs that will probably outlive hair metal's afterglow.