10 Most Important Hard Rock Bands Of The 80s
6. Def Leppard
The entire idea of hair metal seems to be a purely American style thing. As much as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal may have set everything in motion, the sounds off of Sunset felt like the logical answer to that kind of music, only with a glammed out twist. So it was only a matter of time before Def Leppard came along with the U.K.'s answer, and did it better than everyone else.
Before they hit the big time though, Def Leppard were still descendants of the British metal scene, with their first handful of records sounding more like Scorpions and AC/DC from around the same time. When they hooked up with Mutt Lange though, their entire sound went through the roof, with Pyromania being the gold standard for what the poppier side of hair metal could sound like at the time.
While most other bands would have killed to have the kind of hooks on this record, Def Leppard managed to beat the odds yet again with Hysteria, getting over drummer Rick Allen's horrific car crash and coming back even strong because of it. Even though the new school of rockers had the same glammed look, Leppard was singular in their sound. The fashion sense of the time may have been David Bowie, but Def Leppard became the hard rock version of Queen for this generation.