10 Most Important Hard Rock Bands Of The 80s
3. Van Halen
If you're looking to break down the entire history of Van Halen, we'd have to do some digging all the way back to the '70s. Even though the band has pretty much been adopted as the band that defined the '80s, they actually predate the entire scene by a handful of years. That's not to say that the band didn't raise their fair share of hell once they worked their way into the MTV era.
With David Lee Roth being the perfect frontman for MTV, Van Halen actually managed to cross over a lot of boundaries in the early '80s, going from pure metallic sounding stuff on Fair Warning and Women and Children First to bringing in the glossy keyboards on 1984. While they may have invented the '80s sound, Van Halen wouldn't make it out in one piece, with Roth leaving half way through the decade and being replaced with Sammy Hagar.
In what should have been the deathblow to the band, Van Halen managed to go from strength to strength with Hagar, notching up even more hits in their wake and becoming the darlings of MTV all over again with a completely different vibe. Though Roth may have been the biggest asset in the early days, this was a good lesson for the band to learn. As long as the music kicks ass, the fans will always be by your side.