10 Perfect 1980s Hard Rock Albums With No Bad Songs

Whenever you talk about the greatest hair metal bands of all time, you normally have to fix your attention to the West Coast of the United States. With the Sunset Strip being the unofficial home for hair metal, every band ventured to the land of Sunshine in hopes of fulfilling their hard rock dreams. Then again, who said that you needed to be in California to make some solid hair metal?

Across the country, Jon Bon Jovi created the model for what hair metal could be on Slippery When Wet. With an all-star cast of musicians and songwriters, each of these songs set the benchmark for what the sound of carefree pop rock could be in the '80s, with Bon Jovi becoming the emperor of all things hair metal. The biggest strength though was the fact that these songs weren't just your standard throwaway stuff either.

Compared to the traditional extended pick up lines in most hair metal songs, these are fleshed out stories about people down on their luck like the couple in Livin' on a Prayer or the desensitized loner in Wanted Dead or Alive. Thanks to a few cues from song doctor Desmond Child, these became the anthems of the next generation. Although Bruce Springsteen may have been carving out his own path at this point, Bon Jovi was clearly becoming the Boss of hard rock.