10 Perfect Albums That Will Make You Love Hair Metal Music
1. Van Halen - Van Halen
Before hair metal really started to come into its own, rock and roll was not really in the best place in the late '70s. Compared to the golden age of rock and roll coming out of the '60s, some of the bigger acts like Led Zeppelin and KISS were in the midst of selling out, breaking up, or going through some of the rough patches in their career. Rock started to feel tired, and out of Hollywood came a bunch of kids that made hard rock feel like one big party.
Although there are still questions as to whether or not Van Halen even fits into hair metal, every band coming out of Los Angeles were trying to copy their formula, from David Lee Roth's phenomenal charisma onstage to Eddie Van Halen playing the kind of licks that would leave any other guitar player with tendonitis. Though the idea was to just capture what the band did live, Van Halen's debut takes everything alluring and dangerous about West Hollywood and puts it into a neat package, from the slower songs like Jamie's Cryin to even delving into full on heavy metal tracks on Atomic Punk and On Fire.
Even the instrumental Eruption has been solidified in rock history, with Eddie's finger tapping technique breaking down the barriers of what you could do with guitar solos at the time. The sound of this record might be a bit intense for some pop fans, but this goes beyond just a traditional hair metal record. This is the moment where rock started to realize that it could still have fun.