10 Rock Music Debuts That Changed The Game

The '80s will probably forever be defined by hair metal in the rock sphere. Although the alternative scene was booming around this time as well along with the start of synth rock pioneers like Tears for Fears, everything seemed to focus on the Sunset Strip around 1983, with bands like Motley Crue and Poison tearing up the charts and making pop songs with just a hint of rock and roll to them. Which is strange considering that the real start of the entire scene actually began a few years before the '80s even started.

At the tail end of 1978, Van Halen were already tearing up the West Hollywood club scene, with Eddie Van Halen becoming one of the biggest guitar superstars at the time. While this record was meant originally just to capture what their live performance was like, the magic on here was electric from the minute Runnin With the Devil came on. Across songs like I'm the One and even the segment Eruption, Eddie became everyone's new favorite guitar hero, using different tapping licks that no one had ever heard before, all while David Lee Roth gave us a new stripe of what a frontman could be.

Whenever you see different hair metal bands out in the wild, there's always a bit of a compromise over when to bring in the heavy riffs and when to break out the ballads. For Van Halen's debut though, this is the ideal middle ground that most bands can only dream of making. There are definitely strong sing alongs to be found on here, but it isn't afraid to kick you in the face either.