10 Underrated Hard Rock Songs Of The '80s

You can't talk about the '80s without a fair bit of cheese. There may have been some classic material across the age of spandex and hair spray, but too many people tend to gravitate towards the more cringey moments of the decade than the actual music. Even if some bands deserve to get slung through the mud, there is still some damn good hard rock on display.

After the '70s opened the world up to new styles of rock and roll, the next decade saw musicians throwing every heavy element into the mix to see what stuck. We may have heard the germs of something like metal and glam rock, but after the new school of musicians came to the forefront, the tide started to shift a little bit more.

Rather than just create a hodgepodge of the best of hard rock, these are some of the overlooked gems that had more of an impact than you probably realized. Whether coming from the world of alternative rock, the roots of thrash metal, or just plain old rock and roll, each of these songs deserve their just due for the masterpieces that they are. You might not see these on any Greatest of All Time List, but they have earned their spot in history for sure.

In the world of hard rock, Tom Petty seems like a pretty tame offering. While the man has certainly earned his place in history as one of the founders of heartland rock, not many of his rockers can really be qualified as heavy. Petty may have earned his stripes in the '70s, but he emerged in the next decade with an axe to grind.

On the surface, Hard Promises isn't all that different from Petty's classic style, but Something Big is a lot darker than any of his counterparts. Tuning his guitar down low and delivering a mean country riff, this tune has a tortured soul from the minute it starts, as it tells a story that seems ripped directly out of a Spaghetti Western. Petty was already a brilliant storyteller at this point, but the way he dissects those who will do anything to make a name for themselves feels like it belongs on an old-time outlaw tune.

With the rest of the Heartbreakers adding their own demented spin on the music, this left turn proved Petty to be a master of just about any rock genre you threw at him. The heartland rock is still accounted for, but this country hymn of doom is a dark world that Johnny Cash would have recognized in an instant.