Welcome to another edition of Classic Rock Crate Digger, a (near) weekly column wherein Rhapsody nerd Justin Farrar wanders the never-ending maze that is our catalog in search of classic rock's forgotten gems. If you're new 'round these parts, then also check out the Crate Digger's archives.
Dave Grohl's cameo on Slash's new album has the Crate Digger reminiscing about the hair metal/grunge culture war of the early 1990s. Despite the fact that I mainly focus on rock 'n' roll from the 1960s and '70s, I was one of those pimply teens whose life changed radically after exposure to the "Alive" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" videos. I quickly tossed my Skyscraper tour shirt in the trash and purchased an entire closet full of used flannel. An awakening of epic proportions was clearly underway.
All across America lines were drawn in the sand, as other pimply teens were asked to choose sides: Seattle dirty or L.A. cokehead? The war's pinnacle came with Axl and Kurt's infamous backstage dust-up at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. For us, this wasn't some trivial rock-star silliness, but a major victory for "alternative" over "mainstream."
Looking back, it's all rather silly, right? Pop fads, rock 'n' roll, youth rebellion … it's all part of the record industry's scheme. Throughout 1989 and '90, as hair-metal traded sleazy rock for frosted power ballads, its record sales began to sag. Newbies like Steelheart, Warrant and Trixter sounded tame compared to vintage Ratt, Hanoi Rocks and The Crüe. The kids were in desperate need of something new. As a result, the very labels that helped make stars of these hair-sprayed wild men were now killing them off in one of the record industry's great coups. Though grunge's rise within the world of alternative music was a genuinely organic development, it was impresarios like David Geffen (whose label released records by both Nirvana and Guns N' Roses) who helped make it a pop phenomenon.
Nowadays, I live without allegiance. I appreciate the cream of both, as each one made vital contributions to my childhood soundtrack. Too Fast For Love and Appetite for Destruction are just as important to me as Ten and Dirt. It's all killer hard rock in the end. This is why Grohl can jam with Slash: both musicians understand that beneath pop trends they have always shared more than a few commonalities.
In honor of Slash and Grohl's recent collaboration, here are 17 other reasons why hair metal and grunge weren't nearly as adversarial as we initially believed.
By the way, if you find yourself wanting to listen to all the music I freak out about week in and week out, then simply use your Rhapsody subscription! Don't have one? Click here to sign up for a free trial and see what we're all about.
1. Mr. Hardcore, Joe Carducci, Gives Winger Props
Yes, it's true. In Rock and the Pop Narcotic he kinda-sorta defends Winger! Though I read the book while still in my anti-hair-metal phase, Carducci was the first to change my assumptions about the hair metal/grunge culture war. As he points out in the book: not all corporate rock is bad and not all alternative rock is good.
2. Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, The Doors, Sabbath, The Stooges, New York Dolls, The Runaways, Aerosmith, Kiss, The Sex Pistols, The Nuge ...
Survey the top 10 musicians in both categories and chances are they share a lot of the same faves.
3. Velvet Revolver
Long before Slash teamed up with Grohl for the track "Watch This," he and fellow GnR pals Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum announced the end of the hair metal/grunge culture war by forming Velvet Revolver. Fronted by Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, V.R. were more than a mere supergroup. They found common ground between the two genres by more or less paying homage to the influences I just mentioned. Then again, I've always suspected that Weiland rocked the Aqua Net in the 1980s, then made the jump to grunge after he realized it was going to be the next big thing.
4. Frank Black Jams with Gilby Clarke
Obviously, the Pixies aren't grunge. However, when Black appeared on Gilby Clarke's underrated solo debut, 1994's Pawnshop Guitars, it was a big F-U to the larger underground vs. mainstream dichotomy. Here was one of the godfathers of the "alternative nation" hanging with a graduate from GnR High.
5. Guns N' Roses
Before diving any deeper, we need to put Guns N' Roses in their proper perspective. Though generally considered a hair-metal band — and rightly so — they rocked with an intensity that was closer to Soundgarden and the Screaming Trees than Poison or Slaughter. This is why Frank Black hooking up with Clarke wasn't as radical a thought as, say, him forming a supergroup with the lead singer from White Lion. In fact, months before Axl called Kurt a "homosexual," he asked Nirvana to open for them. Had that happened, rock 'n' roll history would not have unfolded the way it did. This I am sure of.
6. Mother Love Bone
Boasting ties to Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog and Green River, M.L.B. are considered one of the founders of grunge. But let's face it: their track on the Singles soundtrack, "Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns" sounds a lot like one of Axl's piano-driven epics: "Civil War," "Estranged," "November Rain," et al. Lead singer Andrew Wood (RIP) even shares with Axl that neo-Robert Plant screech.
7. Ugly Kid Joe, Faith No More, Green Jelly and Painter's-Cap Rock
The hair metal/grunge culture war opened up a power vacuum just large enough for painter's-cap rock to sneak into MTV's heavy rotation for a short time. Not a true fusion of the two (more like schizoid offspring, actually), this novel-driven sub-sub-genre possessed traits from both camps. Ugly Kid Joe, for example, scored two major hits: "Everything About You" and "Cat's in the Cradle." The former had a real "Talk Dirty to Me" sense of trash 'n' sass, while the latter, a Cat Stevens cover, coincided with "Daughter," Pearl Jam's stab at earnest folk-rock.
8. Jane's Addiction
One could argue that Jane's Addiction is part of No. 7 (painter's-cap rock). But I like to think they share more in common with grunge forefathers Mother Love Bone (No. 6). Both are more or less hair-metal bands shot through with eccentricity. Look at it this way: Jane's Addiction and Guns N' Roses, two of L.A.'s biggest bands in the mid-1980s, share a love for classic rock, punk, foundation and frilly scarves. This is why Perry Farrell recently replaced bassist Eric Avery with Duff McKagan.
9. Duff McKagan
Duff McKagan — who has lived in both Seattle and Los Angeles — just might be the common link between hair metal, grunge, hardcore and punk. The opening track to Sick, the latest album from Duff's Loaded project, is all four genres smashed together. How is this even possible, you ask? Well, simply take a peek at the dude's resume: Guns N' Roses, Fastbacks, Jane's Addiction, The Fartz and so on. What a wild ride through modern hard rock's myriad tributaries! And let's be honest: a good bassist is hard to find.
10. Masters of Reality
If you know anything about the Crate Digger, then you know he tries to work the Masters of Reality into nearly every column. Def American marketed the Masters' masterful debut album, originally released in 1988, to both fans of hair metal and grunge. Yet it flopped. Nowadays, it's considered one of the foundations of stoner rock. Go figure.
11. Creed
Creed were one of the very first bands to prove that grunge could devolve into abject lameness just like hair metal had. Once "Higher" began to dominate the airwaves, claiming grunge was somehow more artistically valid than hair metal was no longer a tenable position to maintain. Both were equally capable of fraud.
12. Stone Temple Pilots
See No. 3 (Velvet Revolver); S.T.P. were grunge's first bandwagon stars — at least that's what I've always thought. There was just something about them when Core first hit that screamed "We were listening to Mötley Crüe just a week ago." The fact that they could make the transition so effortlessly speaks volumes about supposedly entrenched differences between hair metal and grunge.
13. The Black Crowes, Tesla, Drivin' N' Cryin', The Four Horsemen and new-breed Southern rock
Roughly a year or so before the rise of grunge, the first serious challenge to hair metal's hegemony hit MTV: new-breed Southern rock. Groups such as the Black Crowes and Tesla basically played hair metal but with more of an earthy feel for 1970s classic rock. It was a sound that inspired bands like Cinderella to strip the plaster from their faces and get all Stonesy. Of course, hair metal without the makeup is not too far removed from a major label Screaming Trees album — right?
14. Mötley Crüe Goes Industrial-Grunge
My Rhapsody cohort Chuck Eddy pretty much wrote the book on hair-metal bands that carried on despite the grunge revolution. However, I do want to touch on 1994's Mötley Crüe. Though panned at the time, the album is a more-than-decent stab at industrial-grunge. Had it been released by anybody other than The Crüe, I'm sure it would've become a staple of modern-rock radio.
15. Cheap Trick
You could argue that Cheap Trick belong up in reason No. 2 (influences). But their influence possesses a scope that's pretty singular. Outside of possibly AC/DC, is there another band that is as universally loved as The Trick? Everybody worships these guys: hair-metal brats, indie rockers, punks, grunge dudes ... the list goes on and on. Their continued success reminds us all that rock 'n' roll is at its very best when it unites, not divides.
16. Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains were never hair metal. However, the band's full-length debut, 1990's Facelift, was marketed toward the Headbangers Ball crowd. Then, once grunge became a pop fad, the group's subsequent albums were framed as "alternative." It's the kind of promotional switcheroo that proves just how arbitrary all these genre tags really are.
17. Chickenfoot
Though a bit off the beaten path, the fact that Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith parties at the Cabo Wabo Cantina with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony surely says something about the power of tequila to erase the demographic divide between Lollapalooza and the Monsters of Rock. Bam!
Jonesing to hear some of the rock you just read about? Check out my Get Your Grunge Out of My Hair Metal playlist.
Yes, it's true. In Rock and the Pop Narcotic he kinda-sorta defends Winger! Though I read the book while still in my anti-hair-metal phase, Carducci was the first to change my assumptions about the hair metal/grunge culture war. As he points out in the book: not all corporate rock is bad and not all alternative rock is good.
2. Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, The Doors, Sabbath, The Stooges, New York Dolls, The Runaways, Aerosmith, Kiss, The Sex Pistols, The Nuge ...
Survey the top 10 musicians in both categories and chances are they share a lot of the same faves.
3. Velvet Revolver
Long before Slash teamed up with Grohl for the track "Watch This," he and fellow GnR pals Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum announced the end of the hair metal/grunge culture war by forming Velvet Revolver. Fronted by Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, V.R. were more than a mere supergroup. They found common ground between the two genres by more or less paying homage to the influences I just mentioned. Then again, I've always suspected that Weiland rocked the Aqua Net in the 1980s, then made the jump to grunge after he realized it was going to be the next big thing.
4. Frank Black Jams with Gilby Clarke
Obviously, the Pixies aren't grunge. However, when Black appeared on Gilby Clarke's underrated solo debut, 1994's Pawnshop Guitars, it was a big F-U to the larger underground vs. mainstream dichotomy. Here was one of the godfathers of the "alternative nation" hanging with a graduate from GnR High.
5. Guns N' Roses
Before diving any deeper, we need to put Guns N' Roses in their proper perspective. Though generally considered a hair-metal band — and rightly so — they rocked with an intensity that was closer to Soundgarden and the Screaming Trees than Poison or Slaughter. This is why Frank Black hooking up with Clarke wasn't as radical a thought as, say, him forming a supergroup with the lead singer from White Lion. In fact, months before Axl called Kurt a "homosexual," he asked Nirvana to open for them. Had that happened, rock 'n' roll history would not have unfolded the way it did. This I am sure of.
6. Mother Love Bone
Boasting ties to Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog and Green River, M.L.B. are considered one of the founders of grunge. But let's face it: their track on the Singles soundtrack, "Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns" sounds a lot like one of Axl's piano-driven epics: "Civil War," "Estranged," "November Rain," et al. Lead singer Andrew Wood (RIP) even shares with Axl that neo-Robert Plant screech.
7. Ugly Kid Joe, Faith No More, Green Jelly and Painter's-Cap Rock
The hair metal/grunge culture war opened up a power vacuum just large enough for painter's-cap rock to sneak into MTV's heavy rotation for a short time. Not a true fusion of the two (more like schizoid offspring, actually), this novel-driven sub-sub-genre possessed traits from both camps. Ugly Kid Joe, for example, scored two major hits: "Everything About You" and "Cat's in the Cradle." The former had a real "Talk Dirty to Me" sense of trash 'n' sass, while the latter, a Cat Stevens cover, coincided with "Daughter," Pearl Jam's stab at earnest folk-rock.
8. Jane's Addiction
One could argue that Jane's Addiction is part of No. 7 (painter's-cap rock). But I like to think they share more in common with grunge forefathers Mother Love Bone (No. 6). Both are more or less hair-metal bands shot through with eccentricity. Look at it this way: Jane's Addiction and Guns N' Roses, two of L.A.'s biggest bands in the mid-1980s, share a love for classic rock, punk, foundation and frilly scarves. This is why Perry Farrell recently replaced bassist Eric Avery with Duff McKagan.
9. Duff McKagan
Duff McKagan — who has lived in both Seattle and Los Angeles — just might be the common link between hair metal, grunge, hardcore and punk. The opening track to Sick, the latest album from Duff's Loaded project, is all four genres smashed together. How is this even possible, you ask? Well, simply take a peek at the dude's resume: Guns N' Roses, Fastbacks, Jane's Addiction, The Fartz and so on. What a wild ride through modern hard rock's myriad tributaries! And let's be honest: a good bassist is hard to find.
10. Masters of Reality
If you know anything about the Crate Digger, then you know he tries to work the Masters of Reality into nearly every column. Def American marketed the Masters' masterful debut album, originally released in 1988, to both fans of hair metal and grunge. Yet it flopped. Nowadays, it's considered one of the foundations of stoner rock. Go figure.
11. Creed
Creed were one of the very first bands to prove that grunge could devolve into abject lameness just like hair metal had. Once "Higher" began to dominate the airwaves, claiming grunge was somehow more artistically valid than hair metal was no longer a tenable position to maintain. Both were equally capable of fraud.
12. Stone Temple Pilots
See No. 3 (Velvet Revolver); S.T.P. were grunge's first bandwagon stars — at least that's what I've always thought. There was just something about them when Core first hit that screamed "We were listening to Mötley Crüe just a week ago." The fact that they could make the transition so effortlessly speaks volumes about supposedly entrenched differences between hair metal and grunge.
13. The Black Crowes, Tesla, Drivin' N' Cryin', The Four Horsemen and new-breed Southern rock
Roughly a year or so before the rise of grunge, the first serious challenge to hair metal's hegemony hit MTV: new-breed Southern rock. Groups such as the Black Crowes and Tesla basically played hair metal but with more of an earthy feel for 1970s classic rock. It was a sound that inspired bands like Cinderella to strip the plaster from their faces and get all Stonesy. Of course, hair metal without the makeup is not too far removed from a major label Screaming Trees album — right?
14. Mötley Crüe Goes Industrial-Grunge
My Rhapsody cohort Chuck Eddy pretty much wrote the book on hair-metal bands that carried on despite the grunge revolution. However, I do want to touch on 1994's Mötley Crüe. Though panned at the time, the album is a more-than-decent stab at industrial-grunge. Had it been released by anybody other than The Crüe, I'm sure it would've become a staple of modern-rock radio.
15. Cheap Trick
You could argue that Cheap Trick belong up in reason No. 2 (influences). But their influence possesses a scope that's pretty singular. Outside of possibly AC/DC, is there another band that is as universally loved as The Trick? Everybody worships these guys: hair-metal brats, indie rockers, punks, grunge dudes ... the list goes on and on. Their continued success reminds us all that rock 'n' roll is at its very best when it unites, not divides.
16. Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains were never hair metal. However, the band's full-length debut, 1990's Facelift, was marketed toward the Headbangers Ball crowd. Then, once grunge became a pop fad, the group's subsequent albums were framed as "alternative." It's the kind of promotional switcheroo that proves just how arbitrary all these genre tags really are.
17. Chickenfoot
Though a bit off the beaten path, the fact that Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith parties at the Cabo Wabo Cantina with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony surely says something about the power of tequila to erase the demographic divide between Lollapalooza and the Monsters of Rock. Bam!
Jonesing to hear some of the rock you just read about? Check out my Get Your Grunge Out of My Hair Metal playlist.
Portions of album content provided by All Music Guide © 2011 All Media Guide, LLC ® 1999-2011 Rhapsody International Inc.
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