In defense of the Hair bands

[KlassikKountry]

To those who despise 80's hair metal bands, the reason I enjoy them is because in this area, we never had the opportunity to listen to them on the radio. Most areas of the country had stations that played their music constantly, in the Philly market no-one touched them. I never knew most of them until I subscribed to Satellite radio, MC/DMX and watched VH1-Classic, and I think they rock. Still do not know why they were not played in this market.

 

[wavelength]

> To those who despise 80's hair metal bands, the reason I
> enjoy them is because in this area, we never had the
> opportunity to listen to them on the radio. Most areas of
> the country had stations that played their music constantly,
> in the Philly market no-one touched them. I never knew most
> of them until I subscribed to Satellite radio, MC/DMX and
> watched VH1-Classic, and I think they rock. Still do not
> know why they were not played in this market.
>


Because there was a time when Philly station programmers knew what crap was!

 

[HomerJay]

> To those who despise 80's hair metal bands, the reason I
> enjoy them is because in this area, we never had the
> opportunity to listen to them on the radio. Most areas of
> the country had stations that played their music constantly,
> in the Philly market no-one touched them. I never knew most
> of them until I subscribed to Satellite radio, MC/DMX and
> watched VH1-Classic, and I think they rock. Still do not
> know why they were not played in this market.
>
Interesting topic. Bon Jovi had pretty much anything they made played--no surprise. What did made it through from most of the pop-metal bands were the ballads. Just last night I saw a commercial for "Power Ballads" or something like that, featuring all of those God-awful video clips, but as they listed the songs I realized I knew the vast majority, with most on my iPod today. It was like reading an Eagle 106 playlist minus the pure pop songs.

But maybe the rest of the songs weren't getting play--I thought MMR had a good amount of "hair" on the air, though certainly not full time.

 

[KlassikKountry]

Because there was a time when Philly station programmers knew what crap was!

Well, apparently with all this urban sludge on the airwaves now-adays, they DO NOT know what real crap is.

 

[Wil]

>> Interesting topic. Bon Jovi had pretty much anything they
> made played--no surprise. What did made it through from
> most of the pop-metal bands were the ballads. Just last
> night I saw a commercial for "Power Ballads" or something
> like that, featuring all of those God-awful video clips, but
> as they listed the songs I realized I knew the vast
> majority, with most on my iPod today. It was like reading
> an Eagle 106 playlist minus the pure pop songs.
>
> But maybe the rest of the songs weren't getting play--I
> thought MMR had a good amount of "hair" on the air, though
> certainly not full time.
>

MMR did play a good deal of the hair-metal, especially Bon Jovi (as you said), Def Leppard, and Cinderella (probably because they were a local band). I remember one summer when they were doing their Labor Day top 500 countdown, and DeBella had a lot of influence at the time, the top 10 songs had staples like "A Day in the Life", "Baba OReilly" (sp?) and "Stairway to Heaven", then MMR threw a curveball, and Cinderella's "Coming Home" was the number one song. I don't know if they were thinking about heading toward New Rock (which was mostly hair-metal at the time), or if they were just trying to get a reaction. The reaction was brutal - the loyal listeners flooded the phone lines, wrote letters to MMR and the Inquirer etc..., and MMR went back to being MMR.

YSP had a show called "Metal Shop" in the mid 80's that featured nothing but hair-metal, and they also had Saturday Night Spandex in the late 90's - early 2000's, which was a half hour of hair-metal, kind of like Dee Snider's House of Hair that MMR still carries on Sunday nights. Dee's show is 2 hours I think.

 

[Betrayed]

> To those who despise 80's hair metal bands, the reason I
> enjoy them is because in this area, we never had the
> opportunity to listen to them on the radio. Most areas of
> the country had stations that played their music constantly,
> in the Philly market no-one touched them. I never knew most
> of them until I subscribed to Satellite radio, MC/DMX and
> watched VH1-Classic, and I think they rock. Still do not
> know why they were not played in this market.
>
Skid Row, Heart, Zebra, Dokken, Survivor, Europe, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Firehouse, Great White, Poison, White Lion, Tesla, Warrant, Ratt, Van Halen, Kiss, Steelheart, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Winger and more.

Heard 'em all on YSP back in the day.

 

[Michael]

You expend a lot of energy complaining about this topic...over and over and over. Yes, we know how you feel about urban in Philly.
Please give it a rest.

> Well, apparently with all this urban sludge on the airwaves
> now-adays, they DO NOT know what real crap is.
>

 

[BobAltimari]

> > To those who despise 80's hair metal bands, the reason I
> > enjoy them is because in this area, we never had the
> > opportunity to listen to them on the radio. Most areas of
>
> > the country had stations that played their music
> constantly,
> > in the Philly market no-one touched them. I never knew
> most
> > of them until I subscribed to Satellite radio, MC/DMX and
> > watched VH1-Classic, and I think they rock. Still do not
> > know why they were not played in this market.
> >
> Skid Row, Heart, Zebra, Dokken, Survivor, Europe,
> Cinderella, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Firehouse, Great White,
> Poison, White Lion, Tesla, Warrant, Ratt, Van Halen, Kiss,
> Steelheart, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Winger and more.
>
> Heard 'em all on YSP back in the day.

Hmmmmmmm, I wouldn't exactly describe Heart and Survivor as "hair bands".

Just my $0.02
>
<P ID="signature">______________
I've done it all...HOO HOO...tell 'em, Fred!
FOX News Alert: YOU SUCK!!! Ya like apples?</P>

 

[sls27]

> You expend a lot of energy complaining about this
> topic...over and over and over. Yes, we know how you feel
> about urban in Philly.
> Please give it a rest.
>
> > Well, apparently with all this urban sludge on the
> airwaves
> > now-adays, they DO NOT know what real crap is.
> >
>
Everybody knows KlassikKountry aka turkeyjones loves urban music. He make all these delightful comments.

 

[Jay_F]

> To those who despise 80's hair metal bands, the reason I
> enjoy them is because in this area, we never had the
> opportunity to listen to them on the radio. Most areas of
> the country had stations that played their music constantly,
> in the Philly market no-one touched them. I never knew most
> of them until I subscribed to Satellite radio, MC/DMX and
> watched VH1-Classic, and I think they rock. Still do not
> know why they were not played in this market.
>


I never lived in Philly, but still have insight on this subject, mostly because in the 1980s I used to read every word of R&R from the front cover to the back page.

Most AORs in the 1980s did not especially play a lot of hair bands. The hair bands appealed to 12-17 males and the rock stations were targeting 18-34. Some of the bigger bands and songs broke through, but you would be surprized at the lack of hair bands if you saw the rock charts of the era.

One station that DID play hair bands and great success with it was WQFM/Milwaukee. Around the Fall of 1985, WQFMs PD Andy Bloom accepted the WYSP programming position. At the time WMMR was beating YSP by a wide margin. At first, Andy Bloom brought WQFMs heavy metal playlist to YSP. For a brief time, WYSP was probably the hardest rocking station in the country. But what was successful in the Midwest failed in Philadelphia. WMMR with a more adult playlist (including local favorites the Hooters) kept beating WYSP by the same large margin, the hair bands did not help. Soon YSP (still with Andy Bloom) added Howard Stern and went classic rock and would eventually beat WMMR for many years.
in a row.

So hair bands WERE played in Philadelphia.