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If you think\u00a0it was easy to pick the best album by 11 legendary hair metal bands, you haven’t listened to enough hair metal.<\/p>\n
Although many critics dismissed the genre as lightweight fluff, there’s no denying that hair metal’s biggest and best bands brought top-notch musicianship and\u00a0smart, hooky songwriting to the table. It was a genre that prided itself on guitar heroics, vocal acrobatics and anthemic, crowd-pleasing hooks \u2014 and to consistently deliver that level of technical excellence in an accessible package is no small feat.<\/p>\n
And, while\u00a0the uninitiated might think of hair metal as a one-size-fits-all genre, its best and brightest bands\u00a0had subtle calling cards that distinguished them from one another \u2014 and that\u00a0made the best albums in their catalog stand out.<\/p>\n
That’s where assembling this list got tricky.\u00a0Consider bands\u00a0such as\u00a0Def Leppard<\/a>, Bon Jovi<\/a> or Motley Crue<\/a>, all of\u00a0whom\u00a0sold tens of millions of albums and helped define an entire generation of rock with consecutive smashes. Each band had, at minimum, two\u00a0enormous albums that could have easily made the cut here.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0The 5 Best Hair Metal Bassists of All Time<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n But there’s a\u00a0huge\u00a0difference between Def Leppard’s\u00a0Pyromania<\/a><\/em> and\u00a0Hysteria<\/a><\/em>, both of which\u00a0are frequently cited on best-of lists. The same goes for Motley Crue’s raw, early albums\u00a0Too Fast for Love<\/a><\/em> and\u00a0Shout at the Devil<\/a><\/em> versus the\u00a0ultra-polished\u00a0Dr. Feelgood<\/a><\/em>, all of which are worthwhile contenders for their best work.<\/p>\n To make matters even more challenging: Some hair metal bands made their best work when they broke the genre norms. Other bands were categorically\u00a0un<\/em>-hair metal when they started their careers, only to evolve and beat the hair metal originators at their own game.<\/p>\n In other words: There’s more to this genre than meets the eye and there are way more kick-ass hair metal albums than you may remember.<\/p>\n Revisit some of them below as we\u00a0name the best album by 11 legendary hair metal bands.<\/p>\n Despite what the critics thought, the genre’s best bands had a penchant for reinvention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hair metal may have died in the ’90s, but not without a fight!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Sydney Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some bands did not fit the hair metal mold, but played along convincingly enough for at least one album.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Sydney Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n As hair metal faded, some bands persevered and changed up their style to something definitively not<\/em> hair metal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Sydney Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe Best Album From 11 Big Hair Metal Bands<\/h2>\n
10 Best Hair Metal Albums of the 1990s<\/h2>\n
The 10 Best Hair Metal Albums By Non-Hair Metal Bands<\/h2>\n
The 9 Best Non-Hair Metal Albums by Hair Metal Bands<\/h2>\n