See also:
*Def Leppard Are a Bunch of Assholes
*Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums

One day I was sitting around thinking I want to write a song about ménage a trois...and the line 'love in stereo' came into my head. Inspiration can happen anywhere at any time. -Jani Lane, Hit Parader magazine

History has not been kind to hair metal. The bulk of the Sunset Strip '80s stalwarts have become resigned to touring out-of-the-way clubs before diminishing crowds. But many of us still have a strong passion for this era. In The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke's titular character and Marissa Tomei's reluctant stripper dance to Ratt's "Round And Round" in a dive bar, drinking beers and agreeing on one thing: The '90s sucked.

Lots of us feel that way. The '80s have come back into fashion because people remember it as a halcyon time. The economy was picking up speed and kids were sowing the seeds of their parents' sexual revolution; in the early part of the decade, anyway, you could hook up without worrying about contacting much worse than crabs. Sure it was heyday of the "me" generation -- epitomized by oversexed pop metalers as much as greedy Wall Street traders -- but it also emphasized self-expression and big dreams.

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See also:
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #20-16
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums of All Time: #15-11
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #10-6
*Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums

5. Motley Crue
Shout At the Devil (1983)
Motley Crue's second record stands as an old fashioned ode to Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and the play-your-records-backwards satanism of the '70s. It's also their hardest album. Though it was initially panned -- Rolling Stone gave it two stars -- it's now seen as the work that defined the band, portraying them as loud, fun absurdists. Of course, one could also argue that they were eerily talented; from the opening chords of "The Beginning" to Mick Mars' slithering shreds throughout, Shout At The Devil established the Crue as the era's band to beat. -Nikki Darling

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See also:
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #20-16
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums of All Time: #15-11
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #5-1
*Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums

10. Warrant
Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1989)
RIP Jani Lane. Warrant's lead singer, who was found dead in Woodland Hills this summer, didn't have the strongest voice, or, per this quote, the strongest songwriting skills. But he understood the latter-year hair metal zeitgeist better than anyone. Despite its subject (excess) Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich manages to somehow sound hungry. She may be so damn pretty (should be against the law), but, you know, sometimes she also cries. Cherry Pie was self-satisfied, but DRFSR was a quite tight work that holds up. -Ben Westhoff

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See also: Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: The Complete List

It's hair metal week on West Coast Sound! And it's hard to imagine a greater enthusiast for the genre than Chuck Klosterman. His 2001 music memoir Fargo Rock City does an exemplary job of examining what was great about the cock rock era. (It might well be the only serious book-length treatise on the subject.) It also gets into his one-time obsession with Lita Ford, above, who "made me think about sexy women as people -- not just as the subject of some long-haired guy's lyrics."

In the process of putting together our top 20 hair metal albums list -- which we're counting down this week -- we compiled suggestions from writers around the country. We were honored to get input from Klosterman, and you can see his top 25 below. Oh, and check out his most recent novel, The Visible Man, which concerns a character possessing the technology to make himself invisible. Does he use it to visit Lita Ford in her boudoir? There's only one way to find out.

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See also:
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #20-16
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #10-6
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #5-1
*Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums

15. Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap soundtrack (1984)
Rob Reiner's brilliant mock-rockumentary sends up longstanding hard-rock obsessions like Druids and getting super-heavy. (Aspiring local hair-metal god Paul Shortino of Rough Cutt even makes a cameo in the film.) Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer seethe with bewildered sexuality on tracks like "Sex Farm," "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight," and "Big Bottom." (You know: "My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo.") Some of the old vets like Aerosmith didn't appreciate the joke, but a new generation embraced Tap as one of their own. Their trick was transcending the parody label, which they did in part by touring as a real band. They even scored an invite to the metal answer to "We Are the World" - famine relief benefit Hear 'n Aid. -Steve Appleford

More »

See also:
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #15-11
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #10-6
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #5-1
*Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums

One day I was sitting around thinking I want to write a song about ménage a trois...and the line 'love in stereo' came into my head. Inspiration can happen anywhere at any time. -Jani Lane, Hit Parader magazine

History has not been kind to hair metal. The bulk of these Sunset Strip '80s stalwarts have become resigned to touring out-of-the-way clubs before diminishing crowds. But many of us still have a strong passion for this era. In The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke's titular character and Marissa Tomei's reluctant stripper dance to Ratt's "Round And Round" in a dive bar, drinking beers and agreeing on one thing: The '90s sucked.

Lots of us feel that way. The '80s have come back into fashion because people remember it as a halcyon time. The economy was picking up speed and kids were sowing the seeds of their parents' sexual revolution; in the early part of the decade, anyway, you could hook up without worrying about contacting much worse than crabs. Sure it was heyday of the "me" generation -- epitomized by oversexed pop metalers as much as greedy Wall Street traders -- but it also emphasized self-expression and big dreams.

More »