Great bands lumped in with hair bands that were not hair bands:

I wouldn't worry too much about the "Hair Band" tag. People call bands "Hair" just because they were in the 80's and had a hit. Especially if they put out a ballad. Doesn't mean it's right. But to answer your question, I never got Y&T,Scorpions or Guns and Roses being on these retarded "lists". Hell I've heard Zebra on the House of Hair with Dee Snyder and Zebra was not "Hair"!

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Tesla was not a hair band.

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Agreed - they were the prototype for the Black Crowes - actually the Crowes were a mix of Tesla and the Rolling Stones.

And Tesla's friends/mentors - Def Leppard - also get lumped in with hair metal (largely because hair metal - Bon Jovi most notably - tried to copy everything the boys from Sheffield did).

Out of Def Leppard, only Sav ever had big hair and it seems it was natural back in the day - he didn't have to do anything to it. Rick Allen had short hair, generally, as did Phil Collen. Steve Clark (RIP) had long hair, but did not generally wear it teased up or anything.

Plus - Def Leppard was an established NWOBHM band - and clearly were more in the AC/DC, Zeppelin mold before Hysteria.

You can blame them for a good bit of hair metal (and their big influences were glam, T Rex, Mott the Hoople and Bowie, but also Queen, Boston, AC/DC and Zeppelin), as they influenced a bunch of it, but they aren't accurately described as a hair metal band.

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Bon Jovi most notably - tried to copy everything the boys from Sheffield did).

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how so? the two bands sound nothing alike. different type lineup and influences.

Ratt?

I guess it depends on what is considered a hair band. I don't think all bands were hair bands just because they used Aqua Net and wore spandex. That was more the symptom than the disease. What makes a hair band to me is if they were more style than substance. Cookie cutter bands cranked out by the music industry using a formula and playing feel good party songs.

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Slippery When Wet is practically an homage to Def Leppard's work to date. Jon has not even seriously disputed that - they were floundering around trying to find a style and kind of settled on Def Leppard meets Bruce Springsteen. If you listen to Pyromania and Slippery When Wet, you can see how closely the former influenced the latter.

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I just don't hear the similarities. df guitar riffs were ac/dc like where sambora's is nothing like that.
Bon jovi's use of keyboards was prominent in their style and sound from the beginning.
it wasn't until hysteria that leppard used a significant amount.

to me, the only similarities between the two are they were both very popular around the same time and every girl I know loved jon and joe.

Scorpions

Enuff Z'nuff

I saw Tesla in Milwaukee at Summerfest in 1987 on the Mechanical Resonance tour. I think they played every song on the album plus 2 covers. Really great show. There was a huge crowd, between 12k and 15k I'd say.

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Cinderella was the epitome of hair band. Very bluesy? shite that's like saying Poison isn't a hair band b/c Every rose has its thorn is a country song b/c it features an acoustical guitar and a song about a sad cowboy.

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You don't know what the frick you're talking about. Listen to Heartbreak Station. One of the bluesiest rock albums of the '90's. (Recorded in Bogalusa, for a little trivia.)

Yeah, I suppose your right on their later stuff in the 90's you could hear it. my bad for thinking hair was about 84-89'. But my idea of bluesy rock in that timeframe was/is ZZ Top, Stevie Ray, Fabulous T-birds, Arc Angels,