What if Van Halen never existed?

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So overall, do you think music history would be slightly altered or greatly altered if Van Halen never made it onto the scene?

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Eddie was a next level amazing guitarist, but someone else would have come along - it's evolution, hundreds of thousands of kids in the late 70s probably fricked around with guitars. The origins of hair metal predates Van Halen (ie David Johansen). Between all the coke and the recklessness, hair metal would've been a genre with or without Van Halen.

Eddie literally invented the Super Strat. Nearly every metal guitarist today plays some variation of the design that Eddie frankensteined together in his garage.

While I think something resembling hair metal becomes popular regardless, it would have sounded closer to yacht rock and burned out more quickly, possibly even losing out to new wave or punk entirely.

Without Eddie Van Halen to lead the charge for guitar driven rock after the breakup of Led Zeppelin, without Eddie essentially triggering a guitar arms race by the 80’s shredders to out play him, we may have seen punk take over as the dominant cultural force of rock.

Punk had raw energy, its own fashion, and cultural cache right at the same time Van Halen blew up. I think punk could end up taking the cultural spot from hair metal. We get a push towards the kinds of energetic but amateurish guitarists we saw in the 90’s 10 years earlier.

Another possibility is that without Van Halen, the “burn disco” movement never happens, disco remains a dominant cultural force, and rock is driven out of pop music in the early 80’s rather than the late 2000’s.

Eddie Van Halen was such a transformational figure in music history, that these sorts of cultural ramifications of his absence are all plausible.

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The arc of a band making it big is often 10 years or more.

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Eddie just turned 23 when Van Halen 1 was released - it sold more than 10 million copies

Most likely someone else would have taken Eddie's spot in terms of influence, maybe Randy Rhoads, George Lynch, or Steve Vai. I know Pantera would sound a bit different. I think Dime would have had more of a Kiss or ZZ Top style instead of EVH.

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Punk had raw energy, its own fashion, and cultural cache right at the same time Van Halen blew up. I think punk could end up taking the cultural spot from hair metal. We get a push towards the kinds of energetic but amateurish guitarists we saw in the 90’s 10 years earlier.

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Nah.. that first wave of punk ended in the 70s and made way to the No Wave scene (and new wave) before 80s hair metal and the next wave of punk (hardcore) was never going to go mainstream..

And as much as hair metal was a big part of the 80s... Artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna still dominated...

EVH is rightfully revered, but I think his impact on the shape of music is greatly exaggerated here...

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EVH is rightfully revered, but I think his impact on the shape of music is greatly exaggerated here...

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What's the impact of Black Sabbath on hair bands?

The Sweet and Slade were hair bands a decade before the term was coined.

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My first live concert was Van Halen 1979.

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Who with?

I saw them warm up Cheap Trick and Bob Seger at Bay City (Michigan) Central High School in 1978. Scored a nickel and was off!

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And as much as hair metal was a big part of the 80s... Artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna still dominated...

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Prince