The more I read about classic rock, the more I hear about all these 80s bands, mostly of the metal variety, using the tag. Maybe it’s a matter of convenience or the passing of time, but a Poison or Warrant song next to a Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac song doesn’t cut it in my world. Isn’t 80s metal enough of a descriptor for these posers?
I suppose my disdain for 80s metal has something to do with seeing a ton of 80s metal bands back in the 80s (that’s when it was just metal) and never hearing that classic riff. GNR came close, but the rest of them were just trying to beef it up for the chicks, the money, the prestige, the MTV spot, and little regard for the actual music. That was 20 years ago when I still mostly listened to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. Back then, classic rock had this negative connotation around metalheads. They even told jokes about it. “Hey dude! How many hippies does it take to screw in a lightbulb…”
Two decades later, they’re the butts of their own jokes. The very bands and their fans who denounced classic rock are now crowding under the same circus tent housing the likes of Elvis, the Beatles, Elton John and the Sex Pistols. Virtually any act with more than 10 years behind them is thrown under the classic rock bus like some sort of token from the music gods. Guess it sounds better than new wave or pop metal, but it makes you wonder what on earth is classic and what isn’t. Then again, they didn’t call the Ninth Symphony classical back in 1824. Or did they? Chew on that one for awhile.
