There seems to be some confusion about hair metal here.

[Spyglass]

That's an interpretation I'm unfamiliar with. Typically there an interchangeability between "glam" metal and "hair" metal. I have a friebd who knows a lot about hair metal and we discuss it on occasion. I recently read some reddit discussions about it, and one person said that GNR tried to break from it and that they represented the first stages of the 80's change from hair metal to less osbnoxious and typical forms of rock. Another stated that they shared some elemebts but they were still leaning too far on hard rock and blues rather than the pop sound.
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

[RockyRaccoon]

Hair metal is one of my favorite genres ever, but defining it can be a bit tricky. It's sort of a "you know it when you see it."

I do think a large part of hair metal is visual, because how do you not look at this and go "oh yea, that's hair metal"

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There is a bit of a formula to hair metal, it's sorta T. Rex and the New York Dolls on copious amounts of cocaine. Loud, pop-influenced hard rock, shredding guitar, rock tenor lead singer, and likely a power ballad or two tossed in each album.

But, defining it isn't all that simple. Is Guns N Roses hair metal? They sure look like it

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But do they sound like it? Hard to say. I could see the argument for GNR being hair metal, they do follow the formula, but generally they're a bit heavier than your typical hair metal band.

But then again I think we can all agree that Skid Row is a hair metal band, right? But if you give Slave to the Grind a listen, it's about as heavy as a hair metal album can get (probably about as heavy as anything GNR did).

And to the point of GNR being hair metal, their roots certainly are in hair metal as the band came from members of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose (hence the name)

Then we've got Van Halen, who I definitely think of as hair metal and, alongside Motley Crue, one of the pioneers of hair metal.

So ultimately, it's difficult to create a hard and fast definition of what hair metal is, just like it's difficult to create a hard and fast definition of what any genre is.
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2023 Chart

Early Psychedelic Rock

Electronic Chart

[Spyglass]

I agree that GNR's roots are there, but they left the getup before AFD was released, so it's hard to set a mark on their status thereof. I can't find myself incorporating Van Halen as a whole. Their primary focus wasn't production, even on 1984, although they liked mixing up the styles they tackled despite staying in the hard rock realm. But everything after VH2 wasn't as metallic, even when Hagar was brough it, and their first two albums lean a little too far on metal and blues, only occasionally getting into pop territory, like that Kinks cover.

Pretty good chart, btw.
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[RockyRaccoon]

[Spyglass]

I especially agree with the last paragraph.

I think hair metal and glam metal are practically interchangeable. Long hair in rock bands has been a staple since the late-60's. Led Zeppelin were one of the original hair rock bands, but I'm not going to start with putting a blues and folk band from the late-60's in an early 80's pop scene.

I'm also of the opinion that Van Halen's 1984 would be more fit as a straight up "pop metal" album, which some have used to interchange with hair metal, but is more undefined. 1984's sound also fits the AOR bill, similarly to bands like Harem Scarem or Magnum. "Jump" is a perfect example of the 80's AOR sound, although I'll agree on "Panama" and maybe "Hot for Teacher," even though I feel a sense of punk from that one. Otherwise, 1984's all over the place when it comes to 80's rock scenes. The debut needed a little more pop in it (and to be delayed for three years) for me to consider it hair metal. The Hagar album 5150 (third best of the whole catalogue) has its 80's traits, undoubtedly, but it's still very close to the AOR scene.

I imagine that drawing a line between AOR and hair metal might be hard too, especially since we've got middle-ground bands like Icon.
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