Don't Call It Hair Metal Audiobook By Sean Kelly cover art

Don't Call It Hair Metal

Art in the Excess of '80s Rock

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Don't Call It Hair Metal

By: Sean Kelly
Narrated by: Sean Kelly
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Buy for $22.12

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A love letter to the hard-rocking, but often snubbed, music of the era of excess: the 1980s

There may be no more joyous iteration in all of music than 1980s hard rock. It was an era where the musical and cultural ideals of rebellion and freedom of the great rock 'n' roll of the '50s, '60s, and '70s were taken to dizzying heights of neon excess. Attention to songcraft, showmanship, and musical virtuosity (especially in the realm of the electric guitar) were at an all-time high, and radio and MTV were delivering the goods en masse to the corn-fed children of America and beyond.

Time hasn't always been kind to artists of that gold and platinum era, but Don't Call It Hair Metal analyzes the sonic evolution, musical diversity, and artistic intention of '80s commercial hard rock through interviews with members of such hard rock luminaries as Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Poison, Whitesnake, Ratt, Skid Row, Quiet Riot, Guns N' Roses, Dokken, Mr. Big, and others.

©2023 Sean Kelly (P)2023 Tantor History & Criticism Music Guitar Popular Culture Social Sciences
Great Behind-scenes Stories • Insightful Music History • Super Performance • Fantastic Research • Relatable Content

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Loved the behind the scenes information and how the industry worked back then. I was a teen into early adult during this time and knew alot of the stories. I appreciated the behind the scenes info with the bands and some of how they actually felt about the time period and transition to grunge.
I’ve listed to several of these books about the time period and the author here has done a great job of capturing our mutual love of the genre. His delivery and cadence were very easy to listen to, very enable!

Very interesting material, super performance

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Great story. Great speaker. Very easy to listen to. I wish all authors could read like this.

Great story / life experience

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An interesting book but targeted at those in the know. I was hoping this would lead the uninitiated into the whole scene but most of the time it assumes the reader already knows most of the bands, musicians and other players. This is even my time period, or at least the later part of it is, only I wasn’t all that into this type of music so much of the references didn’t hit with me.
Still it was interesting and the real value is in all the interviews and direct quotes, with fun anecdotes and tidbits.

Hair Metal!

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I love hearing how bands were formed and how people living the times actually felt about them. Not the sex and drugs- just the rock and roll. Must read for all 80s rock fans.

Behind the scenes and more

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Interesting perspective, and I enjoyed learning more about bands I didn't know sand bands I love. The storytelling just got obscured by the frequent technical descriptions that I think you need to be a guitarist to understand (I'm musical and played other instruments/studied theory, and I was lost). Also think the author may have benefitted from someone else reading the book.

Interesting but...

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