Hair and pop metal followed a formula: heavy rhythm, flashy fretwork, high octave vocals, tight pants and big hair. The tune should be catchy, the chorus anthemic (the better to light your lighter and sing along with,) and the guitar solo should be flashy and macho.
After a few years of mining this formula, someone decided to do a song from the heart. Slow it down, play a little acoustic even, and create a ballad. These songs proved to be tremendously popular.
Then there were the hybrid songs. We've done one in this blog already, The Ballad of Jayne by LA Guns. These songs are slower tempo and the lyrics are usually about death or lost love rather than partying or general misbehavior.
Here's another example of the same genre, which coincided with the early 90s "angel" craze. The song is Fly to the Angels, performed by Slaughter (the lead singer's surname) from the album Stick It to Ya (1990) [Yes, I own it, though I haven't been able to track it down lately. Perhaps I lent it out?]
Mark Slaughter has an excellent hair metal voice, able to sing at high range to simulate (stimulate?) emotion. I don't know about you, but I get caught up in the sound and just start singing along. When he sings "...and I drive...down...this lonely lonely road..." it builds up solid tension that is successfully released by the subsequent chorus.
And with heart-tugging lyrics like "heaven awaits your heart and flowers bloom in your name" combined with hard rock sensibilities you have a song that appeals to the masculine and the feminine side, just like Ghost did at the movies. Genius.
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