I Wanna Rock: The 80s Metal Dream

[warrenamos01]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26786395/

Wasn't entirely sure which category to put this in (assuming it isn't elsewhere) but having seen 2 or the 3 parts, it will surely appeal to a lot of people on here. 

A documentary about the hair metal scene featuring new interviews with several people from that era : Janet Gardner, Kip Winger, Snake Sabo, etc.

The only thing i would say is, at the end of part 2 they're signalling the grunge era so presumably part 3 is the fallout. As enjoyable as its been so far, it feels like it could've lasted a lot longer (though maybe I'm in the minority)

[Dead Planet]

I just watched this and it is decent. It's always nice to hear the stories from bands from the best era of rock...

[Captain Howdy]

I saw it and have to say that it was good, but it was not perfect by any means. It seemed to jump all over the place, which was quite confusing at times. For instance the Winger segment completely missed out Pull era and just kinda went from 2nd album to being dropped by label. I wonder how much interview footage ended up on the cutting room floor.

It also seemed to pain anyone who came along late 80s like Britny Fox, Slaughter, Mr Big, Damn Yankees and others as not serious musicians and just gimmicks, even though bands like Vixen, Winger & Skid Row all had their debut albums around the same time, and yet those were the bands we were focussing on.

I think the biggest problem with it was, as a retroactive look back it tried to fit over a decade of the music scene into three short episodes, so so much was missed out or glossed over.

It could have done with at least two or three more episodes, especially as so much of the third episode was about grunge taking over. Also the comment that the likes of Garth Brooks was what killed the scene was laughable. Firstly because just because he was massive in USA does not mean he was that big worldwide, and secondly, pop and country artists were always selling bigger numbers than hair metal. I mean as far as I can see, Brooks had an album that was 10 times platinum in USA but Michael Jacksons Thriller is 34 times platinum. Does that mean Michael Jackson killed hair metal?

Saying most hair metal fans started following Brooks instead is also laughable.

 

[Dead Planet]

2 hours ago, Captain Howdy said:

I saw it and have to say that it was good, but it was not perfect by any means. It seemed to jump all over the place, which was quite confusing at times. For instance the Winger segment completely missed out Pull era and just kinda went from 2nd album to being dropped by label. I wonder how much interview footage ended up on the cutting room floor.

It also seemed to pain anyone who came along late 80s like Britny Fox, Slaughter, Mr Big, Damn Yankees and others as not serious musicians and just gimmicks, even though bands like Vixen, Winger & Skid Row all had their debut albums around the same time, and yet those were the bands we were focussing on.

I think the biggest problem with it was, as a retroactive look back it tried to fit over a decade of the music scene into three short episodes, so so much was missed out or glossed over.

It could have done with at least two or three more episodes, especially as so much of the third episode was about grunge taking over. Also the comment that the likes of Garth Brooks was what killed the scene was laughable. Firstly because just because he was massive in USA does not mean he was that big worldwide, and secondly, pop and country artists were always selling bigger numbers than hair metal. I mean as far as I can see, Brooks had an album that was 10 times platinum in USA but Michael Jacksons Thriller is 34 times platinum. Does that mean Michael Jackson killed hair metal?

Saying most hair metal fans started following Brooks instead is also laughable.

 

Yeah this was far from a proper accounting of all the music/bands that came along in the 80s 'hair' music scene and the series could have been 10 eps easily. I agree that they insulted/wrote off a lot of really good bands with some of their comments. But this series was never about covering the whole genre imo....it was about giving a general overview of the scene and they only needed to interview and cover a few bands to do it and I'm not even sure the people behind the camera were even fans of the music so the end result is not as satisfying as it could have been....

[Captain Howdy]

58 minutes ago, Dead Planet said:

Yeah this was far from a proper accounting of all the music/bands that came along in the 80s 'hair' music scene and the series could have been 10 eps easily. I agree that they insulted/wrote off a lot of really good bands with some of their comments. But this series was never about covering the whole genre imo....it was about giving a general overview of the scene and they only needed to interview and cover a few bands to do it and I'm not even sure the people behind the camera were even fans of the music so the end result is not as satisfying as it could have been....

I think the problem was the overview they did was all over the place. I mean when they are talking about the early days of the scene hearing from Dee was great, but Janet, Snake and Kip really were not part of that as they were all mid to late 80s stars. Yes they may have been on the unsigned scene before that, but they were certainly not part of the early days like Crue, Halen, Quiet Riot, London etc

I think they could have done with a better selection of interviewees to be honest. Yes it was nice to see a bunch of different faces to what we usually see, but I just dont think it fully represented the era.

Lonn Friend was a good addition as was Rachtman, but even they seemed to have some very weird opinions on things.

I also think they concentrated too much time on Vicky Hamilton. Yes she was involved in the scene, but all she kept doing was playing the victim.