UCR's 'Hair Metal Frontmen' List is Questionable

Ultimate Classic Rock's 'Hair Metal Frontmen' List is Questionable

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The debate of “who’s the best frontman” in rock is seemingly never ending. As the genre evolved throughout the late 20th century, several sub genres splintered off and rose to prominence, including “hair metal,” was all the rage in the ’80s. Throwing their hat into the ring, Ultimate Classic Rock released their list, the Top 15 Hair Metal Frontmen, which in itself was enough to sparks its own debate.

Axl Rose  tops the list of the best hair metal frontmen.  He’s followed by  David Lee Roth  and  Sammy Hagar, but was  Van Halen  even hair metal? The rock music website describes hair metal as “characterized by pop sensibilities intertwined with emphatic guitar riffage.”

Hair metal will never die . . . nor should it.  But who are the best frontmen of the genre?  Ultimate Classic Rock claims to have nailed down the top-15.  The top-three are pretty questionable, I mean Van Halen was NOT hair metal. Even though Roth and Hagar were great frontmen, they weren’t hair metal frontmen.

Even in Hagar’s pre and post-Van Halen career, he wasn’t hair metal. Also, I think most Guns N’ Roses fans would FIGHT YOU if you called them hair metal.

One more name on the list that could be iffy is David Coverdale.  Whitesnake got lumped into the hair metal genre with ’80s hits like  Here I Go Again  and  Still of the Night, but they also had a “classic rock” sound: That’s because Coverdale made his bones in the ’70s, fronting  Deep Purple.

Here’s Ultimate Classic Rock’s list of the top 15 hair metal frontmen, according to their definition: