Part2 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31129166/page/2/

The songs, not the singer
But then, Iron Maiden never came up with Top 40 hooks as beguiling as those in Skid Row’s “I’ll Remember You,” a song that could probably work in most any style. Second wave metalers also didn’t do many ballads, and it’s here the hair bands cornered the market with a subgenre called (brace yourselves) the power ballad.

Depending who you believe, this subgenre had its origins in the music of Journey and Foreigner or the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” Whatever the case, power ballads gave hair bands some of their most enduring hits, like “Every Rose Has its Thorn,” “Wanted: Dead or Alive” and “When the Children Cry.” These songs were considered marketing ploys to bring in female fans, but Gaines notes that a lot of her guy friends genuinely “connected with these songs” in a way they didn’t with the rockers.

Eddy says the power ballads have had a lasting influence on music, but not in the place you’d expect. While hard rock bands these days take their cue from Nirvana or even the Beastie Boys, country performers have copped the power ballad style (with Rascal Flatts’ recent “Here Comes Goodbye” a good example).

“There’s no question that a country station today does not sound like a country station did 15 or 20 years ago,” Eddy notes. “Part of that is you have all these power ballads. I mean, Carrie Underwood had a hit with a Motley Cure cover recently (“Home Sweet Home”). I think that started probably with Garth Brooks being into KISS.”

It makes sense, then, Eddy says, that Brett Michaels of Poison, Tom Keifer of Cinderella and Jon Bon Jovi have all recorded in Nashville recently. Former hair band musicians probably also feel an affinity with country audiences because, like country, metal in all its forms primarily drew a blue collar fan base (Deanna Weinstein noted in her book about the subject).

And this may be the main reason hair bands get so little respect (well, that and the ridiculous hair). Back when Warrant and company were ruling the mainstream airwaves, the place they weren’t getting played was college radio. College radio was mostly listened to by people who went to college, hence its name. Since most rock critics went to college, they came out of a somewhat elitist culture where hair metal was disdained as music listened to by the unwashed, uncultured masses (confession: I was a product of the very culture I’m now calling elitist).

But 20 years later, all of this is academic — pardon the pun. Hair bands might have been trashed by reviewers (check the Rolling Stone Record Guides for proof), but good songs win out regardless of genre, which is why radio stations play disco on Saturday nights. When more and more kids get to hear catchy songs like Poison’s “Nothin’ But a Good Time” on Internet stations without knowing hair metal’s bad rep, odds are this much-maligned genre will prove it can stand the test of time as well.

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