This ain't love

can anyoner answer this?

Nooooooooooooooooooo, that was a bad joke!!!!!!

Phew!!!!!!!

You avoid the 80's hair tag by not furthering it with your last album where all eyes are on you as Def Leppard did with Adrenalize. Adrenalize did well based on what they had done, not what it actually is and the result was a not so favorable opinion of them in the long run. Def Leppard are not a hair band. They didn't start as a hair band. They are remembered as one because they wasted the spotlight time. Had they used their "comeback" time as an opportunity to continue trailblazing instead of sequelizing, their standing today could be very very different. Slang didn't under perform because it "sucked" as you contend... no one heard it or cared to. Most people I've played it for have been quite impressed with it.

As for your contention that Bon Jovi is the first hair band anyone thinks of when thinking of hair bands, that is yours. The definition of a hair band is one that was "all style, no substance." They were more concerned about their hair than their performance or their music. There are many bands from that era that fit that definition to the T, but Bon Jovi is not one of them. Certainly, they are one of the first you'll think of when mentioning the 80's and Jon's hair at the time was definitely famous, but the label is only used by ignorant journalists who need to have their qualifications checked and by people who aren't too up on what is happening in the modern world.

If anything, you could accurately declare Bon Jovi spawned the Hair Band genre by their success generating a wave of far lesser bands who bastardized what Bon Jovi did into something quite cringeworthy.

Slang is a great album, best Def leppard lyrics are found on that album. Slang is also much darker than the rest of their albums. Blood Runs Cold, All I Want Is Everything, Gift Of Flesh, Turn to dust and truth? are some of the best def leppard songs

Anyone else get the feeling that Def Leppard have for a few times in their carreer been copycating Bon Jovi???

Take Slang, it's a great album! but it's basically DL's These Days. They went back to their 80's sound and produced a great album by the name of Euphoria, it tanked. After BJ was so succesfull with Crush they employed much of the same generational producars and songwriters, tried their hand at some drumloops in their songs and out came X.

Weird......

True to Bon Jovi is one of the first bands that comes into many people's minds (not just 'journalists' who like to criticize the band) when 'hair bands' are being mentioned.

Def Leppard had no chance to be as successful because they do not get enough label support. Yes those albums aren't great (especially Slang, that was atrocious - it is correctly labelled as their "These Days" because I hate both albums and they tend to be overrated by the so-called 'die hard' fans -> which often 'loves' an unpopular album and saying the public just don't understand) but DL didn't have any chance at all. I think part of it is due to the fact that they're not American, secondly, they don't have a pretty boy as the frontman.

Agreed, and that was not a good decision. Slang (their "TD") was an abortion. DL did the ABSOLUTE CORRECT decision by releasing Euphoria (BJ never went back to their awesome 80s roots - which is a decision that I will always rue), too bad they tried to stray away from that, and did the "Crush" thing by releasinng X. Then they released a single that has a country singer, just like BJ with WSYCGH.

I love Adrenalize, I think it's great.

It's too bad that 'hair band' is considered a negative term. Truthfully, most of the players from that era can actually play their instruments, and to compose a memorable hook requires lots of talents. Sure the lyrics are usually dumb, but musically they are memorable.