Hair metal

History and character

Arena rock emerged between the 1960s and the mid-1970s out of hard rock, pop rock and heavy metal: radio-friendly rock designed for large audiences, with polished production, driving, dramatic songs alternating with power ballads, strong melodies and anthemic choruses, prominent guitars and keyboards, and visual spectacle (fireworks, smoke, lights). The Guardian traces the format back to the Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour with arena-sized lighting and sound systems. In the late '70s and early '80s Styx, Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Boston, Toto, Kansas and Night Ranger dominated.

In the 1980s the format merged with glam/hair metal, born in the late '70s and early '80s mainly on Los Angeles's Sunset Strip: heavy metal with the fashion of 1970s glam rock, with its commercial peak between 1982 and 1991. Key albums: Def Leppard's Pyromania (1983, the first glam metal album in the Billboard top ten) and Hysteria (1987, seven singles; produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange between 1984 and 1987, with guitars tracked to a LinnDrum click and amplified through modified Rockmans, drums programmed on a Fairlight CMI after the accident in which Rick Allen lost his left arm, and heavily layered backing vocals), Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil and Dr. Feelgood, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet (1986, over 15 million copies in the United States), Poison's Open Up and Say... Ahh!, Van Halen's 5150; then Whitesnake, Ratt, Skid Row, Europe, Cinderella and Warrant.

The collapse came in the early 1990s with grunge and alternative (Nevermind rejected the look and the sound; MTV canceled Headbangers Ball in 1994); the Seattle musicians scornfully called these bands "arena rock" or "butt rock". Post-grunge (Creed, Nickelback) would later revive the arena anthem format. Summed up by historian Gary A. Donaldson: "big hair, big voices, and really big guitars".

Scales and keys

Major (Ionian)

• Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (W W H W W W H).
• Example in E: E F# G# A B C# D#.
• Characteristic note: the leading tone and the major V: arena rock is very tonal and "triumphant".
• Chords: I E, ii F#m, iii G#m, IV A, V B, vi C#m, vii° D#dim.
• Use: anthems, power ballads, choruses with I–V–vi–IV.
• Real example: Journey — Don't Stop Believin' (E major, E–B–C#m–A); Bon Jovi — Livin' on a Prayer.

Mixolydian

• Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7. In A: A B C# D E F# G.
• Characteristic note: b7 → bVII.
• Use: hard rock riffs and I–bVII–IV choruses (Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe), bridge into hard rock.

Natural minor (Aeolian)

• Formula: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7. In E: E F# G A B C D.
• Chords: i Em, III G, iv Am, v Bm, VI C, VII D.
• Use: dramatic verses that open into the relative major; ballads.
• Real example: Bon Jovi — Livin' on a Prayer (verse in E minor with Em–C–D).

Minor pentatonic and blues (solos and riffs)

• Formula: 1 b3 4 5 b7 / 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7.
• Use: hard rock riffs, shred solos with legato and tapping.

Harmonic minor and diminished (shred)

• Harmonic minor: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7. In A: A B C D E F G#.
• Use: fast neoclassical solos (Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Warren DeMartini), sweep arpeggios on the dominant.
• Common mistakes: solos that don't follow the chorus chords; the arena rock solo must be singable (Neal Schon).

How to choose

• Anthem: major. Dramatic verse that explodes: Aeolian → relative major. Riff: pentatonic/Mixolydian. Virtuosic solo: harmonic minor and arpeggios, with a final melodic phrase on the chorus theme.

Harmony

Function

Tonal and grandiose harmony: I–V–vi–IV, IV–V–I, vi–IV–I–V, clear V–I cadences in the pre-choruses (Vsus4 → V suspension), a modulation in the last chorus (up a whole step, or wider: Livin' on a Prayer). Borrowed bVII and bVI in the endings.

Power ballads

• Verse with clean guitar (chorus effect) or piano/synth, add9 and sus2 chords, chorus with full band and huge backing vocals, melodic solo, final modulation.

Pedal tones

• Tonic pedal in eighth notes in the rhythm guitar under chords that change above it (the Def Leppard "pedal tone": power chords on the open A string).

Voicing

• Power chords with octave, open chords with open strings (A, D, E, G, Cadd9), chords played one string at a time and reassembled in the studio (Mutt Lange's technique for Hysteria, so every note of the chord stays distinct), synth pads and brass in close position.

Typical progressions

Rhythm and groove

4/4 with a huge backbeat, midtempo (110–130) for the anthems, half time for the giant choruses (Pour Some Sugar on Me has a half-time groove with programmed drums), 6/8 or 12/8 for power ballads, fast punk/shuffle in Mötley Crüe-style songs. The feel is "big" and square: everything lands on the beat, precise, often to a click and with electronic or sampled drums.

Drums

Role

The drums must sound stadium-sized: few, enormous, reverberant hits. Models: Rick Allen (Def Leppard, electronic/acoustic kit with MIDI pedals), Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe, showmanship and power), Tico Torres (Bon Jovi), Steve Smith (Journey), Alex Van Halen.

Kick

• 1 and 3 (steps 1, 9) with "3&"; double kick in the more metal songs; sound with lots of attack and a short tail.

Snare

• 2 and 4 (or 3 in half time), enormous: layered samples, gated reverb or long hall; fixed, high velocity.

Hi-hat and cymbals

• Eighth-note hi-hat, crashes everywhere in the choruses, ride bell in the bridges.

Percussion

• Sampled handclaps on 2 and 4 (Pour Some Sugar on Me), tambourine, timpani in the ballads.

Interaction

• Bass in eighth notes on the root, guitars with pedal tone: the drums keep everything "square".

Sections

• Intro with a tom fill or with synth/piano; verse with hi-hat; pre-chorus with building toms; chorus with crash and half time; bridge with toms and cymbals; solo with double kick; last modulated chorus with continuous crashes.

Fills

• Enormous tom fills (often Simmons electronic toms in the '80s), snare rolls with flams before the choruses.

Sounds

• On Hysteria all the drum sounds were samples programmed on a Fairlight CMI and added last; in general, sampled snares, toms with gated reverb, kick with click.

Typical mistakes

• "Small," dry drums; ungated reverbs that smear; too many fills in the verse.

Bass

Sound

Bass played with a pick, compressed and even (Precision, Jackson, Kramer), often doubled by synth bass in '80s productions.

Role

• Eighth notes on the root (pedal) under the chorus; long notes in the ballads; unison with the riff in the hard rock parts.

Examples

• Bon Jovi — Livin' on a Prayer (with talk box and eighth-note bass); Def Leppard — Photograph; Journey — Separate Ways.

Harmonic instruments

Guitars

• Superstrats (Kramer, Jackson, Charvel, Ibanez) with Floyd Rose, Les Paul; modified Marshall JCM800 amps, Rockman (Def Leppard, Boston: Tom Scholz invented the Rockman), effects: chorus, stereo delay, harmonizer.
• Layering: 2–4 rhythm parts (L/R), parts played note by note and reassembled (Hysteria), clean arpeggios with chorus in the ballads, solos with stereo delay; live, Def Leppard reduced the four guitar parts to two.
• Talk box (Richie Sambora in Livin' on a Prayer).

Keyboards

• Synth brass and pads (Oberheim OB-Xa in Jump, Yamaha DX7, Roland Jupiter-8), piano (Journey: Jonathan Cain), organ.

Voicing

• Power chords with pedal tone, open chords played separately, close-position synths above the guitars.

Melody and vocals

Vocals

• Powerful, high voices (Steve Perry with his tenor range, Joe Elliott, Jon Bon Jovi, Vince Neil, David Coverdale, Sebastian Bach), belting, sustained high notes, choruses meant for everyone to sing along.
• Melodies with the hook in the title, sixth and octave leaps in the choruses.

Backing vocals

• Huge layered backing vocals (Mutt Lange went up to dozens of tracks, with harmonies heavily pitch-corrected on Hysteria), gang vocals, "whoa-oh", third and fifth harmonies.

Effects

• Long hall or plate reverb, stereo delay, doubles, light harmonizer (vocal chorus).

Instruments

• Electric guitars (superstrats, Les Paul), talk box.
• Electric bass.
• Acoustic + electronic/sampled drums (Simmons, Fairlight), handclaps.
• Lead vocal and layered backing vocals.
• Synths (brass, pads), piano, organ.

Drum patterns

Synths and sounds

• OP-Xa V — Synth brass: The sound of Jump (Van Halen): double saws with detune, open filter and short envelope, 3–4-note chords.
• Jup-8 V — Pad and brass: Big pads and brass of '80s power ballads: two saw oscillators, chorus, 100–300 ms attack.
• DX7 V — FM electric piano and bells: The 'E.Piano 1' and the bells of the '80s in ballads.
• Piano V — Piano: Journey and Bon Jovi: bright grand piano in eighth notes (Don't Stop Believin').
• Prophet-5 V — Lead and pad: Synth lines and pads of late-'70s arena rock (Boston, Toto).
• B-3 V — Organ: Hard rock organ (Deep Purple, Whitesnake).

Song structure

Form (4:00–5:00)

Mixing and mastering

Sonic goal

Gigantic, glossy and "perfect": wide guitars with no mud, enormous drums with controlled reverbs, backing vocals like a wall, vocal on top of everything. References: Def Leppard — Hysteria (1987), Bon Jovi — Slippery When Wet (1986), Journey — Escape (1981), Boston (1976).

Kick

• EQ: HP 30 Hz; +3 dB at 60 Hz; −5 dB at 350 Hz; +4 dB at 3–5 kHz (click). Layered samples.
• Compression 4:1, 4 dB.

Snare

• Layer 2–3 samples (body 200 Hz, crack 5 kHz, snare wires); EQ +3 dB at 200 Hz, +4 dB at 5 kHz.
• Space: gated reverb (plate or 2 s hall, gate closing at 300–500 ms) or long hall with 30 ms pre-delay; this is the '80s sound.
• Compression: 1176 4–6 dB.

Toms

• Gate, +4 dB at 80–120 Hz, −4 dB at 400 Hz, gated reverb like the snare; panned wide (L70 → R70).
• Drum bus: SSL 4:1, 3–4 dB.

Handclaps

• Layered samples, HP 400 Hz, long plate, wide.

Bass

• EQ: HP 35 Hz; +2 dB at 80 Hz; −3 dB at 250 Hz; +2 dB at 800 Hz; heavy compression (8 dB); synth bass below 80 Hz if present.

Guitars

• Rhythm parts L100/R100 (+L80/R80): HP 100 Hz; −4 dB at 300 Hz; +2 dB at 1.5 kHz; −2 dB at 4 kHz; LP 10 kHz; "pre-compressed" sounds (the Rockman already has a compressed, chorused sound).
• Clean parts with stereo chorus L60/R60; solos in the center with ping-pong stereo delay (1/4 and dotted 1/8) and hall.

Synths and piano

• Wide pads and brass, HP 200 Hz; stereo piano L50/R50, compression 3 dB.

Lead vocal

• Chain: EQ (HP 100 Hz, −3 dB at 300 Hz, +3 dB at 3 kHz, +3 dB air at 12 kHz) → 1176 (6 dB) → LA-2A (3 dB) → de-esser → light harmonizer (±8 cents, 10–20 ms, mix 15%) → 2 s plate + 1/4 delay.
• High level: the vocal dominates the chorus.

Backing vocals

• Stack of 10–30 tracks: harmonies split by part (high, middle, low) on separate buses, HP 200 Hz, heavy compression, de-esser, long hall; panned from L100 to R100.

FX

• Gated reverb, hall, plate, stereo delay, chorus.

Buses and groups

• Backing vocal bus, guitar bus, synth bus; glue on the mix.

Sidechain

• Dynamic EQ on guitars and synths (−2/−3 dB at 2–4 kHz) keyed from the vocal.

Master

• Target: −10/−8 LUFS integrated (1980s originals are more dynamic, −12/−10); true peak −1 dBTP.

Common mistakes

• Mud at 200–400 Hz with too many guitars and synths; ungated reverbs; backing vocals that cover the lead vocal.

Reference tracks for the mix

• Boston — More Than a Feeling (1976); Journey — Don't Stop Believin' (1981); Def Leppard — Photograph (1983); Bon Jovi — Livin' on a Prayer (1986); Def Leppard — Pour Some Sugar on Me (1987); Mötley Crüe — Kickstart My Heart (1989); Poison — Every Rose Has Its Thorn (1988).

Reference listening

• Boston — More Than a Feeling (1976)
• Foreigner — Cold as Ice (1977)
• Journey — Don't Stop Believin' (1981)
• Def Leppard — Photograph (1983)
• Van Halen — Jump (1984)
• Bon Jovi — Livin' on a Prayer (1986)
• Europe — The Final Countdown (1986)
• Def Leppard — Pour Some Sugar on Me (1987)
• Poison — Every Rose Has Its Thorn (1988)
• Mötley Crüe — Kickstart My Heart (1989)