I'm having a horrible time building a list. Every time I think I have it nailed, somebody adds in an "Oh Ya, I forgot about that one." I listened to way to many different kinds of music to do an 'all genres open' list.
I'm a day late on this semi-hijack but I'll be one of those lurking metal 80 metal heads who come out to defend themselves. Since I believe in making fun of everyone equally, I'll only throw out one defensive comment because despite my love of the music back then, even then deep inside, I knew spandex was wrong.
Say what you will about Motley Crue (and you can safely say quiet a lot.) They had a big influence on the industry in the 80s. In an age when radio was being dominated by the new 'wear your pastel colored sweater hanging over your shoulders' pop, they brought back punk disguised as metal. A badly needed alternative for those of us sickened by the repetitiveness monotony of the radio playlists of the day. If it wasn't sweater pop, it was an extended dance remix of a sweater pop song.
Actually, there was tons of good, diverse music back then but at least where I lived, if you wanted to hear it, you had to go out and buy it.
