Mikey Hersh

At the 1991 American Music Awards, the nominees for best hard rock band were Alice In Chains, Nirvana, and Firehouse. And the winner was… Firehouse. This would be us hair metal fans’ last triumph until sixteen years later when we realized that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Because bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains were soon building steam by bringing a new flavor to hard rock, while the beloved glam-metal bands were slowly but surely becoming extinct. Dial MTV which featured all these terrific bands went bye-bye so more exposure could be given to the up and coming grunge scene in th early 90’s. No more fist in the air, bang your head, make love to the nearest stripper music on the radio or the Billboard charts. We were supposed to think more when we listened to hard rock, wear flannel shirts to make us appear that we just didn’t give a shit and it should be about the music and not the appearance, and sing along to songs about how life sucked and how we needed to stand up to our government. I didn’t care about kids named Jeremy who wanted to kill their classmates because they didn’t fit in, I cared about Suzy and her all day sucker! I cared about nothing but a good time! I didn’t want to think when I listened to hard rock, I wanted to bang my head because metal health drove me mad!

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