Hair Metal, also known as Glam Metal, was one of the most iconic trends in the world of music in the 1980s. To this day, very few artists can capture the avant-garde musicality of some of the Hair Metal bands that took off within that iconic decade. They were very unique because they were extremely over the top with their tunes, with their long hair, and with their over the top use of theatrics on stage.
Alas, the genre has become a thing of the past and is unlikely to make a comeback anytime soon. For the avid music fan that enjoyed Hair Metal with vigor, however, there is still one guaranteed way to relieve some of the most iconic moments in Hair Metal history. What else, but through the use of photographs!
Photographs are the ultimate tool to commemorate a time in history. Even though you can easily search for pictures of these bands online, there is nothing that can compare to actually holding a piece of history in your hands with a photo that was taken in person by the photographer. Going on Google and searching for pictures of the band Kiss, for example, would be nowhere near as invigorating as actually holding a picture of Ace Frehley in 1977 during the iconic Alice II tour which really saw the band come to prominence. Here are some of the most compelling reasons why owning a piece of history through photographs is the ideal choice for the Hair Metal superfan.
Photographs Are Timeless and Will Age Tremendously
If you think about it, why would anyone visit places like The Photographer’s Gallery in London or the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum? Surely with the availability of the internet and all of the data that is stored in it, the exact same photographs featured could easily be found online.
It has to be made perfectly clear that there is a very big difference between watching a photo on the internet to behold the content of that photo and seeing an actual photograph of something in person to relive an immortal piece of history. That is the exact effect that you can expect to get when you own photographs of your favorite Hair Metal band. The experience is far more personal because even though you are not the one who had taken the photo, you feel as though you were there. You might even find the occasional photo of a 80s one hit wonder as well!
Photographs Are Not Only Seen, They are Felt
There are parallels here that can be drawn from an example of you scrolling through your social media feeds vs accidentally finding an album with your old pictures. When you see the pictures that are in your social media feed, you admire them but then you really do not think much about them afterward. When you look through the pictures inside the physical photo album that you found, however, you can’t help but feel each and every situation that is depicted. Photographs stimulate your senses in ways you cannot understand that go beyond just the visual elements of the picture.
Most of us are undoubtedly familiar with the songs “Living On a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Jon Bon Jovi. We know the melodies and have memories of the lyrics. When you see an actual photograph of Jon Bon Jovi on tour in the 1980s singing those songs for the first time, however, it gives you a world of context that you simply had no grasp of before and will completely change your perspective about those songs.
Hopefully, you now have more insight into the values of owning these valuable pieces of history. They are without a doubt the ultimate gifts, the ideal room decorations, and the most profound pieces of memorabilia that will allow these special moments in time to live on.