Several days ago I posted about the music video for “Sending All My Love” from the group Linear.  I used it as an example of music videos, and the ethereal entertainment pulse in general, not holding up as time passes.  New fads, new music, and new styles come along and knock off the previous rulers of the pop culture hill.  Sometimes those trumped musical styles dust off their jackets, learn from their mistakes, and keep on keeping on.  Others fall by the wayside, forever to be remembered as “one hit wonders.”

Hair metal, or pop metal, exemplifies both of those extremes.  On the one hand, you’ve got Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, who are just as popular today as they were in the Aquanet Superhold days of the 80’s.  Sure, their musical styles have changed, some would say dramatically, but that’s necessary—I guess—to stay on top and is more of an evolution than anything else.  On the other hand, you’ve got Trixter and Wild Boyz, whose only crime was jumping on the bandwagon a little too late, right before the grunge tank drove all over them and everything else.

Many fans of hair metal blame Nirvana for heralding the end of the hair band era.  In a way, that’s true.  It’s obvious that MTV and radio shape the current musical environment to their whims, and they were apparently getting too bored with pushing hair metal.  So they decided to push grunge.  They used Nirvana as their battering ram.  “Smells Like Teen Spirit” started playing on MTV and radio, and in what seemed like only days the grunge machine reshaped the entire musical landscape.  Spandex and hair spray were replaced by combat boots and flannel.  I’m pretty sure a couple of Midwestern towns were attacked by herds of rabid flannel and were subsequently destroyed.  All of this began in 1991.

Back up a year or so, and hair metal was at its peak.  Power ballads were all over the top forty, and it was actually cool back then and in no way gay to sing along with Sebastian Bach of Skid Row even if he did sound like a girl.  Guns N' Roses were considered legendary and really were bigger than life.  Bon Jovi was coasting on the enormous success of New Jersey, and they had something like thirty seven top ten singles off that one album.  Poison had just had a good run with Open Up and Say Ahh, and the masses were anxiously awaiting the eminent release of Flesh and Blood.

The other big hair band gun, Warrant, was still giddy over the unanticipated success of their debut album, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich.  And along came their sophomore album, Cherry Pie.  DRFSR had pigeonholed itself squarely into the debut album classification.  It had two power ballads, the standout hits, and several competent pop metal tunes to fill out the rest of the album.  It was serviceable, but it was safe.  People were hoping for something different with Cherry Pie.  Well, they got it, just not how they were expecting.  The title cut was released as the first single.  It was heavier than Warrant’s previous rockers, thanks in large part to C.C. Deville—he’s the lead guitarist of Poison, a band who was touring with Warrant at the time—and his stellar guest guitar work on the song.  The video, on the other hand, was pure bubblegum.  You could almost hear the groans of Warrant fans when that video debuted.  Here they were, on the cusps of being taken seriously—because , in truth, they were an incredibly gifted group of musicians—and they come out with a video that looks like it deserves to be attached to a New Kids on the Block tune.  Still, “Cherry Pie” charted well, and most folks even today will recognize that song.  It’s interesting to note that “Cherry Pie” wasn’t even supposed to be included on the album at all.  The record company wanted an anthem on the album, and they pressured Jani Lane, the lead singer/songwriter, to come up with something.  He wrote “Cherry Pie” at the last minute, and its success in spite of that fact is a testament to Jani’s songwriting talent.  Rumor has it that Jani still hates that song.

Their next single—and the video that accompanied it—was, in my opinion, the turning point in Warrant’s career.  It separated them from all the posers and demanded that they be taken seriously as both songwriters, performers, and storytellers.  “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was released as the second single off the album.  It was originally intended to be the first single—as well as the title of the album—as  a way of showing the world that the band had gone in a drastically different direction, but that was not to be.  Having absolutely nothing to do with the identically titled novel, the song tells the story of love, loss, and corruption in a small bayou town.  The song’s style foreshadows the bands eventual maturity that would be seen in their next album, Dog Eat Dog.  But that’s for another time.

The video for “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was a huge hit on MTV, and was at the top of the countdown on multiple occasions.  And it deserved it.  Wonderfully filmed, the editing and lighting added a creepy, frenetic feeling to the whole video.  So this whole post was to say this.  Aside from the slight presence of hair spray, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” both the song and the video could be released today and still be relevant.  It’s just my opinion, but “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is one of the best music videos of the past twenty years.

Video: Warrant—"Uncle Tom's Cabin"