Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2007, Hard Rock was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.^[1][2] Currently, there are 150 Hard Rock locations in 53 countries with the largest in Orlando.

History[link]

Restaurants[link]

Hard Rock Cafe located on Broadway in the heart of Times Square.

The first Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) opened 14 June 1971, in London, England under the ownership of young Americans Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett. Hard Rock initially had an eclectic decor but it later started to display memorabilia. Hard Rock has amassed one of the largest collections of rock and roll memorabilia in the world. The chain began to expand worldwide in 1982 with locations in (among others) Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Paris and Berlin.^[3] Hard Rock Cafe locations in the United States vary from small markets (Biloxi, Destin, etc.) to large metropolises (Houston, Philadelphia, New York, etc.). At present, Hard Rock declines to offer additional franchises within the United States.^[4] Therefore, other major cities such as Austin, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, etc. cannot establish a location.^[5]

In 1990, The Rank Group, a London-based leisure company, acquired Mecca Leisure Group and continued expansion of the concept in its geographic territory. Rank went on to purchase Hard Rock America from Peter Morton as well as Hard Rock Canada from Nick Bitove. After the completion of these acquisitions, Rank gained worldwide control of the brand. In March 2007, the Seminole Tribe of Florida acquired Hard Rock Cafe International, Inc. and other related entities from Rank for US$965 million.^[1] In 2008, anonymous members of the wait staff criticized the business because of its practice of paying them less than half the official minimum wage in the UK, with the business allocating tips to staff to bring their salaries within the law. Most customers, it was argued, do not realize that they are subsidizing a low wage when they give the tip.^[6]

Music memorabilia[link]

Jon Bon Jovi's guitar on display at the cafe in Moscow

HRC is known for its collection of rock and roll memorabilia. The cafes solicit donations of music memorabilia but also purchase a number of items at auctions around the world, including autographed guitars, costumes from world tours and rare photographs are often to be found mounted on cafe walls. The collection began in 1979 with an un-signed Red Fender Lead II guitar from Eric Clapton, who was a regular at the first restaurant in London. Clapton wanted management to hang the guitar over his regular seat in order to lay claim to that spot, and they obliged. This prompted Pete Townshend of The Who to give one of his guitars, also un-signed with the note "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete."^[7] Hard Rock's archive includes over 70,000 items and was briefly displayed in a Hard Rock museum named "The Vault" in Orlando, Florida from January 2003 until September 2004. After the closure, items were disbursed to various restaurant locaions.^[8] The London Vault remains open and free to visitors, located near the original cafe.^[9] In 2005, Deep Purple launched its new album Rapture of the Deep in Hard Rock Cafe London. This show at the release party itself was released as a DVD.^[10]

Expansion into other businesses[link]

Casinos and hotels[link]

Hard Rock Hotel Macau

In 1995, Peter Morton spent $80 million to open the Hard Rock Hotel near the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. A subsequent $100 million expansion in 1999 nearly doubled the hotel's capacity.^[11]

In May 2006, Morton sold the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas to Morgans Hotel Group for $770 million, including the rights to the Hard Rock Hotel brand west of the Mississippi, including Texas, California, Australia and Vancouver, British Columbia.^[12] The hotel began another expansion in 2007 at a cost of $750 million. The project added 875 rooms in two towers and expanded meeting space.^[13] In March 2011, Morgans surrendered control of the property to partner Brookfield Asset Management citing the high debt on the property in the face of the economic downturn.^[14]

The Hollywood, Florida property gained macabre notoriety on February 8, 2007, when Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose in a room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.^[15]

Today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida owns and operates all units except the Las Vegas property. In 2004, Hard Rock International and Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts launched Lifestar Hoteles España SL, a joint venture that manages Europe's first Hard Rock Hotel in Madrid. The other joint venture hotels are in Chicago, New York and San Diego (the San Diego property includes Hard Rock condominiums). Hard Rock also operates hotels and resorts in Orlando, Florida, a joint venture with Loews Hotels; Bali, Indonesia; and Pattaya, Thailand, a joint ventures with Ong Beng Seng/Hotel Properties Limited. Hard Rock International, continues to expand internationally (including hotels, casinos, resorts, and condominiums) through several joint ventures (Becker Ventures, Ong Beng Seng/Hotel Properties Limited and Loews Hotels) including hotels in Chicago, Bali, Orlando, Penang, San Diego, Singapore and planned opening in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Hungary, Panama, and Punta Cana^[16] - as well as hotel-casinos in Hollywood, Florida; Tampa, Florida; Biloxi, Mississippi; Las Vegas, Nevada; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Catoosa, Oklahoma, near Tulsa.^[2]

Hard Rock Park - Theme Park[link]

Hard Rock Cafe International announced in March 2006 that it licensed the "Hard Rock" name to HRP Myrtle Beach Operations, LLC, to design, build, and operate a $400 million 150-acre (0.61 km²) theme park called Hard Rock Park. Hard Rock Park opened on April 15, 2008 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The park was expected to draw an estimated 30,000 visitors per day, promised to create more than 3,000 jobs, and was billed as the largest single investment in South Carolina history. It planned to feature a large concert arena and six zones with more than 40 attractions. HRP Myrtle Beach Operations, LLC, filed for Chapter 11 on September 25, 2008. The company hoped to re-open in 2009 after restructuring.^[17] On January 2, 2009 after failing to attract a buyer with a minimum $35 million bid for over 2 months, Hard Rock Park asked a Delaware Bankruptcy Court to convert the filing to Chapter 7 (triggering immediate liquidation of assets to pay off creditors) and closing the park.^[18]

New owners renamed the venue Freestyle Music Park and planned to reopen retaining a music-theme but, without the Hard Rock name by Memorial Day, 2009. The park only operated one additional year and never reopened due to poor attendance.^[19]

Seminole Tribe of Florida takeover[link]

On December 7, 2006, Rank sold its Hard Rock business to the Seminole Tribe of Florida for $965 million. Included in the deal were 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues, and stakes in three unbranded hotels. Rank retained the Hard Rock Casino in London, and rebranded it the G Casino Piccadilly. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was also not part of the deal, as it was sold by Peter Morton to Morgans Hotel Group in May 2006.^[20] The final takeover was mired in controversy, due to a payment clause in a contract with one casino developer, Power Plant Entertainment. Power Plant and the Seminoles announced a settlement in April 2007 which both sides called equitable.^[21]

On January 8, 2007, Rank shareholders approved the Seminoles' $965 million offer. The Tribe announced it finalized the deal on March 11, 2007.^[22] The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida gained some notoriety on February 8, 2007 when Anna Nicole Smith died while occupying a room in the hotel.^[15]

On June 22, 2008, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood began "Vegas-style" table gambling in addition to the Class II slots already in operation. To win approval for the table games, which were barred under Florida law, the Seminole Tribe paid the State of Florida $100 million as part of a 25-year pact signed by Governor Charlie Crist. On July 3, 2008, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the governor's agreement was unconstitutional, but table games continue to operate because the Federal Department of the Interior approved the now-invalid pact with the state.^[23]

List of Hard Rock Cafes[link]

Huge Guitar At Hard Rock Cafe, New Delhi

To reveal an overview of past, present and planned Hard Rock Cafes, click on the show link below. This list currently mentions Hard Rock Cafes only and not the other type of venues, such as Bars and Hotels.

Note: The list can be variously sorted using the icon.

See also[link]

• Planet Hollywood
• Fashion Cafe
• Rainforest Cafe

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hard Rock Cafe

• Official site
• Official Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Site
• Video review of the Hard Rock Cafe with on-site footage
• Hard Rock Memorabilia Gallery
• Regularly updated list of current, opening, and closed cafes (Unofficial)
• "Seattle welcomes Hard Rock Cafe", photo gallery by MyNorthwest.com

Hard rock (or heavy rock) is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock. It is typified by a heavy use of distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with pianos and keyboards.

Hard rock developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Van Halen, and reached a commercial peak in the mid to late 1980s. The glam metal of bands like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard and the rawer sounds of Guns N' Roses followed up with great success in the later part of that decade, before losing popularity with the commercial success of grunge and later Britpop in the 1990s. Despite this, many post-grunge bands adopted a hard rock sound and in the 2000s there came a renewed interest in established bands, attempts at a revival, and new hard rock bands that emerged from the garage rock and post-punk revival scenes.

Definitions[link]

Drum notation for a Back beat.^[1]

Hard rock is a form of loud, aggressive rock music. The electric guitar is often emphasised, used with distortion and other effects, both as a rhythm instrument using repetitive riffs with a varying degree of complexity, and as a solo lead instrument.^[2] Drumming characteristically focuses on driving rhythms, strong bass drum and a backbeat on snare, sometimes using cymbals for emphasis.^[3] The bass guitar works in conjunction with the drums, occasionally playing riffs, but usually providing a backing for the rhythm and lead guitars.^[4] Vocals are often growling, raspy, or involve screaming or wailing, sometimes in a high range, or even falsetto voice.^[5] Hard rock has sometimes been labelled cock rock for its emphasis on overt masculinity and sexuality and because it has historically been predominately performed and consumed by men: in the case of its audience, particularly white, working-class adolescents.^[3]

In the late 1960s the term heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock, but gradually began to be used to describe music played with even more volume and intensity.^[6] While hard rock maintained a bluesy rock and roll identity, including some swing in the back beat and riffs that tended to outline chord progressions in their hooks, heavy metal's riffs often functioned as stand-alone melodies and had no swing in them.^[2] Heavy metal took on "darker" characteristics after Black Sabbath's breakthrough at the beginning of the 1970s, and in the 1980s it developed a number of sub-genres, often termed extreme metal, which were influenced by hardcore punk, and which further differentiated the two styles.^[4] Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have existed side by side, with bands frequently standing on the boundary of, or crossing between, the genres.^[7]

History[link]

Origins (1960s)[link]

Cream whose blues-rock improvisation was a major factor in the development of the genre.

In the mid-1960s, American and in particular British rock bands began to modify rock and roll, adding to the standard genre greater blues influence, harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming, and louder vocals. Early forms of hard rock can be heard in The Kingsmen's version of "Louie, Louie" (1963), which made it a garage rock standard,^[8] and the songs of rhythm and blues influenced British Invasion acts,^[9] including "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks (1964),^[10] "My Generation" by The Who (1965)^[2] and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965) by The Rolling Stones.^[11] From the late 1960s it became common to divide mainstream rock music that emerged from psychedelia into soft and hard rock. Soft rock was often derived from folk rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies.^[12] In contrast, hard rock was most often derived from blues-rock and was played louder and with more intensity.^[2]

Blues-rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Jeff Beck Group.^[2] Cream, in songs like "I Feel Free" (1966) combined blues-rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton.^[13] Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock and roll.^[14] From 1967 Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues-rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band, The Jeff Beck Group.^[15] Dave Davies of The Kinks, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of The Who, Hendrix, Clapton and Beck all pioneered the use of new guitar effects like phasing, feedback and distortion.^[16] Even The Beatles attempted to produce songs in the new hard rock style, trying to create a greater level of noise than The Who, from The Beatles (1968) (known as the "White Album") onwards, beginning with "Helter Skelter".^[17] Some critics have written about its "proto-metal roar",^[18] but others have argued that "their attempts at the heavy style were without exception embarrassing".^[17]

Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975.

Groups that emerged from the American psychedelic scene about the same time included Iron Butterfly, MC5, Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge.^[19] San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a crude and distorted cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues", from their 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that outlined much of the later hard rock and heavy metal sound.^[19] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild", which contained the first lyrical reference to heavy metal and helped popularise the style when it was used in the film Easy Rider (1969).^[19] Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), with its 17-minute-long title track, using organs and with a lengthy drum solo, also prefigured later elements of the sound.^[19]

By the end of the decade a distinct genre of hard rock was emerging with bands like Led Zeppelin, who mixed the music of early rock bands with a more hard-edged form of blues rock and acid rock on their first two albums Led Zeppelin (1969) and Led Zeppelin II (1969), and Deep Purple, who achieved their commercial breakthrough with their fourth and distinctively heavier album, In Rock (1970). Also significant was Black Sabbath's Paranoid (1970), which combined guitar riffs with dissonance and more explicit references to the occult and elements of Gothic horror.^[20] All three of these bands have been seen as pivotal in the development of heavy metal, but where metal further accentuated the intensity of the music, with bands like Judas Priest following Sabbath's lead into territory that was often "darker and more menacing", hard rock tended to continue to remain the more exuberant, good-time music.^[2]

Expansion (1970s)[link]

The Who on stage in 1975.

In the early 1970s the Rolling Stones developed their hard rock sound with Exile on Main St. (1972). Initially receiving mixed reviews, according to critic Steve Erlewine it is now "generally regarded as the Rolling Stones' finest album".^[21] They continued to pursue the riff-heavy sound on albums including It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (1974) and Black and Blue (1976).^[22] Led Zeppelin began to mix elements of world and folk music into their hard rock from Led Zeppelin III (1970) and Led Zeppelin IV (1971). The latter included the track "Stairway to Heaven", which would become the most played song in the history of album-oriented radio.^[23] Deep Purple continued to define hard rock, particularly with their album Machine Head (1972), which included the tracks "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water".^[24] In 1975 guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left, going on to form Rainbow and after the break-up of the band the next year, vocalist David Coverdale formed Whitesnake.^[25] 1970 saw The Who release Live at Leeds, often seen as the archetypal hard rock live album, and the following year they released their highly-acclaimed album Who's Next, which mixed heavy rock with extensive use of synthesizers.^[26] Subsequent albums, including Quadrophenia (1973), built on this sound before Who Are You (1978), their last album before the death of pioneering rock drummer Keith Moon later that year.^[27]

Emerging British acts included Free, who released their signature song "All Right Now" (1970), which has received extensive radio airplay in both the UK and US.^[28] After the breakup of the band in 1973, vocalist Paul Rodgers joined supergroup Bad Company, whose eponymous first album (1974) was an international hit.^[29] Scottish band Nazareth released their self-titled début album in 1970, producing a blend of hard rock and pop that would culminate in their best selling, Hair of the Dog (1975), which contained the proto-power ballad "Love Hurts".^[29] The mixture of hard rock and progressive rock, evident in the works of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, was pursued more directly by bands like Uriah Heep and Argent.^[30] Having enjoyed some national success in the early 1970s, Queen, after the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975), gained international recognition with a sound that used layered vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with heavy metal, progressive rock, and even opera.^[31] The latter featured the single "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK charts for nine weeks.^[32]

Kiss onstage in Boston in 2004.

In the United States, macabre-rock pioneer Alice Cooper achieved mainstream success with the top ten album School's Out (1972).^[33] In the following year blues rockers ZZ Top released their classic album Tres Hombres and Aerosmith produced their eponymous début, as did Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd and proto-punk outfit New York Dolls, demonstrating the diverse directions being pursued in the genre.^[34] Montrose, including the instrumental talent of Ronnie Montrose and vocals of Sammy Hagar and arguably the first all American hard rock band to challenge the British dominance of the genre, released their first album in 1973.^[35] Kiss built on the theatrics of Alice Cooper and the look of the New York Dolls to produce a unique band persona, achieving their commercial breakthrough with the double live album Alive! in 1975 and helping to take hard rock into the stadium rock era.^[8] In the mid-1970s Aerosmith achieved their commercial and artistic breakthrough with Toys in the Attic (1975), which reached number 11 in the American album chart, and Rocks (1976), which peaked at number three.^[36] Blue Öyster Cult, formed in the late 60s, picked up on some of the elements introduced by Black Sabbath with their breakthrough live gold album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), followed by their first platinum album, Agents of Fortune (1976), containing the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts.^[37] Journey released their eponymous debut in 1975^[38] and the next year Boston released their highly successful début album.^[39] In the same year, hard rock bands featuring women saw commercial success as Heart released Dreamboat Annie and The Runaways débuted with their self-titled album. While Heart had a more folk-oriented hard rock sound, the Runaways leaned more towards a mix of punk-influenced music and hard rock.^[40] The Amboy Dukes, having emerged from the Detroit garage rock scene and most famous for their Top 20 psychedelic hit "Journey to the Centre of the Mind" (1968), were dissolved by their guitarist Ted Nugent, who embarked on a solo career that resulted in four successive multi-platinum albums between Ted Nugent (1975) and his best selling Double Live Gonzo (1978).^[41]

Rush on stage in 2004.

From outside of Britain and the United States, the Canadian trio Rush released three distinctively hard rock albums in 1974–75 (Rush, Fly by Night and Caress of Steel) before moving toward a more progressive sound.^[42] The Irish band Thin Lizzy, which had formed in the late 1960s, made their most substantial commercial breakthrough in 1976 with the hard rock album Jailbreak and their worldwide hit "The Boys Are Back in Town", which reached number 8 in the UK and number 12 in the US. Their style, consisting of two duelling guitarists often playing leads in harmony, proved itself to be a large influence on later bands. They reached their commercial, and arguably their artistic peak with Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979).^[43] The arrival of Scorpions from Germany marked the geographical expansion of the sub-genre.^[20] Australian-formed AC/DC, with a stripped back, riff heavy and abrasive style that also appealed to the punk generation, began to gain international attention from 1976, culminating in the release of their multi-platinum albums Let There Be Rock (1977) and Highway to Hell (1979).^[44] Also influenced by a punk ethos were heavy metal bands like Motörhead, while Judas Priest abandoned the remaining elements of the blues in their music,^[45] further differentiating the hard rock and heavy metal styles and helping to create the New Wave of British Heavy Metal which was pursued by bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon and Venom.^[46]

With the rise of disco in the US and punk rock in the UK, hard rock's mainstream dominance was rivalled toward the later part of the decade. Disco appealed to a more diverse group of people and punk seemed to take over the rebellious role that hard rock once held.^[47] Early punk bands like The Ramones explicitly rebelled against the drum solos and extended guitar solos that characterised stadium rock, with almost all of their songs clocking in around two minutes with no guitar solos.^[48] However, new rock acts continued to emerge and record sales remained high into the 1980s. 1977 saw the début and rise to stardom of Foreigner, who went on to release several platinum albums through to the mid 1980s.^[49] Midwestern groups like Kansas, REO Speedwagon and Styx helped further cement heavy rock in the Midwest as a form of stadium rock.^[50] In 1978, Van Halen emerged from the Los Angeles music scene with a sound based around the skills of lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen. He popularised a guitar�?playing technique of two�?handed hammer�?ons and pull�?offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen, which was highly influential in re�?establishing hard rock as a popular genre after the punk and disco explosion, while also redefining and elevating the role of electric guitar.^[51]

Glam metal era (1980s)[link]

Def Leppard onstage in Dublin in 2009

The opening years of the 1980s saw a number of changes in personnel and direction of established hard rock acts, including the deaths of Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC, and John Bonham, drummer with Led Zeppelin.^[52] Zeppelin broke up almost immediately, but AC/DC recorded the album Back in Black (1980) with their new lead singer, Brian Johnson. It became the fifth highest-selling album of all time in the US and the second largest selling album in the world.^[53] Black Sabbath had split with original singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Rainbow, giving the band a new sound and a period of creativity and popularity beginning with Heaven and Hell (1980). Osbourne embarked on a solo career with Blizzard of Ozz (1980), featuring American guitarist Randy Rhoads.^[54] Some bands, such as Queen, moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock,^[55][31] while others, including Rush with Moving Pictures (1981), began to return to a hard rock sound.^[42] The creation of thrash metal, which mixed heavy metal with elements of hardcore punk from about 1982, particularly by Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer, helped to create extreme metal and further remove the style from hard rock, although a number of these bands or their members would continue to record some songs closer to a hard rock sound.^[56][57] Kiss moved away from their hard rock roots toward pop metal: firstly removing their makeup in 1983 for their Lick It Up album,^[58] and then adopting the visual and sound of glam metal for their 1984 release, Animalize, both of which marked a return to commercial success.^[59] Pat Benatar was one of the first women to achieve commercial success in hard rock, with three successive Top 5 albums between 1980 and 1982.^[60]

Often categorised with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, in 1981 Def Leppard released their second album High 'n' Dry, mixing glam-rock with heavy metal, and helping to define the sound of hard rock for the decade.^[61] The follow-up Pyromania (1983), reached number two on the American charts and the singles "Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'", helped by the emergence of MTV, all reached the Top 40.^[61] It was widely emulated, particularly by the emerging Californian glam metal scene. This was followed by US acts like Mötley Crüe, with their albums Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983) and, as the style grew, the arrival of bands such as Ratt,^[62] White Lion,^[63] Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot.^[64] Quiet Riot's album Metal Health (1983) was the first glam metal album, and arguably the first heavy metal album of any kind, to reach number one in the Billboard music charts and helped open the doors for mainstream success by subsequent bands.^[65]

Van Halen performing "Jump" in 2007, with bassist Wolfgang Van Halen.

Established bands made something of a comeback in the mid-1980s. After an 8-year separation, Deep Purple returned with the classic Machine Head line-up to produce Perfect Strangers (1984), which reached number five in the UK, number two in Norway, and number 17 on the Billboard 200 in the US.^[66] After disappointing sales of its fourth album, Fair Warning, Van Halen rebounded with the Top 5 album Diver Down in 1982, then reached their commercial pinnacle with 1984. It reached number two on the Billboard album chart and provided the track "Jump", which reached number one on the singles chart and remained there for several weeks.^[51] The new medium of video channels was used with considerable success by bands formed in previous decades. Among the first were ZZ Top, who mixed hard blues-rock with New Wave music to produce a series of highly successful singles, beginning with "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (1983), which helped their albums Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985) achieve diamond and multi-platinum status respectively.^[67] Others found renewed success in the singles charts with power ballads, including REO Speedwagon with "Keep on Loving You" (1980) and "Can't Fight This Feeling" (1984), Journey with "Don't Stop Believin'" (1981) and "Open Arms" (1982),^[38] Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is",^[68] Scorpions "Still Loving You" (both from 1984), Heart’s "What About Love" (1985) and "These Dreams" (1986), and Boston's "Amanda" (1986).^[69]

Bon Jovi's third album, Slippery When Wet (1986), mixed hard rock with a pop sensitivity and spent a total of 8 weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 12 million copies while becoming the first hard rock album to spawn three top 10 singles — two of which reached number one.^[70] The album has been credited with widening the audiences for the genre, particularly by appealing to women as well as the traditional male dominated audience, and opening the door to MTV and commercial success for other bands at the end of the decade.^[71] The anthemic The Final Countdown (1986) by Swedish group Europe was an international hit, reaching number eight on the US charts while hitting the top 10 in nine other countries.^[72] This era also saw more glam-infused American hard rock bands come to the forefront, with both Poison and Cinderella releasing their multi-platinum début albums in 1986.^[73][74] Van Halen released 5150 (1986), their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, which was number one in the US for three weeks and sold over 6 million copies.^[51] By the second half of the decade, hard rock had become the most reliable form of commercial popular music in the United States.^[75]

Original member Izzy Stradlin' on stage with Guns N' Roses in 2006.

Established acts benefited from the new commercial climate, with Whitesnake's self-titled album (1987) selling over 17 million copies, outperforming anything in Coverdale's or Deep Purple's catalogue before or since. It featured the rock anthem "Here I Go Again '87" as one of 4 UK top 20 singles. The follow-up Slip of the Tongue (1989) went platinum, but according to critics Steve Erlwine and Greg Prato, "it was a considerable disappointment after the across-the-board success of Whitesnake".^[76] Aerosmith's comeback album Permanent Vacation (1987) would begin a decade long revival of their popularity.^[36] Crazy Nights (1987) by Kiss was the band's highest charting release in the USA since 1979 and the highest of their career in the UK.^[77] Mötley Crüe with Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) continued their commercial success^[78] and Def Leppard with Hysteria (1987) hit their commercial peak, the latter producing seven hit singles (a record for a hard rock act).^[61] Guns N' Roses released the best-selling début of all time, Appetite for Destruction (1987). With a "grittier" and "rawer" sound than most glam metal, it produced three top 10 hits, including the number one "Sweet Child O' Mine".^[79] Some of the glam rock bands that formed in the mid-1980s, such as White Lion and Cinderella experienced their biggest success during this period with their respective albums Pride (1987) and Long Cold Winter (1988) both going multi-platinum and launching a series of hit singles.^[63][74] In the last years of the decade, the most notable successes were New Jersey (1988) by Bon Jovi,^[80] OU812 (1988) by Van Halen,^[51] Open Up and Say... Ahh! (1988) by Poison,^[73] Pump (1989) by Aerosmith,^[36] and Mötley Crüe's most commercially successful album Dr. Feelgood (1989).^[78] New Jersey spawned five Top 10 singles, a record for a hard rock act. A final wave of glam rock bands arrived in the late 1980s, and experienced success with multi-platinum albums and hit singles from 1989 until the early 1990s, among them Extreme,^[81] Warrant^[82] Slaughter^[83] and FireHouse.^[84] Skid Row also released their eponymous début (1989), reaching number six on the Billboard 200, but they were to be one of the last major bands that emerged in the glam rock era.^[85]

Grunge and Britpop (1990s)[link]

Hard rock entered the 1990s as one of the dominant forms of commercial music. The multi-platinum releases of AC/DC's The Razors Edge (1990), Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (both in 1991),^[79] Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears (1991),^[86] and Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) showcased this popularity.^[51] Additionally, The Black Crowes released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker (1990), which contained a bluesy classic rock sound and sold five million copies.^[87][88] In 1992, Def Leppard followed up 1987's Hysteria with Adrenalize, which went multi-platinum, spawned four Top 40 singles and held the number one spot on the US album chart for five weeks.^[89]