Glam metal, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 What you asked about
Glam metal 1981
Hard rock with hairspray, a radio chorus and a mandatory power ballad. It ruled MTV until 1991.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind. The genre's heaviest album, released exactly too late.
Skid Row, Skid Row (1989) - 3 Where to go next
Arena rock / AOR 1976
Hard rock polished for stadiums and FM radio: huge choruses, keyboards and glossy production.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Boston - More Than a Feeling. Recorded almost entirely in an MIT engineer's basement.
Boston, Boston (1976)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Glam metal descends from, in order. Glam metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.