Metal Hammer magazine interviewed Linkin Park‘s Mike Shinoda who spoke about how the band’s debut album, “Hybrid Theory”.
Mike touched upon how it defied the categorization and helped diversify metal’s appeal beyond its core audience with its blend of hip-hop swagger, screaming, irresistible pop hooks and circuit-bending.
On Hair metal, he said:
“I listened to 90 percent rap music, then I’d look at a lot of rock bands and I’d be like, ‘There’s something too white [about it].’ That was one of the things that turned me off, especially hair metal. Hair metal felt like very white music and I was growing up in a very diverse city so I didn’t gravitate to it.”
Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy fired back to Shinoda’s statement about the ”hair metal” on his Twitter page, saying:
“Lol, Didnt know rock music had a race. wtf, I didn’t know what hair metal felt like. Thanks. all music to me”.
Singer Sebastian Bach took issue with being called “hair metal,” saying that:
“Being labeled something that I never set out to be labeled gets under my skin. It’s a pain when people try to rewrite history,” he tweeted.
“Believe me none of us ever set out to be in a hair metal band that did not exist in the 80s”.