SWW, is just dripping with Aqua Net. A very glossy and radio-friendly production. The fact that Jon Bon Jovi tries soooo hard to distance himself from his hair metal past is proof to me.

Def Leppard is hair metal. Maybe not glam metal, but definitely hair metal. Without the polished studio work of Mutt Lange, Def Leppard never would have made the crossover into the radio-friendly, MTV stuff which is really what hair metal is.

And while Van Halen may not strictly be hair metal (a-la Poison, Warrant, Motley Crue and others), they are the fathers of it. I believe many have called them 'teeth metal.' EVH's work and some of the earlier, punch in the nose stuff (like Fair Warning) keep Van Halen out of the hair metal scene. With that said, 1984 comes pretty close.