This just occurred to me in thinking about "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt. Doesn't it seem like pop ballads from this time have a timelessness about them that hasn't really existed since? Especially stuff from around 1991. Like, they don't particularly sound like they come from a certain time. Sure, most probably have polished '80slike production, with more of an image and feel of the Nineties, although without really belonging to either. In a way, they're almost like perfect pop songs, because they have elements of everything from probably the 1950s to now. I remember lots of piano and jazz-oriented pop being on VH1 in that period.

Some more examples:

Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn
Rush Rush - Paula Abdul
How Do You Talk to an Angel - The Heights
Right Now - Van Halen
I Wonder Why - Curtis Stigers
any Wilson Philips
I'll Get By - Eddie Money

This just occurred to me in thinking about "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt. Doesn't it seem like pop ballads from this time have a timelessness about them that hasn't really existed since? Especially stuff from around 1991. Like, they don't particularly sound like they come from a certain time. Sure, most probably have polished '80slike production, with more of an image and feel of the Nineties, although without really belonging to either. In a way, they're almost like perfect pop songs, because they have elements of everything from probably the 1950s to now. I remember lots of piano and jazz-oriented pop being on VH1 in that period.

Some more examples:

Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn
Rush Rush - Paula Abdul
How Do You Talk to an Angel - The Heights
Right Now - Van Halen
I Wonder Why - Curtis Stigers
any Wilson Philips
I'll Get By - Eddie Money


Yes, to me..they seemed to have a sort of mellow sense to them.

^Yeah, that's what I like about them. They're pretty and easy to listen to, but catchy at the same time. You don't really see that now. Doesn't it seem like ballads are super slow/boring and unpolished now? Like James Blunt and "Chasing Cars" stuff - that's the major difference.

"This So Called Miracle" Debbie Gibson
"One Hand, One Heart" Debbie Gibson
"Sure" Debbie Gibson
"So Close To Forever" Debbie Gibson

...before I get bashed, have to say that of her ballads have that timeless appeal

Yeah, I'm a big fan of music from the 1989-1993 time period, and some of the ballads from that time are some of the best. At that time, you would even hear instruments like saxophone's and trumpets in ballads, something that would seem very out of place in todays music.

Has anyone noticed that even some of the late period hair metal power ballads had a slightly different feel in the early '90s? Songs like "Love is on the Way" and "More Than Words" have a more "acoustic" feel to them, at least as opposed to earlier power ballads.

what about Sade's music? i think her music doesn't sound like it belongs to any decade either.

but she's never really done ballads.  :-\\

^ That's true. I actually like a couple of Sade's songs, and they don't really sound tied to a particular era either. They're not ballads, but not full fledged upbeat either. Something like "The Sweetest Taboo" probably would've fit right in in the early '90s. It might've even been ahead of its time for 1985.


Yeah, I'm a big fan of music from the 1989-1993 time period, and some of the ballads from that time are some of the best. At that time, you would even hear instruments like saxophone's and trumpets in ballads, something that would seem very out of place in todays music.

Has anyone noticed that even some of the late period hair metal power ballads had a slightly different feel in the early '90s? Songs like "Love is on the Way" and "More Than Words" have a more "acoustic" feel to them, at least as opposed to earlier power ballads.


Yeah, I've thought about this too. Even some of the earlier ones, like "Wanted Dead or Alive", "The Flame" and "Every Rose Has its Thorn" have that stripped down sound. I wonder if those songs were an attempt to go '90s or just to do something different, while still being hair metalesque.

True, you don't really hear non-conventional instruments in rock or even pop now. I'd say the varied music period really ended after 2002.

^It seems like there was a trend that started around 1988 where more acoustic sounding hair metal songs starting coming out. Songs like "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" or "The Flame" really don't sound much like "Home Sweet Home" or "Here I Go Again". Honestly, even though they both came out in '88, neither song would sound too out of place in 1991 or possibly even 1992 due to there more "unplugged" sound.

"Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche is a terrific ballad from that era, along with "More Than Words" by Extreme.

^It seems like there was a trend that started around 1988 where more acoustic sounding hair metal songs starting coming out. Songs like "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" or "The Flame" really don't sound much like "Home Sweet Home" or "Here I Go Again". Honestly, even though they both came out in '88, neither song would sound too out of place in 1991 or possibly even 1992 due to there more "unplugged" sound.
Here I Go Again isn't a ballad.

My favourite ballad of the 90s:  'Standing, Push and Fall' by World on Edge. 

Oh, it's just a beautiful song 8)

Here I Go Again isn't a ballad.



In my opinion, its somewhat of a power ballad, but whatever ::)



"Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche is a terrific ballad from that era, along with "More Than Words" by Extreme.



Yeah, those are both pretty good songs. I'm not a huge hair metal fan, but I like both of those.

"Here I Go Again" might not be a full on ballad, but it's got some ballad elements. It even starts out soft...overall it's midtempo I guess.

These guests need to register so they can get banned. ;D

"Here I Go Again" might not be a full on ballad, but it's got some ballad elements. It even starts out soft...overall it's midtempo I guess.

These guests need to register so they can get banned. ;D



;D

Yeah, it's not a full fledged power ballad, but it's certainly not a regular hair metal song either. It's more "in between" the two extreme's. The point I was trying to make before was that by 1991 hair metal ballad's and mid tempo songs like "Here I Go Again" were actually sort of rare. By then everything was more "stripped down" and was becoming more and more unusual to hear some of the elements in a song like that, like the keyboards in the intro for example.

^ I agree with the semi change in power ballads around then. You could argue that some time in 1988 to early 1992 was like the second wave of unique, more accoustic hair metal. Especially because as the genre grew, the popularity of power ballads did too. I've heard some people say that predictability is what killed it (i.e. bands like Winger and Slaughter did very run of the mill stuff that was like a second rate Bon Jovi or even Poison), and they might be right. Lots of those songs were still good, though.

^ I agree with the semi change in power ballads around then. You could argue that some time in 1988 to early 1992 was like the second wave of unique, more accoustic hair metal. Especially because as the genre grew, the popularity of power ballads did too. I've heard some people say that predictability is what killed it (i.e. bands like Winger and Slaughter did very run of the mill stuff that was like a second rate Bon Jovi or even Poison), and they might be right. Lots of those songs were still good, though.



You could make a case for a lot of different things that helped kill off hair metal, but power ballads I would say had alot to do with it. Real metal fans didn't like them, which caused alot of those groups to lose credibility among there original fans. Not to mention the fact that, by the early '90s, there were just too many of them around.