Oh, good question. I’ve always though of VH as o be of the original hair bands.
I don’t see VH listed in this Top 50 hair metal albums by Rolling Stone so maybe you’re right!
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/50-greatest-hair-metal-albums-of-all-time-162362/black-n-blue-black-n-blue-1984-159404/
David Lee Roth's solo effort is there. As the owner of about a dozen albums on that list, VH likely escapes it because they had too much of their good stuff pre-81. Though 1984 was likely their Top 40/mainstream peak, none of the other bands can claim much of/ if any real success pre-'81. They appear to have time bound that list strictly to '81-'91.
And yes, I'm avoiding the Van Hagar debate.
Okay, I may own more than a dozen on that list. And I'm curious how GN'R escapes this list given the timing.
Also, it should be noted, I bagged Alice Cooper's groceries on a couple occasions when I worked at the then Smitty's at Tatum and Shea just on the outskirts of Paradise Valley, AZ. It was the Scottsdale of its era.
I highly recommend the Tillamook ice cream sammiches. The mint chocolate and the mudslide ones. They are small, but they come four in a box, so . . .
This is one of my favorite topics and one of my least popular opinions. Hair band music sucked. Not invariably. But hair band music was vacuous, soulless and only succeeded in being loud. It was bubble gum pop with a guitar riff. And yes I have on my Ken Tucker hat this morning why do you ask?
I have developed a taste for Motley Crue over time. There was a point in my life where I felt that Poison was kind of fun. And I would argue that Hysteria by Def Leppard was a legitimately great album. Otherwise I would suggest that Guns and Roses and Metallica sounded the death knell for hair bands because they offered all of the heavy guitar riffs with actual composition. Those two bands laid bare the emptiness of hair band music. That being said, we know that I'm afraid of you and if I need to include Twisted Sister in the above I will do so at your request.