Welcome to the Jungle Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock

This programme contains some strong language.

It was a time when singers were gods, guitarists were axemen and songs were anthems.

# Born in the USA, I was

# Born in the USA, I was... #

The soundtrack of the nation, forged one stadium at a time.

This is the story of the golden age of American rock, told by the people who were there.

MUSIC: "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

In the '60s, American rock wanted to change the world.

By the end of the '70s, it had been absorbed into the mainstream...

# Babe, I love you. #

..its rebellious spirit lost in a multibillion-dollar industry.

But the following decade, a new wave of rock bands would inject energy, sex and excitement

back into rock.

New technology and media would help the fame-hungry newcomers and established acts

transform rock into a commodity like never before.

It was a new era.

The '80s. The decade of decadence.

MUSIC: "Welcome To The Jungle" by Guns N' Roses

# Jungle, welcome to the jungle

# Watch it bring you to your knees

# Down in the jungle

# Welcome to the jungle Watch it bring you to your...

# It's gonna bring you down! Hurrgh! #

MUSIC: "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey

In 1981, a new sheriff rode into Washington,

vowing to lead America into a shining era of renewal.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

After Jimmy Carter's gloomy tenure of the late '70s,

Ronald Reagan's economic and foreign policy reforms

gave the country back its sense of self-belief.

It felt good to be an American again.

# Strangers waiting

# Up and down the boulevard... #

In that same year, REO Speedwagon, Styx and Journey

topped the charts with albums full

of well-crafted, melodic rock anthems.

# Don't stop believin'

# Hold on to that feelin'... #

After America's brief flirtation with disco

at the end of the previous decade, rock music was back on top.

# Don't stop! #

MUSIC: "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago

But, it was a safer, softer sound

than the hard rockers like Kiss, Alice Cooper and Aerosmith,

who had been so popular in the '70s.

By the early '80s, commercial radio playlists ruled the music industry.

Stations couldn't afford to risk losing listeners

and advertising revenue by playing anything that sounded too edgy.

# Hold me now

# It's hard for me to say I'm sorry... #

For young rock fans, this middle of the road rock was music your parents listened to.

A revolutionary new TV station was about to grab their attention.

'In the beginning was the music.

SEAGULLS CAW

'But there was no-one around to hear it.

CRASH

'Announcing the latest achievement in home entertainment.

'The power of sight. The power of sound. MTV Music Television.'

# ..Rewritten by machine on new technology... #

On the 1st of August 1981,

MTV chose a video by the British band Buggles

for its first-ever broadcast.

The idea was simple. Radio on the TV.

# Video killed the radio star

# Video killed the radio star... #

At first, American record companies didn't think MTV would work.

Why spend money on making videos for an unknown TV station,

when their rock bands were already all over FM radio?

There were some bands who learned early on

that they could benefit from the video opportunities of MTV

to get exposure in the US, and they were mostly British bands.

Put on some weird hats, some lipstick, some make-up -

I'm talking, of course, about the men.

# See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight... #

This made them visual in a way that the American bands weren't.

# Girls on film... #

Without any radio exposure, a new invasion of British bands

were selling millions of records.

MTV clearly had serious commercial power

and American rock had to catch up.

But now, just having the songs wasn't enough.

You had to LOOK cool too -

and for some of the older American rock bands, like Styx, this was a problem.

It was, kind of, late in the game for us to be doing videos and that sort of thing.

By the time we got to MTV, we really were novices at it.

Seemingly overnight, the giants of arena rock

began to look decidedly outdated.

That was it for us, so suddenly to be TV stars

was just... You know, it was an odd adjustment.

# Is it any wonder I'm not crazy?

# Is it any wonder I'm sane at all?

They had to start looking more modern, they had to start...

The poodle hairstyle to disappear, and, of course, suddenly

they weren't wearing denim any more, they'd turn up in a leather jacket -

-it was almost funny. You almost went...

-HE STIFLES A LAUGH

..But she's so beautiful.

That's when things got real ugly for us.

We made some pretty silly videos.

They were some of the most

embarrassing moments that I can remember.

When Duran Duran comes out

and they're all like, you know, male model-handsome,

and then we show up and it's like, how do you compete with that?

How do you compete with John Taylor? The guy's beautiful. You know.

# And I'm gonna keep on lovin' you... #

You know, some people would say "Nice afro" and I'm like "No, no." People would say "You had a mullet,"

I'm like, "No, not really." And then I realised what I had was a mulfro.

It was part afro, part mullet

and probably, the worst of both, you know.

MTV was quickly changing American pop music and rock needed to keep up.

The bands that filled stadiums in the 1970s

simply didn't fit in with the station's youthful attitude.

But newcomers Van Halen understood what MTV wanted -

big tunes with a flamboyant image.

MUSIC: "Panama" by Van Halen

# Oh, yeah

# Ah-ah-ah

# Jump back, what's that sound?

# Here she comes, full blast and top down

# Hot shoe, burnin' down the avenue

# Model citizen, zero discipline... #

LA's Van Halen were one of the first '80s American hard rock bands

to cross over to the mainstream.

They bridged the gap between metal and pop

with a series of catchy songs and cheeky videos.

# Panama

# Panama... #

The music was a showcase for guitarist Eddie Van Halen's

fast and wildly inventive playing style.

For many rock fans, he is America's greatest guitar hero since Jimi Hendrix.

Eddie came out and it was obviously incredibly bitchin' guitar playing.

Every single guitar player that came out after,

you know, 1979, 1980

all played a hybrid version of Eddie Van Halen.

But it wasn't just about technical ability.

This was rock as entertainment,

evoking the explosive energy

of older American rock acts like Aerosmith and Kiss.

GUITAR RIFF

# Oh!

# Oh, yeah!

# Teacher, stop that screamin'... #

At the centre of the Van Halen spectacle

was extrovert lead singer, David Lee Roth.

Dave Roth was the epitome of the American singer.

No question about him - he was all over that stage,

he was flamboyant, he was in your face, he was charismatic...

No, I'm actually a very family-oriented kind of guy,

I've personally started three or four since January.

He was hysterical. He was like a singing used car salesman.

You know? Where he would sing pretty much about anything

and try to sell you on it. And it was great.

# I didn't know about this school

# Little girl from Cherry Lawn, you're so bold

# I didn't know that rule... #

Van Halen managed to do what other heavy metal bands couldn't -

make the music mainstream and pop.

You had like, the '70s and then going into the '80s

it was definitely Van Halen that sort of changed everything that rock'n'roll was up to that point.

# Oh, can't you see me standing here

# I got my back against the record machine... #

By 1983, they were already MTV stars

and had released four top ten albums.

The following year, they became a household name, with their first number one single.

# Oh, might as well jump

# Jump

# Might as well jump... #

They had created the blueprint for a new American rock sound

that would eventually take over the 1980s.

But for now, on the other side of the country,

one rock star was outselling everybody.

# Cover me, baby...! #

By the early '80s, New Jersey boy Bruce Springsteen

was already an international superstar,

producing a bar-room rock

that struck right at the heart of blue-collar America.

There's something about this one person

that makes people wait outside record stores at 7:00am.

Bruce saved my life.

I mean, during periods when I was really depressed, he inspired me.

MUSIC: "Cover Me"

# The times are tough now They're just getting tougher, yeah

# This old world is rough It's just getting rougher

# Cover me

# Come on, baby, cover me... #

Bruce was a one of a kind live performer.

You know, he's a preacher. He's a preacher with a guitar.

MUSIC: "Born In The USA"

In 1984, he'd released

one of the most iconic American rock albums ever.

# Born in the USA, I was

# Born in the USA... #

It was also his most misunderstood work.

The album was about the struggles of American life,

and the title track a tribute to a disenfranchised Vietnam vet.

# Got in a little hometown jam

# So they put a rifle in my hand

# Sent me off to a foreign land

# To go and kill the yellow man, now... #

Most Americans totally misunderstood Born In The USA.

Cos all you heard was the hook, Bruce's gruff manner and totally...

Nobody was going to sit down and examine lyrics

cos the hook was so

boom, boom, boom...

with the beat -

# Born in the USA... #

# ..I was born in the USA... #

The lyrics were right there.

But you got a nation who was

respondent to riffs and hooks. Headline news.

# Come back home to the refinery

# Hiring man said, "Son, if it was up to me..."

# Went down to see my VA man, he said

# "Son, don't you understand?" now... #

Ronald Reagan didn't pay much attention to the lyrics, either.

Campaigning for his re-election, the song seemed like the perfect soundtrack

to the President's nationalistic tub-thumping.

America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts.

It rests in the message of hope, in songs of a man

so many young Americans admire - New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen.

What an idiot. It's not that hard.

What is it about? It's about a guy who's born in the USA,

and comes back with a much dirtier deal

than he had when he left.

It's not patriotic. It's about a broken system.

The great communicator completely misread

one of the greatest rock'n'roll songs ever written.

In 1984, Reagan won his second term by a landslide,

the nation seemingly united by a recovering economy

and an undercurrent of anti-Soviet sentiment.

The President had reignited the Cold War -

the anti-Communist feelings even reflected in popular culture.

Today, the Soviet Union

has officially entered professional boxing.

This is not just an exhibition fight. This is us against them.

I must break you.

That same year, American pop exploded with superstars.

MTV was at the centre of that success.

The New York-based television station was a national sensation

with millions of teenagers glued to their screens.

# Like a virgin

# Touched for the very first time... #

But on the other side of the country a new music scene was emerging

that would dominate the channel for the remainder of the decade.

MUSIC: "Nothing But A Good Time" by Poison

In Los Angeles, a group of musicians were using Van Halen

as their blueprint to create a new rock movement.

They all hung out on the mile-long road known as Sunset Strip.

# Don't need nothing

# But a good time

# How can I resist? #

The LA scene was electric.

You know, you had The Roxy, The Whiskey, The Troubadour,

you had all these places to play and everybody was playing all the time.

You went out every single night of the week.

The Strip was, literally, you couldn't walk down the sidewalk,

cos it was so crowded.

The early 1980s Los Angeles music craze was hardcore punk.

The emerging rock scene couldn't have been any more different.

While punks dressed down, the metallers took the '70s fashion

of the New York Dolls and British glam to a ridiculous new level.

I started seeing these freaks, with black hair and blond hair,

walking up Clarke Street

and I am like, "What is that?"

Here they are in these, like, leather stiletto boots

and the wild hair and stuff

and I just thought, "This is the next big thing."

Your whole day revolved around the sun coming down,

getting dressed up,

hiking the hair up...

..partying. It was great.

This was partying '80s style.

The loose sucks was indescribable.

You know there were people all on the streets,

smoking, drinking, fucking.

You had a couple of cocktails, then you did a couple of lines.

Cocaine, Jack Daniels.

Jack! Jack!

Then you had a couple more cocktails, to balance off the couple of lines.

I ralphed my guts out on many nights.

Sex on the fire escape in front of, you know, ten other people

was all just, sort of, a normal day.

They never thought, "Jeez, you know, if I fuck that porn star,

"I could get AIDS". That never occurred to them.

# Right now, lay it down Lay it down.

MTV was on the lookout for a new music trend

to expand their growing audience.

With its outrageous look and sound, the LA rock scene was perfect.

By the early '80s, Sunset Strip bands started to feature on

the channel's playlist. The most requested video was by Quiet Riot.

# Cum on feel the noize

# Girls rock their boys

# We'll get wild, wild, wild

# Get wild

# Come on! #

After heavy rotation on MTV of their cover of an old Slade song,

their debut LP became their first ever heavy metal album

to go to number one in America.

Record labels see this and say,

"Sign me the next Quiet Riot!"

And from that point on, we open up the floodgates

And proud of it.

Quiet Riot may have opened the door to MTV for LA's new rock scene,

but it was another Sunset Strip band who kicked that door off its hinges.

# She's got looks that kill

# That kill

# She got the looks that kill... #

Indulgent, decadent, perverts.

They pushed it to the limit.

What does your mother think of all this?

-She loves it.

-She loves it, you know.

'They had attitude,'

they had the look, they were funny.

You know, they were trying to be the baddest boys of all time.

Motley Crue combined the party-hard spirit of Sunset Strip,

with the exuberance of '70s rockers Aerosmith and Alice Cooper,

Formed in 1981, they were put together by drummer Tommy Lee

and bass player Nikki Sixx,

the brains behind the operation.

Our whole thing was about living large and girls and cars

and motorcycles and fun.

What kind of women do you like?

Any women with a pussy.

You would just drink and do drugs and just get crazy.

looking back it's like, "What the hell were we thinking?"

-# Too young to fall in love

-Too young

-# Too young to fall in love

-Too young

-# Too young to fall in love

-To fall in love

-# Too young to fall in love

-Too young, much too young... #

They really hit the big time after signing with

the management of their heroes, Kiss,

they ditched their early satanic flirtation,

ramped up the glam and made each gig a theatrical event.

You know, we started messing around with pyrotechnics.

You know, and we didn't know anything about it,

we got this Pyro Gel and we would just smear it on Nikki

and practise lighting him on fire.

What was born again was showbiz again.

They rehearsed the show, they spent money on the show,

it was a big show, and I thought that was healthy.

MUSIC: "Smoking In The Boys Room" by Motley Crue

Like Alice Cooper before them

their showbiz approach to rock music was strikingly visual.

It translated perfectly to MTV.

# Smoking in the boys' room

# We're smoking in the boys' room

# Teacher don't you fill me up with your rule

# Everybody knows that smokin' ain't allowed in school. #

And it was thanks to Motley Crue's outlandish image

LA's heavy rock scene was given a new name -

Hair Metal.

When we were backstage and T-Bone looked at me and said,

"Dude, how's my hat?"

I go, "You're not wearing a hat, it's just your hair."

He goes, "Dude, that's my hat!"

That's what he called his hair, cos they used so much hairspray.

Then he comes over like a wild lady and he goes,

"Dude, how's my helmet?"

"What do you mean?" He has so much hairspray in his hair,

it just became hard as rock,

so he's going, "How's my helmet?" "It looks good, man."

In 1985 Motley Crue's album, Theatre Of Pain, charted at number six.

Suddenly every record label wanted their own Motley Crue.

For five or six years, all the A&R men, all the bands...

You didn't head to New York to establish yourself -

they all got on a bus, plane, train to Los Angeles,

and that's where everybody was, you know, it's like...everybody.

Hit it, CC!

MUSIC: "Talk Dirty To Me" by Poison

Before long, American TV and radio was invaded by Hair Metal.

# At the drive in

# In the old man's Ford

# Down the basement

# Lock the cellar door

# And, baby

# Talk dirty to me. #

MTV made bands like Ratt, Twisted Sister, Cinderella

and Poison household names.

With big hooks and catchy choruses, this was larger than life pop metal

that appealed to American teenagers.

# Oooh, yeah! #

But the lyrics, like the videos,

were lewd, crude and unashamedly sexist.

The sexual equality championed by '60s rock bands

was now a distant memory.

# Girls, girls, girls

# At the Dollhouse in Fort Lauderdale

# Girls, girls, girls

# Rocking in Atlanta at Tattletails

# Girls, girls, girls

# Raising hell at the Seventh Veil. #

"How's women betrayed in them?" As bimbos, of course!

That was their role in that.

Everybody had identical boobs from identical doctors.

You know, it wasn't that good,

but it was very much up in keeping with the '80s, that narcissism.

# I just need a new toy. #

I could not believe the moment... I can remember the moment,

sitting in my living room and watching MTV and Girls, Girls, Girls

comes on - Motley Crue - and there are all these strippers.

I couldn't believe it, it's like,

"OK, that's it, you know, you've gone the limit now."

It was a similar story of sexual discrimination behind the scenes.

I think, at that point in time, men wanted to reduce women

back to barefoot and pregnant, if possible, and there weren't a lot

of women in the music industry at that point in time, either.

You know, there was myself and like a handful of other women.

You know, I'd be managing a band that was, like, on the rise

and the record company president or the A&R person who wanted to

sign the band would, like, whisper in the band's ear,

"Well, we'll sign you and get you a real manager,"

because, you know, I was a woman.

Not only was Hair Metal sexist,

but it completely ignored the social and political climate of the 1980s.

While America wrestled with big issues like the Cold War,

the economy and AIDS,

all the rock bands cared about was partying.

Our shit was about having a good time, you know.

I never wanted to get deep.

We, kind of, kept it tongue-in-cheek.

You've got to remember I came from the Van Halen thing.

We were just trying to be,

"Hey, let's party and fuck and have a good time," you know?

Back at MTV's headquarters in New York, many of

the hip, young staff found Hair Metal decidedly crass and un-cool.

Every time MTV took metal off the air, the ratings went down.

So for a long time, they were stuck, they were reluctantly

stuck with metal, because it made them so much money.

Hair Metal's popularity was such that

several of America's old rock acts, ended up tweaking their image

and songs in an attempt to cash in on the new rock craze.

Could we be taken seriously? You are damn right we could.

50 million fans can't be wrong.

Folks at home, take us seriously, but take us.

Hard rock heroes Kiss went for the complete makeover.

Out went their trademark face paint

and in came a Hair Metal fashion catastrophe.

So why did you take the make-up off?

You do something too long and you wind up being

a caricature of yourself. You end up being a copy of yourself.

I always figure that, you know, that life is like a one-way trip,

so you might as well dress for a good time, so, you know.

As you can tell, he is really dressed today.

And this is the best way to have fun.

# Oh, no, tears are falling

# Oh, no, tears are falling. #

Kiss fans weren't so keen on the new direction

and the band failed to score a Top 40 hit in the 1980s.

# And the night goes by so very slow... #

'70s female rockers Heart ditched their flowery frocks

for a sexier '80s rock sound and image.

They would later regret playing up to Hair Metal's sexual stereotypes,

but they scored six Top Ten hits during the decade.

# Till now I always got by on my own

# I never really cared until I met you. #

Hey, this is a Rock'n'Roll museum, you guys don't belong in here!

Ha-ha-ha!

# I'm the king of rock

# There is none higher... #

Another '70s faded rock giant used a different means to make a comeback.

By 1986, hip-hop had established itself as a serious threat

to rock's crown as America's leading popular music.

# Got the right to vote and will elect

# And other rappers can't stand us but give us respect. #

It started out as street music from the black community

but thanks to chart acts like Run DMC,

it was fast appealing to a large white audience, too.

MUSIC: "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith and Run DMC

And it was via rap music that Aerosmith made their return.

# There's a back seat lover that's always on the cover... #

Their collaboration with Run DMC catapulted them

from a drug induced exile back into the Top Ten.

# Walk this way

# Talk this way

# Walk this way

# Talk this way. #

They were quick to capitalise on their return to fame.

With help from songwriter Desmond Child,

they were able to create their own successful style of '80s American rock.

# Dude looks like a lady

# Dude looks like a lady. #

Dude (Looks Like A Lady) came about

because they had gone to a bar

and so, at the end of the bar, from behind,

they saw this gorgeous blonde.

Then the blonde turned around and it was Vince Neil of Motley Crue

and so they started laughing and started saying,

"Hey, that dude looks like a lady!"

And that's where it was born.

# Dude looks like a lady

# Dude looks like a lady. #

Similar to the hair metal sound,

Dude (Looks Like A Lady) epitomised '80s American rock production.

Just like the fashion and the hooks,

it was about making everything bigger.

# Baby let me follow you down

# Do me, do me, do me, do me! #

It became an art of being in the studio to see who could

get the ear candy the best,

because what they wanted to do was grab listeners.

The snares along with digital reverb

could seem like they could go on for ever and ever

in rooms that couldn't exist in reality.

You could doubletrack, tripletrack, quadrupletrack

all of the guitars and make this enormous sound

that was really in your face.

# Here I go again on my own

# Going down the only road I've ever known. #

As in the 1970s,

in the '80s there were two schools of mainstream American rock -

one favoured that big production sound,

backed by a theatrical performance,

the other looked back to America's rich tradition of rock'n'roll,

connecting with the hearts of the working class.

# Well, I fought for you

# I fought too hard... #

By the early 1980s, Tom Petty had gone from a cult heartland hero

to a star of FM radio.

With his blends of post Beatles riffs

and streetwise '50s pop romanticism,

he crashed the Top Ten with albums like

Hard Promises and Long After Dark.

It set him on course to becoming one of America's most loved rock stars.

# There's been a change

# Yeah, there's been a change of heart

# There's been a change... #

In the '80s you had drum machines and synthesisers,

things that I felt would date the music.

I tried to avoid that and keep the music organic.

My mission was to stay true to where I came from,

just try to be a garage band,

you know, a live band.

# You were the moon and sun

# You're just a loaded gun now. #

It wasn't just the vintage sound of American rock Petty preferred.

# There's been a change. #

Tom saw the economic climate of the '60s

as a fairer time for the rock fan.

Rock'n'roll was so great because it was a 99 cent enterprise,

you know, like anybody could go get that record they heard on the radio.

But once... Like when you started seeing, especially like the CD,

you know it was becoming 13 dollars, 14 dollars -

people couldn't pay that.

# Good love is hard to find. #

In the 1970s sales of rock music had made billions for record companies.

In the '80s, when Reaganomics inspired aggressive profiteering,

the major labels proposed a one dollar increase on chart albums.

Tom Petty refused to comply.

He was fighting greed and stupidity.

Basically, record companies wanted more for less

and Petty was telling them "No, we charge a fair price,

"I don't want to squeeze it out of the people who are buying it,"

because he was a guy who bought records.

You know, he'd be squeezing it out of people that he used to know,

and I think there's a nobility to that.

# Good love is hard to find... #

I don't know, I thought it was kind of cool to just say, "I'm fine,

"I don't need another buck."

Not one artist got behind me!

Despite his battle with the music industry,

thanks to an appearance at Live Aid and a series of successful albums,

in the 1980s, Tom became one of the most famous rock acts in the world.

His bitter sweet lyrics were inventively portrayed in a series of creative videos,

far removed from the vulgarity of Hair Metal's sexual imagery.

MUSIC "Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty

Rock is a blue-collar music.

We had a lot of acceptance among the more working class people,

I suppose, and that's rewarding, you know

because that's where I came from.

I would be very disappointed if it was only the, kind of,

Young Republicans set that liked our music.

MUSIC: "Jack and Diane" by John Cougar Mellencamp

Indiana singer John Cougar Mellencamp appealed to that same heartland audience,

with songs that depicted the struggles of everyday Americans.

# Little ditty 'bout Jack and Diane

# Two American kids growin' up in the heartland

# Jackie gonna be a football star

# Diane's debutante back seat of Jackie's car. #

His most significant work was 1985's album, Scarecrow,

a damning critique of the American farming industries collapse.

Having grown up around Indiana farmland,

it was a subject close to his heart.

Scarecrow came from, as he called it, table talk.

You know, sitting around the dinner table with members of his family.

# Scarecrow on a wooden cross Blackbird in the barn

# 400 empty acres that used to be my farm

# I grew up like my daddy did My grandpa cleared this land

# When I was five I walked the fence while Grandpa held my hand... #

I believe it was his brother-in-law was a farmer.

If you worked out all the finances, what he was making,

what he was spending, the investment, the hours,

he was making a buck 15 an hour, as a farmer.

I made a dollar an hour, working in a drug store in 1969

and I was 15-years-old.

# Grandma's on the front porch swing with a Bible in her hand

# Sometimes I hear her singing Take me to the Promised Land

# Take away a man's dignity he can't work his fields and cows

# There'll be blood on the scarecrow

# Blood on the plough. #

Alongside Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty,

John Mellencamp was one of the few '80s rock stars

who engaged with the decline of the American dream.

Although Reagan may have encouraged rapid economic growth

it came at a cost.

While the top 2% got richer,

nearly half the population's income fell in the 1980s.

People like Mellencamp, Springsteen, Petty, these are songwriters

that are fed up with the political system.

They're talking about the people affected by politics

and that's why their songs still resonate.

While all three of these socially-aware artists

enjoyed extensive exposure on MTV,

they couldn't have been any more different

to the narcissistic hair metal that saturated the channel.

# I fuck like a beast!

# I come around round

# I come feel your love. #

I thought that hair band stuff was just the absolute lowest point

I had ever seen rock get to.

I thought they really humiliated women, to a great extent.

I didn't like that.

Hair Metal was offending a high profile group of American mothers, too.

The music is exciting, the singers idolised by millions,

but many of the fans are young and impressionable

and some of the lyrics,

according to an influential group of American mothers,

should not be falling on youthful ears.

Over his two terms, one of Ronald Reagan's presidential drives

was a return to the morals and standards of 1950s America.

As part of this cultural clean up, a group of Senator's wives formed

The Parents' Music Resource Centre, in 1985.

Led by Al Gore's wife, Tipper,

its remit was to rid American rock of sex, drugs and violence.

# Never let loose Going in for the kill. #

This group, Motley Crue, has a song on this album,

It's entitled Livewire,

quote, "I'll either break her face or take down her legs,

"Get my ways at will, Go for the throat,

"Never let loose, Going in for the kill."

The sexual lyrics are very, very explicit at this point.

In fact, I'm embarrassed to tell you some of them.

Many of the Hair Metal bands were on the organisation's hit list.

The PMRC demanded record labels give albums age restrictions

and even drop artists deemed offensive.

The musicians were outraged,

but did the PMRC have a point?

That was the era that women were treated the worst, you know -

in the '80s.

The sexism really was the most obvious,

so, yeah, looking back, I think Tipper might have had a point.

But, I don't know, just from, you know, a street rocker point of view,

I don't really relate to those people, you know.

In the end, the American recording industry agreed

to slap advisory labels on albums that contained explicit content.

It didn't have quite the desired effect.

As a kid, you're going to go, "That's the one I'm going to buy,"

and so album sales, you know, went up,

like, 100% in sales, just because of those stickers.

-New Jersey.

-New Jersey.

New Jersey, yeah.

While the PMRC battled with the seedier side of pop,

a new Jersey band with a clean-cut image

was set to take over the world, with the perfect American rock package.

MUSIC "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi drew on the stadium anthems of Journey and Boston,

had the stage presence of Aerosmith and Kiss and their songs

evoked the struggles of Bruce Springsteen's blue collar America

# Hold on to what we've got

# It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not... #

And by adopting the fashion and sound of Hair Metal,

they could appeal to the whole of America.

# Give it a shot

# Oh, we're halfway there

# Oh oh, livin' on a prayer

# Take my hand We'll make it I swear

# Oh oh, livin' on a prayer. #

If you gave a commission to a sculptor

and said, "Make the perfect rock star,"

he would basically chisel out Jon Bon Jovi's face and hair.

# MUSIC: "Runaway" by Bon Jovi

Led by singer Jon and guitarist Richie Sambora,

the band formed in 1983, but it would take them

a couple of albums to perfect their hit making formula.

# Daddy's girl learned fast all those things he couldn't say. #

When John brought in Kiss and Aerosmith collaborator

Desmond Child, everything changed.

# She's a little runaway. #

I rented a car and drove out to New Jersey

to these marshlands, you know,

on the edge of an oil refinery.

I was still living in my mother's house.

Jon and I used to write in my mom's...

in my parents' basement.

I was led downstairs to the basement,

where there was a little space heater

and there was a keyboard on a Formica table,

and we started writing this song called You Give Love A Bad Name.

I had brought the title

and Jon had the hook, "shot through the heart".

And Richie started playing that chugging great hook

and we were off and running.

# Shot through the heart And you're to blame

# You give love a bad name

# Bad name

# I play my part... #

With co-writer Desmond on board,

Bon Jovi's next album made them superstars.

Just like the stadium rockers of the '70s,

their sing-along anthems worked as well on stage

as they did on a car stereo or a bar jukebox.

Songs like Livin' On A Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name

strike a chord in the working class.

And it is the kind of music they want to rock to on the weekends.

In 1987, while America grappled with the New York Stock Market crash

Slippery When Wet was the biggest-selling album,

the song's lyrics recalling better times.

What we were doing was going back to our prom days in high school...

# I sit in this smoky room... #

and I guess, by accident, that was romantic

and girls got it.

# ..when we lost the keys

# And you lost more than that in my back seat, baby. #

I was just talking about my experience.

You are sitting there, across the table from your prom date,

at that point in time you're saying,

"This is the girl I could possibly marry."

# ..Forever

# Never say goodbye

# Never say goodbye... #

What we captured, it was everybody's life experience,

we were just mirroring it.

# Hoping it would never end. #

For MTV, Jon's dazzling film star looks

were great for ratings and the band's videos featured 24/7.

The channel was particularly partial to their line in power ballads.

MUSIC: "Wanted Dead Or Alive" by Bon Jovi

There had been a tradition

in the music of Queen

and, of course, The Beatles and Paul McCartney,

songs like, you know, Long And Winding Road,

they were emotionally very big songs.

When the metal bands got a hold of that style,

then they amped it up and that's what became the power ballad.

# Is this love that I'm feelin'? #

Power ballads were an '80s American phenomenon,

a chance for our grizzled rockers to show their more vulnerable side

and sell a whole load of records to soccer moms as well as teenage fans.

They all followed the same formula -

acoustic guitars...

..soaring melodies...

..rousing choruses...

..and epic guitar solos.

MUSIC: "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison

When backed by a cheesy video, the song was soon on MTV,

then on the FM dial and, finally, topping the charts.

In the music business, anything that succeeds is instantly

imitated over and over again on a larger scale until it fails.

Just as it had at the end of the '70s,

mainstream American rock was moving away from its rebellious roots,

diluted by commercial success.

It was all a bit safe.

There was a lot of commercial, spoon-fed, sugary music

and it was flooding radio and MTV.

At some point, you've got to get, if you are 18,

you've got to be pissed off.

MUSIC: "Welcome To The Jungle" by Guns N' Roses

# Welcome to the jungle

# We got fun and games

# We got everything you want

# Honey, we know the names

# We are the people that you find

# Whatever you may need

# If you got the money, honey We got your disease

# In the jungle

# Welcome to the jungle

# Watch it bring you to your kn-kn-kn-kn-kn-kn-kn-kn-knees

# Knees

# I wanna watch you bleed. #

For rebellious teens,

Guns N' Roses were the ultimate American rock band.

Released in 1987, their debut album is widely regarded

as one of the greatest rock records of all time.

It had the perfect combination of the swaggering arrogance

of the big '70s stadium bands but

mixed in with the sleaze and energy of punk and British hard rock.

Guns N' Roses were not acting, they were not playing a part.

They really were bad boys of rock'n'roll.

# I see your sister in her Sunday dress

# She's out to please She pouts her best... #

We couldn't stand, like, all these sort of flamboyant guys

that looked like girls running around with their bands.

It was actually pretty silly, you know, looking back on it.

In the Guns N' Roses days we hated that whole thing,

we were like the antithesis of it.

# Fuck off! #

Some of LA's pop metal bands exaggerated their

rebellious lifestyle, but Guns N' Roses were the real deal,

dragged up on the back streets of West Hollywood.

MUSIC: "It's So Easy" by Guns N' Roses

We lived in, like, this dark underbelly of the real Hollywood.

Drugs and dealers and guns.

That informed us a lot more than Sunset Strip did,

or spandex pants.

MUSIC: "Out Ta Get Me" by Guns N' Roses

The GNR sound was a filthy fusion of the punky rhythm section

of drummer Steve Adler and bass player Duff McKagan,

backing Izzy Stradlin's Stones-inspired guitar

and the razor-sharp riffing of Slash.

MUSIC: "My Michelle" by Guns N' Roses

But the furious focus of the band was their temperamental lead singer,

Axl Rose.

# Your daddy works in porno now your momma's not around

# She used to love her heroin Now she's underground

# You stay out late at night

# And you do your coke for free

# Driving your friends crazy with your life's insanity. #

Axl was one of the most intense people I have ever met in my life.

He was a bad-ass, without a doubt.

He was a guy that I've seen get in street fights

and he's a guy that I've seen beat the shit out of people.

I remember we were going to get him,

because we were going to do a rehearsal

and I went up and knocked on the door,

he opened the door and he kicked me right in the balls

and, to this day, I don't know why!

The band soon built up a formidable live reputation,

their raw energy offering a visceral alternative

to the airbrushed look and sound of their contemporaries.

They were so brilliant live.

You knew that you were watching a train wreck,

but you couldn't take your eyes off of it, you know,

it was just so intense and a little bit dangerous.

# Well, well, well, my Michelle... #

With highly-explicit lyrics about prostitution,

heroin addiction and running from the police,

for nearly a year, their debut album struggled to get

any mainstream exposure, but their second single,

a tender love song,

had just the right commercial appeal to dominate the American airwaves.

# She's got a smile that it seems to me

# Reminds me of childhood memories

# Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky... #

In the summer of 1988, Sweet Child O' Mine

was a number one hit single for Guns N' Roses

and set Appetite For Destruction on course

for selling over 15 million copies.

The album combined the best parts of the last 20 years of American rock -

attitude, arrogance and universal appeal.

# Oh oh-oh, sweet child o' mine

# Oh-oh oh-oh, sweet love of mine. #

It's a great record, because everything in their lives

as errant young men into this strangely-cohesive band

of musicians and singers and writers,

it was all building up to that record.

The performances are incredible, the production's great

and they could play it.

You know, I saw them on their first national tour and they killed it.

Appetite For Destruction is one of the greatest rock'n'roll records EVER

and those type of records that have swearing in it

and have controversial topics don't get that big.

They're not supposed to because it's not vanilla, but they did.

The Reagan years were big and huge and scary

and there was the Cold War and there was all this stuff

and because there was recession,

there was more crime and there was drugs everywhere.

We weren't the only ones living like this, you know?

We were just sort of, turns out, a mouthpiece

for a lot of people like us.

# Shed a tear, cos I'm missing you

# I'm still all right to smile

# Girl, I think about your... #

The band quickly followed up Appetite For Destruction

with the semi-acoustic album Lies.

It sold five million copies in the United States alone

and, by the end of the decade,

they were the biggest rock act in the world.

# All we need is just a little patience... #

But fame came at a cost.

I started getting into the heroin.

And...it just took over.

And it will take over your life - no matter how great you have it,

no matter how much you appreciate what you have,

if you are doing that,

it's going to take complete control of your life.

And then the crack thing came out.

That was just...

In 1990, Stephen Adler was fired from Guns N' Roses,

for his continual substance abuse,

from which he would later suffer a serious stroke.

By that time, most of the band were struggling with addiction,

but they continued to work together on new material.

In 1991, they released two double albums,

a confused mess of different musical styles.

The direction was, kind of, all over the place. It was...

We had so many songs.

I still don't know what's on One and Two,

I don't know what the difference is.

I've gone back and forth over the years, for sure,

like, thinking, "Well, we should have just made one rock record."

You are churning out money for a lot of different entities -

for promoters, for agents,

for record companies, for whatever else -

and you get...whether you...

You can be as anti-establishment as you want,

but if your band is huge

and you're touring and you're out there...

..things just happen.

As '80s rock staggered on into the '90s,

it followed a familiar pattern that had begun back in the '70s -

it didn't matter how radical you started out,

rock music was such big business

that the corporate side eventually took over any rebellious spirit.

# In the cold November rain... #

Back on the Sunset Strip,

a decade of decadence had finally caught up

with the hair metal bands, too.

Serious addiction problems had ended several careers

while the AIDS pandemic put an end

to their penchant for the promiscuous.

So help me, God.

As Reagan's reign came to an end, America was changing, too.

The Cold War may have thawed,

but as the world's leading superpower moved into the 1990s,

the country struggled with both high unemployment and inflation.

Once the United States entered the Gulf War, oil prices rocketed.

Suddenly, the carefree partying of '80s rock had lost its charm.

# With the lights out it's less dangerous

# Here we are now, entertain us

# I feel stupid... #

Nirvana's album Nevermind topped the charts in January 1992

and American rock changed overnight.

Nirvana didn't look, sound or behave like '80s rock stars.

This was made obvious at the 1992 MTV Music Awards

when Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love

got into an argument with Axl Rose

and his girlfriend Stephanie Seymour.

Axl comes up to Kurt and he goes,

"You better shut your bitch up or I'll take her to the pavement."

This is in a tent with hundreds of people in it,

all of them players in the industry.

And Kurt, who was very droll and very dry and very funny,

looked at me and goes, "Shut up, bitch."

The whole room started just falling to bits.

It was a really funny comeback

and, in the midst of it, Stephanie, trying to do a save,

looked at me and said "So, are you a model?"

And I said "No, are you a rocket scientist?"

More laughter, more gales of it. They were thoroughly humiliated.

It was a clash of values. It was different values.

A lot of people really treated women like animals - fucking animals.

MUSIC: "In Bloom" by Nirvana

This backstage incident turned out to symbolise a cultural shift.

Kurt Cobain's attitude publically highlighted

the sexist posturing of mainstream '80s rock as outdated.

It wasn't cool to be the lothario lead singer

or alpha male guitar virtuoso.

Grunge gave American rock a sense of revolution

not heard since the 1960s.

# Sell the kids for food... #

They looked like the guy that just walked in from the audience

to the guitar and was playing.

Obviously, it clicked with the young 16, 17-year-olds

who are like, "That guy is right, I do hate my mom."

# Hey, he's the one

# Who likes all our pretty songs... #

Kurt Cobain came and mowed them down

like wheat before the sickle, you know?

Gone.

And you saw what was left of those hair guys

trying to get into plaid shirts

and look a little less, you know, sprayed up,

because they were done for.

Which is a good, you know...

If that can happen to you, you're doing the wrong thing.

MUSIC: "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" by Wu Tang Clan

# Raw, I'm gonna give it to you,

# With no trivia

# Raw like cocaine straight from Bolivia

# My hip-hop will rock and shock the nation

# Like the Emancipation Proclamation... #

In the end, it wasn't grunge

that replaced the golden age of rock -

it was the golden age of rap.

In the 20 years since, it's hip-hop that's been providing American kids

with the big, outrageous personalities

that rock once provided in the '60s, '70s and '80s.

I think the last major seismic eruption in rock

was probably the Nirvana period. Right after that,

rock slips from the music of the day into the background.

It's not in the foreground any more.

Rap is in the foreground, hip-hop is in the foreground.

And then you have young people coming up

who identified with that music, and, rightfully so,

it became the music of the day for them.

Today, classic American rock is a heritage industry.

Artists like Styx, REO Speedwagon and Ted Nugent

regularly tour the length and breadth of America,

playing to packed-out arenas.

Tom Petty, John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen

continue to be some of America's biggest-selling live acts

and Kiss and Motley Crue regularly sell out concerts

on their own cruise ships.

With America, everything is about getting away

from life's everyday little nonsense

and everything was about a party and a good time

and making everything an event.

We were there for people to forget their problems

and enjoy the entertainment.

Right now, there is no showmanship, there's no...rock stars any more.

I don't even know how you would do it now.

There is only like one major label and that is so micro-managed

that I don't know if they would allow any band to go off the rails.

Which I think... You've gotta be a little off the rails.

The rock music of the '60s, '70s and '80s

has become America's classical music.

For the fans, it represents a glorious era

of big entertainment rock,

when songs were anthems, singers were gods

and guitarists were axemen.

For those fans, the golden age will never die.

MUSIC: "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses

# Just a' urchin livin' under the street

# A hard case that's tough to beat

# I'm your charity case so buy me somethin' to eat

# I'll pay you at another time

# Take it to the end of the line... #