Best Heavy Metal Songs of 80s

The hard rock music of the 80s was wild, filled with guitar solos and played by musicians with long hair. You weren't a teen in the 80s if you didn't play air guitar and sing into your hairbrush, flipping your head around to imitate one of these bands. We thought we'd invented music. In fact, I think there are so many incredible songs form that period that it's impossible to list them all.

We were also heavily influenced by the launch of MTV in 1981.Our generation had a video to tie to nearly every song which made the song itself more memorable - the goal of music videos. These videos were really marketing tools geared towards selling more records and cassettes. Yes, kids, cassettes. I had boxes and boxes of them!

One look at any of the band members themselves would explain why they're referred to as Hair Bands. If you could see their faces, they were wannabes. These bands were mostly male and almost all the members (especially the guitar players) had wild, unruly hair down their backs. These guys looked fierce but often had a ballad or two in their hip pocket that demonstrated the power and passion that drove their music.

Frankly, this is my favorite genre and there are 50 more songs I could have listed in this section but then the page might never download. I was a bit of an oddball amongst my friends because I liked Styx and Scorpions best but those weren't as popular at the time as Judas Priest and Def Leppard.

Many of these songs are still popular today and have millions of views on YouTube. My son, a 15 year old finishing his first year of high school, begged me for an AC/DC t-shirt when school started this year and is constantly bringing me a song he thinks is "new" only to find out I already know all the lyrics. Love the look of shock on his face when that happens.