What exactly is "Sleaze Metal"?

Its a term i've heard to describe mainly 80s bands like Crue or GNR, but what exactly makes a band sleaze metal? Is it just the lyrics or does it have to do with the vocals and riffs as well?

I would say the lyrics. The first song that popped in my head was Ten Seconds to Love.

It's sometimes the lyrics but I always thought it was more about the look. Spandex, teased hair, makeup... Poison, WASP, Faster Pussycat... Stryper...

Here

Sleaze metal is more street metal... I think Glam and sleaze are 2 different genres although very close..bands can be one or the other or both..Examples of bands that are straight up Glam would be Hanoi Rocks, Sweet, and pretty Boy Floyd..Bands that are more sleaze would be Guns And Roses, Love/Hate, Crashdiet... Bands that would be both would be Motley Crue, Black N Blue, L.A. Guns...

Examples of Glam...



Examples of Sleaze...



Examples of Bands that are both Glam and sleaze...

Thank you Savage for unblurring the lines between glam and sleeze.

...lets not forget one of my favorites form this genre.

great pick S6...I love Dangerous toys...

Savage Amusement and Sentient6 agreed on something?....Did hell freeze over or something?

LemonMouse wrote:Savage Amusement and Sentient6 agreed on something?....Did hell freeze over or something?

As far as musical taste goes...me and SA are right there.

S6, I like your avatar. That's one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands! I got to see 'em live a month or so ago.

Kerrick wrote:S6, I like your avatar.    That's one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands!  I got to see 'em live a month or so ago.

Yeah kerrick, when I'm in the mood for something different its real good stuff.

Heres another one from my youth that I really liked. I don't really like listening to them these days because of the lyrics, but they were good back in the day.

Another great choice S6...I recently bought there album Social Intercourse the other day...

What would Kinetic Faith - through - Scarecrow Messiah Bride be? Are they in the sleaze arena at all?

“Sleaze metal” is a thing? How many subgenres can there possibly be?

Sleaze and glam are interchangeable and usually get lumped into hair metal.

scottmitchell74 wrote:What would Kinetic Faith - through - Scarecrow Messiah Bride be? Are they in the sleaze arena at all?

Bride had a sound (KF, SITP) that could've fit with sleaze, but they didn't quite have the "look" to go with it.

Sleaze is like an offshoot/extension/subgenre of glam. I remember the sleaze type bands starting to get played more on MTV and the radio back in the late 80s (right at the tail end of the hair metal era), replacing the "safer" glam style bands. 

The sleaze bands seemed a little "edgier" and "nastier" than the typical party rock glam stuff. 

Guns N' Roses, LA Guns, and Skid Row (at least the debut) are good examples of that whole late 80s wave of sleaze.