The songs pair hard rock riffs and fast guitar solos with sing-along choruses, and most albums include a slow power ballad. Lyrics are mostly about parties and romance. The style grew up in the clubs of Los Angeles in the early 1980s and filled radio and MTV until grunge pushed it aside in the early 1990s. It is far more polished and melodic than thrash, its rival at the time.
Artists it is known for: Mötley Crüe, Poison, Ratt, Bon Jovi.
About 5,100 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have glam metal among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Glam Metal artists
Guns N' Roses
Bon Jovi
Scorpions
Ozzy Osbourne
Van Halen
Mötley Crüe
Def Leppard
KISS
Judas Priest
DioThe glam metal artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.