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Thursday, September 28, 2006

It came from the pages of Hit Parader

I am looking at the January, 1987 issue of Hit Parader. The article I am looking at is Hit Parader's annual Reader's Poll results. Here are the top ten most popular bands that readers voted for from 1 down to 10.
1-Motley Crue
2-Ratt
3-Ozzy
4-KISS
5-Judas Priest
6-Van Halen
7-Iron Maiden
8-AC/DC
9-Bon Jovi
10-Metallica

Now around 84-85, I thought these awards meant something, but a year or so later it was just kind of a joke. You would often times see bands get high rankings even though they did not release an album that year or barely toured. I think they stopped doing them maybe around the early 90's or so. Then again I took Hit Parader serious when I was 14 and 15 then after that I began to see that it was kind of fluffy. Metal Edge was even more fluffy, it was like a teen metal magazine in it's approach. I remember thinking Rip and Metal may have been my favorite magazines at the time. Hit Parader did put out a magazine called Power Metal and it was better as I remember. It was mainly speed and thrash bands and it may have run between like 87-90.
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4 comments:

  1. On My Watch10:57 PM

    I remember liking The Firm and Whitesnake a lot in 1987.

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  2. Metal Mark4:30 AM

    At the end of this I am going to retire "It came from the pages of Hit Parader" so I can start a new feature called "Who was that?". I am however thinking of adding another new feature next year where I will search through my old Hit Paraders and pick out one quote per month. Might be Lemmy or Angus Young saying something cool or it might be Vince Neil or Don Dokken saying something stupid. So "Hit Parader quotes" is another new feature I might add for 2007.

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  3. Anonymous5:42 AM

    My how things have changed with the times! Metallica were just gaining momentum at that point.

    If you were to ask people to vote for those same bands today...the list would be completely different.

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  4. Anonymous6:19 AM

    I took all the rock mags seriously back then, I even voted in the polls. The Crue always took every category except Best female Rocker, that was Lita Ford every year.

    One mag I used to buy was a Hit Parader special: Heavy Metal Hot Shots. I believe it was band vs. band, like KISS vs. Motley Crue. I remember that issue because I still have the pullout poster: Gene & Paul circa '84 and a Vince Neil shot from the 'Looks That Kill' video.

    My mag of choice was Circus but I bought them all.

    ReplyDelete