Cats, this is the most elegantly and ingeniously designed Popoff book ever (see samples below)... I’m just in awe with what they did with it. Here’s the publisher hype on ‘er:

The Big Book of Hair Metal tells the explosive history of hair metal in an burst of color, facts, figures and outrageous quotes, so many and so rich of unseen material, that this book serves as the ultimate encyclopedia of the form.

An oral history jacked up by mountains of trivia, dates, sales figures, concert milestones, gold and platinum designations.... there’s never been a history so complete, a tale so fully and entertainingly told.

Piles of kaleidoscopic photography and memorabilia shots make each page come alive, as every major event in the long life of glam metal—from its birth in the UK glitter rock movement of the early ‘70s, through the supposed “death” of glam by grunge, and beyond—is commemorated using the novel approach of oral history combined with hard facts, specific dates, detail that brings back those happy memories of al those bands trying to be seen and heard on the Sunset strip.

Martin Popoff, author of 48 books on heavy metal, is a known authority on this particularly happy and fondly remembered form of heavy metal, a genre that still accounts for healthy album and concert ticket sales year in, year out.

The Big Book of Hair Metal makes use of Martin’s archive of mostly unpublished interviewed footage from the following bands, most of which Martin has interviewed multiple times, names you know and love such as...

...Autograph, Badlands, Bang Tango, Black ‘N Blue, Blue Murder, Bulletboys, Cinderella, Damn Yankees, Dangerous Toys, Def Leppard, Dokken, Enuff Z’Nuff, Europe, Extreme, Faster Pussycat, Firehouse, Great White, Guns ‘N Roses, Hanoi Rocks, Helix, Jackyl, Keel, Kick Axe, Kingdom Come, Krokus, L.A. Guns, Lillian Axe, London, Love/Hate, Loverboy, Motley Crue, Mr. Big, Night Ranger, Poison, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Rough Cutt, Saigon Kick, Skid Row, Slaughter, Stryper, Tesla, TNT, Twisted Sister, Ugly Kid Joe, Vixen, Warrant, W.A.S.P., White Lion, Whitesnake, Y&T and Zebra.

In addition, Martin has talked to producers, managers, club owners, concert promoters, photographers, label executives, and many of the bands from an earlier era who, during the ‘80s, became, to varying degrees, part of the glam story, namely Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Ozzy Osbourne, Saxon, Scorpions, Triumph, Van Halen and many more. Then there are glam “revival” bands, plus instrumental originators such as Sweet, The Runaways, Starz, Angel, Legs Diamond, Foreigner and Boston.

Finally, Martin had at his fingertips, a vast research archive of magazines covering this period, perfect for the odd pertinent quote he couldn’t find in his personal conversations with these rockers.

All told, what Martin proposed a work wider in scope—and indeed intellectual heft— than simply Hollywood. The Big Book of Hair Metal encompasses the roots of glam, concert trends, production trends, the club scene, flyering, the power ballad, the impact of MTV, vocal styles, shredding, glam’s crossovers with shock rock, punk and early metal, regional scenes around the world, fashion, finer points of the music business and of course, plenty of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

However, the focus is on this almost entirely and uniquely American music, as it existed from approximately 1983 through 1991. This is the golden era of glam metal, and its locus and focus is in Los Angeles. The celebration of that period serves as the trunk of the book, but with myriad connections and comparisons made, illustrative quotes regularly fleshing out the tale.

With respect to images, for the project, Martin had at his fingertips a near endless supply of photography plus on the memorabilia side, a vast collection of LPs, CDs, 45s, backstage passes, and a huge collection of advertisements for albums and for gigs/tours, used to illustrate entries throughout the book. Ergo there goes hundreds of shots, along with over 80,000 words of text, spread over 225 yummy 8 3/4” x 11 1/4” pages, full color throughout, hard cover like hard candy.