Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream’ on Paramount+, A Docuseries That Recalls The Heady Daze Of Hair Metal’s Moment In The Sun

In the three-part docuseries I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream (Paramount+), musicians whose different backgrounds and entry points into the music industry put them on a collision course with the MTV-addled hair metal universe of the early 1980s discuss what it was like to break into that scene, how it felt to be inside the maelstrom, and all of the feels that came after, once hair metal’s Aqua Net sheen completely wore off. The ‘80s Metal Dream features interviews with Janet Gardner of Vixen, Kip Winger, Skid Row co-founder and guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and hard rock lifer John Corabi, and includes commentary from additional musicians and music journalists.  

I WANNA ROCK: THE ’80s METAL DREAM: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: The roar of the crowd, and the stage lights’ hot white glare. “Open up and say ahhh….” only this isn’t Poison’s platinum second album from 1988. It’s the orthodontic chair in the office of once rocker, now dentist Janet Gardner. “Most of my patients have no idea that I was ever in a band, or any of that.”  

The Gist: Intercut with shots of her work as a dentist and a contemporary interview is archival footage of Gardner as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Vixen, the all-female rockers whose 1988 single “Edge of a Broken Heart” remains a resonant slice of hooky hair metal euphoria. They take the stage at Spring Break ‘89 to cheers from a raucous crowd full of shirtless dudes in promotional Budweiser painter’s caps and women in mirrored shades, and Gardner’s immaculate Scorpions tour shirt would probably sell for thousands in today’s online vintage clothing shops. “We were all part of that hair metal scene,” Gardner says of the era. “It was like all of a sudden being in the major leagues.” 

With clubs like the Roxy and Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles as its epicenter, and tracked by the barometer of cool that MTV used to be, hair metal’s popularity went international in the early 1980s. Sunset was the magnet for Gardner and people like John Corabi, a singer and guitarist for a string of bands that eventually included Motley Crue. “Everybody was trying to get the most attention, trying to get that elusive record deal.” But for musicians like Snake Sabo, who formed Skid Row in his native New Jersey, or Kip Winger, who was based in New York City, hair metal was the biggest thing the music industry had going, and they wanted in, too. In Sabo’s case, it helped to be childhood friends with Jon Bon Jovi, whose band was already huge.

“MTV was a visual medium,” Dee Snider says in The ‘80s Metal Dream, “and they were quickly scurrying around to find bands that were visually interesting.” It was therefore ideal that heavy metal already valued visual representation as much as it did sonic power. Leather, chains, androgyny, and teased-out and sprayed-up hair became the norm on the network, along with screaming guitar solos and shouty choruses. And hair metal bands were securing record deals right and left. This was their shot, a chance to really make it, to stand out from every other band on the club circuit. And it was all happening. But as The ‘80s Metal Dream details, all of these rockers learned some hard truths about Music Television being the fickle master of their dreams. “We became the darlings of MTV,” Kip Winger says. “And then, you know, soon after that, everyone started hating us.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of: Gunpowder & Sky, the production company behind I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream, also teamed up with MTV Studios for the three-part Paramount+ doc Sometimes When We Touch, which explored the mid-70s sound of what these days is often referred to as yacht rock. And Dee Snider and Riki Rachtman also appear in When Metal Ruled the 80s, a four-part Peacock docuseries that follows a similar arc to ‘80s Metal Dream. And of course, when it comes to the creme de la creme of hair metal docs, there’s nothing quite like The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

Our Take: The media landscape of the mid to late 1980s was overtaken by hair metal, whether it was in popular magazines like Hit Parader, metal-focused music video and interview shows like Heavy Metal Mania on MTV, hosted by Dee Snider, and its successor, Riki Rachtman’s Headbanger’s Ball, or the massive world tours that packaged heavy hitters like Bon Jovi and Motley Crue and The Scorpions with hair bands just on the come up. Penelope Spheeris’ groundbreaking documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years appeared in 1988. And yet, as the storyline of I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream makes clear, it was all over by 1991, when MTV and the music industry set their sights on Nirvana, grunge, and the alternative music explosion. Hair metal’s story, and how it was silenced by Kurt Cobain’s anguished scream, has been told before. But the route that ‘80s Metal Dream takes to do it, with profiles of the various personalities who made their way into the scene, is an effective one, because it personalizes their efforts to achieve what any musician of any genre wants. Like their peers, they just wanted to be heard. Everything else that came with it, from the hairspray to the increasingly absurd outfits and antics, was just part of being on that rocketship.

The contemporary interview segments in ‘80s Metal Dream really stand out, because of this perspective. But the docuseries also scrounges up some pretty incredible visuals that help set the scene. Kip Winger and friends pulling long hours in a New York recording studio. Tracking shots of the crowds outside the clubs on Sunset, preening for the camera in the familiar manner that would inform their Instagram reels or TikToks if it was happening today. And in one stretch of tape, the early moments of Snake Sabo and Skid Row rehearsing with their new lead singer, a nineteen-year-old tall drink of water in leather pants and wild hair named Sebastian Bach, whose audacity and unpredictability personified what it meant to be a rock star in that era.  

Sex and Skin: “Who didn’t wanna be there?” Janet Gardner recalls of the rock clubs on the Sunset Strip in LA, because if you could draw a crowd, you could get a record deal. And what John Corabi remembers was that crowd having all of the looks. “Wall to wall palm tree hair, long jackets, girls in lingerie, fishnet stockings, high heels, and dudes with as much makeup on as their chicks.” 

Parting Shot: Part two of The ‘80s Metal Dream will focus on what came next as musicians’ longing for rock stardom manifested. “Getting signed, we knew that was a huge step,” Gardner says. “But then when it really happened, it’s kind of like, well what does this actually mean?” And Snake Sabo describes it as a reality check. “You picture champagne being opened, and this atmosphere of celebration for your lifelong dream. And it was not that.” 

Sleeper Star: A notable nugget of comparison here is author Craig Williams’ breakdown of flyer culture in the 1980s. 8 ½ x 11 and pasted onto a pole, they were the one-stop social media promotional tools of the age. “You would try to find a color that nobody else was using. You had to have a really good photo – sort of sexy, or menacing – and then you’d have the name of the band, so you’d need some sort of interesting logo, and hopefully you’d have some dates scheduled if you weren’t a total poseur. And then a ticket hotline, where people could call and it’d be like ‘Hey this is Tommy from Paradise, and we’re gonna rock your ass.’” Shouldn’t hotlines to call and reach a promotional recording from a band make a big comeback? Is Cameo looking for a new revenue stream?  

Most Pilot-y Line: Van Halen were the influencers of their day. Music journalist Katherine Turman says getting established early and already having a full-fledged look and sound gave the Pasadena rockers a leg up. “Van Halen had the template,” Turman says over archival footage of Eddie Van Halen finger-tapping with a lit cigarette stuck in the tuning pegs of his signature red, white, and black Frankenstrat. “The shredding guitarist. The outrageous frontman with the hair. Never would I have called them metal, never would I call them hair metal. But an influence on every single band that was metal that came afterwards, for sure.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream focuses on the individual perspectives of a cross-section of musicians to tell its story, along the way revealing the look and feel of the hair metal scene, as well as its trajectory as it grew, went gonzo, and eventually got crushed by grunge.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges