Graduated in '84, smack dab in the middle of hair metal's glory days. Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, they were gods. Big hair, tight leather, and guitars so loud they'd shake your soul. But then, poof, gone.

The 80s got too soft with all those power ballads. I was sick of them. I wanted rock, not some sappy love song. Too many bands started turning their albums into ballad fests. Fans got upset; they wanted rock, not a lullaby.

Then grunge hit like a sledgehammer. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, they brought back the real stuff. Raw, gritty rock 'n' roll. I jumped on that train because I was fed up with the same old thing. Grunge was like, "Here's your rock, now listen up."

But let's not give grunge all the credit. The music industry was changing, becoming a greedy beast. MTV got bored with the glam look, chasing after the next big thing. They ditched hair metal when it stopped being shiny.

Alternative music started creeping in, showing how stale the rock scene had become. Too many bands were just copying each other, making the whole scene an echo chamber. Innovation? More like stagnation.

Tech changed everything too. CDs took over, and MTV became the new radio. Suddenly, how you looked was as important as how you sounded. When hair metal couldn't keep up with the times, it got left in the dust.

So, did grunge kill 80s rock, or was it already dead on its feet? Maybe it was a combination - grunge was the last kick to the corpse, but the ballads and lack of evolution had already done the damage.

What do you think really killed off 80s rock?

2 of My Many '80s Favorite Bands