The English band Def Leppard was instrumental in metal's transition from underground subculture to the centre of the mainstream during the 1980s, sheparding the genre into newly sleek, melodic and maximalist territory. Formed in Sheffield in 1976, Def Leppard first came to prominence in the UK as a leading group of what was later dubbed the new wave of British heavy metal and debuted in 1980 with the LP On Through the Night. Their big break in the US came with the advent of MTV, which featured the music video for their 1981 power ballad Bringin' On the Heartbreak prominently in its early days; Def Leppard's third LP Pyromania propelled them into the heights of stardom. As the band was preparing to record a follow-up, drummer Rick Allen was involved in a serious car crash, resulting in the amputation of his left arm. In one of metal's most oft-repeated inspirational legends, however, he came back behind the drum kit, augmenting it with MIDI pedals that allowed him to trigger samples with his feet—and Def Leppard used it to their advantage on their next record, 1987's cult classic Hysteria, augmenting each song with the electronic drum sounds in a daring and surprisingly successful attempt to make every track on the record a hit single. An unprecedented exercise in maximalism, the album defined Def Leppard's sound since, with the band becoming synonymous with its brand of metal extravagance. The band went on to release eight more albums, the latest being 2022's Diamond Star Halos, and to become one of the world's best selling music artists of all time, with more than 100 million record sales worldwide.
The image of the 80s rocker—with eyeliner, latex, big hair, a bigger ego, substance abuse issues and larger-than-life charisma—would probably look a lot different if it weren't for Mötley Crüe. Formed, of course, in Hollywood in 1981, they were a key band of the first wave of glam metal—as beloved as they were hated, they were one of the biggest bands in the world in the 1980s, adding guitars with flamethrowers, drum kits attached to rollercoasters and fireworks to their arsenal of hypermasculine spectacle. In the 1990s, Mötley Crüe experienced a series of conflicts and personnel changes that seemed to end the group's career in line with the credo of live fast, die young; in 2004, however, the original Mötley Crüe line-up returned to the stage, and three of the group's four founders are currently playing with the group. The band has nine studio albums to their credit, the most recent of which is 2008's Saints of Los Angeles.