I'm 53 and obviously being here, I love Metal . . . I refer to myself as a Metalhead when talking to people about music, but I was a proud Rocker before I was seduced by Heavy Metal in the spectacular year of 1983(Seriously . . . what an amazing musical ride in that year). Regulars in my Boom Box during those pre 1983 days were Sammy Hagar, AC/DC, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Blondie, Rainbow, Golden Earring, Billy Squire, Molly Hatchet, April Wine, Kiss, Triumph, Journey, Pat Benatar, UFO, Foreigner, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Foghat, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, ZZ Top, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Heart, Axe Queen, Styx, Pat Travers, Yes, Thin Lizzy, Loverboy, 38 Special, The Motels, George Thorogood, Night Ranger and my favorite band before Metallica changed my musical path, Scorpions.

Also some artists that would classify as Rock more than Hard Rock got lots of playing time. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Genesis, Huey Lewis And The News, Bryan Adams, John Cougar(Yes, his early stuff is quality Rock and not pop), The Police, The Cars, Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band, Rick Springfield, Wings, Fleetwood Mac, Charlie Daniels Band, Eddie Money, REO Speedwagon, Bad Company, Billy Joel, Little River Band, Stray Cats, Kansas, B-52s, The Clash, Oingo Boingo, Steve Miller Band, Pink Floyd, Doobie Brothers, Greg Kihn Band, Eagles, Bob Welch plus older classics that continued playing into the Hard Rock era such as Grand Funk Railroad, Rolling Stones, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Moody Blues.

When 1983 came in with a flurry of great Heavy Metal, many of the above bands either adjusted their sound to adapt(Van Halen 1984, ZZ Top Eliminator, Heart S/T) or fell by the wayside. Pat Travers went from playing in 3,000-4,000 seaters to 300-400 seaters and Billy Squire assassinated his career with one video. Heavy Metal was the fast rising king and was going to dominate the rest of the 80s. Heavy Metal did to Hard Rock in 83 what Grunge did to Heavy Metal in 92. Only the select few could carry on playing mostly the same style.

If possible, please answer one or more of these questions . . .
Did any of you get to see Rock concerts in the mid 70s/early 80s? If so, what artists did you see?
Any of the older board members remember the greatness and the excitement of 1983?
Are any of those above bands still in your regular rotation?
What are some of your favorite mid 70s/early 80s Rock albums?
Did I leave out some bands from that era that you like?
Which of those bands did you dislike earlier in your life only to come to appreciate them later in life?
Are any of you younger Metalheads too Metal to listen to wimpy old Rock?

Thanks for your time.

Not an old guy (just turned 31), so I can only answer that last question.

For the past few months, I did a serious deep-dive into '80s heavy metal / hard rock. My collection ballooned from ~50 to +400. I neglected that era for years and now it's one of my most-covered eras of metal. This somewhat extended into the late '70s, but in general I stuck to 1980-1990 (currently going through 1990 heavy metal / rock albums right now, so my journey is almost done).

What I learned was the initial wave of metal during that period was quite literally a British-led movement with maybe a couple American or Germany bands here and there. I thought it was just hyperbole growing up. I was very surprised just how few qualifying metal / heavy bands existed in the '70s (according to this site's standards). Here on MA, bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Budgie, Rush, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy and Motorhead are like the only major ones during the entirety of the '70s. Those 1979 - 1982 years you had a lot of nebulous interchangeability between hard rock and metal where bands could've easily ridden the line between the two. There was a broadly established sound, but nothing set in stone. So many hidden gems in the early '80s that I think a lot of people will miss if they don't go looking for them.

From what I heard / read, 1980 was the first year when most of the major metal bands all had releases at the same time. But 1983 was the year that put metal on the map as a viable genre to market and such. It got bigger and bigger to the point where I think I went from having 12 heavy metal albums between 1980-1984 to ~100. Then 17 heavy metal albums between 1985-1989 to +200. I even found a place for a lot of rock / glam / AOR stuff from that era (mostly latter '80s).

Anyway, just chiming in with my little listening experience.

Thirty-five here, metal-wise a fan of mostly obscur-ish European bands.
When it comes to "old rock", everything depends on the artist actually. Early Pink Floyd, the Moodies, The Cream, Van der Graaf Generator, Iron Butterfly, - these are pretty much timeless, if you ask me. There's this "a world of their own" thing to their work.
Then there's this... Say, The Beatles were in many ways revolutionary and still musically interesting, but they are too popular for me to actually be actively listening to. Yeah, "they have enough fans without me" might be a strange motto, but it's how I roll. I don't really listen to quite a lot of well-known metal bands for this very reason as well. There's loads of talent deeper underground who will never luck onto fame. I'd rather devote my time to appreciating their stuff.

My first gig was Motörhead -81, then before or 83, we had at least Dio, Accept and iron maiden in Finland.
I am still listening those almost weekly, and a lot of 70's hard-rock bands you have mentioned.

My favorite rock artist are Blue öyster cult, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush (you missed him) , early Rush and Led Zeppelin.
Too many albums to mention, from 70's i also like Motörhead, Saxon and Whitesnake which i think are more hard-rock than metal

I'm twenty-one and was introduced to heavy metal by the first black sabbath album. Late sixties/early seventies heavy psych is actually one of the styles I listen to the most, and seventies heavy metal is generally my favourite metal style (although I go all over the metal spectrum). I'm also a proghead and listen to all the progressive rock styles from that time. Metal is by no means the only thing I listen to.

I listen to a lot of stuff softer than a majority of metal, but I also listen to some stuff that I'd say is way more intense than metal in general (stuff like Ramleh's 'Hole in the Heart' and Peter Brötzmann Octet's 'Machine Gun'.). There's plenty of stuff out there that makes metal look like children's music if you look.

Mid-sixties rock is something I go back to often as well. The Seed's s/t is up there with my favourite albums of all time.

I'm 28 and I've always preferred 60's/early 70's proto-metal/hard rock. Everything from Cream to Motörhead. I do love a lot of metal too, even some early death metal and a bit of old black metal, but I don't dig all the newer technical stuff, I sound old when I say, even though I'm not, but a lot of it there is no melody or tune to.

I'm mid-30s, and this is definitely an era I've neglected too much. A consequence of trying to get a handle on too many other musical genres is that I'm far too shallow especially in this area. There are a great deal of artists who I know mainly by a best of album, or worse, just from a few radio hits of theirs I've run into over the years, or the assorted MP3 I've collected. A handful that rise above the fray - Rush, Scorpions, Van Halen, Deep Purple, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Heart, Petra, Journey, Queen, Santana, Styx. Blue Oyster Cult may be joining them soon as I've been binging on them recently. Also a lot of progressive rock like King Crimson and Camel, or fusion like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Passport. Little River Band, Elton John, and also the Beach Boys were some of the very first music I was obsessed with as a child. Plenty of others I like in varying degrees, but you have to draw a line somewhere.

I was just a kid in the early 80's but I remember kids my age in the 3rd/4th grade (circa 1979/80) being really into KISS and AC/DC; those were the two biggest bands among my age group; remember we were really quite young. Van Halen and Aerosmith were pretty popular then among the kids too.

The first rock bands I really got into were Ozzy's solo stuff- that was actually my gateway to metal and to this day, the guitar work on those first two Ozzy albums has not been surpassed in my opinion- even on later Ozzy albums (which were of course recorded with different guitarists.) Oddly enough my first "Favorite" band was Blondie of all things. But I remember Journey, Scorpions, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and Rush being early favorites of mine- particularly those last two bands- Rush blew me away and Led Zeppelin were just outstanding songwriters. Oddly I never really got as much into Kiss and AC/DC as my peers, though I did like them, but for some reason I always preferred the Bon Scott AC/DC stuff to the Johnson era (and still do.)

I didnt get to go to a real concert until fall of 1986 when I was 17, and it was Motorhead and Megadeth- what an excellent first concert experience if I do say so myself.

Some long forgotten classics from that early 80's era- if you ever want to dig deeper and look for some classic stuff that doesn't get played anymore:
Warlord from Los Angeles- (heavy rock with Rush and Jethro Tull influence- one of the first Metal Blade records signings!);
Zebra from New Orleans- (hard rock with some Zeppelin influence- great songwriting);
Gamma (Ronnie Montrose solo band- heavy rock)
Shooting Star from Kansas- man those guys had soem great tunes.
and the Sherbs from Australia- some of you Australians might remember them. They used to be called "Sherbet" for a while.

If I leave out punk, post-punk, new wave (although you mentioned The B-52's) and experimental/weird stuff, then my favourite rock albums from the era in approximate order would be:

The Runaways - The Runaways
The Runaways - Queens of Noise (the only band other than Metallica to have two 10/10 albums in my books, but let's not examine my quirky taste too closely)
ZZ Top - Degüello
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (Trampled Under Foot is my 2nd fav Zep song)
Blue Öyster Cult - Secret Treaties
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll
Scorpions - Fly to the Rainbow (I really like their first two albums but the rest of their discography hasn't really grabbed me)
Cold Chisel - East (Never Before with Ian Moss on lead vocals is a stunning song)
ZZ Top - Eliminator
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door (...and In the Evening is my 3rd fav Zep song)

Also arguably Judas Priest - Rocka Rolla and Budgie - Impeckable belong on a rock list more than a metal one. Well, I feel like I'm listening to a metal album when I hear Rocka Rolla because it's bluesy like Sabbath. But I definitely think Impeckable rocks more in the way that say Led Zeppelin rocks, minus the folky stuff. Ironically, one of the reasons I think Rocka Rolla feels like a metal album is that Winter sounds like some of Budgie's earlier metal songs.

I'm was born in 1984 by the way, but at least half of my favourite bands are older than me.