For those who got into hair metal after 1992/1993 and before social media
What were your main gateways for information?
Mine were purely internet based and I'd say revolved around two sites around 1998-2000 before any social media or Wikipedia. I didn't know a single person into hair bands then.
Metal-reviews dot com
This one's probably a totally forgotten deep cut. I remember it was run by an English teacher named Andrew who posted a bunch of reviews in his spare time. Hair metal was definitely in his top favorite genres and I found out about so many bands through the site.
Metalsludge dot tv
I think many people here remember it. It was the Tuff singer's anonymously run site where he played a cast of characters parodying hair metal members of the 80s/early 90s. It had its own community and the site was a 24/7 hair metal portal. Many of the original bands weren't even that old around the time of the site's peak. The e-mail interviews were crazy and guys would pretty much write long novels back in response to the questions.