Twisted Sister
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I Wanna Rock! (ROCK!) |
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Twisted Sister is an American Heavy Metal band from New York City. Their work fuses the shock tactics of Alice Cooper, the rebellious mood of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and the extravagant image of glam rock bands such as New York Dolls and Kiss, notably the makeup. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands. The band is generally categorized as glam metal for their earlier work, although the band does not consider themselves to be so.
Although the band was formed by guitarist Jay Jay French in December 1972, all of their songs were written by Dee Snider from 1976 onward. Twisted Sister's most well-known hits include "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both popularized by regular airplay on MTV in the 1980s. Many of the band's songs explore themes of parent vs. child conflicts and criticisms of the educational system.
A Twisted Christmas is a Christmas album from Twisted Sister, released on October 17, 2006. The genesis of this album was the group was looking for something new to do. One of them mentitoned an idea for a Christmas album. Dee Snider said that he made We're Not Gonna Take It melody taken from Come All Ye Faithful. Thus was born the idea of making metal versions of Christmas songs. Originally this album was going to be Twisted Sister's swan song but it was unexpectedly popular with fans and critics. They are currently working on a DVD.
Twisted Sister videos include:
- Animated Music Video
- Berserk Button: Hates being associated with pop metal, or at the very least, has very little respect for the subgenre at large, which he has very notably nicknamed "happy metal". Especially the growing tendency towards acoustic power ballads.
- Christmas Songs: The album A Twisted Christmas.
- Determinator: "Stay Hungry".
- Eighties Hair
- The Eighties
- Hair Metal
- Heavy Meta: "I Wanna Rock".
- Heavy Metal
- I Am the Band
- Large Ham: Just look at the above picture!
- MTV
- Non-Actor Vehicle: Snider wrote and produced Strangeland about a psychopath obsessed with body modification. It was truly the first horror film in the "Torture" genre.
- Notable Music Videos
- Popcultural Osmosis
- Real Men Wear Pink / What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Dee Snider is straight-edge and a family man who sticks to his Christian upbringing. He made that clear in 1985, where he was called to congress during the PMRC meetings. He’s also in suppose in the pro-choice movement, explaining his religious doesn’t have to interfere with a woman’s right to choose after he learned that “We're Not Gonna Take It” was used during a protest in Texas.
- Repurposed Pop Song: We're Not Gonna Take It remains popular at sporting events, political rallies, and protests and has even been used in television commercials. Which makes sense since, Dee Snider dedicated the song to all the assholes he had to deal with.
- Scary Musician, Harmless Music
- Slapstick: A prominant part of the videos for "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It".
- Twister Sister Has Standards: They won’t put up with censorship. Dee Snider went to congress over the issue about censorship of music.
- The Neidermeyer: Played by the Trope Namer himself in the videos for "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock".
- Actor Allusion: The "I Wanna Rock" video also features a cameo by Kent "Flounder" Dorfman.
- Villainous Crossdresser