Is Selling Out Bad?
 

Ballads definitely get a bad rap among people who are "real" music fans. For some reason they tend to write off the entire era that they believe was overcommercialized and a product of bands selling out. What selling out really means is tapping to the desires of the public and making music that a large portion of the population enjoys. Why is this always looked at as a bad thing? Just because a band does not sound the same as they did when they started making records and has changed their style to a more universally apealing one does not make they evil. With that said among these ballads that may be considered selling out but in my opinion are incredible are Ozzy's "mama im coming home" Warrants "Heaven", Motley Crue "without you" and "home sweet home", and probably my favorite "Love Bites" By Def Leppard and masterfully produced by Mutt Lange.

Agreed. (Congrats on your first post, btw!) :)
The thing is that bands don't suddenly start doing all ballads --- that would be wrong. But there's nothing wrong with a heavy band filtering their music with a little light relief, as it were. As I think I mentioned, Kamelot, one hard rockin' band, but they can put out an absolutely gorgeous ballad like "Abandoned". Nothing wrong with that.
In fact, in some ways I think it does the opposite of what you're saying --- if a heavy band suddenly brings out a ballad, more people may listen to them and begin to appreciate their music. It can be a way in for those who have never listened, nor thought of listening to this sort of music, and that surely can't be bad.
Anyway, I stand by my claim, which I've believed for over 25 years, that metal and heavy rock bands pen the greatest and most effective ballads. Yes, some pop songs are good (there's no denying the power of Harry Nilsson NOT MARIAH CAREY's "Without you" or even Phil Collins' "Separate lives" or "Against all odds"), but generally I would class them as lower quality and far less imaginative than rock songs.

My all time favorite ballad is Alice Cooper's Burning Our Bed.

ballads also have their place in the rock genre and i think that the 80's produced alot of good ones but my favorite has to be alone again from dokken not much of a fan of theirs but that song for some reason got under my skin. or the killing words by queensryche another good rock ballad that isn't sappy

annhilator (sp?) did a song called "only be lonely" which i thought was really cool especially for a band that was pretty much strictly thrash metal.

Is Stairway to Heaven a ballad? If so, I guess that would be my favourite, even if it is overplayed .. but many ballads are.

Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton is another ballad that has made a permanent impression with me.

@Jackhammer, good call on Whitesnake. :p

edit :

Kamelot have a lot of nice medieval-ish ballads (Don't you cry, Elizabeth: I - Mirror Mirror, Glory, Sailorman's Call), but they're so embarassing. If I ever listen to them, I make sure noone else is around. It's like worse than being seen singing and dancing solo to Careless Whisper.

Changes by Black Sabbath: simple yet deep, a great track off of Vol. 4

Why would you consider them embarrassing? They're great musicans, good songwriters, have a real following... I don't see it...

I'm easily embarassed and Kamelot's ballads, for all their niceness, are cheesy as hell .. Maybe not as cheesy as Mighty Rhapsody, but still .. ;)

The Pretenders' song "I'll Stand By You" is a nice ballad that I was just reminded of by the way.

krokus-'our love'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7Zt5dvIL0