HBO’s “Peacemaker.”

As shocking as it may sound, I don’t pay my bills with my brilliant music writing. My day job is as a data journalist. It sounds very exciting—mining data to catch government officials at corruption, presenting the public with factual information to be better citizens—and that is absolutely true. Unfortunately, those exciting parts are stuck between long, long stretches of incredibly boring data cleaning.

I won’t go into detail what data cleaning is but trust me, it’s so, so boring.

How do I keep myself from going utterly, utterly mad? Music, obviously. This is a music column, so I was gonna get to it eventually. It has to be upbeat, of course, and the perfect balance between simplistic and complex. There has to be a broad range of artists to keep things varied but enough consistency that I won’t get distracted by tonal shifts.

So I’m listening to a lot of hair metal.

Here are five of my current favorites from my very, very extensive data cleaning playlist.

Wig Wam — “Do You Wanna Taste It”

This hits two of my passions: Bands from “Eurovision” that break the mold in an amusing way, and the HBO Max show “Peacemaker.”

First, “Eurovision:” Wig Wam represented its native Norway in 2005 with “In My Dreams.” It came in sixth in the semifinal and tied for ninth in the final. That’s not bad, but it was robbed. The great Lordi, a costumed metal band from Finland, won the very next year, so I’m going to assume Wig Wam paved the way.

Second, “Peacemaker:” It’s a John Cena show set in the DC universe. It’s wildly inappropriate and in poor taste, and the soundtrack is all hair metal and incredible. The show’s creator, James Gunn, also known for the “Guardians of the Galaxy” Marvel series, is a genius with song selection and “Do You Wanna Taste It” is over the opening credits. You should watch it.

Steel Panther — “If You Really Really Love Me”

This is also from the “Peacemaker” soundtrack, but in my defense, Gunn has incredible taste. It’s a split between modern hair metal revival bands like Wig Wam and Steel Panther, and underappreciated ’80s bands like Hanoi Rocks and The Quireboys. Seriously, watch the show.

Anyway, back to the song: It’s absolutely hilarious. Listen to the lyrics. There are some seriously good setup-punchline pairs in there. I don’t even want to quote it to spoil the jokes. It’s a perfect sendup of ’80s excess while still being a really good song in its own right.

John Murphy featuring Ralph Saenz — “Pumped Up Kicks”

I could specifically find one of the rare modern hair metal that’s not on the “Peacemaker” soundtrack, but that might be impossible. So I’m just gonna give up and pick a song specifically recorded for the soundtrack.

This is obviously a cover of Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks,” arranged by the composer who did the show’s score and sung by the guy from Steel Panther. But I swear the song was meant to be hair metal all along. It’s not just me, right? This feels more right than the original! It’s amazing! Is there anything this genre can’t do?

Skid Row — “Youth Gone Wild”

OK, now let’s find stuff not among the 40-plus songs Gunn included in the soundtrack. He didn’t include anything from the biggest, most memorable acts, with the exception of “Sweet Child of Mine” to accompany John Cena on piano, but that makes life harder for me because I also try to avoid the biggest, most memorable acts.

That brings us to Skid Row. They, like many bands of their era and genre, were completely out of control in the typical ways. Back in the day lead singer Sebastian Bach was, by most accounts, a jerk. Though he denies it now, he famously wore an extremely homophobic shirt during a photo shoot. And yet this song, while short, is surprisingly deep, opining on the pressures of following in the previous generation’s footsteps and the ’80s forgetting poor people exist. It’s a weird contrast, and I love weird contrasts.

Quiet Riot — “Metal Health”

I’d like you to know I did research for this one: I had to check whether the official title was “Bang Your Head,” “Bang Your Head (Metal Health),” “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” or “Metal Health.” It was the last one.

I can’t say from personal experience since I was 4 months old when the album came out, but by many accounts, this song was the beginning of metal as a mainstream thing. Well… as mainstream as it got anyway—it was never pop—but as a thing that wasn’t a tiny shameful subculture. Quiet Riot’s first hit was “Cum On Feel The Noize,” which was a cover of a ’70s glam rock song, then they went right to a song about headbanging that set the stage for the next decade of music.

I, for one, am glad. And if Gunn puts this in season 2 of “Peacemaker,” I’m taking credit since I assume he reads my column. (Hi, James! Please make Superman an aspirational hero again!)

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky or @BayAreaData on Twitter X.