Van Halen/YMMV

• Broken Base: Dave vs. Sammy. Doesn't help that the band changed its style in the latter period.
• Dork Age: The Hagar stuff for some; whoever came after Hagar for most.
  • Enters Canon Discontinuity, as the band released a compilation with songs by both Sammy and David, but not the third guy.
    • Gary Cherone, for his part, was gracious enough to not speak out about any of this (including his non-inclusion in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction). Considering the way he was treated by the band during his tenure with them, he had every right to.
• Epic Riff: "Panama", "Jump", "Hot for Teacher", "Runnin' with the Devil"...
• Fan Nickname: The Hagar years are known as Van Hagar, and the Cherone ones as Van Horrible.
• Fridge Brilliance: The band's infamous 1982 tour rider request that no brown M&M's be included in their backstage bowl of M&M's or the band would not perform. The request was not intended to be self-indulgent or eccentric, but was instead proof that the promoters had thoroughly read the rest of their rider, which included important information about safety, security, lighting and ticketing. If they found brown M&M's, they had a reason to believe that the promoter was inattentive, because if such a small request had been glossed over, then other more important things also had. This was justified by the band after a number of near-misses caused by promoters not adhering to health and safety requirements, and their concert preparations were so cumbersome they were rather reluctant to tour outside the USA at various points.
• HSQ: Spread across all of their music, it's somewhere in the hundreds, maybe even the thousands. Don't forget what's on the blackboard in the "Hot For Teacher" music video.
• Hype Backlash: Gary Cherone was hyped as having "a voice like Sammy Hagar and the stage presence of David Lee Roth." The poor guy was doomed from the start.
  • Pretty much. The real headache with Cherone is that he was never a literal or vocal fit to begin with. Look at the two music videos they did, "Fire In The Hole" and "Without You"; it's clear he was in much better shape than the rest of the band (but in their defense, each original band member at the time was/is 7-8 years older than Cherone). When he joined Van Halen, he altered his delivery to try to match the band's well-known sound, instead of singing at his previously known register with Extreme. If he had tried to sing the way he normally does, Van Halen may have been a much different band with him.
• Misblamed: Eddie was already shifting the band's sound when Sammy came in. Part of the misblame is arguably due to Dave's opposition to said shifting.
  • Similarly, Gary Cherone is usually blamed for Van Halen III's status as being terrible despite arguably being the best actual singer the band has ever had.
• Never Live It Down: The aforementioned "no brown M&M's" rider.
• Replacement Scrappy: There's a reason the Sammy Hagar era band is referred to as Van Hagar.
  • Wolfgang Van Halen is regarded as an inferior bassist to Michael Anthony as well, though this can boil down to fans still being bitter on Michael being forced out for no clear reason.
• Sampled Up: You might not know "Jamie's Cryin'", but is probable you've heard Tone Loc's "Wild Thing".
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Dave left the band in 1985 because Eddie wanted to change their style. With Dave out of the way, Eddie did just that, incurring the wrath of fans who slammed the band for "not being fun anymore".
• Vindicated by History: Three albums were not well-received at the time of release, but now they are looked upon with somewhat kinder eyes. Songs from Roth-era Fair Warning are still played on the radio today. 5150 was Hagar's first, which caused the Broken Base, but now both camps tend to admit the other had some good material. And then, the still-divisive Van Halen III is now getting some positive recognition from people who actually took the time to listen to the songs.
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Despite Diamond Dave's 80's image, he DOES NOT DO COCAINE!
  • He was off illicit drugs. He did clean up once to record "Jamie's Cryin'", but... well, The Other Wiki speaks for itself:

For recording of the song vocalist David Lee Roth wanted to go for a cleaner, "poppier" sound and quit smoking and drinking for a week before the final version was to be recorded. The band noticed the difference and Ted Templeman ordered him outside to smoke a cigarette. He smoked one, and drank half a bottle of whiskey, returning half an hour later and recording the track.