SamHalen is what I always called them being as I thought VanHagar sounded dumb and it was primarily used as a way to insult the band. SamHalen doesnt change the rythymn of the name at all, its just one and a half letters difference.
The SamHalen version did have a few very commercial love songs but to sum it up that way is ignoring alot of great ass kickin tunes like Mine All Mine, 5150, Get Up, A.F.U., Source of Infection, Judgement Day, In and Out, just to name a few. That doesnt included any of the successful radio tunes of which less than half were....
"poppy hard rockish love songs"... such as Jump from 1984 wasVanHalen was infact a commercial metal band that had ties to old school hardrock but you cant play and riff like Eddie's style and be only "hardrock" he basically created the first stage of metal shredding as well as employed heavy useage of palm mutes and moving away from pentatonic scales in solos & riff/chord progressions that was typical hardrock. All of which he continued to do when Sammy was in the band. He really was a riff king in my book.
Most music with Roth was too predictable, you knew they were going to quiet the song down in the middle and he was going to do his
"candy?... little girl?" routine and load the song up with those little squeaks. He wanted to do cover tunes, ect. ect. Fun music that had little depth or scope.... but I dont have those records so I cant speak for what I havent heard much of and Im sure there was some great songs Im unfimiliar with.
As for Bob Rock I would think Roth had plenty to do with it as well, good time rockin was what Dave had always done. I feel his strong suit was always the heavy bluesy stuff, great timbre for that kind of sound.
If you liked SamHalen you werent one of the grumbly butts.
So lots of reading but I explained myself well