I gave the quickest examples I could find I can find numerous other references to the poppier nature of Van Halen on all three sources And while I agree a source is not often  reliable especially one relying on opinion major sources IS Especially given theyre frequently used accross Wikipedia Van Halen began as a hard rock band with a heavy metal edge at timesbut Dreams is definitely a pop rock song Generally the  album is considered the one where the band became poppier and in the Sammy Hagar era that really took root   Power ballads are the most common pop rock crossover out there  Oh and a lot of their covers were poppy songs anyway like You Really Got Me  I have some more stuff below but first look at this I doubt you can be bothered to listen to them all but listen to the first  seconds of each httpwwwyoutubecomwatchveMZZxE  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvwAlbHvOA  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvYfTwMgGBARM  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvmBDCmQxxk  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvoZhSWhJlM  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvLitLbTQQZo  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvzwoIWbEa  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvXwIvHSPec  httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvpQnwtjE  As a side note Bon Jovis first two albums are definitely glam metal  they made their name as part of the glam metal scene Which is pop metal by the way making it hard to classify They went the commercial side of things and moved away from metal Guns N Roses again sleaze rock Something that formed from the ashes of glam metal  but Guns N Roses were among the first So the line between sleaze and metal blurs with them They ARE the crossover point ACDC Id not call metal and I think KISS had a few metal songs but dont really countbut they are heavily disputed the two of them Opinions on either carry little weight   Wikipedia has several definitions for pop rock Pop rock is a subgenre of rock music that uses catchy pop style with light lyrics over top of guitarbased songs I would say that sums up some of Van Halens stuff to a t they only use pop hooks or synths to appeal to both a hard rock and pop audience from time to time Have you heard their latterday singles   Sure they used synth and sure theyve used pop hooks but havent countless other hard rock and heavy metal bands done so  It most frequently happened in glam metal Which is aka pop metal Glam metal is a genre a lot of people wanted to attach to Van Halen personally I think just because somethings pop rock and heavy metal at different times does not make it pop metal Hence my desire to keep pop rock  the comparisons to glam metal are made obvious that way Its hard to ignore them but also impossible to just call it glam metal