Rock music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music.The sound of rock often revolves around the guitar back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, synthesizers. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are sometimes used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form", it "has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody."[1]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music developed different subgenres. When it was blended with folk music it created folk rock, with blues to create blues-rock and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock incorporated influences from soul, funk, and Latin music. Also in the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, glam rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, and punk rock. Rock subgenres that emerged in the 1980s included new wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge, Britpop, indie rock, and nu metal.
A group of musicians specializing in rock music is called a rock band or rock group. Many rock groups consist of an electric guitarist, lead singer, bass guitarist, and a drummer, forming a quartet. Some groups omit one or more of these roles or utilize a lead singer who plays an instrument while singing, sometimes forming a trio or duo; others include additional musicians such as one or two rhythm guitarists or a keyboardist. More rarely, groups also utilize stringed instruments such as violins or cellos, woodwind instruments such as saxophones, and brass instruments such as trumpets or trombones.
More recently the term rock has been used as a blanket term including forms such as pop music, soul music, and sometimes even hip hop, with which it has often been contrasted through much of its history.[2]
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[edit] 1950s-early 1960s
[edit] Rock and roll
Main article: Rock and roll
Rock and roll originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a mixing together of various popular musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues, gospel music, and country and western.[3] In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, and is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music.[3]There is much debate as to what should be considered the first rock and roll record. One leading contender is "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band The Kings of Rhythm), recorded by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in 1951.[4] Four years later, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" (1955) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture.[5]. Some music historians[who?] have suggested that "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino, released as a single in 1949, deserves the title of the first rock and roll record, as it features a rolling piano and Domino's prominent wah-wah vocals.[citation needed]
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Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct sub-genres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in the mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley.[8] In contrast doo wop placed an emphasis on multi-part vocal harmonies and meaningless backing lyrics (from which the genre later gained its name), which were usually supported with light instrumentation and had its origins in 1930s and 40s African American vocal groups.[9] Acts like The Crows, The Penguins, The El Dorados and The Turbans all scored major hits, and groups like The Platters, with songs including "The Great Pretender" (1955), and The Coasters with humorous songs like "Yakety Yak" (1958), ranked among the most successful rock and roll acts of the period.[10] The era also saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Berry, Link Wray, and Scotty Moore.[11]
In the United Kingdom, the trad jazz and folk movements brought visiting blues music artists to Britain.[12] Lonnie Donegan's 1955 hit "Rock Island Line" was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon's The Quarrymen, moved on to play rock and roll.[13]
Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the initial rock and roll era had come to an end.[4]
[edit] The "in-between years"
Cliff Richard had the first British rock and roll hit with "Move It", effectively ushering in the sound of British rock.[18] At the start of the 1960s, his backing group The Shadows was the most successful of a number of groups recording instrumentals.[19] While rock 'n' roll was fading into lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances, heavily influenced by blues-rock pioneers like Alexis Korner, were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts.[20]
Also significant was the advent of soul music as a major commercial force. Developing out of rhythm and blues with a re-injection of gospel music and pop, led by pioneers like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke from the mid-1950s, by the early 60s figures like Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder were dominating the R&B charts and breaking through into the main pop charts, helping to accelerate their desegregation, while Motown and Stax/Volt Records were becoming major forces in the record industry.[21] All of these elements, including the close harmonies of doo wop and girl groups, the carefully crafted song-writing of the Brill Building Sound and the polished production values of soul, have been seen as influencing the Merseybeat sound, particularly the early work of The Beatles, and through them the form of later rock music.[22] Some historians of music have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including the electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek, and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector.[15]
[edit] Surf music
Main article: Surf music
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Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal music, particularly the work of the Beach Boys, formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen.[25] Their first chart hit, "Surfin'" in 1962 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze a national phenomenon.[27] From 1963 the group began to leave surfing behind as subject matter as Brian Wilson became their major composer and producer, moving on to the more general themes of male adolescence including cars and girl in songs like "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964) and "California Girls" (1965).[27] Other vocal surf acts followed, including one-hit wonders like Ronny & the Daytonas with "G. T. O." (1964) and Rip Chords with "Hey Little Cobra", which both reached the top ten, but the only other act to achieve sustained success with the formula were Jan & Dean, who had a number 1 hit with "Surf City" (co-written with Brian Wilson) in 1963.[25] The surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts, was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964.[25] Only the Beach Boys were able to sustain a creative career into the mid-1960s, producing a string of hit singles and albums, including the highly regarded Pet Sounds in 1966, which made them, arguably, the only American rock or pop act that could rival The Beatles.[27]
[edit] Golden Age (1963–1974)
[edit] The British Invasion
Main article: British Invasion
By the end of 1962, the British rock scene had started with beat groups like The Beatles drawing on a wide range of American influences including soul music, rhythm and blues and surf music.[28] Initially, they reinterpreted standard American tunes, playing for dancers doing the twist, for example. These groups eventually infused their original rock compositions with increasingly complex musical ideas and a distinctive sound. In mid-1962 The Rolling Stones started as one of a number of groups increasingly showing blues influence, along with bands like The Animals and The Yardbirds.[20] During 1963, The Beatles and other beat groups, such as The Searchers and The Hollies, achieved great popularity and commercial success in Britain.
British rock broke through to mainstream popularity in the United States in January 1964 with the success of the Beatles. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the band's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, starting the British Invasion of the American music charts.[29] The song entered the chart on January 18, 1964 at number 45 before it became the number one single for 7 weeks and went onto last a total of 15 weeks in the chart.[30] It also held the top spot in the United Kingdom charts. A million copies of the single had already been ordered on its release. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became The Beatles' best-selling single worldwide.[31] Their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop culture. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, at the time a record for an American television program. The Beatles went on to become the biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed by numerous British bands.[32]
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The British Invasion helped make internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success.[34] In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols, that had dominated the American charts in the late 1950s and 60s.[35] It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis.[36] The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based around guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters.[37]
[edit] Garage rock
Main article: Garage rock
Garage rock was a form of amateurish rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in the mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in a suburban family garage.[38][39] Garage rock songs revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" being particularly common.[40] The lyrics and delivery were notably more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming.[38] They ranged from crude one-chord music (like the Seeds) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers, the Remains, and the Fifth Estate). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas.[40] The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound.[41]
The British Invasion of 1964-66 greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British Invasion lilt, and encouraging many more groups to form.[40] Thousands of garage bands were extant in the USA and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits.[40] Examples include: "I Just Don't Care" by New York City's The D-Men (1965), "The Witch" by Tacoma's The Sonics (1965), "Where You Gonna Go" by Detroit's Unrelated Segments (1967), "Girl I Got News for You" by Miami's Birdwatchers (1966) and "1-2-5" by Montreal's The Haunted. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966.[40] By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft.[40] New styles had evolved to replace garage rock (including blues-rock, progressive rock and country rock).[40] In Detroit garage rock stayed alive until the early 70s, with bands like the MC5 and The Stooges, who employed a much more aggressive style. These bands began to be labelled punk rock and are now often seen as proto-punk or proto-hard rock.[48]
[edit] Pop rock
Nevertheless much pop and rock music has been very similar in sound, instrumentation and even lyrical content. The terms "pop-rock" and "power pop" have been used to describe more commercially successful music that uses elements from, or the form of, rock music.[53] Pop-rock has been defined as an "upbeat variety of rock music represented by artists such as Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Everly Brothers, Rod Stewart, Chicago, and Peter Frampton."[54] In contrast, music reviewer George Starostin defines it as a subgenre of pop music that uses catchy pop songs that are mostly guitar-based. Starostin argues that most of what is traditionally called "power pop" (a term coined by Pete Townshend of The Who in 1966, but not much used until it was applied to bands like Badfinger in the 1970s),[55] falls into the pop rock subgenre and that the lyrical content of pop rock is "normally secondary to the music."[56] Throughout its history there have been rock acts that have used elements of pop, and pop artists who have used rock music as a basis for their work, or striven for rock "authenticity".
[edit] Blues-rock
Main article: Blues-rock
Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts, the impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues, including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.[57] British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 60s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly, who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson.[58] Increasingly they adopted a loud amplified sound, often centred around the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues, particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated.[20] The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream, combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis.[20]
In American blues-rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack,[60] but the genre began to take off in the mid-60s as acts followed developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat, the early Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, The J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade.[20] Blues-rock bands like Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and eventually ZZ Top from the southern states, incorporated country elements into their style to produce distinctive Southern rock.[61]
Early blues-rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations which would later be a major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience had begun to move away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia.[62] By the 1970s blues-rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, and the lines between blues-rock and hard rock "were barely visible",[62] as bands began recording rock-style albums.[62] The genre was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers,[20] but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues-rock began to slip out of the mainstream.[63]
[edit] Folk rock
By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of the American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, utilising traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments.[64] In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics.[64] In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had came to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters.[65] Dylan had begun to reach a mainstream audience with hits including "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "Masters of War" (1963), which brought "protest songs" to a wider public,[66] but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences.[67]
Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" (1964), which was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation[68] and the Beatles "I'm a Loser" (1965), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan.[69] The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with The Byrds' recording of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" which topped the charts in 1965.[67] With members who had been part of the cafe-based folk scene in Los Angeles, the Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became an major element in the sound of the genre.[67] Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his "Like a Rolling Stone" becoming a US hit single.[67] Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like The Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel, with the latter's acoustic "Sound of Silence" being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits.[67]
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Folk rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967-8, before many acts moved off in a variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock.[72] However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song and concepts of "authenticity".[67][73]
[edit] Psychedelic rock
Main article: Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic music's LSD-inspired vibe began in the folk scene, with the New York-based Holy Modal Rounders using the term in their 1964 recording of "Hesitation Blues".[74] The first group advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas, at the end of 1965; producing an album that made their direction clear, with The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators the following year.[74] The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, with "I Feel Fine" using guitar feedback; in late 1965 the Rubber Soul album included the use of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and they employed backmasking on their 1966 single B-side "Rain" and other tracks that appeared on their Revolver album later that year.[75]
Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, including the controversial track "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request.[75] Pink Floyd produced what is usually seen as their best psychedelic work The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.[75] In America the Summer of Love was prefaced by the Human Be-In event and reached its peak at the Monterey Pop Festival, the later helping to make major American stars of Jimi Hendrix and The Who, whose single "I Can See for Miles" delved into psychedelic territory.[78] Key recordings included Jefferson Airplaine's Surrealistic Pillow and The Doors' Strange Days.[79] These trends climaxed in the 1969 Woodstock festival, which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts, but by the end of the decade psychedelic rock was in retreat. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd were early casualties, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream broke up before the end of the decade and many surviving acts, particularly those from Britain, moved away from psychedelia into either more back-to-basics "roots rock", the wider experimentation of progressive rock, or riff laden heavy rock.[75]
[edit] Roots rock
Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to a more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock.[80] In 1966 Bob Dylan spearheaded the movement when he went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde.[81] This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, have been seen as creating the genre of country folk, a route pursued by a number of, largely acoustic, folk musicians.[81] Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group The Band and the Californian-based Creedence Clearwater Revival, both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s.[82] The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George,[83] and influenced the work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let it Be (1970).[75]
The founders of Southern rock are usually thought to be the Allman Brothers Band, who developed a distinctive sound, largely derived from blues rock, but incorporating elements of boogie, soul, and country in the early 1970s.[87] The most successful act to follow them were Lynyrd Skynyrd, who helped establish the "Good ol' boy" image of the sub-genre and the general shape of 1970s guitar rock.[87] Their successors included the Dixie Dregs, the more country-influenced Outlaws, jazz-leaning Wet Willie and (incorporating elements of R&B and gospel) the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.[87] After the loss of original members of the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the genre began to fade in popularity in the late 1970s, but was sustained the 1980s with acts like .38 Special, Molly Hatchet and The Marshall Tucker Band.[87]
[edit] Progressive rock
Main article: Progressive rock
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The American brand of prog rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat and Tears,[97] to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, Journey and Styx.[88] These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO, all demonstrated a prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, issuing in the era of pomp or arena rock, which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s.[98]
The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (1973), the first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre.[88] Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Can and Faust to circumvent the language barrier.[99] Their synthesiser-heavy "Kraut rock", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music), would be a major influence on subsequent synth rock,[88]
With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown.[100][101] Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours.[48] Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie & the Banshees, Ultravox and Simple Minds, showed the influence of prog, as well as their more usually recognised punk influences.[102]
[edit] Glam rock
Main article: Glam rock
Glam rock emerged out of the English psychedelic and art rock scenes of the late 1960s and can be seen as both an extension of, and reaction against, those trends.[103] Musically it was very diverse, varying between the simple rock and roll revivalism of figures like Alvin Stardust to the complex art rock of Roxy Music, and can be seen as much as a fashion as a musical sub-genre.[103] Visually it was a mesh of various styles, ranging from 1930s Hollywood glamor, through 1950s pin-up sex appeal, pre-war Cabaret theatrics, Victorian literary and symbolist styles, science fiction, to ancient and occult mysticism and mythology; manifesting itself in outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots.[104] Glam is most noted for its sexual and gender ambiguity and representations of androgyny, beside extensive use of theatrics.[105] It was prefigured by the showmanship and gender identity manipulation of American acts such as The Cockettes and Alice Cooper.[106]
[edit] Soft rock, hard rock and heavy metal
From the late 1960s the term heavy metal began to be used to describe some hard rock played with even more volume and intensity, first as an adjective and by the early 1970s as a noun.[115] The term was first used in music in Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" (1967) and began to be associated with pioneer bands like Boston's Blue Cheer and Michigan's Grand Funk Railroad.[116] By 1970 three key British bands had developed the characteristic sounds and styles which would help shape the sub-genre. Led Zeppelin added elements of fantasy to their riff laden blues-rock, Deep Purple brought in symphonic and medieval interests from their progressive rock phrase and Black Sabbath introduced facets of the gothic and modal harmony, helping to produce a "darker" sound.[117] These elements were taken up by a "second generation" of heavy metal bands into the late 1970s, including: Judas Priest, Motörhead and Rainbow from Britain; Kiss, Ted Nugent, and Blue Öyster Cult from the US; Rush from Canada and UFO and Scorpions from Germany, all marking the expansion in popularity of the sub-genre.[117] Despite a lack of airplay and very little presence on the singles charts, heavy metal built a considerable following, particularly among adolescent working-class males in North America and Europe.[118]
[edit] Christian rock
Main article: Christian rock
Rock has been criticised by some Christian religious leaders, who have condemned it as immoral, anti-Christian and even demonic.[119] However, Christian rock began to develop in the late 1960s, particularly out of the Jesus movement beginning in Southern California, and emerged as a sub-genre in the 1970s with artist like Larry Norman, usually seen as the first major "star" of Christian rock.[120] The genre has been particularly popular in the United States.[121] Many Christian rock performers have ties to the contemporary Christian music scene, while other bands and artists are closely linked to independent music. Since the 1980s a number of Christian rock performers have gained mainstream success, including figures like Amy Grant and in Britain Cliff Richard.[122] From the 1990s there were increasing numbers of acts who attempted to avoid the Christian band label, preferring to be seen as groups who were also Christians, including P.O.D and Collective Soul.[123]
[edit] Punk and its aftermath (mid-1970s to the 1980s)
[edit] Punk rock
Main article: Punk rock
By late 1976, acts such as the Ramones and Patti Smith, in New York City, and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, in London, were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement.[124] The following year saw punk rock spreading around the world. Punk quickly, though briefly, became a major cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associated punk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctive clothing styles and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.[126]
By the beginning of the 1980s, faster, more aggressive styles such as hardcore and Oi! had become the predominant mode of punk rock.[127] Since punk rock's initial popularity in the 1970s and the renewed interest created by the punk revival of the 1990s, punk rock continues to have a strong underground cult following.[128] This has resulted in several evolved strains of hardcore punk, such as D-beat (a distortion-heavy subgenre influenced by the UK band Discharge), anarcho-punk (such as Crass), grindcore (such as Napalm Death), and crust punk.[129] Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise to new wave, post-punk and the alternative rock movement.[124]
[edit] New wave
Main article: New Wave music
Between 1982 and 1985, influenced by Kraftwerk, David Bowie, and Gary Numan, British new wave went in the direction of such New Romantics as Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Talk Talk and the Eurythmics, sometimes using the synthesizer to replace all other instruments.[138] This period coincided with the rise of MTV and led to a great deal of exposure for this brand of synthpop, creating what has been characterised as a second British Invasion.[139] Some more traditional rock bands adapted to the video age and profited from MTV's airplay, most obviously Dire Straits', whose "Money for nothing" gently poked fun at the station, despite the fact that it had helped make them international stars,[140] but in general guitar-oriented rock was commercially eclipsed.[141]
[edit] Post-punk
Main article: Post-punk
[edit] New waves and genres in heavy metal
Inspired by NWOBHM and Van Halen's success, a metal scene began to develop in Southern California from the late 1970s, based around the clubs of L.A.'s Sunset Strip and including such bands as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P., who, along with similarly styled acts such as New York's Twisted Sister, incorporated the theatrics (and sometimes makeup) of glam rock acts like Alice Cooper and Kiss.[148] The lyrics of these glam metal bands characteristically emphasized hedonism and wild behavior and musically were distinguished by rapid-fire shred guitar solos, anthemic choruses, and a relatively melodic, pop-oriented approach.[148] By the mid-1980s bands were beginning to emerge from the L.A. scene that pursued a less glam image and a rawer sound, particularly Guns N' Roses, breaking through with the chart-topping Appetite for Destruction (1987), and Jane's Addiction, who emerged with their major label debut, Nothing's Shocking the following year.[150]
In the late 1980s metal fragmented into a number of subgenres, including thrash metal, which developed in the US under the influence of hardcore punk, particularly the style known as speed metal, with low-register guitar riffs typically overlaid by shredding leads.[151] Lyrics often expressed nihilistic views or deal with social issues using visceral, gory language. It was popularised by the "Big Four of Thrash": Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer.[147] Death metal developed out of thrash, particularly influenced by the bands Venom and Slayer. Florida's Death and the Bay Area's Possessed emphasized lyrical elements of blasphemy, diabolism and millenarianism, with vocals usually delivered as guttural "death growls," high-pitched screaming, complemented by downtuned, highly distorted guitars and extremely fast double bass percussion.[152] Black metal, again influenced by Venom and pioneered by Denmark's Mercyful Fate, Switzerland's Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and Sweden's Bathory, had many similarities in sound to death metal, but was often intentionally lo-fi in production and placed greater emphasis on satanic and pagan themes.[153][154] Bathory were particularly important in inspiring the further sub-genres of Viking metal and folk metal.[155] Power metal emerged in Europe in the late 1980s as a reaction to the harshness of death and black metal and was established by Germany's Helloween, who combined a melodic approach with thrash's speed and energy.[156] Bands like Sweden's HammerFall, England's DragonForce, and Florida's Iced Earth have a sound indebted to NWOBHM,[157] while acts such as Florida's Kamelot, Finland's Nightwish, Italy's Rhapsody of Fire, and Russia's Catharsis feature a keyboard-based "symphonic" sound, sometimes employing orchestras and opera singers. In contrast to other sub-genres Doom metal, influenced by Gothic rock, slowed down the music, with bands like England's Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General and the United States' Pentagram, Saint Vitus and Trouble, emphasizing melody, down-tuned guitars, a 'thicker' or 'heavier' sound and a sepulchral mood.[158][159]
[edit] Heartland rock
Main article: Heartland rock
Heartland rock faded away as a recognized genre by the early 1990s, as rock music in general, and blue collar and white working class themes in particular, lost influence with younger audiences, and as heartland's artists turned to more personal works.[162] Many heartland rock artists continue to record today with critical and commercial success, most notably Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp, although their works have become more personal and experimental and no longer fit easily into a single genre. Newer artists whose music would clearly have been labelled heartland rock had it been released in the 1970s or 1980s, such as Missouri's Bottle Rockets and Illinois' Uncle Tupelo, often find themselves these days labeled alt-country.[165]
[edit] The emergence of alternative rock
Main article: Alternative rock
[edit] Alternative goes mainstream (the 1990s)
[edit] Grunge
Main article: Grunge
By the early 1990s, rock was dominated by commercialized and highly produced pop, rock, and "hair metal" artists, while MTV had arrived and promoted a focus on image and style. Disaffected by this trend, in the mid-1980s, bands in Washington state (particularly in the Seattle area) formed a new style of rock which sharply contrasted with the mainstream music of the time.[169] The developing genre came to be known as "grunge", a term descriptive of the dirty sound of the music and the unkempt appearance of most musicians, who actively rebelled against the over-groomed images of popular artists.[169] Grunge fused elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a single sound, and made heavy use of guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback.[169] The lyrics were typically apathetic and angst-filled, and often concerned themes such as social alienation and entrapment, although it was also known for its dark humor and parodies of commercial rock.[169]
Bands such as Green River, Soundgarden, the Melvins and Skin Yard pioneered the genre, with Mudhoney becoming the most successful by the end of the decade. However, grunge remained largely a local phenomenon until 1991, when Nirvana‘s Nevermind became a huge success thanks to the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit".[170] Nevermind was more melodic than its predecessors, but the band refused to employ traditional corporate promotion and marketing mechanisms. During 1991 and 1992, other grunge albums such as Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chains' Dirt, along with the Temple of the Dog album featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, became among the 100 top selling albums of 1992.[171] The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to nickname Seattle "the new Liverpool."[172] Major record labels signed most of the remaining grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in the hope of success.[173] However, with the death of Kurt Cobain and the subsequent break-up of Nirvana in 1994, touring problems for Pearl Jam and the departure of Alice in Chains' lead singer Layne Staley in 1996, the genre began to decline, partly to be overshadowed by Britpop and more commercial sounding post-grunge.[174]
[edit] Britpop
Main article: Britpop
[edit] Post-grunge
Main article: Post-grunge
[edit] Pop punk
Main article: Pop punk
A second wave of punk pop was spearheaded by Blink-182, with their breakthrough album Enema of the State (1999), followed by bands such as Good Charlotte, Bowling for Soup and Sum 41, who who made use of humour in their videos and had a more radio-friendly tone to their music, while retaining the speed, some of the attitude and even the look of 1970s punk.[182] More recent pop-punk bands, including Simple Plan, All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy, have a sound that has been described as closer to 1980s hardcore, while still achieving considerable commercial success.[182]
[edit] Indie rock
Main article: Indie rock
By the end of the 1990s many recognisable sub-genres, most with their origins in the late 80s alternative movement, were included under the umbrella of indie. Lo-fi eschewed polished recording techniques for a D.I.Y. ethos and was spearheaded by Beck, Sebadoh and Pavement.[166] The work of Talk Talk, Laughing Stock and Slint helped inspire both post rock, an experimental style influenced by jazz and electronic music, pioneered by Bark Psychosis and taken up by acts such as Tortoise, Stereolab, and Laika,[189][190][191] as well as leading to more dense and complex, guitar-based math rock, developed by acts like Polvo and Chavez.[192] Space rock looked back to progressive roots, with drone heavy and minimalist acts like Spaceman 3, the two bands created out of its split, Spectrum and Spiritualized, and more recent groups including Flying Saucer Attack, Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Quickspace.[193] In contrast, Sadcore emphasised pain and suffering through melodic use of acoustic and electronic instrumentation in the music of bands like American Music Club and Red House Painters,[194] while the revival of Baroque pop reacted against lo-fi and experimental music by placing an emphasis on melody and classical instrumentation, with artists like Belle and Sebastian and Rufus Wainright.[195]
[edit] Alternative metal, rap rock and nu metal
Hip hop had gained attention from rock acts in the early 1980's, including The Clash with "The Magnificent Seven" (1981) and Blondie with "Rapture" (1981).[197][198] Early crossover acts included Run DMC and the Beastie Boys.[199][200] Detroit rapper Esham became known for his "acid rap" style, which fused rapping with a sound that was often based in rock and heavy metal,[201][202] Rappers who sampled rock songs included Ice-T, The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Whodini.[203] The mixing of thrash metal and rap was pioneered by Anthrax on their 1987 comedy single "I'm the Man".[204]
In 1990, Faith No More broke into the mainstream with their single "Epic', often seen as the first truly successful combination of heavy metal with rap.[205] This paved the way for the success of existing bands like 24-7 Spyz and Living Colour, and new acts including Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers, who all fused rock and hip hop among other influences.[203][179] Among the first wave of performers to gain mainstream success as rap rock were 311,[206] Bloodhound Gang,[207] and Kid Rock.[208] A more hardcore sound was pursued by bands including Limp Bizkit, Korn and Slipknot.[204] Later in the decade this style, which contained a mix of grunge, punk, metal, rap and turntable scratching, spawned a wave of successful bands like Linkin Park, P.O.D. and Staind, who were often classified as rap metal or nu metal.[209]
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[edit] Rock music in the new millenium (2000s)
[edit] Emo
Main article: Emo
Emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s with the platinum-selling success of Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American (2001) and Dashboard Confessional's The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2003).[214] The new emo had a far greater appeal amongst adolescents than its earlier incarnations.[214] At the same time, use of the term emo expanded beyond the musical genre, becoming associated with fashion, a hairstyle and any music that expressed emotion.[215] In recent years the term emo has been applied by critics and journalists to a variety of artists, including multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy[216] and My Chemical Romance[217] and disparate groups such as Paramore[216] and Panic at the Disco,[218] even when they protest the label.
[edit] Garage rock/Post-punk revival
Main articles: Garage rock revival and Post-punk revival
The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands: The Strokes, who emerged from the New York club scene with their debut album This is it (2001), The White Stripes, from Detroit, with their third album White Blood Cells (2001), The Hives from Sweden after their compilation album Your New Favourite Band (2001), and The Vines from Australia with Highly Evolved (2002).[231] They were christened by the media as the "The" bands, and dubbed "The saviours of rock 'n' roll", leading to accusations of hype.[232] A second wave of bands that managed to gain international recognition as a result of the movement included Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Killers, Interpol and Kings of Leon from the US, The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Editors and Franz Ferdinand from the UK, Jet from Australia and The Datsuns and The D4 from New Zealand.[233]
[edit] Metalcore and contemporary heavy metal
Main articles: Metalcore and New Wave of American Heavy Metal
Metalcore, an originally American hybrid of thrash metal and hardcore punk,[234] emerged as a commercial force in the mid-2000s. It is rooted in the crossover thrash style developed two decades earlier by bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of Death.[235] Through the 1990s, metalcore was mostly an underground phenomenon. By 2004, melodic metalcore—influenced as well by melodic death metal—was popular enough that Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache and Shadows Fall's The War Within debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart.[236] Bullet for My Valentine, from Wales, broke into the top 5 in both the U.S. and British charts with Scream Aim Fire (2008). In recent years, metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest and the Download Festival. Lamb of God, with a related blend of metal styles, hit the #2 spot on the Billboard charts in 2009 with Wrath. The success of these bands and others such as Trivium, which has released both metalcore and straight-ahead thrash albums, and Mastodon, which plays in a progressive/sludge style, has inspired claims of a metal revival in the United States, dubbed by some critics the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal."[237]
In continental Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be broadly popular. Well-established British acts such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden continue to have chart success on the continent, as do a range of local groups. In Germany, Western Europe's largest music market, several continental metal bands placed multiple albums in the top 20 of the charts between 2003 and 2008, including Finnish band Children of Bodom, Norwegian act Dimmu Borgir, and Germany's Blind Guardian and Sweden's HammerFall.[241] The Swedish act In Flames took both Come Clarity (2006) and A Sense of Purpose (2008) to number 6 in Germany;[241] each album topped the Swedish charts.[242]
[edit] Electronic rock
Main article: Electronic rock
In the last decade a number of software-based virtual studio environments have emerged, with products such as Propellerhead's Reason and Ableton Live finding popular appeal.[246] Such tools provide viable and cost-effective alternatives to typical hardware-based production studios, and thanks to advances in microprocessor technology, it became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer. Such advances have led to a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the general public via the internet.[247] Bands such as The Prodigy, Pendulum, Ratatat, and Nine Inch Nails are a few of the most popular electronic rock bands.
The industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails' album Year Zero utilized a heavily edited and distorted guitar sound modified via laptop computer. Allmusic's review described the album's laptop-mixed sound: "guitars squall against glitches, beeps, pops, and blotches of blurry sonic attacks. Percussion looms large, distorted, organic, looped, screwed, spindled and broken."[248] The French electronic duo Justice's album † incorporates a strong rock and metal influence into their music and image. Canadian band Crystal Castles incorporates elements of chiptune and punk rock vocals. Icelandic singer Bjork's song "Declare Independence" from her album Volta featured a heavily modified synth bass guitar sound and strong rock feel. Canadian artist Peaches and various aspects of the Electroclash genre often reflect a strong Rock sensibility. New York's Ratatat is often cited as achieving an "electronic rock" sound.
[edit] Dance-punk
Main article: Dance-punk
Many groups in the post-punk era adopted a more rhythmic tempo, conducive to dancing. These bands were influenced by disco, funk, and other dance musics popular at the time, as well as being anticipated by some of the 1970s work of David Bowie,[249] Brian Eno, and Iggy Pop, and some recordings by the German groups referred to as Krautrock.The music style re-emerged under the name dance-punk at the beginning of the 21st century.[250] The style was championed by rock- and punk-oriented bands such as Liars, The Rapture and Radio 4, as well as dance-oriented acts such as Out Hud. Other groups, such as !!! and The Faint fell somewhere in the middle. There has since been a crystallization of musical forms within dance-punk, with bands such as Death from Above 1979, Test Icicles, Fake Shark - Real Zombie!, and Q and Not U exploring aspects of dance-punk, along with post-hardcore and other musical styles. DFA Records can be seen as the current center of the dance-punk genre. As well as James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem, the label is currently home to The Juan MacLean, Hot Chip, Hercules & Love Affair, Brinvonda, Shit Robot, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Prinzhorn Dance School, Booji Boy High, Shocking Pinks, Holy Ghost!, Still Going, Syclops and YACHT.
[edit] New Rave
Main article: New Rave
Klaxons,[252][253][254] Trash Fashion,[255] New Young Pony Club,[256][257][258][259], Hadouken!, Late of the Pier, Test Icicles, Bono Must Die[260] and SHITDISCO[252] are generally accepted as the main exponents of the genre.
The aesthetics of the New Rave scene are largely similar to those of the original rave scene, being mostly centred around psychedelic visual effects. Glowsticks, neon and other lights are common, and followers of the scene often dress in extremely bright and fluorescent colored clothing.[252][261] Indeed, many consider New Rave to be defined more by the image and aesthetic of its bands and supporters, than by the somewhat vague sonic criteria. Trash Fashion lead singer, Jet Storm has been described as the scenes very own pin up.[255][262] Nevertheless, the usage of electronic instruments, a musical fusion of rock and dance styles, and a particular anarchic, trashy energy are certainly key elements.
[edit] Social impact
Main article: Social effects of rock music
The influence of rock music is far-reaching, and has had significant impact worldwide on fashion and film styles. Its impact has been positive, with the trend of many rock stars facilitating charity events such as Live Aid. There are also spiritual aspects tied to rock music. Songwriters like Pete Townshend have explored these in their work. The common usage of the term rock god acknowledges the religious quality of the adulation some music celebrities and rock stars receisumber:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music
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