GIN_ofTheFunk
01-12-2008, 01:46 AM
Well, somehow the topic ' Metal!' of a brother-in-cool-music reminded me to post a tread about HARD ROCK music. Halleluyah! Let's discuss what do we like best about it, favourite bands, and everything about Hard Rock.
Deep Purple... Black Sabbath... Dio... Motorhead ... Rainbow ... White Snake... Led Zeppelin ... Scorpions... OMFG I can get hysterical when I write those names ! How 'bout ya then?
And here's a little info for ya... some of da thingz might be useful for ya:
Hard rock is strongly influenced by blues music[citation needed]; the most frequently used scale in hard rock is the pentatonic, which is a typical blues scale. Unlike traditional rock and roll (which takes elements of the "old" blues), hard rock incorporates elements of "British blues", a style of blues played with more modern instruments such as electric guitars, drums, keyboards and electric bass. A notable departure from traditional blues forms is that hard rock is seldom restricted to the I, IV, and V chords prevalent in 12- or 16-bar blues, but includes other chords, typically major chords rooted on tones of the minor scale.
The term "hard rock" is often applied to many styles of rock music, their only common feature being that they deviate from pop rock, though this is generally incorrect. Two such examples are punk rock and grunge. Punk rock uses a faster tempo, less melody, fewer riffs (often using power chords), more aggression and anti-establishment lyrics.
Instrumentation
The predominant instruments in hard rock are the electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums. The role of the guitarist is very prevalent in hard rock. Most hard rock bands comprise two different types of guitarist: lead guitarist and rhythm guitarist. The lead guitarist plays the solos, riffs and fills. Speed-enhancing techniques such as alternate picking, sweep picking and tapping, are used by hard rock lead guitarists to maximize the speed of their solos and riffs. The role of the rhythm guitarist is to complement the lead guitarist and provide rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment to the other instruments in the band. The bass guitarist and drummer's role are important to the structure of hard rock music; the bassline outlines the harmony of the music while the drums sustain the rhythm of the music.
During the 1970s, hard rock inspired a new genre of music known as "heavy metal." The emergence of this genre has led to confusion between hard rock and heavy metal bands, as the distinctions between the two are usually subtle, and the distinction often comes down to a band's image, rather than its songs. The two genres have some crossovers, for example; heavy metal pioneers, such as Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, are often considered both heavy metal and hard rock, whereas, bands such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Queen, The Who, Thin Lizzy, Guns N' Roses, Nazareth, Van Halen and Kiss, are normally referred to as hard rock.
To further the confusion, the most popular heavy metal subgenre of the 1980s, glam metal, was known to take influence from both the pioneering hard rock acts such as Alice Cooper, Queen, Kiss and Aerosmith, etc. All four of these bands would go on to experiment with glam metal in the 1980s.
From a musical point of view, heavy metal tends to interpret the basic syncopated jazz rhythm of an eight and two sixteenth carried on a ride cymbal with a swing feel down to the bass line with a literal "straight up" feel. Thus the "dum da da dum da da dum" bass line is a standard basis for the heavy metal sound as heard, for example, in Black Sabbath's song "Heaven and Hell" during the verses, or in Iron Maiden's song "Flight of Icarus", or also Dio's "Holy Diver". Another good example is to listen to the difference between how the song "Helter Skelter" is played by the original writers, The Beatles, and the interpretation as played by Mötley Crüe.
The primary difference between glam metal and heavy metal is in lyrics, image and melody. Heavy metal lyrical content extends from "reality lament" tone of blues, discussing serious, provocative or philosophical ideas. Heavy metal image usually sports "macho" black leather, dark clothing or punk-influenced dressing with leather jackets and jeans. Melodies and the whole music in general are generally not "catchy" and pop-influenced as glam metal. Glam metal (in some cases referred to as "hair metal"), on the other hand, extends from its more "fantasy escapist" tones of pop music, and the lyrics tends to focus more on parties, having a good time, and relationships. The image of these bands are huge, teased hairstyles, outrageous outfits and a lot of make up. (Note: do not confuse with power metal, which is "fantasy escapist" in the sense that the lyrics deal with such fantastical subjects as magic and classical myth).
Early years (1960s)
As stated, one of the major influences of hard rock is blues music, especially British blues. British rock bands, such as Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Who and The Kinks modified rock and roll, adding to the standard genre harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming and louder vocals. This sound created the basis for hard rock. Early forms of hard rock can be heard in the songs "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" by The Yardbirds, "Revolution" and "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles, "I Can See for Miles" by The Who, and "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks.
At the same time, Jimi Hendrix, produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock and roll, creating a unique genre. He was one of the first guitarists to experiment with new guitar effects like phasing, feedback and distortion, along with Dave Davies of the Kinks, Pete Townshend of The Who, Eric Clapton of Cream, and Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds.
Hard rock emerged with British groups of the late-1960s, such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, who mixed the music of early British rock bands with a more hard-edged form of blues rock and acid rock. Deep Purple helped pioneer the hard rock genre with the albums Shades of Deep Purple (1968), The Book of Taliesyn (1968), and Deep Purple (1969), but they made their big break with their fourth album, Deep Purple in Rock (1970). Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album, Led Zeppelin I (1969), Uriah Heep's Very 'eavy... Very 'umble (1970), and The Who's Live at Leeds (1970), are examples of music from the beginning of the hard rock genre. The blues origins of the albums are clear, and a few songs by well-known blues artists are adapted or covered within them.
First era (1970s)
Led Zeppelin's third album, Led Zeppelin III was more Folk rock-oriented than their second, but the heavy aspects of their music remained. In 1970, Black Sabbath released what is considered the first heavy metal album, Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath's music was revolutionary even in hard rock; it was typified by dark lyrics, hard riffs and a heavy atmosphere, transforming the current hard rock into to an early form of heavy metal.
Deep Purple's transformation of hard rock continued with their album, Machine Head, considered (along with Black Sabbath) as one of the first heavy metal albums. Two songs in Machine Head had great success: "Highway Star", which is considered the first speed metal song, and "Smoke On The Water", whose main riff made it become the signature Deep Purple song. Another band, Nazareth, provided a blend of hard rock which commercialised the genre further with their best selling album, Hair of the Dog, which in turn, influenced numerous other bands.
During the 1970s, hard rock developed a variety of sub-genres. In 1972, heavy metal pioneer Alice Cooper put shock rock into the mainstream with the top ten album School's Out. The following year, Aerosmith, Queen and Montrose released their eponymous debut albums, demonstrating the broadening directions of hard rock. In 1974, Bad Company released its debut album, and Queen released its third album, Sheer Heart Attack, with the track Stone Cold Crazy influencing later thrash metal artists, such as Metallica and Megadeth.[1][2] Queen used layered vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with glam rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, and even opera. KISS released their first three albums Kiss, Hotter Than Hell and Dressed To Kill, in a little over a year, achieving their commercial breakthrough with double live album Alive!. In the mid-1970s, Aerosmith released the ground-breaking Toys in the Attic and Rocks which incorporated elements of blues and hard rock and would later influence rock artists as diverse as Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and Mötley Crüe.[3][4]
With the death of Tommy Bolin in 1976, Deep Purple disbanded. In 1976, Boston released a highly successful debut album. Heart paved the way for women in the genre with the release of their debut album. In 1978, The Who's drummer, Keith Moon died in his sleep via an overdose. With the rise of disco in the U.S. and punk rock in the UK, hard rock began to lose popularity. Disco appealed to a more diverse group of people and punk seemed to take over the rebellious role that hard rock once held. Meanwhile, Black Sabbath moved away from the darkness of their early work with albums such as Technical Ecstasy.
Van Halen, another important group in hard rock, emerged in 1978. Their music was based mostly on the guitar skills of Eddie Van Halen, the lead guitarist, who introduced a smart technique called tapping in guitar playing. The song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen, demonstrated Eddie Van Halen's technique and was very influential.
In 1979, the differences between the hard rock movement and the rising heavy metal movement were highlighted when the Australian hard rock band, AC/DC, released its second-biggest album, Highway to Hell. AC/DC's music was based mostly on rhythm & blues and early-1970s hard rock, with the group explicitly repudiating the "heavy metal" tag.
Second era (1980s)
In 1980, Led Zeppelin disbanded after the sudden death of drummer John Bonham. Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC, also died in 1980. With these deaths, the first wave of "classic" hard rock bands ended. Some bands, such as Queen, moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock. AC/DC recorded the album Back in Black, with their new lead singer, Brian Johnson. Back in Black is the fifth highest-selling album of all time in the U.S[5] and the second biggest selling album in the world. [6] By being so successful, AC/DC and Van Halen helped make possible the rise of more radio-friendly hard rock. Ozzy Osbourne released his first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz which featured American guitarist Randy Rhoads.
In 1981, the U.S. band, Mötley Crüe, released Too Fast for Love, which set the basis for the rising genre of glam metal. A year later, the genre grew, especially thanks to bands such as Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot. Quiet Riot's Metal Health (1983) became the first heavy metal album ever to reach #1 on the Billboard United States chart.
Also in 1983, Def Leppard, an English hard rock band, released the album Pyromania, which reached #2 on the American charts. Their music was a mix of glam rock and heavy metal which influenced many 1980s hard rock and glam rock bands.
Deep Purple... Black Sabbath... Dio... Motorhead ... Rainbow ... White Snake... Led Zeppelin ... Scorpions... OMFG I can get hysterical when I write those names ! How 'bout ya then?
And here's a little info for ya... some of da thingz might be useful for ya:
Hard rock is strongly influenced by blues music[citation needed]; the most frequently used scale in hard rock is the pentatonic, which is a typical blues scale. Unlike traditional rock and roll (which takes elements of the "old" blues), hard rock incorporates elements of "British blues", a style of blues played with more modern instruments such as electric guitars, drums, keyboards and electric bass. A notable departure from traditional blues forms is that hard rock is seldom restricted to the I, IV, and V chords prevalent in 12- or 16-bar blues, but includes other chords, typically major chords rooted on tones of the minor scale.
The term "hard rock" is often applied to many styles of rock music, their only common feature being that they deviate from pop rock, though this is generally incorrect. Two such examples are punk rock and grunge. Punk rock uses a faster tempo, less melody, fewer riffs (often using power chords), more aggression and anti-establishment lyrics.
Instrumentation
The predominant instruments in hard rock are the electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums. The role of the guitarist is very prevalent in hard rock. Most hard rock bands comprise two different types of guitarist: lead guitarist and rhythm guitarist. The lead guitarist plays the solos, riffs and fills. Speed-enhancing techniques such as alternate picking, sweep picking and tapping, are used by hard rock lead guitarists to maximize the speed of their solos and riffs. The role of the rhythm guitarist is to complement the lead guitarist and provide rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment to the other instruments in the band. The bass guitarist and drummer's role are important to the structure of hard rock music; the bassline outlines the harmony of the music while the drums sustain the rhythm of the music.
During the 1970s, hard rock inspired a new genre of music known as "heavy metal." The emergence of this genre has led to confusion between hard rock and heavy metal bands, as the distinctions between the two are usually subtle, and the distinction often comes down to a band's image, rather than its songs. The two genres have some crossovers, for example; heavy metal pioneers, such as Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, are often considered both heavy metal and hard rock, whereas, bands such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Queen, The Who, Thin Lizzy, Guns N' Roses, Nazareth, Van Halen and Kiss, are normally referred to as hard rock.
To further the confusion, the most popular heavy metal subgenre of the 1980s, glam metal, was known to take influence from both the pioneering hard rock acts such as Alice Cooper, Queen, Kiss and Aerosmith, etc. All four of these bands would go on to experiment with glam metal in the 1980s.
From a musical point of view, heavy metal tends to interpret the basic syncopated jazz rhythm of an eight and two sixteenth carried on a ride cymbal with a swing feel down to the bass line with a literal "straight up" feel. Thus the "dum da da dum da da dum" bass line is a standard basis for the heavy metal sound as heard, for example, in Black Sabbath's song "Heaven and Hell" during the verses, or in Iron Maiden's song "Flight of Icarus", or also Dio's "Holy Diver". Another good example is to listen to the difference between how the song "Helter Skelter" is played by the original writers, The Beatles, and the interpretation as played by Mötley Crüe.
The primary difference between glam metal and heavy metal is in lyrics, image and melody. Heavy metal lyrical content extends from "reality lament" tone of blues, discussing serious, provocative or philosophical ideas. Heavy metal image usually sports "macho" black leather, dark clothing or punk-influenced dressing with leather jackets and jeans. Melodies and the whole music in general are generally not "catchy" and pop-influenced as glam metal. Glam metal (in some cases referred to as "hair metal"), on the other hand, extends from its more "fantasy escapist" tones of pop music, and the lyrics tends to focus more on parties, having a good time, and relationships. The image of these bands are huge, teased hairstyles, outrageous outfits and a lot of make up. (Note: do not confuse with power metal, which is "fantasy escapist" in the sense that the lyrics deal with such fantastical subjects as magic and classical myth).
Early years (1960s)
As stated, one of the major influences of hard rock is blues music, especially British blues. British rock bands, such as Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Who and The Kinks modified rock and roll, adding to the standard genre harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming and louder vocals. This sound created the basis for hard rock. Early forms of hard rock can be heard in the songs "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" by The Yardbirds, "Revolution" and "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles, "I Can See for Miles" by The Who, and "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks.
At the same time, Jimi Hendrix, produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock and roll, creating a unique genre. He was one of the first guitarists to experiment with new guitar effects like phasing, feedback and distortion, along with Dave Davies of the Kinks, Pete Townshend of The Who, Eric Clapton of Cream, and Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds.
Hard rock emerged with British groups of the late-1960s, such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, who mixed the music of early British rock bands with a more hard-edged form of blues rock and acid rock. Deep Purple helped pioneer the hard rock genre with the albums Shades of Deep Purple (1968), The Book of Taliesyn (1968), and Deep Purple (1969), but they made their big break with their fourth album, Deep Purple in Rock (1970). Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album, Led Zeppelin I (1969), Uriah Heep's Very 'eavy... Very 'umble (1970), and The Who's Live at Leeds (1970), are examples of music from the beginning of the hard rock genre. The blues origins of the albums are clear, and a few songs by well-known blues artists are adapted or covered within them.
First era (1970s)
Led Zeppelin's third album, Led Zeppelin III was more Folk rock-oriented than their second, but the heavy aspects of their music remained. In 1970, Black Sabbath released what is considered the first heavy metal album, Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath's music was revolutionary even in hard rock; it was typified by dark lyrics, hard riffs and a heavy atmosphere, transforming the current hard rock into to an early form of heavy metal.
Deep Purple's transformation of hard rock continued with their album, Machine Head, considered (along with Black Sabbath) as one of the first heavy metal albums. Two songs in Machine Head had great success: "Highway Star", which is considered the first speed metal song, and "Smoke On The Water", whose main riff made it become the signature Deep Purple song. Another band, Nazareth, provided a blend of hard rock which commercialised the genre further with their best selling album, Hair of the Dog, which in turn, influenced numerous other bands.
During the 1970s, hard rock developed a variety of sub-genres. In 1972, heavy metal pioneer Alice Cooper put shock rock into the mainstream with the top ten album School's Out. The following year, Aerosmith, Queen and Montrose released their eponymous debut albums, demonstrating the broadening directions of hard rock. In 1974, Bad Company released its debut album, and Queen released its third album, Sheer Heart Attack, with the track Stone Cold Crazy influencing later thrash metal artists, such as Metallica and Megadeth.[1][2] Queen used layered vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with glam rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, and even opera. KISS released their first three albums Kiss, Hotter Than Hell and Dressed To Kill, in a little over a year, achieving their commercial breakthrough with double live album Alive!. In the mid-1970s, Aerosmith released the ground-breaking Toys in the Attic and Rocks which incorporated elements of blues and hard rock and would later influence rock artists as diverse as Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and Mötley Crüe.[3][4]
With the death of Tommy Bolin in 1976, Deep Purple disbanded. In 1976, Boston released a highly successful debut album. Heart paved the way for women in the genre with the release of their debut album. In 1978, The Who's drummer, Keith Moon died in his sleep via an overdose. With the rise of disco in the U.S. and punk rock in the UK, hard rock began to lose popularity. Disco appealed to a more diverse group of people and punk seemed to take over the rebellious role that hard rock once held. Meanwhile, Black Sabbath moved away from the darkness of their early work with albums such as Technical Ecstasy.
Van Halen, another important group in hard rock, emerged in 1978. Their music was based mostly on the guitar skills of Eddie Van Halen, the lead guitarist, who introduced a smart technique called tapping in guitar playing. The song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen, demonstrated Eddie Van Halen's technique and was very influential.
In 1979, the differences between the hard rock movement and the rising heavy metal movement were highlighted when the Australian hard rock band, AC/DC, released its second-biggest album, Highway to Hell. AC/DC's music was based mostly on rhythm & blues and early-1970s hard rock, with the group explicitly repudiating the "heavy metal" tag.
Second era (1980s)
In 1980, Led Zeppelin disbanded after the sudden death of drummer John Bonham. Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC, also died in 1980. With these deaths, the first wave of "classic" hard rock bands ended. Some bands, such as Queen, moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock. AC/DC recorded the album Back in Black, with their new lead singer, Brian Johnson. Back in Black is the fifth highest-selling album of all time in the U.S[5] and the second biggest selling album in the world. [6] By being so successful, AC/DC and Van Halen helped make possible the rise of more radio-friendly hard rock. Ozzy Osbourne released his first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz which featured American guitarist Randy Rhoads.
In 1981, the U.S. band, Mötley Crüe, released Too Fast for Love, which set the basis for the rising genre of glam metal. A year later, the genre grew, especially thanks to bands such as Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot. Quiet Riot's Metal Health (1983) became the first heavy metal album ever to reach #1 on the Billboard United States chart.
Also in 1983, Def Leppard, an English hard rock band, released the album Pyromania, which reached #2 on the American charts. Their music was a mix of glam rock and heavy metal which influenced many 1980s hard rock and glam rock bands.