One
of the major influences of hard rock is blues music, especially British blues.
British rock bands, such as 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, "Helter Skelter", the
single version of "Revolution" and 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)" 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.
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 pioneered the hard
rock genre with the albums, Shades of Deep Purple (1968), The Book of Taliesyn
(1968), and Deep Purple (1969). Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album, Led
Zeppelin I (1969), is an example of music from the beginning of the hard rock
genre. The blues origins of the album are clear, and a few songs by well-known
blues artists are adapted or covered within it.
Led Zeppelin's third album, Led Zeppelin III was more progressive 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 proto-metal
albums. The Machine Head song, "Highway Star", is considered the first speed
metal 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. Queen used layered
vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with glam rock, heavy metal, prog 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 albums 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.
With the death of Tommy Bolin in 1976, Deep Purple disbanded. In 1977,
Foreigner released a highly successful debut album. A year later, 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, formed in 1978. Their music
was based mostly on the guitar skills of Eddie Van Halen, the lead guitarist.
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.
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. 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 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 with American guitar virtuoso
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 Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot. Quiet Riot's Metal Health
is the first heavy metal album ever to reach #1 on the Billboard United States
chart.
Def Leppard, an English hard rock band, released in 1983 the album Pyromania,
which reached #2 in the American charts. Their music was a mix of glam rock,
heavy metal, classic rock and Album Oriented Rock, which influenced many 1980s
hard rock and glam rock bands.
In 1983, Mötley Crüe released the album, Shout at the Devil, which became a
huge hit. Van Halen's album 1984 became a huge success, hitting #2 on the
Billboard album charts. In particular, the song "Jump" reached #1 on the single
chart and is considered one of the most popular rock songs ever written.
However, 1984 was also their first to include the constant and repeditive use
of keyboards and synthesizers, marking a shift away from their original
guitar-orientated style.
Metallica released the hit album Ride the Lightning in 1984, which featured
legendary song "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
The late 1980s saw the most commercially successful time period for hard rock.
Numerous hard rock acts achieved hits in the mainstream charts. One of those
hits was the album Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, released in 1986.
In 1987, the most notable successes in the charts were, Appetite for
Destruction by Guns N' Roses, and Hysteria by Def Leppard (both of which
reached #1 on Billboard's album chart), Mötley Crüe's Girls, Girls, Girls and
Whitesnake's 1987 and in the 1988 and 1989 the most notable successes were New
Jersey by Bon Jovi and Dr. Feelgood by Mötley Crüe. Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth
achieved underground success in the U.S, and would later reach the mainstream
in the 1990s. In 1988, Skid Row formed. Their first album, Skid Row, was
released in 1989.
The early 1990s were at first dominated by Guns N' Roses and Metallica. The
multi-platinum releases of Metallica's "Black Album" and Guns N' Roses' Use
Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in 1991 showcased this popularity. But
the popularity of such bands waned, as their music and attitudes became more
decadent and self-indulgent. In 1991 a new form of hard rock broke into the
mainstream.
Grunge combined elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a dirty sound
that made use of heavy guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback. Although most
grunge bands had a sound that sharply contrasted mainstream hard rock (for
example Nirvana, Mudhoney and L7), a minority (for example Pearl Jam, Mother
Love Bone, Temple of the Dog and even Soundgarden) were more strongly
influenced by much 1970s and 1980s rock and metal. However, all grunge bands
shunned the macho, anthemic and fashion-focused style of hard rock at that
time.
In the UK, bands like Swervedriver, Catherine Wheel and Ride demonstrated that
guitar heroics could be incorporated into songs that lacked the
often-misogynistic content of 1970s and 1980s hard rock bands. As the
popularity of artists such as Metallica continued from the 1980s into the
1990s, some other bands had begun to fuse metal with a range of eclectic
influences. These bands came to be known as alternative metal artists, a subset
of alternative rock. Some, such as Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against
the Machine, Living Colour and White Zombie fused funk with metal styles,
though most of these bands actually formed in the '80s. Faith No More/Mr.
Bungle fused many genres with hard rock, ranging from rap music to soul. Helmet
and The Afghan Whigs were also successful experimental hard rock bands. The
Darkness's retro glam-metal influences helped propel them to the upper realms
of the charts in the early 2000s, with the likes of Wolfmother. Towards the mid
2000s with new bands started to become mainstream, The Answer, Glitterati, The
Datsuns, Nineteenth Century and Punk influence Towers of London are some of the
new rock bands which followed up from the Garage rock revival.
Right now the biggest exponent of Hard Rock is Superband Velvet Revolver which
is formed by some ex-Guns N' Roses members. However there is a lot of upcoming
bands worldwide that fall into this category, for example, Bullets and Octane
of America, and the likes of Disarm, King Lizard and Jackviper in the UK.
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