Colegiul Național Alexandru Ioan Cuza Galați

A history of
American Rock Music

Made by: Cimpoeru paul-Andrei

Teachers: Miron Isabela-Maria 0
Soaica Sorina
 Table of contents

Introduction: Why Rock music? 3

Chapter 1: The Rock n’ Roll era 4
Origins (1940’s-1960’s) 4
Diversification and decline (1950’s – 1960’s) 5
Surf music (1960’s) 6
Chapter 2: Development of Rock Music 7
The British Invasion and Beatlemania (1960’s) 7
Garage Rock (mid. 1960’s) 9
Blues Rock and Psychedelic Rock (1960’s – 1970’s) 10
Folk Rock (1960’s) 12
Chapter 3: Roots Rock era 13
Roots Rock (1960’s – 1970’s) 13
Country Rock (1970’s) 14
Southern Rock (1970’s – 1980’s) 15
Chapter 4: New Genres 16
Progresive Rock (1960’s – 1970’s) 16
Glam Rock (1970’s) 17
Soft and Hard Rock (1970’s – 1980’s) 19
Origins of heavy metal (mid. 1970’s) 19
Chapter 5: Punk & Metal era 20
Punk Rock (mid. 1970’s – 1980’s) 20
Glam Metal (mid.1970’s – 1980’s) 21
Heavy and Extreme Metal (1980’s) 22
Alternative Rock (1980’s) 23
Chapter 6: Mainstream era 24
Grunge (1990’s) 24
Pop Punk (1990’s – 2000’s) 26
Groove Metal (1990’s) 27
Alternative Metal,Rap Rock and Nu Metal (late 1990’s – 2000’s) 28
Chapter 7: Present day 30
Emo (early 2000’s) 30

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 The new Garage Rock (early 2000’s) 31
Metalcore and The new Heavy Metal (mid. 2000’s) 32
Bibliography 33
Gallery: From American Rock to European Rock
The gallery of legends
Legendary frontman
Legendary guitarists
Legendary bassists
Legendary drummers
Greatest albums of all-time

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Introduction

Why Rock music?

Why rock music? Well, it’s easy to answer, the roots of this music
genre are in the United States of America and being my favourite
genre of music I have chosen to present you in the following
pages a history of the music that had a great influence in time.
We love this music as it is, because it’s our way to share our
deepest feelings. We are ROCKERS! We love good music. We
love God’s creation. The spirit of a rocker can’t be understood by
anyone. Our soul is huge. Our mission is to love not to destroy!

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Chapter 1 – The Rock n’ Roll era
Origins (1940’s – 1960’s)
„Rock n’ roll ain’t noise pollution”
(Ac/Dc – Rock n’ roll ain’t noise pollution – Back in Black – 1980)

The foundations of American rock music are in rock and roll, which
originated in the United States in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Its
immediate origins lay in a mixing together of various black
musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music;
in addition to country and western. Other
music genres that influenced rock n’roll
music were folk music, jazz, blues ,
and classical music. The term of rock
n’roll was introduced in 1951 by the disc
jockey Alan Freed who played rhythm
and blues music.
There were several debates about who
made the first rock n’roll record. People
say that the first record was ’’Rocket
88” by Jackie Brenston and his Delta
Cats, while on the other hand is Elvis
Presley with his single from 1954
’’That’s All Right (Mama)”.
Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was nicknamed
“The king of rock n’ roll”
The first song to become famous and get on top of Billboard’s
Magazine was “Rock around the Clock’’ made in 1955 by Bill Haley.
David Gilmour from Pink Floyd said that’ it’s very hard to tell what made
me first decide to play the guitar. Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley
came out when I was ten, and that probably had something to do with it.’’

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 Diversification and decline (1950’s – 1960’s)
„Let’s rock everybody, let’s rock”
(Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock – 1958)

Rock n’ roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres,

including rockabilly, combining rock n’ 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. 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 Chuck Berry.The
diversification of rock n’ roll crossed the Atlantic Ocean so that another
band that became legendary in the 1960’s was The Beatles wich had a
huge influence for the music all around the world.
By the early 1960’s figures like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, 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.
1959 was the year that saw the decline of rock n’ roll. The scene was
marked by the tragical event when three artists died in a plane crash
(Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens).Elvis Presley made it
into the army and Little Richard retired from the music industry for
becoming a preacher. The payola scandal between Jerry Lee Lewis and
Chuck Berry implied major figures like Alan
Freed. While early rock n’ roll, particularly
through the advent of rockabilly, saw the
greatest commercial success for male and
white performers, in this era the genre was
dominated by black and female artists. Rock
and roll had not disappeared at the end of the
1950s and some of its energy can be seen in
the Twist dance craze of the early 1960’s,
mainly benefiting the career of Chubby
Checker..

Chuck Berry performing in 1973

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 Surf music (1960 – 1964)
„If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A.
Then everybody’d be surfin’
Like Californi-a”
(The Beach Boys – Surfin’ U.S.A. – Surfin’ U.S.A. – 1963)

Surf music was associated with surf culture,particulary found in Southern

California. It had two major forms: instrumental surf and vocal surf. The
instrumental surf’s sound was distinguished by reverb-drenched electric
guitars, tuned to sound like the waves of the ocean. One of the
instrumental surf artists was Dick Dale. The vocal surf was interpreted by
groups like The Beach Boys. Dick Dale gave an explanation that „They
were surfing sounds [with] surfing lyrics. In other words, the music wasn’t
surfing music. The words made them surfing songs. ... That was the
difference ... the real surfing music is instrumental.”
After a short period, the genre suffered its decline in 1964 with the
British invasion. These times also marked a change in the style of surf
music as the themes chosen now were cars and girls. This evolved later
as hot rod rock.

The Beach Boys performing in 1964

Chapter 2 – Development of Rock music

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 The British Invasion and Beatlemania (1960’s)
„And please say to me
You’ll let me hold your hand”

(The Beatles – I Want To Hold Your Hand – Meet The Beatles! – 1964)

By the end of 1962 British beat groups like The Beatles were drawing on
a wide range of American influences including soul music, rhythm and
blues and surf music. Initially, they reinterpreted standard American
tunes, playing for dancers doing the twist, for example. These groups
eventually infused their original compositions with increasingly complex
musical ideas and a distinctive sound. During 1963, The Beatles and
other beat groups, such as The Searchers and The Hollies, achieved
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 1 hit on
the Billboard Hot
100 chart, starting the
British Invasion of the
American music
charts. The song entered
the chart on January 18,
1964 at number 45 before it
became the number 1
single for 7 weeks and went on The Beatles at The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 to
last a total of 15 weeks in the
chart. 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,
particularly those influenced by blues music including The Rolling
Stones, The Animals and The Yardbirds.
The British Invasion 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 1950’s and early 1960’s.It dented the careers
of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even

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temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts,
including Elvis. 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 on guitars and drums and producing their own material
as singer-songwriters. After all those events, we can say that the
Beatlemania extended to U.S.A.
The Beatlemania was a term used to describe the frenzy of the fans. It
often happened in the 1960’s when The Beatles had a concert to be a
huge crowd of fans, fighting with the police just to come closer to their
idols.

Over the Atlantic Ocean – Beatlemania...

Police trying to resist a huge crowd of fans in November 1964 before The Beatles concert at London Paladium

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 Garage
Rock
(mid. 1960’s)
Garage rock was a
raw form of rock
music, prevalent in
North America in the
mid-1960’s, and called
so because of the
perception that it was
rehearsed in a
suburban family The D-Men (later The Fifth Estate) in 1964
garage. Garage rock
songs revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about
“lying girls” being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery were more
aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted
vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. 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. The Pacific Northwest states
of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional
sound.
The British Invasion of 1964–1966 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. Thousands of garage bands were extent in the US and
Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits.
Songs never had a place in Billboard Top 100.
This form of music was also a beginning for the punk music, developed
later in the 1980’s.

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 Blues Rock and Psychedelic Rock (1960’s – 1970’s)
“Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why
Excuse me while I kiss the sky”

(The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Purple Haze – Are You Experienced? – 1967)

In America blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960’s by

guitarist Lonnie Mack, but the genre began to take off in the US the mid-
60’s as acts 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.
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 British
bands Cream and the
The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967
Jimi Hendrix
Experience had begun to (From left to right:Noel Redding,Jimi Hendrix,Mitch Mitchell)
move away from purely
blues-based music into
psychedelia. By the 1970s blues rock had become heavier and more riff-
based, exemplified by the work of British bands Led Zeppelin and Deep
Purple, and the lines between blues rock and hard rock “were barely
visible”, as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre was
continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood, but bands
became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to
slip out of the mainstream. 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”. Psychedelic rock
reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. The Summer of

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Love of 1967 was prefaced by the Human Be-In event and reached its
peak at the Monterey Pop Festival, the latter helping to make a major
American star of Jimi Hendrix. Key recordings included Jefferson
Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow and The Doors’ Strange Days. 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. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
and Cream broke up and many surviving acts moved away from
psychedelia into more back-to-basics “roots rock”, the wider
experimentation of progressive rock, or riff-laden heavy rock.

Hippie girls at Woodstock ‘69 festival

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 Folk Rock
(1960’s)
By the 1960’s, the
scene that had
developed out of
the American folk
music revival had
grown to a major
movement, utilizing
traditional music and
new compositions in a
Bob Dylan traditional style,
usually on acoustic
instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such
as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified
with progressive or labor politics. In the early sixties figures such as Joan
Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-
songwriters. 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, but, although beginning
to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely
separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences.
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. 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 a major
element in the sound of the genre.[ 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. 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 “The
Sounds of Silence” being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of
many hits.

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Chapter 3 – Roots Rock era

Roots Rock (1960’s – 1970’s)

’’Big wheel keep on turnin’
Proud Mary keep on burnin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river’’

(Creedence Clearwater Revival – Proud Mary – Bayou Country – 1969)

Roots Rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what
some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to a more basic
form of rock’ n’ roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly
country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and
Southern Rock. Roots of rock can be traced to 1966 when Bob Dylan
recorded the album “Blonde on Blonde”. 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. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend included the
Californian-based Creedence Clearwater Revival, which mixed basic
rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most
successful and influential bands of the late 1960’s. The same movement
saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like
Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George, and influenced the work of
established performers such as the Rolling Stones’ “Beggar’s Banquet”
from 1978 and the Beatles’ “Let It Be” from 1970. In the 1980’s, Roots
Rock enjoyed a revival in response to trends in Punk Rock, New Wave
and Heavy Metal.

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 Country Rock (1970’s)
“Keep on rockin’ in the free world”

(Neil Young – Rockin’ in the Free World – Freedom – 1989)

In 1968 Gram Parsons recorded Safe at Home with the International

Submarine Band, arguably the first true country-rock album. Later that
year he joined the Byrds for Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968), generally
considered one of the most influential recordings in the genre. The Byrds
continued in the same vein, but Parsons left to be joined by another ex-
Byrds member Chris Hillman in forming The Flying Burrito Brothers who
helped establish the respectability and parameters of the genre, before
Parsons departed to pursue a solo career. Country rock was particularly
popular in the Californian music scene, where it was adopted by bands
including Hearts and Flowers, Poco, New Riders of the Purple
Sage, the Beau Brummels, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Some
performers also enjoyed a renaissance by adopting country sounds,
including: the Everly Brothers; one-time teen idol Rick Nelson who
became the frontman for the Stone Canyon Band; former Monkee Mike
Nesmith who formed the First National Band; and Neil Young. The
Dillards were, unusually, a country act, who moved towards rock music.
The greatest commercial
success for country rock
came in the 1970’s, with
artist including the Doobie
Brothers, Emmylou
Harris, Linda Ronstadt and
the Eagles, who emerged as
one of the most successful
rock acts of all time,
producing albums that
included Hotel
California (1976).

’’Hotel California’’ album by the Eagles

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 Southern Rock (1970’s – 1980’s)
“Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue”

(Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama – Second Helping – 1974)

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 1970’s.The most successful act to follow them were Lynyrd
Skynyrd, who helped establish the “good ol’ boy” image of the subgenre
and the general shape of 1970’s guitar rock.Their successors included
the fusion/progressive instrumentalists Dixie Dregs, the more country-
influenced Outlaws, jazz-leaning Wet Willie and the Ozark Mountain
Daredevils. After the loss of original members of the Allmans and Lynyrd
Skynyrd, the genre began to fade in popularity in the late 1970’s, but was
sustained the 1980’s with acts like: 38 Special, Molly Hatchet and The
Marshall Tucker Band.

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Chapter 4 – New Genres

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 Progresive Rock (1960’s – 1970’s)
„This world is spinning around me
This world is spinning without me
And every day sends future to past”

(Dream Theater – Pull Me Under – Images and Words – 1992)

Progressive rock (or prog rock), a term sometimes used interchangeably

with art rock, was an attempt to move beyond established musical
formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and
forms. From the mid-1960’s groups including The Left Banke and The
Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion
of harpsichords, wind and string sections on their recordings to produce a
form of Baroque rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with
lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based
in fantasy and science fiction. The American brand of prog rock varied
from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa, Captain
Beefheart and Blood, Sweat and Tears, to more pop rock orientated
bands like Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, Journey and Styx. These, beside
British bands Supertramp and Electric Light Orchestra, all demonstrated
a prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially
successful acts of the 1970’s, 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 1990’s. Despite the decline from the
1990’s, prog rock is still loved by classic rockers and modern rockers.

Despite being formed in 1985,Dream Theater is a progressive rock

band loved by many people in our era.

Glam rock
(1970’s)
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 „We’ve got the right to choose it
There ain’t no way we’ll lost it
This is our life, this is our song”

(Twisted Sister – We’re Not Gonna Take It – Stay Hungry – 1984)

Glam rock was prefigured by the showmanship and gender identity

manipulation of American acts such as The Cockettes and Alice Cooper.
It emerged from the English psychedelic and art rock scenes of the late
1960’s and can be seen as both an extension of, and reaction against,
those trends. Musically it was very diverse, varying between the simple
rock n’ roll revivalism to complex art rock, and can be seen as much as a
fashion as a musical subgenre. Visually it was a mesh of various styles,
ranging from 1930’s Hollywood glamor, through 1950’s pin-up, 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. Glam is most
noted for its sexual and
gender ambiguity and
representations
of androgyny, beside
extensive use of
theatrics. The success
of British Twisted Sister’s eccentric style
artists like David Bowie led to the
adoption of glam styles among acts like Lou
Reed, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls and Jobriath, often known as “glitter
rock” and with a darker lyrical content than their British counterparts.

Soft and Hard Rock (1970’s – 1980’s)

„You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy”

(Kiss – Rock N’ Roll All Nite – Dressed To Kill – 1975)

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From the late 1960’s it became common to divide mainstream rock music
into soft and hard rock. Soft rock was often derived from folk rock, using
acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and
harmonies. Major artists included Carole King, James
Taylor and America. It reached its commercial peak in the mid- to late-
1970’s with acts like Billy Joel and the reformed Fleetwood Mac,
whose Rumours (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade. In
contrast, hard rock was more often derived from blues-rock and was
played louder and with more intensity. It often emphasised the electric
guitar, both as a rhythm instrument using simple repetitive riffs and as a
solo lead instrument, and was more likely to be used with distortion and
other effects. Key acts
included British Invasion
bands
like The Who and The
Kinks, as well as
psychedelic era
performers like Cream,
Jimi Hendrix and The
Jeff Beck Group and
American bands
including Iron
Butterfly, MC5, Blue
Cheer and Vanilla
Aerosmith
Fudge. Hard rock-influenced bands that
enjoyed international success in the 1970 included Montrose, including
the instrumental talent of Ronnie Montrose and vocals of Sammy
Hagar and arguably the first all-American hard rock band to challenge the
British dominance of the genre, released their first album in 1973, and
were followed by bands like Aerosmith.

Origins of Heavy Metal (mid. 1970’s)

„You Know I’m Proud
Proud to be loud!”

(Pantera – Proud to be Loud – Power Metal – 1988)

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From the late 1960’s 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 1970’s as a noun. 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. By 1970 three key British bands had
developed the characteristic sounds and styles which would help shape
the subgenre. 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. These elements were taken up by a “second generation” of heavy
metal bands into the late 1970’s, including Kiss, Ted Nugent and Blue
Öyster Cult from the U.S.A. Despite a lack of airplay and very little
presence on the singles charts, late-1970’s heavy metal built a
considerable following, particularly among adolescent working-class
males in North America and Europe.

ChapteR 5 – PunK & MetaL era

Blue Öyster Cult

Steven Tyler

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 Punk Rock (mid. 1970’s – 1980’s)

„The kids are losing their minds

The blitzkrieg bop”

(Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop – Ramones – 1976)

Punk rock was developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States
and the United Kingdom. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what
is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the
perceived excesses of mainstream 1970’s rock. They created fast, hard-
edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation,
and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. 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. The following year saw punk rock spreading
around the world. 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. Since punk rock’s initial popularity in the 1970’s and the
renewed interest created by the punk revival of the 1990’s, punk rock
continues to have a strong underground following. A more extreme
variation of punk rock, hardcore punk emerged from local scenes,
particularly in Los Angeles and New York and taking root in Washington
DC, Boston, and San Francisco. With louder, faster and usually shorter
songs with shouted or screamed vocals it spawned bands like the Dead
Kennedys, Minor Threat and Black Flag.

Ramones on stage
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 Glam Metal (mid. 1970’s – 1980’s)
„Girls, girls, girls
Raising hell at the Seventh Veil”

(Mötley Crüe– Girls Girls Girls – Girls Girls Girls – 1987)

In the late 1970’s Eddie Van Halen established himself as a metal guitar
virtuoso. Inspired by Van Halen’s success and the new wave of British
heavy metal, a metal scene began to develop in Southern California from
the late 1970’s, based on 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. The lyrics of these glam metal bands characteristically
emphasized hedonism and wild ncorrect and musically were
distinguished by rapid-fire shred guitar solos, anthemic choruses, and a
relatively melodic, pop-oriented approach. By the mid-1980’s 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.

Nikki Sixx – Frontman of Mötley Crüe

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 HeavY and ExtremE MetaL (1980’s)
„Extreme aggressions
From an extremely insane mind”

(Kreator – Extreme Aggressions – Extreme Aggression – 1989)

In the late 1980’s metal fragmented into several subgenres,

including thrash metal, which developed in the U.S.A. from the style
known as speed metal, under the influence of hardcore punk, with low-
register guitar riffs typically overlaid by shredding leads. 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. 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.

Slayer on stage

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 Alternative Rock (1980’s)
„I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try”

(R.E.M. – Losing My Religion – Out of Time – 1991)

The term alternative rock was coined in the early 1980’s to describe rock
artists who did not fit into the mainstream genres of the time. Bands
dubbed “alternative” had no unified style, but were all seen as distinct
from mainstream music. Alternative bands were linked by their collective
debt to punk rock, through hardcore, New Wave or the post-punk
movements. Important bands of the 1980’s alternative movement in the
U.S.A. included R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, Jane’s Addiction, Sonic Youth and
the Pixies. Artists were largely confined to independent record labels,
building an extensive underground music scene based on college radio,
fanzines, touring, and word-of-mouth. Few of these bands, with the
exception of R.E.M., achieved mainstream success, but despite a lack of
spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on the
generation of musicians who came of age in the 1980’s
and ended up breaking through to mainstream success in the 1990’s.
Styles of alternative rock in the U.S.A. during the 1980’s included jangle
Scene from R.E.M.’s video for the song Losing My Religion
pop, associated with
the early recordings of
R.E.M., which
incorporated the
ringing guitars of mid-
1960s pop and rock,
and college rock, used
to describe alternative
bands that began in
the college circuit and
college radio, including
acts such as 10,000
Maniacs and The
Feelies.
23
Chapter 6 – Mainstream Era
Grunge (1990’s)
“Here we are now, entertain us”

(Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nevermind – 1991)

By the early 1990’s, 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-1980’s, 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. 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
Nirvana are considered to be the “parents” of Grunge
against the over-groomed images of popular artists. Grunge fused
elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a single sound, and
made heavy use of

guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback. 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.
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”.
24
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. The
popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to
nickname Seattle “the new Liverpool.” Major record labels signed
most of the remaining grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of
acts moved to the city in the hope of success. 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.
The term post-grunge was coined for the generation of bands that
followed the emergence into the mainstream, and subsequent hiatus, of
the Seattle grunge bands. Post-grunge bands emulated their attitudes
and music, but with a more radio-friendly commercially oriented sound.
Often they worked through the major labels and came to incorporate
diverse influences from jangle pop, punk-pop, alternative metal or hard
rock. The term post-grunge was meant to be pejorative, suggesting that
they were simply musically derivative, or a cynical response to an
“authentic” rock movement. From 1994, former Nirvana drummer Dave
Foo Fighters are successfully continuing what Nirvana has begun
Grohl’s new band, the Foo Fighters, helped popularize the genre and
define its parameters.

25
 Pop punk (1990’s – 2000’s)
“Don’t wanna be an American idiot
Don’t want a nation under the new media”

(Green Day – American Idiot – American Idiot – 2004)

The origins of 1990’s pop punk can be seen in the more song-oriented
bands of the 1970’s punk movement like The Buzzcocks and The Clash,
commercially successful new wave acts such as The Jam and The
Undertones, and the more hardcore-influenced elements of alternative
rock in the 1980’s. Pop-punk tends to use power-pop melodies and chord
changes with speedy punk tempos and loud guitars. Punk music
provided the inspiration for some California-based bands on independent
labels in the early 1990’s,
including Rancid, Pennywise, Weezer and Green Day. In 1994 Green
Day moved to a major label and produced the album Dookie, which
found a new, largely teenage, audience and proved a surprise diamond-
selling success, leading to a series of hit singles, including two number
ones in the US. They were soon followed by the eponymous debut from
Weezer, which spawned three top ten singles in the U.S.A. This success
opened the door for the multi-platinum sales of metallic punk band The
Offspring with Smash (1994). This first wave of pop punk reached its
commercial peak with Green Day’s Nimrod (1997) and The
Offspring’s Americana (1998).
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 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 1970’s punk. Later pop-punk
Cover for The Offspring’s single “Preety Fly
26 (For a White Guy)” – song featured on the
album Americana (1998)
bands, including Simple Plan, All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy,
had a sound that has been described as closer to 1980’s hardcore, while
still achieving considerable commercial success.

GroovE MetaL (1990’s)

“Showdown, shootout, spread fear within, without”
(Pantera – Cowboys from Hell – Cowboys from Hell – 1990)

Groove metal (also known as post-thrash or neo-thrash) is a subgenre

of heavy metal music. It is often used to
describe Pantera, Exhorder and Machine Head. At its core, groove metal
takes the intensity and sonic qualities of thrash metal and plays them at
mid-tempo, with most bands making only occasional forays into fast
tempo. Pantera’s Cowboys from Hell album from 1990 was described
as “groundbreaking” and “blueprint-defining” for the groove metal
genre. King’s X has been called the progenitors of the genre and their
1988 debut album Out of the Silent Planet is often cited as one of the
major influences for groove metal, with dropped open tuning and lower,
even tempos. Ian Christe credits Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. and Pantera for
creating the death metal–derived music of groove metal influencing later
groups in the genre during the 1990’s. Exhorder’s debut Slaughter in
the Vatican is also considered one of the first groove metal albums,
having been released in 1990, the same year as Cowboys from Hell.
Groove metal bands have incorporated thrash metal, and crossover
thrash. Tommy Victor of Prong claims that the attitude of groove metal
came from Bad Brains. Groove metal utilizes downtuned thrash riffs. The
rhythm, just like progressive metal, tends to focus more on the rhythmic
side of metal; it features primarily many irregular time signatures and
atypical but complex stop-start rhythm structures. Vocals are usually
either growled, screamed or
shouted, rather than sung.

27
 Alternative Metal , Rap Rock and Nu Metal (late 1990’s
– 2000’s)
“Move in, now move out
Hands up, now hands down”

(Limp Bizkit – Rollin’ – Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water – 2000)

Alternative metal emerged from the hardcore scene of alternative rock in

the U.S.A. in the late 1980’s, but gained a wider audience after grunge
broke into the mainstream in the early 1990’s. Early alternative metal
bands mixed a wide variety of genres with hardcore and heavy metal
sensibilities, with acts like Jane’s Addiction and Primus utilizing prog-
rock, Soundgarden and Corrosion of Conformity using garage punk, The
Jesus Lizard and Helmet mixing noise-rock, Ministry and Nine Inch
Nails influenced by industrial music, Monster Magnet moving
into psychedelia, Pantera and White Zombie creating groove metal,
while Biohazard and Faith No More turned to hip hop and rap.
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). Early crossover acts included Run DMC and
the Beastie Boys. 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. Rappers who
sampled rock songs
included Ice-T, The Fat
Boys, LL Cool J, Public
Enemy and Whodini. The mixing
of thrash metal and rap was
pioneered by Anthrax on their
1987 comedy-influenced single
“I’m the Man”.In 1990, Faith
No More broke into the
mainstream with their single
“Epic’’, often seen as the first
truly successful
Like Nirvana forcombination
Grunge, Pantera areof
considered to be the parents of Groove
heavy metal withMetal rap. This
paved the way for the success
Beastie Boys’ single “Fight For Your Right”, song featured on
28
the album “Licensed to Ill” (1986)
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. Among the first wave of
performers to gain mainstream success as rap rock were 311,
Bloodhound Gang, and Kid Rock. A more metallic sound – nu metal –
was pursued by bands including Limp Bizkit, Korn and Slipknot. 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, the first of which are the best-selling band of the
genre.
In 2001, nu metal reached its peak with albums like Staind’s Break the
Cycle, P.O.D’s Satellite, Slipknot’s Iowa and Linkin Park’s Hybrid
Theory. New bands also emerged like Disturbed, post-grunge-hard rock
band Godsmack and Papa Roach, whose major label
debut Infest became a platinum hit. However, by 2002 there were signs
that nu metal’s mainstream popularity was weakening. Korn’s fifth
album Untouchables, and Papa Roach’s second
album Lovehatetragedy, did not sell as well as their previous releases,
while nu metal bands were played more infrequently on rock radio
stations and MTV began focusing on pop punk and emo. Also, nu metal
band Evanescence became extremely popular in 2003 and Linkin Park
continued having much mainstream success. After the early 2000’s,
Scene from the videoclip for the song Rollin’ by Limp Bizkit
many nu metal bands changed their style, with alternative rock, post-
grunge, hard rock and standard heavy metal being examples of the
genres nu metal bands changed to.

29
Chapter 7 – Present day

Emo (early 2000’s)

“And though you're dead and gone believe me
Your memory will carry on”

(My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade – The Black Parade – 2006)

30
Emo emerged from the hardcore scene in 1980’s Washington D.C.,
initially as "emocore", used as a term to describe bands who favored
expressive vocals over the more common abrasive, barking style. The
style was pioneered by bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, the last
formed by
Ian MacKaye, whose Dischord Records became a major centre for the
emerging D.C. emo scene, releasing work by Rites of Spring, Dag
Nasty, Nation of Ulysses and Fugazi. Fugazi emerged as the definitive
early emo band, gaining a
fanbase among alternative
rock followers, not least for
their overtly anti-commercial
stance. The early emo scene
operated as an underground,
with short-lived bands
releasing small-run vinyl
records on tiny independent
labels. Emo broke into
mainstream culture in the
early 2000’s with the The emo style
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). The new emo had a far greater appeal amongst
adolescents than its earlier incarnations. 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. The term
emo has been applied by critics and journalists to a variety of artists,
including multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical
Romance and disparate groups such as Paramore and Panic! at the
Disco, even when they protest the label.

The new Garage Rock (early 2000’s)

“I'm a constant sinner
A conscience killer”

(Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Consience Killer – Beat the Devil’s Tattoo – 2010)

31
In the early 2000’s, a new group of bands that played a stripped down
and back-to-basics version of guitar rock, emerged into the mainstream.
They were variously characterized as part of a garage rock, post-punk or
new wave revival. There had been attempts to revive garage rock and
elements of punk in the 1980’s and 1990’s and by 2000 several local
scenes had grown up in the U.S.A. The Detroit rock scene included: The
Von Bondies, Electric Six, The Dirtbombs and The Detroit Cobras and
that of New York: Radio 4, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Rapture.
The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by bands
including The Strokes, who emerged from the New York club scene with
their debut album Is This It (2001) and The White Stripes, from Detroit,
with their third album White Blood Cells (2001). They were christened
by the media as the "The" bands, and dubbed "The saviors of rock 'n'
roll", leading to accusations of hype. 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.

Metalcore and the new Heavy Metal (mid. 2000’s)

“So set yourself free

And disengage from reality”

The White Stripes was(Suicide Silence
a band with just –two
Disengage
members:–Meg
No time
Whiteto Bleed –and
(Drums) 2009)
Jack White (Guitar and vocals)

32
Metalcore, originally an American hybrid of thrash metal and hardcore
punk, emerged as a commercial force in the mid-2000’s. It was rooted in
the crossover thrash style developed two decades earlier by bands such
as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of
Death and remained an underground phenomenon through the 1990’s.
By 2004, melodic metalcore, influenced by melodic death metal, was
sufficiently popular for Killswitch Engage's The End of
Heartache and Shadows Fall's The War Within to debut at number 21
and number 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart. Lamb of
God, with a related blend of metal styles, hit the number 2 spot on
the Billboard charts in 2009 with Wrath. The success of these bands
and others such as Trivium, who have released both metalcore and
straight-ahead thrash albums, and Mastodon, who played in a
progressive/sludge style, inspired claims of a metal revival in the United
States, dubbed by some critics the "New Wave of American Heavy
Metal"

Lamb of God

Bibliography
www.wikipedia.com
www.loudwire.com

33
 www.metalhead.ro
Youtube Chanel – Blend Guitar
Youtube Chanel – Loudwire
Youtube Chanel – EmmaHavokOfficial
Youtube Chanel – Watchmojo.com

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