Rock music is agenre ofpopular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew from the black musical genres ofblues andrhythm and blues, as well as fromcountry music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such aselectric blues andfolk, and incorporated influences fromjazz and other styles. Rock is typically centered on theelectric guitar, usually as part of a rock group withelectric bass guitar,drums, and one or more singers.
Usually, rock is song-based music with a4 4 time signature and using averse–chorus form; however, the genre has become extremely diverse. Likepop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of thewestern world from the 1960s up to the 2010s.
Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, withthe Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated a rock-informedalbum era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s "classic rock" period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids likeblues rock,folk rock,country rock,southern rock,raga rock, andjazz rock, which contributed to the development ofpsychedelic rock, influenced by the counterculturalpsychedelic and hippie scene. New genres that emerged includedprogressive rock, which extended artistic elements,heavy metal, which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, andglam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In the second half of the 1970s,punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s onnew wave,post-punk and eventuallyalternative rock.
From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form ofgrunge,Britpop, andindie rock. Further subgenres have since emerged, includingpop-punk,electronic rock,rap rock, andrap metal. Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including thegarage rock andpost-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence ofhip-hop andelectronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in thetechno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s.
Rock has also embodied and served as the vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures includingmods androckers in the U.K., thehippie movement and the widerwestern counterculture movement that spread out fromSan Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970spunk culture spawned thegoth, punk, andemo subcultures. Inheriting thefolk tradition of theprotest song, rock music has beenassociated with political activism, as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adultconformity. At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations ofselling out.
The sound of rock is traditionally centered on theamplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll.[1] It was also greatly influenced by the sounds ofelectric blues guitarists.[2] The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in the same era,[3] and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals.[4] This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, theHammond organ, and the synthesizer.[5] The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic electric blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums).[2] A group of musicians performing rock music is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (thepower trio) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of aquartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and oftenkeyboard player or another instrumentalist.[6]
Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a4 4meter, with a repetitive snare drumback beat on beats two and four.[7] Melodies often originate from oldermusical modes such as theDorian andMixolydian, as well asmajor andminor modes. Harmonies range from the commontriad to parallelperfect fourths andfifths and dissonant harmonic progressions.[7] Since the late 1950s,[8] and particularly from the mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used theverse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model.[9] Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock.[10] Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition."[11] In 1981, music journalistRobert Christgau said, "the best rock joltsfolk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology".[12]
Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast the delights and limitations ofthe regional, and to deal with the depredations and benefits ofmass culture itself.
Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion againstthe establishment, social concerns, and life styles.[7] These themes were inherited from a variety of sources such as theTin Pan Alley pop tradition,folk music, andrhythm and blues.[14] Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally,noise."[15] The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted,[16] and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for a young, white and largely male audience.[17] As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics.[18] Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression".[19]
Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late 1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics; however, rock is often distanced from pop; the former has an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology ofauthenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development.[20] According toSimon Frith, rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere".[20]
In the new millennium, the termrock has occasionally been used as ablanket term including forms like pop music,reggae music,soul music, and evenhip hop, which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of the latter's history.[21] Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular andsemipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including a fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and thefield report."[22]
The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s; the genre spread to much of the rest of the world. Its origins lay in a melding of variousblack musical genres of the time, includingrhythm and blues andgospel music, withcountry and western.[23]
In 1951,Cleveland, Ohio, disc jockeyAlan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed "race music") for a multi-racial audience, and is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music.[31] Four years later,Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" (1954) became the first rock and roll song to topBillboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture.[32][33] Other artists with early rock and roll hits includedChuck Berry,Bo Diddley,Fats Domino,Little Richard,Jerry Lee Lewis, andGene Vincent.[30] Soon rock and roll was the major force in American record sales andcrooners, such asEddie Fisher,Perry Como, andPatti Page, who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed.[34]
Rock and roll has led to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in the mid-1950s by white singers such asCarl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis,Roy Orbison,Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success,Elvis Presley.[35]Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success ofLatin rock andChicano rock within the US, began to rise inthe Southwest; with rock and roll standard musicianRitchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such asAl Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country-western within traditionalNew Mexico music.[36] In addition, the 1950s 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,Link Wray, andScotty Moore.[37] The use ofdistortion, pioneered byWestern swing guitarists such asJunior Barnard[38] andEldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s.[39] The use ofpower chords, pioneered byFrancisco Tárrega andHeitor Villa-Lobos in the 19th century and later on byWillie Johnson andPat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s.[40]
Commentators have 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 Ritchie 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 thepayola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end.[41]
British rock and roll singerTommy Steele in a 1958 promotional photo
Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapidAmericanization that was taking place globally in the aftermath of theSecond World War.[42]Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with "Move It" (1959), effectively ushering in the sound ofBritish rock.[43] Several artists, most prominentlyTommy Steele from the UK, found success withcovers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate.[44][45] Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia, the USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock.[44]Johnny O'Keefe's 1958 record "Wild One" was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits.[46] By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia,[47] and the USSR,[48] as well as in regions such as South America.[45]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, U.S.blues music andblues rock artists, who had been surpassed by the rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours.[49]Lonnie Donegan's 1955 hit "Rock Island Line" was a major influence and helped to develop the trend ofskiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, includingJohn Lennon'sQuarrymen (laterthe Beatles), moved on to play rock and roll.[50] While former rock and roll market in the US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts;[51] this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through theBritish Invasion.[49]
The first four years of the 1960s have often been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll.[52] However, some authors have emphasised innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible.[53][54] While early rock and 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 entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the variousdance crazes of the early 1960s, started byChubby Checker's record "The Twist" (1960).[54][nb 1] Some music historians 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 asJoe Meek, and the elaborate production methods of theWall of Sound pursued byPhil Spector.[54]
The instrumental rock and roll of performers such asDuane Eddy, Link Wray andthe Ventures was further developed byDick Dale, who added distinctive "wet"reverb, rapid alternate picking, andMiddle Eastern andMexican influences. He produced the regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'" in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like "Misirlou" (1962).[58] Like Dale and hisDel-Tones, most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, includingthe Bel-Airs,the Challengers, andEddie & the Showmen.[58]The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with "Pipeline" in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune was 1963's "Wipe Out", bythe Surfaris, which hit number 2 and number 10 on theBillboard charts in 1965.[59] Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British groupthe Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as "Apache" (1960) and "Kon-Tiki" (1961), while Swedish surf groupthe Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain.
Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly the work ofthe Beach Boys, formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums featured both instrumental surf rock (including covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll anddoo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts likethe Four Freshmen.[60] The Beach Boys first chart hit, "Surfin'" (1961), reached theBillboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze a national phenomenon.[61] The surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts were effectively ended by 1965 after the arrival of the British Invasion.[62][nb 2]
By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started withbeat groups likethe Beatles,Gerry & the Pacemakers andthe Searchers from Liverpool andFreddie and the Dreamers,Herman's Hermits andthe Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music,[63] initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands likethe Animals fromNewcastle andThem fromBelfast,[64] and those from London likethe Rolling Stones andthe Yardbirds, were more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music.[65] Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while earlyBritish blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in the early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies.[66] By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts.[67]
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the Beatles' first number one hit on theBillboard Hot 100,[68] spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on the chart.[69][70] Their first appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become the biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands.[66] During the next two years, British acts dominated their own and the US charts withPeter and Gordon, the Animals,[71]Manfred Mann,Petula Clark,[71] Freddie and the Dreamers,Wayne Fontana andthe Mindbenders, Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones,[72]the Troggs, andDonovan[73] all having one or more number one singles.[69] Other major acts that were part of the invasion includedthe Kinks,the Who, andthe Dave Clark Five.[74][75][76]
The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success.[77] In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocalgirl groups and (for a time) theteen idols, that had dominated the American charts in the late 1950s and 1960s.[78] It dented the careers of established R&B acts likeFats Domino andChubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis.[79] 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.[80] Following the example set by the Beatles' 1965 LPRubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones'Aftermath, the Beatles' ownRevolver, and the Who'sA Quick One, as well as American acts inthe Beach Boys (Pet Sounds) andBob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde).[81]
Although the first impact of theBritish 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 Americanblues, includingthe Rolling Stones andthe Yardbirds.[82] British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such asLead Belly, who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, andRobert Johnson.[83] Increasingly they adopted a loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on theChicago blues, particularly after the tour of Britain byMuddy Waters in 1958, which promptedCyril Davies and guitaristAlexis Korner to form the bandBlues Incorporated.[84] The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequentBritish blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones andCream, combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis.[51]
The other key focus for British blues wasJohn Mayall; his band,the Bluesbreakers, includedEric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and laterPeter Green. Particularly significant was the release ofBlues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States.[85] Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream,Blind Faith, andDerek and the Dominos, followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream.[84] Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm sectionMick Fleetwood andJohn McVie, formed Peter Green'sFleetwood Mac, who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre.[84] In the late 1960sJeff Beck, also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,the Jeff Beck Group.[84] The last Yardbirds guitarist wasJimmy Page, who went on to formThe New Yardbirds which rapidly becameLed Zeppelin. Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs.[84]
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 moved away from purely blues-based music intopsychedelia.[88] By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and moreriff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin andDeep Purple, and the lines between blues rock andhard rock "were barely visible",[88] as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre was continued in the 1970s by figures such asGeorge Thorogood andPat Travers,[84] but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such asStatus Quo andFoghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitiveboogie rock), the subgenre became focused onheavy metal, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream.[89]
Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in the mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage.[90][91] Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common.[92] The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming.[90] They ranged from crude one-chord music (likethe Seeds) to near-studio musician quality (includingthe Knickerbockers,the Remains, andthe Fifth Estate). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas.[92]
The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) bythe Wailers (from Tacoma, Washington) and the 1963 version of "Louie Louie" bythe Kingsmen (Portland, Oregon) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages.[93] By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, includingPaul Revere and the Raiders (Boise),[94]the Trashmen (Minneapolis)[95] andthe Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana).[96] Other influential garage bands, such asthe Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached theBillboard Hot 100.[97]
The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (oftensurf orhot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging more groups to form.[92] Several garage bands in the United States and Canada produced regional hits during the era.[92] Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. Garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966, and by 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level.[92] New styles had evolved to replace garage rock.[92][nb 3]
By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of theAmerican folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments.[99] In America the genre was pioneered by figures such asWoody Guthrie andPete Seeger and often identified withprogressive orlabor politics.[99] In the early sixties figures such asJoan Baez andBob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters.[100] 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,[101] but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences.[102]
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[103] and the Beatles "I'm a Loser" (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan.[104] The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off withthe Byrds' recording of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" which topped the charts in 1965.[102] With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles, the Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-stringRickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre.[102] Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to theoutrage of many folk purists, with his "Like a Rolling Stone" becoming a US hit single.[102] According toRitchie Unterberger, Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like the Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as onThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963).[105]
Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts likethe Mamas & the Papas andCrosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers includingthe Lovin' Spoonful andSimon and Garfunkel, with the latter's acoustic "The Sounds of Silence" (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits.[102] These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan andFairport Convention.[102] In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments.[106] This British folk-rock was taken up by bands includingPentangle,Steeleye Span andthe Albion Band, which in turn prompted Irish groups likeHorslips and Scottish acts like theJSD Band, Spencer's Feat and laterFive Hand Reel, to use their traditional music to create a brand ofCeltic rock in the early 1970s.[107]
Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in a variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to developcountry rock.[108] 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".[102][109]
Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as a starting point for thealbum era, during which rock music transitioned from the singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream.[113] Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s,[114] rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades.[115]
The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over," a slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both anelitist withdrawal from the messy concert andcounterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator inFM radio andalbum rock.
Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into a multibillion-dollar industry and doubling itsmarket while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe theBee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were nevermore popular than Jesus", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth wasself-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change the world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market."[13]
Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably withart rock, moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms.[116] From the mid-1960s,the Left Banke, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion ofharpsichords,wind, andstring sections on their recordings to produce a form ofBaroque rock and can be heard in singles likeProcol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (1967), with itsBach-inspired introduction.[117]The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their albumDays of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers.[116] Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were a frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock.[118]
Pink Floyd also moved away from psychedelia after the departure ofSyd Barrett in 1968, withThe Dark Side of the Moon (1973) becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time.[123] There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, withYes showcasing the skills of both guitaristSteve Howe and keyboard playerRick Wakeman, whileEmerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work.[116]Jethro Tull andGenesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music.[124]Renaissance, formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring the three-octave voice ofAnnie Haslam.[125] Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market.[126] The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovativeFrank Zappa,Captain Beefheart andBlood, Sweat & Tears,[127] to more pop rock orientated bands likeBoston,Foreigner,Kansas,Journey, andStyx.[116] These, beside British bandsSupertramp andELO, all demonstrated a prog rock influence and ranked among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era ofpomp orarena rock.[citation needed]
The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums likeMike Oldfield'sTubular Bells (1973), the first record for theVirgin Records label, which became a worldwide hit and a mainstay of the genre.[116] Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands likeKraftwerk,Tangerine Dream,Can,Focus andFaust to circumvent the language barrier.[128] Their synthesiser-heavy "krautrock", along with the work ofBrian Eno (for a time the keyboard player withRoxy Music), would be a major influence on subsequentelectronic rock.[116]
With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown.[129][130] Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours.[98] Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such asSiouxsie and the Banshees,Ultravox, andSimple Minds, showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences.[131]
In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz.AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to the loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement.[132] Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into the new music. In Britain, the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, likeGinger Baker andJack Bruce of the bandCream, had emerged from theBritish jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–basedthe Free Spirits withOut of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use the label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, likeElectric Flag, Blood, Sweat & Tears andChicago, to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1960s and early 1970s.[133]
British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, includedNucleus[134] and theGraham Bond and John Mayall spin-offColosseum. From the psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically praised fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, withMiles Davis, particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the albumBitches Brew (1970). It was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, includingHerbie Hancock,Chick Corea andWeather Report.[133] The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience,[132] but acts likeSteely Dan,[132] Frank Zappa andJoni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music.[133]
Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from the psychedelic scene to a more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock.[135] In 1966, Bob Dylan went toNashville to record the albumBlonde on Blonde.[136] This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such asNashville Skyline, have been seen as creating the genre ofcountry folk, a route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians.[136] Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian groupthe Band and the California-basedCreedence 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.[137] The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists likeRy Cooder,Bonnie Raitt andLowell George,[138] and influenced the work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones'Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles'Let It Be (1970).[111] Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration is the Band."[139]
The founders of Southern rock are usually thought to be the Allman Brothers Band, who developed a distinctive sound, largely derived fromblues rock, but incorporating elements ofboogie, 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 subgenre and the general shape of 1970s' guitar rock.[87] Their successors included the fusion/progressive instrumentalistsDixie Dregs, the more country-influencedOutlaws, funk/R&B-leaningWet Willie and (incorporating elements of R&B and gospel) theOzark 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 andthe Marshall Tucker Band.[87]
Glam rock emerged from the English psychedelic and art rock scenes of the late 1960s; it can be seen as both an extension of (and reaction against) those trends.[143] Musically diverse, varying between the simple rock and roll revivalism of figures likeAlvin Stardust to the complex art rock of Roxy Music, and can be seen as much as a fashion as a musical subgenre.[143] Visually, it was a mesh of various styles, ranging from 1930sHollywood glamor, through 1950s pin-up sex appeal, pre-warCabaret theatrics,Victorian literary andsymbolist styles, science fiction, to ancient and occultmysticism andmythology; manifesting itself in outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots.[144] Glam is most noted for its sexual and gender ambiguity and representations ofandrogyny, beside extensive use of theatrics.[145] It was prefigured by the showmanship and gender-identity manipulation of American acts such asthe Cockettes andAlice Cooper.[146]
The origins of glam rock are associated withMarc Bolan, who had renamed his folk duo toT. Rex and taken up electric instruments by the end of the 1960s. Often cited as the moment of inception is his appearance on the BBC music showTop of the Pops in March 1971 wearing glitter and satins, to perform what would be his second UK Top 10 hit (and first UK Number 1 hit), "Hot Love".[147] From 1971, already a minor star,David Bowie developed his Ziggy Stardust persona, incorporating elements of professional make up, mime and performance into his act.[148] These performers were soon followed in the style by acts including Roxy Music,Sweet,Slade,Mott the Hoople,Mud andAlvin Stardust.[148] While highly successful in the single charts in the United Kingdom, very few of these musicians were able to make a serious impact in the United States; Bowie was the major exception becoming an international superstar and prompting the adoption of glam styles among acts likeLou Reed,New York Dolls andJobriath, often known as "glitter rock" and with a darker lyrical content than their British counterparts.[149] In the UK the term glitter rock was most often used to refer to the extreme version of glam pursued byGary Glitter and his support musiciansthe Glitter Band, who between them achieved eighteen top ten singles in the UK between 1972 and 1976.[150] A second wave of glam rock acts, includingSuzi Quatro,Roy Wood'sWizzard andSparks, dominated the British single charts from about 1974 to 1976.[148] Existing acts, some not usually considered central to the genre, also adopted glam styles, includingRod Stewart,Elton John,Queen and, for a time, even the Rolling Stones.[148] It was also a direct influence on acts that rose to prominence later, includingKiss andAdam Ant, and less directly on the formation ofgothic rock andglam metal as well as on punk rock, which helped end the fashion for glam from about 1976.[149] Glam has since enjoyed sporadic modest revivals through bands such asthe Darkness[151] and in R&B crossover actPrince.[152]
From the late 1960s, 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.[155] Major artists includedCarole King,Cat Stevens andJames Taylor.[155] It reached its commercial peak in the mid- to late 1970s with acts likeBilly Joel,America and the reformedFleetwood Mac, whoseRumours (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade.[156] In contrast, hard rock was more often derived from blues-rock and was played louder and with more intensity.[157] 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 withdistortion and other effects.[157] Key acts included British Invasion bands like the Kinks, as well as psychedelic era performers like Cream, Jimi Hendrix andthe Jeff Beck Group.[157] Hard rock-influenced bands that enjoyed international success in the late 1970s includedQueen,[158]Thin Lizzy,[159]Aerosmith,AC/DC,[157] andVan Halen.
Also 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.[160] The term was first used in music inSteppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" (1967); the term began to be associated with bands like San Francisco'sBlue Cheer, Cleveland'sJames Gang and Michigan'sGrand Funk Railroad.[161] 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 phase andBlack Sabbath introduced facets of thegothic andmodal harmony, helping to produce a "darker" sound.[162] These elements were taken up by a "second generation" of hard rock and heavy metal bands into the late 1970s, including:Judas Priest,UFO,Motörhead andRainbow from Britain;Kiss,Ted Nugent, andBlue Öyster Cult from the US;Rush from Canada andScorpions from Germany, all marking the expansion in popularity of the subgenre.[162] Despite a lack of airplay and very little presence on the singles charts, late 1970s heavy metal built a considerable following, particularly among adolescent working-class males in North America and Europe.[163]
Rock music has sometimes been criticized by some Christian leaders, who have condemned it as immoral, anti-Christian, and even satanic.[165] However, Christian rock began to develop in the late 1960s, particularly out of theJesus movement beginning in Southern California, and it emerged as a subgenre in the 1970s with artists likeLarry Norman, usually seen as the first major "star" of Christian rock.[166] The genre was mostly a phenomenon in the United States.[167] Many Christian rock performers have ties to thecontemporary Christian music scene. Starting in the 1980s, Christian pop performers, as well as hard rock bands likeStryper, have had some mainstream success.[168][169] Starting in 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, includingP.O.D.[170]
American working-class oriented heartland rock, characterized by a straightforward musical style and a concern with the lives of ordinary,blue-collar American people, developed in the second half of the 1970s. The term heartland rock was first used to describeMidwestern arena rock groups likeKansas,REO Speedwagon and Styx, but which came to be associated with a more socially concerned form of roots rock more directly influenced by folk, country and rock and roll.[171] It has been seen as an American Midwest andRust Belt counterpart to West Coast country rock and the Southern rock of the American South.[172] Led by figures who had initially been identified with punk and new wave, it was most strongly influenced by acts such as Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival andVan Morrison, and the basic rock of 1960s garage and the Rolling Stones.[173]
Exemplified by the commercial success of singer songwritersBruce Springsteen,Bob Seger, andTom Petty, it was partly a reaction to post-industrial urban decline in the East and Mid-West, often dwelling on issues of social disintegration and isolation, beside a form of good-time rock and roll revivalism.[173] The genre reached its commercial peak in the mid-1980s, with Springsteen'sBorn in the USA (1984) topping the charts worldwide and spawning a series of top ten singles, together with the arrival of artists includingJohn Mellencamp,Steve Earle and more gentle singer-songwriters such asBruce Hornsby.[173]
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.[173]
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 1970s rock.[174] They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces aDIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.[175]
By late 1976, acts such as theRamones andPatti Smith, in New York City, and theSex Pistols andthe Clash, in London, were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement.[174] The following year saw punk rock spreading around the world. Punk quickly became a major cultural phenomenon in the UK. The Sex Pistols' live TV skirmish withBill Grundy on 1 December 1976 was the watershed moment in British punk's transformation into a major media phenomenon, even as some stores refused to stock the records and radio airplay was hard to come by.[176] In May 1977, the Sex Pistols achieved new heights of controversy (and number two on the singles chart) with the song "God Save the Queen", which referencedQueen Elizabeth II during herSilver Jubilee.[177] For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associatedpunk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctiveclothing styles anda variety of ideologies.[178]
Although punk rock was a significant social and musical phenomenon, it achieved less in the way of record sales (being distributed by small specialty labels such asStiff Records),[181] or American radio airplay (as the radio scene continued to be dominated by mainstream formats such asdisco andalbum-oriented rock).[182] Punk rock had attracted devotees from the art and collegiate world and soon bands sporting a more literate, arty approach, such asTalking Heads andDevo, began to infiltrate the punk scene; in some quarters the description "new wave" began to be used to differentiate these less overtly punk bands.[183] Record executives, who had been mostly mystified by the punk movement, recognized the potential of the more accessible new wave acts and began aggressively signing and marketing any band that could claim a remote connection to punk or new wave.[184] Many of these bands, such asthe Cars andthe Go-Go's, can be seen as pop bands marketed as new wave;[185] other existing acts, includingthe Police,the Pretenders andElvis Costello, used the new wave movement as the springboard for relatively long and critically successful careers,[186] while "skinny tie" bands likethe Knack played chart-toppingpower pop,[187] and the photogenicBlondie began as a punk act and moved into lighter and more eclectic territories.[188]
If hardcore most directly pursued the stripped down aesthetic of punk, and new wave came to represent its commercial wing, post-punk emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s as its more artistic and challenging side. In addition to punk bands, major influences includedthe Velvet Underground,the Stooges andCaptain Beefheart.[193] Early contributors to the genre included U.S. bandsPere Ubu,Devo,the Residents, andTalking Heads.[193]
The first wave of British post-punk includedGang of Four,Siouxsie and the Banshees andJoy Division, who placed less emphasis on art than their US counterparts and more on the dark emotional qualities of their music.[193] Bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees,Bauhaus,the Cure, andthe Sisters of Mercy, moved increasingly in this direction to found gothic rock, which had become the basis of a majorsub-culture by the early 1980s.[194] Similar emotional territory was pursued by Australian acts likethe Birthday Party andNick Cave.[193] Members of Bauhaus and Joy Division explored new stylistic territory asLove and Rockets andNew Order respectively.[193] Another early post-punk movement was the industrial music[195] developed by British bandsThrobbing Gristle andCabaret Voltaire, and New York-basedSuicide, using a variety of electronic and sampling techniques that emulated the sound of industrial production and which would develop into a variety of forms ofpost-industrial music in the 1980s.[196]
The second generation of British post-punk bands that broke through in the early 1980s, includingthe Fall,the Pop Group,the Mekons,Echo and the Bunnymen andthe Teardrop Explodes, tended to move away from dark sonic landscapes.[193] Arguably the most successful band to emerge from post-punk was Ireland'sU2, who incorporated elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic music, and by the late 1980s had become one of the biggest bands in the world.[197] Although many post-punk bands continued to record and perform, it declined as a movement in the mid-1980s as acts disbanded or moved off to explore other musical areas, but it has continued to influence the development of rock music and has been seen as a major element in the creation of the alternative rock movement.[198]
The term alternative rock was coined in the early 1980s 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 new wave, post-punk or hardcore.[199] Important alternative rock bands of the 1980s in the US includedR.E.M.,Hüsker Dü,Jane's Addiction,Sonic Youth, and thePixies;[199] in the UK, popular bandsthe Cure,New Order,the Jesus and Mary Chain, andthe Smiths.[200] Artists were largely confined toindependent record labels, building an extensive underground music scene based oncollege radio, fanzines, touring, and word-of-mouth.[201] They rejected the dominant synth-pop of the early 1980s, marking a return to group-based guitar rock.[202][203][204]
Few of these early bands achieved mainstream success, although exceptions to this rule include R.E.M., the Smiths, and the Cure. Despite a general lack of spectacular album sales, the original alternative rock bands exerted a considerable influence on the generation of musicians who came of age in the 1980s and ended up breaking through to mainstream success in the 1990s. Styles of alternative rock in the US during the 1980s includedjangle 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 as10,000 Maniacs andthe Feelies.[199] In the UK, by the end of the 1980s, indie or dream pop bands likePrimal Scream andthe Wedding Present,[205] and what were dubbedshoegaze bands likeMy Bloody Valentine,Slowdive, andRide entered.[206] Particularly vibrant was theMadchester scene, producing such bands asHappy Mondays andthe Stone Roses.[200][207] The next decade would see the success ofgrunge in the US andBritpop in the UK, bringing alternative rock into the mainstream.
In the latter half of the 1980s, bands inWashington state (particularly in theSeattle area) formed a new style of rock that 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 rebelled against the over-groomed images of other artists. Grunge made heavy use ofguitar distortion,fuzz, andfeedback.[208] 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 asGreen River,Soundgarden, andMelvins pioneered the genre, withMudhoney becoming the most successful by the end of the decade. Grunge remained largely a local phenomenon until 1991, whenNirvana's albumNevermind became a huge success, containing the anthemic song "Smells Like Teen Spirit".[209]Nevermind was more melodic than its predecessors; by signing to Geffen Records the band was one of the first to employ traditional corporate promotion and marketing mechanisms such as an MTV video, in store displays and the use of radio "consultants" who promoted airplay at major mainstream rock stations. During 1991 and 1992, other grunge albums such asPearl Jam'sTen, Soundgarden'sBadmotorfinger, andAlice in Chains'Dirt, along with theTemple of the Dog album featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, became among the 100 top-selling albums.[210] 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.[211] However, after thedeath of Kurt Cobain and the subsequent break-up of Nirvana in 1994, the genre began to decline, partly to be overshadowed by Britpop and more commercial soundingpost-grunge.[212]
Britpop emerged from the British alternative rock scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands particularly influenced by British guitar music of the 1960s and 1970s.[200]The Smiths were a major influence, as were bands of theMadchester scene, which had dissolved in the early 1990s.[77] Britpop was varied in style, but often used catchy tunes and hooks, beside lyrics with particularly British concerns and the adoption of the iconography of the 1960s British Invasion, including the symbols of British identity previously used by the mods.[213] It was launched around 1993 with releases by groups such asSuede andBlur, who were soon joined by others includingOasis,Pulp,Supergrass, andElastica, who produced a series of successful albums and singles.[200] For a while the contest between Blur and Oasis was built by the popular press into the "Battle of Britpop", initially won by Blur, but with Oasis achieving greater long-term and international success, directly influencing later Britpop bands, such asOcean Colour Scene andKula Shaker.[214] Britpop groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British cultural trend known asCool Britannia.[215] The movement had largely fallen apart by the end of the decade.[200]
The term post-grunge was coined for the bands that followed the emergence into the mainstream of the Seattle grunge bands and emulated their music, but with a more radio-friendly commercially oriented sound.[212] Often they worked through the major labels and incorporated influences from hard rock,[212]pop rock,[216] oralternative metal.[212] The term post-grunge originally was meant to be pejorative, suggesting that grunge bands that emerged when grunge was mainstream were simply musically derivative, or a cynical response to an "authentic" rock movement.[217] From 1995, former Nirvana drummerDave Grohl's new band, theFoo Fighters, helped popularize the post-grunge genre.[218]
Some post-grunge bands, likeCandlebox, were from Seattle, but the subgenre was marked by a broadening of the geographical base of grunge, with bands like York, Pennsylvania'sLive and Georgia'sCollective Soul, and beyond the US to Australia'sSilverchair and Britain'sBush, who all cemented post-grunge as one of the most commercially viable subgenres of the mid-1990s.[199][212] Bands likeCreed andNickelback took post-grunge into the late 1990s and 2000s with considerable commercial success, abandoning most of the angst and anger of the original movement for more conventional anthems,[217] narratives and romantic songs, and were followed in this vein by newer acts includingShinedown,Seether,3 Doors Down andPuddle of Mudd.[217]
The origins of 1990s pop-punk can be seen in the more song-oriented bands of the 1970s punk movement likeBuzzcocks andthe Clash, commercially successful new wave acts such asthe Jam andthe Undertones, and the more hardcore-influenced elements of alternative rock in the 1980s.[219] Pop-punk tends to use power-pop melodies and chord changes with speedy punk tempos and loud guitars.[220] Punk music provided the inspiration for some California-based bands on independent labels in the early 1990s, includingRancid andGreen Day.[219] In 1994, Green Day moved to a major label and produced the albumDookie, 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.[199] They were soon followed by theeponymous debut from Weezer, which spawned three top ten singles in the US.[221] This success opened the door for the multi-platinum sales of metallic punk bandthe Offspring withSmash (1994).[199] This first wave of pop punk reached its commercial peak with Green Day'sNimrod (1997) and the Offspring'sAmericana (1998).[222]
A second wave of pop-punk was spearheaded byBlink-182, with their breakthrough albumEnema of the State (1999), followed by bands such asGood Charlotte,Simple Plan andSum 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 1970s punk.[219] Later pop-punk bands, includingAll Time Low,the All-American Rejects andFall Out Boy, had a sound that has been described as closer to 1980s hardcore, while still achieving commercial success.[219]
In the 1980s the terms indie rock and alternative rock were used interchangeably.[223] By the mid-1990s, as elements of the movement began to attract mainstream interest, particularly grunge and then Britpop, post-grunge and pop-punk, the term alternative began to lose its meaning.[223] Those bands following the less commercial contours of the scene were increasingly referred to by the label indie.[223] Linked by an ethos more than a musical approach, the indie rock movement encompassed a wide range of styles, from hard-edged, grunge-influenced bands likethe Cranberries andSuperchunk, through do-it-yourself experimental bands likePavement, to punk-folk singers such asAni DiFranco.[199][200] It has been noted that indie rock has a relatively high proportion of female artists compared with preceding rock genres, a tendency exemplified by the development of feminist-informedRiot grrrl music.[224] Many countries have developed an extensive localindie scene, flourishing with bands with enough popularity to survive inside the respective country, but virtually unknown outside them.[225]
By the end of the 1990s many recognisable subgenres, most with their origins in the late 1980s alternative movement, were included under the umbrella of indie. Lo-fi eschewed polished recording techniques for a D.I.Y. ethos and was spearheaded byBeck,Sebadoh andPavement.[199] The work ofTalk Talk andSlint helped inspire both post rock, an experimental style influenced byjazz andelectronic music (exemplified by acts such asBark Psychosis,Tortoise,Stereolab, andLaika),[226][227] as well as leading to more dense and complex, guitar-based math rock, developed by acts likePolvo andChavez.[228] Space rock looked back to progressive roots, with drone heavy and minimalist acts likeSpacemen 3, the two bands created out of its split,Spectrum andSpiritualized, and later groups includingFlying Saucer Attack,Godspeed You! Black Emperor andQuickspace.[229] In contrast,sadcore emphasised pain and suffering through melodic use of acoustic and electronic instrumentation in the music of bands likeAmerican Music Club andRed House Painters,[230] while the revival of baroque pop reacted against lo-fi and experimental music by placing an emphasis on melody and classical instrumentation, with artists likeArcade Fire,Belle and Sebastian andRufus Wainwright.[231]
Alternative metal, rap rock, rap metal and nu metal
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.[237] This paved the way for the success of existing bands like24-7 Spyz andLiving Colour, and new acts includingRage Against the Machine andRed Hot Chili Peppers, who all fused rock and hip hop among other influences.[236][238] Among the first wave of performers to gain mainstream success as rap rock were311,[239]Bloodhound Gang,[240] andKid Rock.[241] A more metallic sound – nu metal – was pursued by bands including Limp Bizkit,Korn andSlipknot.[236] Later in the decade this style, which contained a mix of grunge, punk, metal, rap and turntablescratching, spawned a wave of successful bands likeLinkin Park,P.O.D. andStaind, who were often classified as rap metal or nu metal, the first of which are the best-selling band of the genre.[242]
In 2001, nu metal reached its peak with albums like Staind'sBreak the Cycle, P.O.D'sSatellite, Slipknot'sIowa and Linkin Park'sHybrid Theory. New bands also emerged likeDisturbed,Godsmack andPapa Roach, whose major label debutInfest became a platinum hit.[243] By 2002, nu metal bands were played more infrequently on rock radio stations andMTV began focusing onpop punk andemo.[244] Since then, many bands have changed to a more conventional hard rock, heavy metal, or electronic music sound.[244]
From about 1997, emerging bands began to avoid the Britpop label while still producing music derived from it.[245][246] Many of these bands tended to mix elements of British traditional rock (or British trad rock),[247] particularly the Beatles, Rolling Stones andSmall Faces,[248] with American influences, including post-grunge.[249][250] Drawn from across the United Kingdom, the themes of their music tended to be less parochially centered on British, English and London life and more introspective than had been the case with Britpop at its height.[251][252] Several alternative bands that had enjoyed some success during the mid-1990s, but did not find major commercial success until the late 1990s, includedthe Verve andRadiohead. The Verve's albumUrban Hymns (1997) was a worldwide hit, and Radiohead achieved near-universal critical acclaim with their experimental third albumOK Computer (1997).
Post-Britpop bands have been seen as presenting the image of the rock star as an ordinary person and their increasingly melodic music was criticised for being bland or derivative.[253] Post-Britpop bands likeTravis fromThe Man Who (1999),Stereophonics fromPerformance and Cocktails (1999),Feeder fromEcho Park (2001), and particularlySnow Patrol fromFinal Straw (2003),Keane from their debut albumHopes and Fears (2004), andColdplay from their debut albumParachutes (2000), achieved wider international success than many of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.[250][254][255][256]
Post-hardcore developed in the US, particularly in Chicago and Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, with bands that were inspired by the do-it-yourself ethics and guitar-heavy music of hardcore punk, but influenced by post-punk, adopting longer song formats, more complex musical structures and sometimes more melodic vocal styles.[257]
Emo also emerged from the hardcore scene in 1980s Washington, D.C., initially as "emocore", used as a term to describe bands who favored expressive vocals over the more common abrasive, barking style.[258] Emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s with the platinum-selling success ofJimmy Eat World'sBleed American (2001) andDashboard Confessional'sThe Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2003).[259] The new emo had a much more mainstream sound than in the 1990s and a far greater appeal among adolescents than its earlier incarnations.[259] 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.[260] By 2003 post-hardcore bands had also caught the attention of major labels and began to enjoy mainstream success in the album charts.[citation needed] A number of these bands were seen as a more aggressive offshoot of emo and given the often vague label ofscreamo.[261]
In the early 2000s, 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 characterised as part of a garage rock, post-punk ornew wave revival.[262][263][264][265] Because the bands came from across the globe, cited diverse influences (from traditional blues, through new wave to grunge), and adopted differing styles of dress, their unity as a genre has been disputed.[266] There had been attempts to revive garage rock and elements of punk in the 1980s and 1990s; by 2000, scenes had grown up in several countries.[267]
In the 2000s, as computer technology became more accessible andmusic software advanced, it became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer.[273] This resulted in a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the general public via the expanding internet.[274] These techniques also began to be used by existing bands and by developing genres that mixed rock with digital techniques and sounds, includingelectroclash,dance-punk andnew rave.[citation needed]
During the 2010s, rock music declined from its position as the major popular music genre, now sharing withelectronic dance andhip hop, the latter of which had surpassed it as the most consumed musical genre in the United States by 2017.[278][279][280] The rise of streaming and the advent of technology, which changed approaches toward music creation, were cited as major factors.[281] Ken Partridge ofGenius suggested that the stagnation of rock music and rising popularity of hip-hop is the result of changing social attitudes during the 2010s.[279] Bill Flanagan, in a 2016 opinion piece forThe New York Times, compared the state of rock during this period to the state of jazz in the early 1980s: "Its form is mostly fixed."[282]
Psychedelic and progressive styles in rock have seen a resurgence in popularity during the 2010s and 2020s. Some of the most notable acts in neo-psychedelia originated in Australia, such asKing Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard andKevin Parker'sTame Impala. The latter released well received albums such asLonerism (2012) andCurrents (2015).[289][290] This new Australian psychedelic music not only built on thepsychedelic andprogressive rock acts of the 1960s and 1970s, but also incorporated musical influences fromheavy metal,EDM, andworld music.[291] A 2014 article inThe Guardian described Australia as a place where "independently minded rock bands are free to develop at their own pace".[292]
Psychedelic trends in rock have also seen a revival in Europe,[293] which has been described as "really good" for new psychedelic music, with many Americanstoner rock bands choosing to tour in Europe as opposed to North America.[294]
In the late 2010s and early 2020s, a new wave of post-punk bands from Britain and Ireland emerged.[295] Artists that have been identified as part of this wave includeSquid,Fontaines D.C. andIdles.[296][297] Post-punk artists that attained prominence in the 2010s and early 2020s from other countries besides the UK includedGeese (United States),Kælan Mikla (Iceland), andViagra Boys (Sweden),[298][299][300] as well as the so-called "Russiandoomer music" scene consisting of post-punk,coldwave anddarkwave bands from post-Soviet countries like Russia and Belarus, most prominentlyMolchat Doma (Belarus).[301]
At the start of the 2020s, pop and rap music artists released successful pop-punk-influenced recordings, includingMachine Gun Kelly's 2020 albumTickets to My Downfall, which topped theBillboard 200, andOlivia Rodrigo's number-one hit single "Good 4 U" (2021).[302]
During the mid-to-late 2010s, some bands gained notoriety for emulating rock styles of the late 1960s and 1970s popular onclassic rock radio.Guitar World described this back-to-basics revival as "hard-hitting, swaggering, riff-driven rock 'n' roll built around a core vocal-guitar-bass-drum configuration".[303] Groups considered to be a part of this trend includeGreta Van Fleet,Rival Sons, andLarkin Poe.[304]
Different subgenres of rock were adopted by, and became central to, the identity of a large number ofsub-cultures. In the 1950s and 1960s, respectively, British youths adopted theTeddy Boy androcker subcultures, which revolved around US rock and roll.[305] Thecounterculture of the 1960s was associated with much of the rock music of the era.[305] The mid- to late 1970spunk subculture began in the US and spread worldwide. Thegoth andemo subcultures that grew later presented distinctive visual styles.[306]
When an international rock culture developed, it supplanted cinema as the major source of fashion influence.[307] However, followers of rock music have often mistrusted the world of fashion, which has been seen as elevating image above substance.[307] Rock fashions have been seen as combining elements of different cultures and periods, as well as expressing divergent views on sexuality and gender, and rock music in general has been noted and criticised for facilitating greater sexual freedom.[307][308] Rock has also been associated with various forms of drug use, including theamphetamines taken by mods in the early to mid-1960s, theLSD,mescaline and other hallucinogenic drugs linked withpsychedelic rock in the mid- to late 1960s and early 1970s; and sometimescannabis,cocaine and heroin, all of which have been eulogised in song.[309][310]
Rock has been credited with changing attitudes to race by opening upAfrican-American culture to white audiences. However, at the same time, rock has been accused ofappropriating and exploiting that culture.[311][312] Rock music has absorbed many influences and introduced Western audiences to different musical traditions,[313] and inherited the folk tradition ofprotest song, making political statements on subjects such as war, religion, poverty, civil rights, justice and the environment.[314] Activism reached a mainstream peak with the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" single (1984) andLive Aid concert for Ethiopia in 1985, which, while raising awareness of world poverty and funds for aid, have also been criticised (along with similar events), for providing a stage for self-aggrandisement and increased profits for the rock stars involved.[315]
Since its early development, rock music has been associated with rebellion against social and political norms, most in early rock and roll's rejection of an adult-dominated culture, the counterculture's rejection of consumerism and conformity and punk's rejection of all forms of social convention;[316] however, it can also be seen as providing a means of commercial exploitation of such ideas and of diverting youth away from political action.[317]
According to Schaap and Berkers, playing in a band is a peer group experience "shaped by existing sex-segregated friendship networks".[318] They write: "Several scholars have argued that men exclude women from bands or from the bands' rehearsals, recordings, performances, and other social activities ... Women are mainly regarded as passive and private consumers of allegedly slick, prefabricated – hence, inferior – pop music, excluding them from participating as high status rock musicians".[319]
In the early decades of rock music, rebellion "was largely a male rebellion; the women—often, in the 1950s and 60s, girls in their teens—in rock usually sang songs as personae, utterly dependent on their macho boyfriends."[320] Philip Auslander says that "although there were many women in rock by the late 1960s, most performed only as singers, a traditionally feminine position in popular music."[321] Some women played instruments in Americanall-female garage rock bands, but none of these bands achieved more than regional success. WhenSuzi Quatro emerged in 1973, "no other prominent female musician worked in rock simultaneously as a singer, instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader".[321]
Anall-female band is a musical group that is exclusively composed offemale musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed.[322]
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