Rock music arrived inNorway following the rock'n'roll musical revolution in the USA and Great Britain in the late 1950s. Norwegian rock quickly fostered capable musicians, but was strongly influenced by the Anglo-American starting point for the musical form. The leading Norwegian rock groups in the 1960s and 1970s largely expressed themselves in English, while Norwegian was long only used in the more traditional hit and pop music.[1] Notable Norwegianrock bands includeTitanic,a-ha, andKaizers Orchestra.
The most known rock and roll performers in the 1950s werePer Granberg, Per Hartvig (Rocke-Pelle),Jan Rohde andOdd Gisløy (Smiling Tommy). Gisløy even penned his own rock and roll composition: "Dancing with My Rockin' Shoes".
In the early 1960s the so-called Shadow bands (named after the British instrumental groupThe Shadows) were popular. Among the most notable wereThe Beatniks andThe Vanguards. In the mid-1960sThe Pussycats recorded two albums: one inGreat Britain and one inWest Germany, both produced bySven-Erik Børja. Most of the songs were composed by group memberTrond Graff.
Titanic reached # 5 on theUK singles chart in 1971. Norway also has a notableprogressive rock scene, which began in 1971 with the release ofJunipher Greene'sFriendship, the country's first double album.
Beginning in the mid-1970s it slowly became more acceptable to sing in Norwegian. One of the foremost pioneers of rock in Norwegian was the "trønder rocker"Åge Aleksandersen.[2][3] This movement was also combined with experimentation in combining elements from folk and old dance music into rock. More progressive bands likeFolque incorporated elements of traditionalNorwegian folk music in their recordings. Other bands includeRuphus,Aunt Mary andHøst. This scene was in large part fueled by the successFrank Zappa had in Norway.
On July 20, 1977, the Sex Pistols played a concert at the Penguin Club in Oslo; they also played in Trondheim that month. These shows brought punk to Norway, inspiring a Norwegian punk rock scene.[4] The first Norwegian punk bands make their record debuts during 1979. In the punk scene it is not clear which band released the first Norwegian punk single release; the top candidates are Pink Dirt, Graxelaget, Front Page, Kjøtt, Oslo Børs, and Børres Kork. Trygve Mathiesen concludes that it was Børres Kork who's single had the earliest release date.[5] In 1982 the Blitz-huset in Oslo was established, and that remained a center of the punk scene throughout the 1980s. There was also a punk milieu in Trondheim associated with the Hard Rock Kafé, which produced bands like Wannskrækk and Liliedugg.[6] Punk continues to have an active scene in Norway, centered around the Blitz in Oslo and the UFFA house in Trondheim. Other cities including Bergen, Stavanger, Bodø, and Tromsø have also had smaller but active scenes. Bands such as Raga Rockers, DumDum Boys, Honningbarna, and Kvelertak have clear influences from the punk scene.
In the 80s Norway had A-Ha,Artch,Return,Stage Dolls andTNT, the first Norwegian band to be featured on the AmericanBillboard charts. In the latter years of this decade a new generation of bands started to gain popularity. These were bands who sang in Norwegian. Here Norway got the "4 great ones":DumDum Boys,DeLillos,Raga Rockers andJokke & Valentinerne. All these bands except Jokke (Joachim "Jokke" Nielsen died in 2000) are still active.
More recently, the Norwegian rock-scene has been dominated internationally by bands such asTurbonegro,Gluecifer andMadrugada, but several bands (likeBigBang,Euroboys andSpan) concentrate on the domestic market. The Stavanger hard rock bandKvelertak has been touring around the world withPurified in Blood among others since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2010.
In the mid 1980’s & early 1990s, Norway saw the growing of the undergroundblack metal scene,[7][8][9] which eventually became theEarly Norwegian black metal scene with bands includingMayhem,Immortal,Enslaved,Darkthrone,Burzum,Gorgoroth,Satyricon,Solefald, andDimmu Borgir.[10]Industrial rock bandZeromancer was formed in 1999. A few members were formerly in the band Seigmen.
Since 2001, Kaizers Orchestra has been among the most important rock bands in Norway. The band employs a variety of unusual instruments including a pump organ and an accordion. They are known for their use of oil barrels, car wheels, and garbage cans as percussion instruments.
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