In Conclusion

Throughout Rock's History there has been many creations, reinventions, revivals and will be. Rock has played a huge factor in society over the decades. It has defined each decade with its own sound and style. Rock will always go on through bands creating new sounds trying on new instruments and reliving old genre's and in commercial re-invetnion.

Alternative, Metal, Rap Rock and Nu Metal

• The genre's emerged in the mid 90's
• Brought us bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bloodhound Gang, White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails Jane's Addiction
• This music was still commercial though had a bit more originality to their sounds.
• Musically much of the music followed there previous influences singing about troubles, re using the common timing and chord patterns etc.
• Musically all these new age genre's were re-invented or based on prior musicians keeping there favourite music alive.

Indie Rock/Pop Punk

The genre derived from influences like the clash and the buzzcocks. Pop Punk used pop melodies though played at a punk type tempo. They used loud anthem like guitar distortion. The Californian based bands such as Greenday, Pennywise and Offspring made radio friendly punk though sort of on the edge. Indie had a differenty sound using clean pop and elements from pop punk and electronic music. major bands like the Arctic Monkeys, Spectrum, Red House Paintngs etc. are still going strong today with there varied sounds.

Post-Grunge

• After the decline of grunge bands started to make music that was less dark as their predecessors, being more commercially friendly
• Post Grunge became very diverse delving into many genre's such as heavy metal, pop etc
• Bands like Foo Fighters, Audioslave and Nickelback brought the genre into the 21st Century
• Rock began to get really mainstream leaving the anger and rebellion in the early 90's

Grunge Rock

• In the early 90's the music scene was over run by heavily produced pop rock and hair metal
• From this many bands, specially in Seattle, began to go anti- mainstream by creating more dirty and rebellious music.
• Grunge derived from heavy metal and hardcore punk.
• The guitar sounded more distorted and had a lot more feedback and fuzz
• They sang about darker content, depression, loneliness and dark humour
• Such bands like Green River, Sound Garden, the Melvins, Mudmoney and Skin Yard pushed the early forms of grunge.
• During this Nirvana shone through with its album Never mind took the cake
• Nirvana's music was more melodic though still holding the grunge values of anti-comercialism to heart
• Though with grunge's success it slowed down due to the death of Kurt Cobain, the problems Pearl Jam was having and the leaving of Alice in Chains Front Man.

New Wave Heavy Metal

• Heavy Metal struggled with punk revolution.
• Though new bands pushed the rebirth like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Van Halen
• The music was load fast with deadly execution of the vocals and the lead guitar.
• Guitar technique took a new leap with technicality of speed and runs.
• Rapid fire shredding was now common and the lyrical content was diverse from bible scriptures to the nightly destruction of the band
• this was especially relevant with bands such as Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and of course Guns N Roses
• Through the 80's Metal dispersed into many sub-genres
• New Darker metal was reflected in bands like Metallica, Megadeath and Slayer
• The death growl was prevalent in these bands to express the style.

Post Punk

• While New Wave represented the more commercial side post-punk describes the more artistic and emotional music
• The focus on dark emotions brought the sounds of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Joy Division etc.
• Some Post-Punk bands moved away from the dark emotion content like U2 who focused on political issues and religious themes.
• Though many bands are still going strong today the genre fell in the mid 80's

New Wave

• as punk didn't have many sales through big brands recording executives jumped at the phenomenon.
• The Recording companies started to signing artists such as Blondie, Talking Heads, Devo, and The Police.
• Between 82-85 bands were majorly influenced by David Bowie, Kraftwork and Gary Numan and the UK brought bands such as Ultravox, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Talk Talk etc.
• synthesizers began to squash out instruments and the electric sound began.
• Especially with the rise of MTV general rock was left in the dust by Synth Pop.

Punk Rock

• Punk developed itself mid 70's till late 80's
• Really derived from garage rock with few instruments
• The new scene brought fast hard edged music and generally shorter songs.
• The lyric content was about being anti-establishment and revolting against common culture.
• They rejected the mainstream and thrived on Local Scenes.
• with the music it brought new fashion, youthful rebellion.
• The bands usually followed simple instruments, 2 guitrars, bass, drums and vocals.
• 4/4 timing was a common time signature used.
• The vocals were generally screamed and nasally and had fewer changes in pitch and volume like mainstream music.
• power chords were exploded out with rapid picking, with heavy though dry drums.
• Punk took over much of the UK and USA with acts like The Ramones, Patti Smith, Sex Pistols and the Clash,

The Punk Bit...

Through the mid 70's to end of 80's brought us a variety of new hard edge music genres.

• Punk Rock
• New Wave Rock
• Post-Punk
• New Wave Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal began out being described as hard rock being played with more aggression and volume. The Term came from Steppen Wolfs "Born To Be Wild". Every band brought their own flavour to the mix. Led Zeppelin brought a fantasy feel, Deep Purple brought symphonic and medievil themes while Black Sabbath brought a gothic and modal harmony. All around the music had a darker sound. Heavy Metal still influences bands today such as Motorhead and Judis Priest.

Glam Rock

• Glam Rock was a very diverse style of rock.
• formed itself with outrages clothing and sexual ambiguity
• Some well established bands from the genre included David Bowie, T.Rex etc.
• David Bowie was a very influential character in the history of rock
• influencing other bands such as Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and The New York Dolls.
• Some glam rock liked to have a darker lyrical sense.
• Many bands later on tried on the genre such as Elton John, Queen, Rod Stewart and for a moment the Rolling Stones and of course Kiss.
• The music loved to be as out there as the clothing.
• Simple chord structures made great glam songs. Varying from hard rock to softer acoustic stylings.

Progressive Rock

• Progressive Rock was also known as Art Rock
• This genre tried to really experimenting with sounds, instruments, song types and forms
• An example would be how the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and the Beatles pioneered the use of violins, strings and wind sections in rock music
• A major example would be how the Moody Blues used a full orchestra in Days of Future Passed.
• The addition of Synths and keyboards were a constant addition.
• Lyrics were based on fantasy and science fiction and being very metaphorical.
• Also the strong sound of a powerful distorted guitar was another recurrence.

Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd became a major commercial success. Electric and Innovation became the two main themes of Progressive Rock. Other bands that fit into the genre were:

• Frank Zappa
• Blood Sweat and Tears
• Styx

The genre loved to use alot of theatrical stage events. Though Progression was huge it slowly died with many bands splitting up.

Roots Rock

• Roots Rock was a term to describe the move from Psychedelic rock
• Their Influences were mainly country and folk
• Bands Started to go back the the acoustic feel
• Creedence Clearwater Revival used folk, blues and country to create their unique sound
• Country music was a big genre though people like Neil Young eventually moved more towards the rock side.
• The Eagles Power headed the Country Rock becoming the most successful band of the genre with the Doobie Brothers
• Roots Rock covers the country rock as well as Southern Rock.
• Southern Rockers were bands like Lynard Skynard and the Almond Brothers.
• You can hear that drums are more significant on the up beats giving it the country sound.

Psychedelic Rock

Psychedelic Rock was the LCD inspired genre of rock. It was all about Love, Drugs and Rock and Roll. It really took off in California. This genre brought to rock the use of a lot of effects such as Wah pedals, flangers etc. to express their music. Key features of the genre was the extended guitar solo's; performed by such artists like Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Pink Floyd. The Psychedelic rock peeked at Woodstock. Other bands that fit into the genre were The Grateful Dead, Byrds, Donovan and of course The Doors. 7th and 5th chords were common in the genre.

Folk Rock

This was a major genre in the 60's and early 70's. It was about the American Folk Music Revival which grew into a major movement.

• The style was about traditional music
• new compositions
• and acoustic expression

Bob Dylan drove the singer-song writers. He reached the mainstream audience with his anti-war songs. The Animals tried combining the folk and rock and roll instrumentation. Later in the genre's history it moved towards the electric instruments. This can be seen in Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone". Crosby Still and Nash also drove the electric instrument side of the genre.

Hybridisation brought the folk and rock together making it a major influence on the history of rock.

Blues Rock

Blues Rock got most of their inspiration from American traditional blues. It followed alot of the traditional ideas of Blues, like clean sounding guitar, though amplified, sad songs about tough times and using the major Blues Pentatonic Scale. Also used was the harmonica which was more so used in this genre than many others. The genre also had a repetative nature to their structures of songs and the use of 1st 4th and 5th chords was a strong feature to the blues sound.

Prolific artists of the genre include Muddy Waters, Fleetwood Mac, Bluesbreaker, Blues Incorporated. Other bands that had songs that fell into the genre were Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones.

In the traditional blues they reffered to the chords with Roman Numerals.

For example:

I A (the key of the song)
II Bmi
III C#mi
IV D
V E
VI F#mi
VII G#dim

POP ROCK

• Pop Rock word derives from POPULAR.
• Basically Pop Rock was aimed at the Youth Market, trying to just make music that was popular.
• It was characterised as a softer version of rock.
• Pop Rock really represents bands like Rod Stewart, Elton John, Paul McCartney's work etc.
• liked to focus on electric guitar and popular riffs.

Garage Rock

Garage Rock Began in North America. The name explains the setting for most of their practice and jams. In garage rock their started a big change in the vocals. Their was more Screaming Shouts and Growls.

This genre was very much so influenced by the Brits popular music. Bands that headlined the genre were the Knickerbockers, The Remains and The Wailers. In about 68 the style really diminished except for in certain areas like DC, who produced bands like The Stooges and MC5 though with much more aggressive styles.

What made their music unique was:

• Themes of the songs were about high school traumas and life in america
• Change of aggression in vocal sounds
• The sound seemed more dirty and less structured
• Still falseto though more focus on guitar techniques.

The British Invasion

The "Brit Invasion" kicked off with the new sound emerging from the UK. Bringing the music of the beloved Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds. The main success of Brit Rock into America was through the Beatles. Their Hit Single "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" left teenage girls screaming for more. The original compositions were a gold mine of new sounds.

The music stylings of British Rock is:

• Use of falsetto singing
• Back up vocals
• Main instruments of acoustic as well as electric
• Twiny sound almost beach rock
• Very structured form

With the success of UK music in USA it squashed out the Surf Music Scene.

The Rock Onslaught...

Through the start of the 1960's Rock boomed. Many genre's brought with them many hit bands.
The different genre's include:

• British Invasion
• Garage Rock
• Pop Rock
• Blue's Rock
• Folk Rock'
• Psychedelic Rock
• Roots Rock
• Progressive Rock
• Glam Rock
• Heavy Metal
• and also Christian Rock

Background:

• The foundation of rock came out of the USA with rock and roll
• Elvis was the face of Rock and Roll then as well as other famous musicions Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and many more.
• This Strongly brought out the use of the electric guitar

Musical Techniques of this era:

• The sound is very much influenced by the blues
• Uses alot of Major Chords and 7th Chords
• Alot of Vibrato in vocals
• Nice bass sound from blues influences

Rock Music Overview

• Rock began in the 1950's - 1960's
• The sound derived from the blues, country, jazz and rock and roll
• The sound often revolves around main instruments, the guitar, drums, bass and vocals
• each decade brought new genres of rock

The 60's and 70's brought genres such as:

• Soft
• Glam
• Heavy Metal
• Hard
• Progressive

The 80's gave us:

• New wave
• Hardcore punk
• Alternative

While the 90's brought us:

• Grunge
• Britpop
• Indie
• Nu Metal