Overview
Objectives
- Identify the similarities and differences between hard rock and heavy metal
- Identify the defining characteristics of heavy metal music
- Examine a number of early heavy metal groups and explain why they and their music were significant to the development of heavy metal
Introduction
As we saw in the previous lesson, hard rock groups of the late 1960s and 1970s such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Iron Butterfly combined heavy bass and drum parts with riff-based structures. These two stylistic characteristics are also present in heavy metal. Unlike hard rock, though, the lyrics of heavy metal tend to focus on dark, sinister topics such as the occult, death, and witchcraft. Heavy metal grew out of the hard rock movement, and as a result, there is a significant amount of overlap in the influences and styles of both types of rock. In general, both are based on riffs and focus on high volume and heavy distortion.
As we will see, heavy metal had a different message than hard rock, often focuses on topics that ranged from dark or macabre to flat-out sinister. During this lesson, we will focus on the early heavy metal groups that were popular in both Europe and the United States.
