Overview
In this lesson, we will consider the genres of hard rock and heavy metal, which emerged in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The genre of hard rock grew out of the psychedelic rock tradition as well as the British blues revival movement. Like psychedelic rock, it focused on loud, distorted electric guitars. Like the blues, it was riff-based. The “hardness” of hard rock came from an emphasis on the bass guitar as well as on the bass drum. Heavy metal was an important outgrowth of hard rock. Also riff-based, heavy metal tended to have darker themes compared to hard rock.
Objectives
- Identify the defining musical characteristics of hard rock
- Identify the defining musical characteristics of heavy metal
- Identify the important predecessors and early examples hard rock music and musicians
- Identify the defining musical characteristics of Led Zeppelin’s style
- Identify the early examples of heavy metal in the United Kingdom and in the United States
Introduction
Hard rock groups of the late 1960s and 1970s such as Led Zeppelin and Iron Butterfly combined heavy bass and drum parts with riff-based structures. These two stylistic characteristics are also present in heavy metal.
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 often had a different message than hard rock, often focusing on topics that ranged from dark or macabre to flat-out sinister. During this lesson, we will focus on the early hard rock and heavy metal groups that were popular in both Europe and the United States.
