Useful Websites
Rock ‘n’ Roll


Genre Information

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_n_roll
• http://www.history-of-rock.com
• http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_timeline-r1.html
• http://oldies.about.com/od/50srockers/50s_Music.htm
• http://www.sunrecords.com/
• http://www.answers.com/topic/rock-n-roll?cat=entertainment



Important Bands
http://www.jerryleelewis.com
http://www.elvis.com
http://www.fatsdominoonline.com
http://www.billhaley.co.uk/introduction.htm
http://www.hankwilliams.com
http://www.chuckberry.com
http://www.johnnycash.com
http://royorbison.musiccitynetworks.com/


Essential Listening
Rock ‘n’ Roll


Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
1956

Jerry Lee Lewis
Great Balls Of Fire
1957

Chuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode
1958

Fats Domino
Every Night About This Time
1950

Johnny Cash
Folsom Prison Blues
1955

Eddie Cochran
Summertime Blues
1958

Bill Haley
Rock Around The Clock
1952

Little Richard
Tutti-Frutti
1955

Elvis Presley
Hound Dog
1956

Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
1958

Gene Vincent And The Bluecaps
Be-Bop-A-Lula
1956

60s Genre - British Invasion

In this Blog for my 1960's Genre I have chosen to look at the British Invasion. This was a term given to a period roughly between 1964 and 1967 when British Rock 'n' Roll and Pop acts exploded in popularity in the United States of America. This is generally seen as being kicked off by the appearance of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th 1964. This period is very important in the history of popular music as it was the first time a British artist made a significant impression in America. The first British band to get a Number 1 hit in the States was the Tornados, with "Telstar" in 1962, but the first British artist to get Number 1 was Dame Vera Lynn ten years earlier in 1952.

Despite these earlier hits, the wave of British artists invading the US charts really took off in 1964 when the Beatles began their US tour by playing the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th, promoting "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". The show was watched by more than 73 million people, and was seen as the start of what the press labelled the 'British Invasion', and what was soon to become known as 'Beatlemania' swept across the US. It was widely thought that the Beatles cheered up the nation, still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.

The sound of the British Invasion was influenced by the American Rock 'n' Roll of the Fifties, Liverpudlian bands such as the Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Herman's Hermits, were influenced by records brought back to port by sailors that had been across the Atlantic to America and brought them back home as souvenirs of their travels, or as presents for loved ones. British musicians found themselves copying or being heavily influenced by the rock 'n' roll sound, and the British the skiffle movement began. Skiffle was played using home-made instruments such as washboard and tea-chest bass, alongside conventional instruments such as acoustic guitar, banjo and drumkit. A couple of notable Skiffle artists are Lonnie Donegan, and The Quarrymen, later to become The Beatles. The British breed of rock 'n' roll evolved from this skiffle/rock 'n' roll sound, with bands from Liverpool becoming known as Merseybeat, because of Liverpool's location by the river Mersey.

After The Beatles exploded into the American charts, it was the beginning of a flood of British artists, including the likes of The Animals, Rolling Stones, The Troggs, The Who and The Yardbirds. The Invasion is generally seen as ending when Jimi Hendrix, a US-born artist, came onto the pop scene in the UK.

'70s Genre - Punk

viewimages.com

In this blog for the '70s decade, I am going to look at Punk music, a style of rock that emerged in The United States and the United Kingdom during the early 1970s. It is a genre that is still very much alive today, with bands from the time such as the Sex Pistols and Ramones still popular with rock and Punk fans, even though they split up years ago. The genre was very much about rebellion, devil-may-care attitude, and giving a two-finger salute to society and the establishment.

Punk influences came from a number of places, some of which are quite surprising. The Punk attitude can be traced back the '50s Rock 'n' Roll, a genre which caused quite a stir in the late 1950s by combining influences from both black and white styles of music, something which was unheard of beforehand. The importance of this is that the Rock 'n' Rollers did what they liked when they liked, and did not care what anyone said of thought of them, a burning torch of rock music that was picked up by Punk musicians. Elvis Presley and his Rock 'n' Roll colleagues fall into a genre known now as 'Proto-Punk'. This genre is made up of places and artists where original Punk artists found influence. Another important Proto-Punk influence was David Bowie in the shape of Ziggy Stardust, who showed that it was okay to be a freak. Other artists include the New York Dolls, whose swagger and attitude very much paved the way for the arrogant, anarchistic punks. Iggy Pop and The Kinks were other important influences.

The sound of Punk was a raw, guitar-driven sound, stripped down to the very basics. Most Punk bands featured one or two guitars, bass, drums and a vocalist, usually (but not always) male. Instrumental ability was not an important factor in Punk, as long as you had the attitude and knew how to make enough noise. Many songs were distorted three-chord anthems, very much a reaction to the Progressive Rock which was around at the same time, which was all about long, self-indulgent songs. The Punk live show was raw and energetic, just like the music that was being played. This energetic and simplistic attitude to making music was a very obvious influence on Grunge music, which emerged over the next decade or so. See my first blog for more information on the genre. Punk singers often shouted or chanted lyrics, especially choruses (the chorus to Ramones 'Blitzkreig Bop' comes to mind - the infamous "Hey ho, lets go!" chant).

The image of punk was centered around the clothing sold by Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood in their boutique 'Let It Rock', on Kings Road in London. The shop originally sold Teddy Boy outfits, but McClaren grew tired of the problems caused by the Teddy Boys who were the store's main customers. In 1974 he traveled to New York, when he first saw the New York Dolls in action. He returned to the UK in May 1975, with new fresh new fashion ideas inspired by what he had seen in New York, especially the New York Dolls and Neon Boys. These fashions included leather, spikes and torn clothing. Let It Rock was re-named SEX, and began to sell clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood inspired by the look that Malcolm McClaren had seen in the US. These clothes were sold alongside fetish and bondage clothing, and shaped the stereotypical punk image that everyone can recognise.

Punk spawned many different sub-genres, some of which are still very prominent today, including Hardcore, Pop-Punk, Folk Punk, Horror Punk, and Oi!.

Pop-Punk is almost certainly the most commercially successful brand of punk music, although its MTV and radio-friendly approach to music flies in the face of the original punk values. Bands that would fall into this genre include Blink 182, who sold millions of records during their 13-year career, biggest selling being 1999's Enema Of The State which went 6 times platinum, and Green Day, whose major label debut album 'Dookie' sold over 10 millions units inside the US. Other Pop-Punk bands worthy of mention include Bowling For Soup, The Offspring, Anti-Flag and NOFX. The sound of the genre is more melodic that traditional Punk, and not all of their songs are about particularly serious issues, with bands such as Blink 128 (in their earlier material mainly) and Bowling For Soup opting for often humorous lyrics.

Hardcore Punk is a faster, heavier more aggressive version of punk, featuring artists such as Black Flag and Bad Brains. The lyrics take a political stance, covering issues such as war, and politics itself. Hardcore Punk paved the way for Metalcore, a genre combining elements of Hardcore Punk with the heavier, more technical sounds of metal. Bands which fall into this genre include Killswitch Engage (one of my personal favorite bands), Hatebreed, As I Lay Dying and Diecast.

Folk Punk is a sub-genre that fuses elements from both folk and punk rock, bringing into play instruments which would not normally be used in punk, such as banjo, bagpipes and mandolin. The Pogues are probably the most famous British Folk-Punk band, their most famous track being the 1987 single 'Fairytale Of New York', which reached #1 in Irish charts and #2 in British charts, featuring guest vocals from singer Kirsty MacColl. The song is, in my opinion, possibly the only good Christmas song ever! Some modern bands worth mentioning include Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys.

The reason I chose Punk Rock to look at in this blog was that I think that Punk had a huge influence on rock music as a whole, not so much the sound but the attitude. These days most rock musicians, be they punk, alternative, grunge, metal or any other genre related to rock have that attitude of doing what they want, making the sound they want, how they want, and not caring what anyone may think.

Sources:
www.wikipedia.org
www.punk77.co.uk
www.punkplanet.com

'80s Genre - Glam Metal

Image from ugo.com

For my '80s Blog genre I have chosen to look at Glam Metal music as it is a genre of music that I enjoy, and would like to look at and learn more about, as although I enjoy artists such as Mötley Cruë and Europe, I do not know a lot about the genre or a particularly large number of artists that play the style. Glam Metal started to emerge in the late 70s in the United States, and is a sub-genre of Heavy Metal. It was massively successful, and shifted hundreds of millions of records in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The genre was also known as Hair Metal, a term popularised by the music TV channel MTV when it was born in the very early 80s. The genre drew a lot of it's influences from the Glam Rock music of the 1970s, featuring artists such as T.Rex, David Bowie, Queen and Aerosmith. Glam Metal musicians drew partly from the image of 70's Glam Rock, including the make-up and fancy outfits, such as tight leather, headbands and lots of spandex worn by the likes of David Bowie (see here: link). The other main influence was the Heavy Metal from the same period, bands including the likes of Judas Priest, from whom they took the leather and studs image (example: link). The combination of these two images brought together the Glam Metal look.

Glam Metal was born mainly in Los Angeles and New York in the United States, with the Sunset Boulevard, known as ‘Sunset Strip’, in LA worth a particular mention, as it became a haven for musicians, especially those of the Glam Metal variety, in the 1980s. Glam Metal bands to emerge from LA include the likes of Mötley Cruë, Dokken and Quiet Riot. Other notable artists to come from across the United States include:
●Bon Jovi – New Jersey
●Twisted Sister and KISS – New York
●Alice Cooper – Detroit
●Ratt - San Diego
And then just to be awkward, there were Def Leppard from Sheffield, in the UK, and Europe from Upplands Väsby, in Sweden.

Def Leppard were, and still are, a very successful band, despite their seemingly unlikely location in comparison the most of their Glam Metal peers – Sheffield is somehow lacking that certain something in comparison to Los Angeles! The band actually formed more as part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in the ‘70s, and prefer to be seen as such, and are labelled as Glam Metal because of their mainstream success as much as anything else, although they did seem quite suspiciously partial to spandex…

Glam Metal was massively successful in it’s day, hence sometimes being referred to as ‘pop metal’, with many album releases shifting millions of copies. Here’s a few examples:
●Def Leppard – Hysteria – over 20 million sales worldwide
●Mötley Cruë – Dr. Feelgood – over 7 million in the US alone
●Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet – over 28 million worldwide

In total Glam Metal must literally have sold hundreds of millions of records across the globe. I think this popularity was due to the fact that Glam Metal was, at the end of the day, basically about having fun, having a good time. You could say it was party music. Most songs included memorable, powerful sing-along choruses. Probably my favourite example of this is Rock The Night by Europe, from their multi-million selling album “The Final Countdown”, also featuring the single of the same name that hit #1 in 26 countries. This is a great song by the band, featuring a chorus that after one listen you just can’t get out your head:

“Rock now, rock the night'
Til early in the morning light
Rock now, rock the night
You'd better believe it's right.”

Listen to the track on YouTube here: link

Another track with a chorus you can’t help but sing along to is Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, with a catchy repetitive chorus. Listen to the song here: link

The sound of Glam Metal was based around heavy guitar riffs, featuring chugging palm-muted powerchords and often virtuosic, or ‘shredding’, lead playing. Other over-the-top guitar techniques used by many Glam Metal guitar players included two-hand tapping and divebombs using locking tremolo systems. There were a lot of harmonised vocal lines, and shouted chants, and huge anthemic, catchy sing-along choruses. The vocals were usually also quite high pitched. Drumming was simple and not usually particularly flashy, as was the bass playing, which rarely took centre stage in Glam Metal.

Showmanship and outrageousness was a big part of a Glam Metal show, featuring the likes of naked dancing girls in cages, and pyrotechnics. Tommy Lee, drummer in Mötley Cruë even had a drumkit which he was strapped into, which rotated vertically. The bass player from Mötley Cruë, Nikki Sixx, once even set himself on fire on stage! Glam Metal artists didn’t just save the outrageousness for the stage either. Alcohol, sex and drugs were major players in the scene, and disrepute was the name of the game, with the first video for ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ by Mötley Cruë banned from MTV because of explicit content. Their song ‘Kickstart My Heart’ was written after Nikki Sixx was declared dead after a heroin overdose on December 23rd 1987, but was brought back to life by two adrenaline shots to the heart.

Personally I think that Glam Metal was a great genre of music because of it’s fun-loving atmosphere, which lead to it’s enormous success across the globe. The excess of insane guitar abilities, silly costumes, hair and makeup, and sex and substance-abuse controversy attracted many people, who although many probably weren’t so inspired by the junkie side of the scene, they were inspired by loads of musicians setting out and enjoying themselves and making great music.

Useful websites/sources:

www.wikipedia.org

www.sleazeroxx.com

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/glam_metal

Word count: 966

'90s Genre - Grunge

Grunge is a genre of rock music that emerged in Northwest America in the late 1980s, played by disillusioned young people who were bored of not getting anywhere or achieving anything. Most of the Grunge bands came from the state of Washington, especially the city of Seattle, a wet, windy and depressing corner of the United States, mainly ignored by the American media.

The sound of Grunge, sometimes referred to as 'The Seattle Sound', drew heavily from the local Punk scene, comprising of fuzzy electric guitars and thrashy drums. The riffs were often very simple powerchords being bashed out, with very little emphasis on technical ability on the instrument. This was one of the important attitudes of the grunge movement; anyone could go into their garage, pick up a guitar, turn up to 11 and thrash out some Grunge music. Another important influence on the Grunge sound was the sound and image of 80's Metal and Glam Metal music. Alice In Chains for example, a prominent Seattle Grunge band, were visibly and audibly influenced by Heavy Metal, wearing black leather and dark colours, and with a sound that was more riff-orientated, very much a Heavy Metal style, rather than just playing Punk powerchords. In fact it could be argued that Alice In Chains were more a Metal band than a Grunge band, but were categorised as such due to their Seattle roots and introspective lyrics. Other Grunge-Metal bands include Gruntruck and Melvins, the former from Seattle and the latter coming from Montesano.
The lyrical themes of Grunge music were often quite depressing, as if the writers weren't happy with their situation, and wanted to break away from the wet, damp monotony of Seattle. For an example of some typical grunge lyrics, check out Lithium by Nirvana: http://www.algonet.se/~kenta/music/nirvana.html#Lithium

These people were very working-class, many coming from the most prominent industry in Seattle, that of logging. This shows in the fashion that many grunge rockers adopted, going for very every day looks, wearing flannel shirts as worn by the lumberjacks at work. This image is very important to grunge music, the fact that the artists look like your everyday Joe from down the pub, and that they didn't really care what people thought of them. Grunge shows had a similar attitude to the artists - no expensive pyrotechnics or lighting effects, just a bunch of people on stage playing their music. None of the crazy tapping-filled, whammy-abusing solos or spandex to be found here, in fact many grungers were pretty scruffy, especially in comparison to the Glam Metal explosion of the 80's. Here another comparison can be drawn with Punk music, the fact that the musicians didn't care about fancy outfits or showing off, or what people thought of them, they just wanted so make some noise and say what they wanted to say. The difference was that Punk was very much about rebellion and politics, whereas Grunge was more laid back in it's attitude, and much less angry.

In 1991, Grunge really exploded on a huge scale, with the release of Nirvana's "Nevermind" on the Geffen Records label. This marked the band's move from independent label Sub Pop, based in Seattle. Sup Pop was started in 1979 as a fanzine, alternating issues with audio cassette tapes featuring upcoming underground rock bands. The project was cancelled after a few issues, but when the founder, Bruce Pavitt, moved to Seattle in 1986 he released the first Sub Pop EP. In 1987, Pavitt was introduced to Jonathan Poneman by Kim Thayill (guitar player in Soundgarden) and the pair released Soundgarden's EP "Screaming Life", thus becoming a record label. In the following years Sup Pop released records from many artists, including Mudhoney, Tad and Nirvana. Nirvana were by far the most commercially successful grunge band, having shifted more than 50 million albums across the globe. The band was first formed in 1985, when guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic met. After a succession of band names, the band settled on Nirvana in 1988, and played their first show as Nirvana in March of that year. In 1990, the band left Sub Pop wanting to move to a bigger label do due increased interest, and were signed to DGC Records and released Nevermind, their first major label album, produced by Butch Vig. The first single, the now legendary "Smells Like Teen Spirit", sold way more than expected, partly due to much play on music channel MTV. By the end of 1991, Nevermind was selling over 400,000 copies a week in the United States. By April 2007, the album had sold 26 million copies worldwide.

Pearl Jam were another major milestone in the story of Grunge, as the first Grunge band to sign to a major label. They were formed from the remains of two influential grunge bands, Mother Love Bone and Green River. The former split up after the band fell apart following the Heroin-induced death of singer Andrew Wood. Pearl Jam aren't as heavy as many Grunge bands, drawing more influence from the rock music of the '70s. They were signed to Epic Records in 1991, and released their debut album, "Ten", on August 27th '91. The record was slow to take off, but by the end of 1992 it was certified gold and reached number 2 on the Billboard charts. Ten stayed in the charts for over two years, and remains one of the best-selling records of all time, going twelve times platinum.

The influence of grunge is still alive today, not only in the popularity of early Grunge such as Nirvana and Alice In Chains, but in more recent, 'post-grunge' bands such as Nickelback, Puddle Of Mudd and Chevelle. These bands retain the dirty angst of Grunge, but are arguably more commercial and marketable, and could be seen as sell-outs by fans of original Grunge. Personally I think this is ridiculous considering the enormous success of records such as Nevermind and Ten, but I can see where these fans are coming from, since Nickelback's single 'Rock Star' seems to be being played pretty much every other song on music TV channels such as Kerrang and Scuzz at the time of writing.

Word count: 1030

Useful pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_pop

Information and figures researched on Wikipedia.org