Essay on A Brief History of Hard Rock

Rock ‘n’ Roll began and evolved around the late 1940’s and 1950’s time frame. There were many groups that participated in the creation and origin of Rock ‘n’ Roll, however the two primary groups were rhythm and blues and country music. “The origins of rock ‘n’ roll are often described in a way that could be represented by an algebraic formula: r&b + c&w = r&r” (Garofalo & Waksman, 2016, p. 56). While the formula is rather simplistic, it ignores the many groups of individuals, social and cultural influences that impacted the formation of Rock ‘n’ Roll. As Rolling Stone’s Robert Palmer (1990) noted:

consciousness. Fourth was the rock genre. Rock music is a form of popular music that kindled from rock and roll and pop music during the mid and late 1960s. The fifth genre was Reggae.

Loud, soothing, meaningful, and deep, rock music has many characteristics. These characteristics are ones that rock music fans appreciate. But, many people have different preferences of music, such as pop, rap, country, and other genres. Although there are several types of music, most modern music comes back to the foundation of rock and roll. Many artists have been influenced by the heart-wrenching power of rock music. Most people that enjoy rock music do not know how rock started. It is a genre that has evolved over the years.

Rock ‘N’ Roll’s birth came after the Great Depression and World War II. It was in the 50’s called the baby boomers that started it all. It expanded the teenage population with 3.4 million babies born. The 1950’s scrap the ideology of a conservative family, where the father is the bread winner and the mother was a stay home mother. The young adults found an escape and enjoyment in Rock ‘N’ Roll.

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n ' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States. The music we know as rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the mid 1950s, even though a form of it had been on the horizon for at least a decade or so. A quarter of the American population moved during World War II, and that is what brought southern, rural, sacred and secular traditions into contact with urban-based music and its audiences. Rock and roll drew on many different styles. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which it developed from earlier blues, boogie-woogie, jazz and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country, western, and traditional folk music. With the combinations of all of these genres of music, that help to create this new style of music excited a worldwide generation of young listeners. Even though it had the attention of young listeners it started to upset the already established social, cultural and musical authorities. With this new music style coming into full affect along with new dances and people having voicing out their own opinion caused a lot of turmoil. Many people began to question this new genre of music and labeled it as the devil music while other loved it and couldn’t help but dance

There were three different types of musical styles that many successful bands used. Each style was different in its own way; there was the ”beat“ bands. Which were fundamentally the pop-rock bands; like The Beatles. Then there were the R&B bands, like The Rolling Stones. That used a guitar based different version of American blues. Which would soon became into “garage" and "frat" rock.

go from laid back to an in your face, ultra loud show of shows. There are

Rock and roll was born in the 1950's and has influenced our pop culture and music for the last six decades ever since its creation from blues, rhythm and blues, country, and gospel music. It has since then created a large variety of genres of rock such as folk rock, country rock, southern rock, corporate rock, art rock, heavy metal, glam rock and many more (Larson). Many of the genres created by Rock and Roll are still listened to this day and has also influenced other types of music and artists. The large amount of variety of music that is present today is due to the fragmentation of rock and roll and what the audience wanted to hear. This lead to the creation of a large variety of genres of rock to please every rock listener in the world.

As one of the most popular music genres, rock music has grown and expanded to incorporate many styles throughout the years. A rock band usually consists of a vocalist, an acoustic drum kit played with a strong beat, usually a back beat, and features electric and acoustic guitars. From its beginnings in the late 1950s and early 1960s until the present day, rock has changed styles seemingly every decade as new bands become popular because of their unique style of music. Throughout the years rock has influenced our culture and helped shape the world we live in today.

Van Halen took heavy metal to new heights. After more than two decades of playing sold-out concert halls, selling millions of albums and enduring various lineup changes and solo projects, Van Halen is recognized as one of the most resilient and successful rock bands to emerge from the 1970s and continue into the 1980’s. Eddie and Alex Van Halen were raised in Pasadena, the children of Dutch immigrants who immigrated to California in 1967. The Van Halen brothers grew up taking classical piano lessons.

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Led Zeppelin Performed on their 1971 European Tour. The band was not politically inclined; however, they were, and are, very influential in music. Along with Black Sabbath, they are often cited as the Godfathers of Heavy Metal. Obviously extremely popular in the 1970s, they are best known for their influences in heavy metal despite having a diverse musical style (Fast, 2016).

However, the 1960s was considered at a stand still when it came to popular music. In 1964, when the Beatles arrived to America, everything changed. I think this was the time when Rock-n-Roll was truly reborn as Rock music. “The changing of Rock and Roll terminology is illustative. “Rock and Roll” became simply “Rock”, connoting its new heaviness (seriousness)” (Cary, pg 31) The oncoming decade allowed for new developments within rock music and as a result, soared in popularity. The British invasion, a phrase coined by Walter Cronkite while reporting the arrival of the Beatles in the USA,and American folk singers were the causes of the rapid changes in Rock music. It was British bands that altered how Rock-n-Roll was played, and at the the same time American folk singers were in the process of changing how its audience, particularly the youth, perceived it.

When people hear the genre “rock and roll,” they often think of performers like Elvis Presley, AC/DC, and Aerosmith. Those bands have provided the foundation for rock and roll, but the newer bands have to carry over from the bands of the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s to the bands of the 1990’s and the 2000’s. The new generation of bands has just as much, if not more, popularity than the bands of the older generation. Bands do not gain popularity just by showing up to rehearsal, though. Gaining popularity can take years of making music, and sometimes establishing credibility takes more time than other bands. The more popular bands that have many fans are bands like Three Days Grace, Alter Bridge, and Avenged Sevenfold. These three bands have had

Rock has had different effects on different countries. Europe was the most influenced by rock because of its many rising bands from Liverpool and London. This was because they had many musically talented people coming from the area. There are many unique types of rock including heavy metal to classic rock, punk, alternative, and grunge. Each of the genres have enabled different artists from each genre to rise and record companies to accompany them and boost their popularity among fans. Many of the artists that were apart of each genre are currently respected for their creative, energetic music. Many people today still believe

The first hard rock and heavy metal music was produced by the rock group called Blue Cheer somewhere around 1967. Their music was angry and had a noticeably heavy beat.. At this time, the music of the Rolling Stones, too, became harder and angry, with a negative accent. Many other groups sprang up during this period. In truth, hard drugs, mixed with psychedelics were having an effect. The world was witnessing a new phenomenon: musical groups of young men - opening doors to the psychic world through the use of drugs - were using electrified instruments to bring in a new music that was harmful to the human psyche, destructive, and angry (2).