HISTORY OF ROCK MUSIC
The history of rock music isn't cut and dry. Many individuals debate who the first rock singer was and what the first rock song was. However, it is known that the history of rock music comes from the old R&B mixed with some country and western and fused with a little rockabilly.
The exact time period that the history or rock music started in is not known. There were rock and roll elements showing up in blues songs and old country western songs as far back as the 20's and 30's. By the 1950's the history or rock music had begun.
The phrase rock and roll used to have a sexual connotation attached to it. The phrase sometimes contained to two meanings. It appeared to mean dancing but was also associated with sex. It was first used in the title of Trixi Smith's 1920's song, “My baby rocks me with one steady roll.” However, it was Alan Freed a disc jockey from Ohio that first came up with the phrase rock and roll in 1955. With that, the history of rock music was well under way.
As stated before, just who started the history of rock music is under debate. This is because rock and roll music evolved from different genres and some songs that belonged to the blues, jazz, country, and gospel genres offered elements that could be considered rock and roll. However, it was Bill Haley's song, “Rock around the clock” that became popular enough to top the Billboard music charts.
In the history or rock music there have been many icons. Among the earliest rock stars are names like Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. These early stars of the history or rock music led to the popularization or rock and a culture change that shocked the world. The dance crazes, fashion styles, and pop culture that followed the early history of rock music were made possible by these early stars.
The exact time period that the history or rock music started in is not known. There were rock and roll elements showing up in blues songs and old country western songs as far back as the 20's and 30's. By the 1950's the history or rock music had begun.
The phrase rock and roll used to have a sexual connotation attached to it. The phrase sometimes contained to two meanings. It appeared to mean dancing but was also associated with sex. It was first used in the title of Trixi Smith's 1920's song, “My baby rocks me with one steady roll.” However, it was Alan Freed a disc jockey from Ohio that first came up with the phrase rock and roll in 1955. With that, the history of rock music was well under way.
As stated before, just who started the history of rock music is under debate. This is because rock and roll music evolved from different genres and some songs that belonged to the blues, jazz, country, and gospel genres offered elements that could be considered rock and roll. However, it was Bill Haley's song, “Rock around the clock” that became popular enough to top the Billboard music charts.
In the history or rock music there have been many icons. Among the earliest rock stars are names like Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. These early stars of the history or rock music led to the popularization or rock and a culture change that shocked the world. The dance crazes, fashion styles, and pop culture that followed the early history of rock music were made possible by these early stars.
80's ROCK MUSIC
The rock music of the 80's was very optimistic and upbeat. This is why 80's rock music ends up in a lot of good movies. There seems to be at least one good 80's song on almost every soundtrack. Some songs show up on multiple movie soundtracks. This is one of the best ways to accumulate great 80's rock music without buying a bunch of individual albums.
One of the best movie soundtracks for 80's rock music is The Wedding Singer. This film has songs from Billy Idol to The Culture Club. The movie isn't have bad either. Starring Drew Berrymore and Adam Sandler, this movie couldn't be funnier if you threw in Cheech and Chong.
Another great movie for 80's rock music is The Breakfast Club. This movie was created in the 80's and is still as enjoyable today as it was back then. The theme from this movie is perhaps the most famous song on its soundtrack. The theme song that was written by Keith Forsay and Steve Schiff was performed by the band Simple Minds. “Don't You Forget About Me” became an instant 80's rock music hit.
Another great movie was released in 1997 with a great 80's rock music soundtrack. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion starred a famous cast including Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming. This movie was hilarious and included a host of 80's rock music including “Foot Loose”, “Time After Time”, and Turning Japanese”.
Movie soundtracks are a great way to purchase a CD with a variety of music. Instead of all of the songs sounding the same, you get a bunch of great songs. The ones listed above are great for fans of 80's rock music. They have the classic 80's music that you are looking for and the movies are great too.
ROCK & ROLL MUSIC
Rock and roll music has a certain feel to it, but what creates this feeling? Well, it is a combination of the rhythm, instruments, vocals, and attitude. All of these elements blend together to create the rock and roll music people love. Some of these elements have been enhanced since the creation of rock and roll music through a natural evolution.
Rock and roll music began as a melting of the rhythm and blues and country western genres of the 1940s. The beat of rock and roll music comes mainly from a rhythm and blues boogie beat. The difference is made by the addition of an accented backbeat. This backbeat is one of the essential elements of rock and roll music.
The instruments that create rock and roll music have changed around since the development of the genre. As rock and roll music began to split into different types of rock music, they added different instruments. However, the normal instrument line up includes one or two electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a drum kit. Keyboards and other instruments have been added from time to time as well.
Vocals associated with rock and roll music are varied. Most rock and roll singers have a unique style as apposed to pop music which can sound alike. Vocals are also where the attitude comes in. Many lead singers have created the fame for their rock and roll bands. This was the case with Ozzy Osborne, Steven Tyler, Mick Jagger who are all still famous today.
The technical definition of rock and roll music isn't important. For true fans, rock and roll music can not be defined. It is in the musicians and it comes out before the music even begins. It isn't in the way the musician plays but in the way the musician lives and breathes.
ALTERNATIVE ROCK MUSIC
Alternative rock music is really a name given to rock music that didn't fit any other genre. However, the technical meaning is usually any rock music that descended from punk rock. A lot of rock music has been classified as alternative rock music even though some of these did not exactly fit the meaning.
Alternative rock music became popular in the 1990's but the history or alternative rock music goes back farther than that. Before Nirvana brought alternative rock music to the mainstream audience, the music genre had been gaining popularity with the college crowds and music underground.
In the 1980's REM was making their start in alternative rock music. Most of their airtime was given by college radio stations. This is where their loyal fan base started. However, their commercial success started at about the time that alternative started to really become popular in the 1990's.
The popularity of alternative rock music came about after the grunge period. Grunge was a type of alternative rock music that denounced commercialism. This movement started in Seattle, Washington and soon took the world by storm. This was ironic since it was this type of music that helped to create the commercial success for alternative rock music. Bands such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Alternative rock music also made a big splash in Britain where punk rock was more popular. In fact, Alternative rock music entered the mainstream earlier in Britain than it did in the United States. This gave alternative bands a broader venue even before the popularity of alternative music in the United States.
During the height of success for alternative rock music, many record companies handed out the name to bands that fit the requirements loosely at best. This was done in hopes that the label of alternative would help sales. However, looking back one can see that some of this music was more pop than alternative.
IRISH ROCK MUSIC
Rock and roll became popular in Ireland in the sixties; around the time when the British Rock Invasion was sweeping the United States it was also becoming extremely popular in Ireland. The actual Irish rock music of these times though mainly consisted of Irish rock bands doing covers of many of the British and American hits that they heard on their radios and bought albums of. Playing in one of these Irish cover bands was a musician named Van Morrison. Van Morrison played in a successful Irish rock music band that went by the name of “Them”. After the breakup of the band Van Morrison went on to become an international success and he put Irish rock music on the map. Van Morrison is still performing and putting out albums to this day, and he has quite a loyal following. Another one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time came from Ireland as well; he was a musician by the name of Rory Gallagher.
The above mentioned musicians were some of the first pioneers of Irish rock music and they paved the way for some of the superstar rock bands that were going to be coming out of Ireland from the seventies on. Another huge success for Irish rock music was the band Thin Lizzy and they became renowned worldwide. Thin Lizzy are a timeless Irish rock band and many of their songs from the seventies and early eighties are still heard on the radio today, especially the very well known songs- “The Boys are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak”. One of the biggest and most influential rock groups to ever come out of Ireland is the superstar rock band U2, who have received numerous awards and been at the forefront of modern rock music for two decades now. There are many bands out there now that fuses traditional Celtic music with popular styles such as rock and punk rock. Some notable bands that play these styles are the Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphy’s (from Boston) and Celtic rock bands Seven Nations and Black 47. Another great band that plays a fusion of traditional Irish music mixed with rock and punk is a band called Flogging Molly, who are based out of California but their singer is from Ireland.
The above mentioned musicians were some of the first pioneers of Irish rock music and they paved the way for some of the superstar rock bands that were going to be coming out of Ireland from the seventies on. Another huge success for Irish rock music was the band Thin Lizzy and they became renowned worldwide. Thin Lizzy are a timeless Irish rock band and many of their songs from the seventies and early eighties are still heard on the radio today, especially the very well known songs- “The Boys are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak”. One of the biggest and most influential rock groups to ever come out of Ireland is the superstar rock band U2, who have received numerous awards and been at the forefront of modern rock music for two decades now. There are many bands out there now that fuses traditional Celtic music with popular styles such as rock and punk rock. Some notable bands that play these styles are the Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphy’s (from Boston) and Celtic rock bands Seven Nations and Black 47. Another great band that plays a fusion of traditional Irish music mixed with rock and punk is a band called Flogging Molly, who are based out of California but their singer is from Ireland.
HARD ROCK MUSIC
There are a lot of fans of hard rock music. Most of these fans like their music loud. That is the best way to listen to hard rock music. However, that is also the best way to loose your hearing. Most people don't realize that loud music is just as bad for your hearing as working in a factory or shooting guns without proper ear protection. This is why it is important to be careful when listening to hard rock music.
When listening to hard rock music make sure that you do not have the volume all the way up. If you notice that you always have to turn up the volume just to hear the music than you may be loosing your hearing. Your hearing can also be affected by the equipment used to play your hard rock music. For instance, ear plugs and headphones are much more likely to hurt your hearing than speakers are. So, be careful when listening to your ipod or walkman.
One of the most harmful ways to listen to hard rock music is at a concert. Since, there is nothing like seeing your favorite rock band live on stage, you can do some things to lessen the effect. You can wear ear plugs to the concert. Even with earplugs you will still be able to hear the concert. You can also sit further away from the stage and try not to get too close to any speakers.
Hard rock music is a great form of expression. However, a little caution will keep you from regretting your passion for loud music. Keeping the volume at a moderate level and protecting your ears will help you enjoy hard rock music well into your golden years. A fan of hard rock music can now be a fan for life.
CLASSIC ROCK MUSIC
Classic rock music will always be around. It is music that has withstood the tests of time. Although we will always love the way these songs were sung by their original artists, it is also fun to hear them revamped by our favorite modern artists. Below is a list of some of the popular cover songs made possible by classic rock music.
Covering classic rock music means that you can cross this music over to any genre you want. This can be seen with the Stevie Nicks song “Landslide”. This song was taken by the Dixie Chics and transitioned well into their country/pop genre.
Dwight Yoakam was also successful in converting classic rock music into country. In 1999 he did this with the song “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. This song was originally performed by Queen in 1979. Both versions are popular and hold their own followings.
Phil Collins has had many hits both on his own and with the group Genesis. In 1981 he had a hit song with “In the Air Tonight”. Now, the song is a hit again. This time it is being performed by Nonpoint who revamped the song in 2004. With a new hard core feel, the song is being performed for a younger crowd.
If you have ever watched the movie Gothika, you might have recognized some classic rock music that had a new feel to it. This 2003 film contained the Limp Bizkit song “Behind Blue Eyes”. However, it was The Who that first performed this song in 1971.
The first Scream movie released in 1996 also held some transformed classic rock music. This popular horror movie had a remake of the 1976 hit song “Don't Fear the Reaper”. This Blue Oyster Cult song was redone with a slower beat to match the eerie movie.
CHRISTMAS ROCK MUSIC
Christmas music is one of the first signs that Christmas is just around the corner. It can also be an annoying part of the holiday seasons to some people. However, there are a great number of songs made for Christmas that doesn't sound like your typical Christmas carol. Christmas rock music is a great way to show your holiday spirit. Here are some of my favorites.
“Jingle Bell Rock” is probably one of the most famous songs of Christmas rock music. This classic was first released in 1957. The famous version is the one performed by Bobby Helms. The song was written by Joe Beal and Jim Booothe.
“Last Christmas” was a smash hit of the 80's. This Christmas rock music was performed by Wham. If you don't remember Wham, you may remember George Michael who went on to have his own solo career. However, at the time of this release, in 1984, Wham was a very popular duo group.
John Lennon is a name that everyone knows and associates with one of the most famous rock bands in history. It is no wonder that his Christmas rock music would also become famous. Released in 1971, “Happy Christmas” was a Christmas song with a social message attached to it. Together Yoko Ono and John Lennon were protesting the current war. However, this Christmas rock music continues to be relevant today.
Although the next Christmas rock music was recorded in 1958, it wasn't until 1960 that it became a Christmas hit. Written by Johnny Marks and sung by Brenda Lee, “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” has become another Christmas rock music classic.
Christmas rock music will continue to be a way to show your holiday spirit in style. With popular bands joining in the Christmas joy, it isn't hard to find just the right Christmas music for any occasion.
FREE ROCK MUSIC
The internet is a great place for finding free rock music. You can find music to listen to on your computer or to download for play on your psp, ipod, or mobile phone. You can find free rock music in almost any format. You can even find songs that are rare or difficult to find in stores.
When looking for free rock music you do have to be cautious because spyware and viruses are common among these types of sites. It is a good idea to update your virus software before searching for free rock music on the internet. Before opening any file that you have downloaded you should scan the file or folder with your virus software.
One great way to find free rock music is by using a file sharing program such as Limewire or IMesh. These sites allow users to share music with people over the internet. There are free versions of these programs if you don't want to pay for it. However, you may have to wait a little longer for your downloads to finish.
When searching for your free rock music, google and yahoo are great search engines. However, blogs and other social sites can help you find the best sites without having to visit the worst ones. Listening to other people's reviews and comments is a great way to find free rock music.
Another way to find free rock music is to go to the source itself. Record companies and bands will sometimes promote their bands by giving out samples of their music. Sometimes their websites will have their music available to listen to or download. Sometimes these are full versions and sometimes they are just samples. The only way to find out is by visiting their site. At the least you learn some interesting things about the bands you like.
PUNK ROCK MUSIC
One of the bands that is considered one of the innovators of punk rock music was Iggy Pop and the Stooges from Detroit. The Stooges played a unique form of rock music and their live shows consisted of frontman Iggy Pop contorting his body into strange positions, some self mutilation and other acts of the bizarre. The Stooges were considered rock and roll but their influence is what spawned the punk rock music movement in the seventies. In the opinions of many punk rock music fans the first bands to truly be considered punk rock were The New York Dolls (but many consider them glam), Patti Smith, and The Ramones, coming from New York City, some will try and say it was the Sex Pistols from England, but that is not true because Malcolm Mclaren, the founder of the Sex Pistols was the manager for the New York Dolls before he even formed the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols and other band such as the Clash made the English punk movement widely popular though but in many minds the first true punk rock album was The Ramones self titled album in 1976.
Punk rock music was a music that was anti everything and many of the English punk bands considered themselves anarchists and tried to ensure they were social outcasts. Punk music was very simplistic, usually consisting of a couple chords, fast drum beats, and nihilistic lyrics. Many punk rock music bands and their fans wore raggedy clothes covered with punk rock patches and held together by safety pins. Another signature of the punk rock movement, especially in the British punk movement in the late seventies was the new and unique hair styles and hair colors. Hairstyles such as the Mohawk and the liberty spikes became extremely popular among punk rockers, and they were usually died colors like green, red, and blue. Punk flourished through the late seventies and into the eighties. Many bands started taking punk and branching out from it and many different forms of punk rock are in existence today, and a majority of today’s top music acts are variations of punk rock.
POPULAR ROCK MUSIC
Musical tastes change yearly and this can be seen just watching any music awards shows or any of the music television channels. Popular rock music in the fifties is nothing at all like the popular rock music bands of each of the forthcoming generations. Rock and roll music has constantly evolved as new artists tried to create their own unique sound and style, and many of the bands that did their own thing influenced even more musicians to experiment. This is what has contributed to the extreme popularity of all forms of rock and roll and all of the subgenres it has spawned, such as heavy metal, punk rock, alternative rock, grunge rock and the list goes on and on. Because of talented individuals that were not afraid to experiment we have so many great popular rock music styles to choose from in the twenty first century.
There are some bands that were so extremely influential on popular rock music that they have lasted and enjoyed great success for years, much of this is because the specific band is always doing something new to keep things exciting. Some of the greatest popular rock music bands of the seventies and eighties are more popular then ever still to this day, bands like Rush, The Rolling Stones, and Aerosmith have been together for decades and are still extremely popular and touring, even though some of them are into their fifties. One thing that is for sure though is that rock music will never die, and this has been proven. So many styles of music have come and gone, and while some still exist, their popularity does not. Rock music has always had bands in the charts since it first began in the fifties, and this has been a constant worldwide. Rock and roll will live on forever, and some of the original rockers will also never be forgotten.
SOUTHERN ROCK MUSIC
As you can tell by the name alone, southern rock music started out in the deep south of the United States and many of the pioneers of rock and roll in general hailed from the South, such as Elvis, even though he is not what would be considered southern rock by modern standards. This form of southern rock music was a fusion of rock and roll, blues, and country music and its origins began in the late fifties and early sixties. During the time when southern rock was first starting out the British bands were dominating the charts in America, and the American bands that did the make the charts during the British Invasion were mainly psychedelic rock bands. Because of all of this southern rock music was overshadowed throughout the early and mid sixties. Finally in the late sixties southern rock was on the comeback, and a big help in this revival was a band playing southern rock from California called Creedence Clearwater Revival.
When the sixties were ending southern rock music was starting to become very popular and many bands from the south starting gaining notoriety. Southern rock music bands like Georgia’s Allman Brothers Band, South Carolina’s Marshall Tucker Band, and North Carolina’s Charlie Daniels Band were becoming household names and climbing the charts. The Charlie Daniels Band released a hit song that became an anthem for southern rock titled “The South’s Gonna Do It”. Also in the early seventies some harder edged southern rock bands were on the rise and selling millions of records. One of the most infamous southern rock bands came from Jacksonville, Florida and were known as Lynrd Skynrd, they were actually reference in the Charlie Daniels anthem previously mentioned. Lynrd Skynrd, even though some considered them a redneck rebel band pumped out hit after hit on the charts and some of their songs are no doubt southern rock anthems to fans of the genre to this day. One of the most played songs in history on the radio is “Freebird” by Lynrd Skynrd, which is considered to be a southern rock anthem, along with another Skynrd song celled “Sweet Home Alabama.
JAPANESE ROCK MUSIC
When you think of Japanese music, rock music might not come to mind. However, Japanese rock music is a part of Japanese culture. When I talk about Japanese rock music I am not talking about English rock music listened to by the Japanese. I am talking about rock music that is performed by Japanese bands and written in the Japanese language.
Japanese rock music goes back almost as far as rock music itself. During the 1960's Japanese bands were building off of the psychedelic rock of the United States and elsewhere. The Japanese experimented with Space rock and other forms of rock music.
In the 1970's Japanese rock music started to change. The style started to become more of a folk style with singer/songwriters developing their own styles. This included the likes of Kazuki Tomokawa. Also, bands like Cosmos Factory and Kenso was also finding their own sounds. These sounds tended to be a bit more progressive than folk.
In the 1980's Japanese rock music began to update their looks as well as their sounds with a term called Visual Kei. This term refers to the outlandish styles and makeup used to create an overall affect with the Japanese rock music. X Lapan is one of the bands known to use visual kei. Japanese alternative rock also began to show up during the 80's.
In the 90's alternative Japanese rock music had their hayday just as in the United States. Bands like Melt Banana, Eastern Youth, Number Girl, and Bloodthirsty Butchers saw a rise in their popularity during this time.
Today Japanese rock music, also called J-rock is diversified including many different styles. Japanese rock music will continue to change in an area where music, style, and culture are blended. The Japanese culture is a very big part of Japanese rock music.
CHRISTIAN ROCK MUSIC
Many musicians use their talents to glorify God. This is also true with Christian rock music. Groups like Jars of Clay, DC Talk, and others have created a genre of music that has a positive message. There are many benefits to playing Christian rock music at your church.
One of the most important benefits of Christian rock music is the way it communicates with the younger generations. It has been difficult for new generations to accept religion in light of our obsession with science. Christian rock music reaches out to this younger generation using a medium that is a vital part of their culture, music.
Christian rock music has other benefits as well. Many people remember the boring hymnals that used to make little kids fall asleep in church. Instead of having a lullaby effect, Christian rock music increases the energy level of your worship. This can help keep everyone involved and keep the spirit moving.
Another benefit of Christian rock music is that Christian rock music is bringing the Christian message to an untapped crowd. Many rock songs are written about drugs, sex, and violence. Unlike country singers and pop singers who can get away with writing about religion, rock music has largely been a religion-free venue. Christian rock music is changing this by creating rock music with a positive message.
Christian rock music can help bring in new crowds. It shows people that you don't have to change your whole life just to be a Christian. Christian rock music does more than just attract new church goers. It helps to keep the ones it already has. Christian rock music gives church goers a new outlet. This helps to make church a refreshing experience that doesn't get old.
The benefits of Christian rock music will only lead the way for Christians to reach out to the world in new ways. In the future Christians will follow new trends and continue to incorporate the current culture into the Christian church.
GREEK ROCK MUSIC
Rock music was becoming popular worldwide as British and American rock bands became huge successes in the fifties and sixties. Some countries, due to government rules and regulations were a little behind on this rock and roll movement. Rock and roll made its way into Greece in the late sixties when they were able to start buying imported rock albums. Once rock and roll entered Greek society many musicians throughout Greece started forming their own Greek rock music bands. In the mid seventies though shortly after Greek rock music was gaining popularity throughout the country, the military dictatorship of Greece crumbled and the country was a mess. People were pushed into listening to strictly traditional Greek music and this caused problems in the popularity of the Greek rock music scene that had just begun gaining ground. This only lasted a few years and soon many Greek rock bands started re appearing and many new rock bands were formed which helped this resurgence of rock and roll in the late seventies.
Greek rock music has been going strong since the resurgence of the late seventies and there are many rock and roll bands throughout Greece now. There are also many bands throughout Greece that were greatly influenced by this classic Greek rock music but have branched out and done their own thing. There were numerous new wave and punk band in Greece throughout the eighties and nineties and to this day there still are. Heavy metal has also become quite popular in Greece, as it is throughout the majority of Europe. There were never many international superstar rock bands that were actually from Greece, many of their bands remained within Greece and other parts of Europe, but never really became popular in America. There are many popular rock bands out there though with members of Greek descent.
DETROIT ROCK MUSIC
Over the years rock music has seen many changes and eras, music in general has evolved so much and so many new styles have been created. During the sixties and early seventies Motown was a very important and influential music out of Detroit. When the seventies began though things started to change and many Detroit rock music bands began to gain popularity and many of the bands from this Detroit rock music era went on to become some of the most important figures in rock and roll music history. One of the most famous Detroit rockers who has become a household name is Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper was one of the original Detroit rock music band and he has paved the way for many artists we see today. His influence is seen throughout rock and roll and heavy metal and he also single-handedly started what is now referred to as shock rock, which in recent times includes popular bands like Marilyn Manson and Gwar. Another famous Detroit band, called The Amboy Dukes featured a guitarist that would also go down in rock history and one of the innovators of heavy metal, this guitarist was Ted Nugent. Ted Nugent went on to have many big hits much like Alice Cooper, and both were pioneers of rock and roll.
There were many more famous Detroit rock music bands, and another one of them that is a household name is Bob Seger, who founded the classic rock band Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. At the time the band he played with was called The Bob Seger System. Bob Seger is one of the Detroit rock musicians who is in the rock and roll hall of fame. Another one of the very important people that came from the Detroit rock music scene was a musician called Iggy Pop who played in a rock band called The Stooges at the time before they changed the bands name to Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Iggy Pop and the Stooges was the first band to pretty much start the punk rock movement in the mid sixties, and their influence is seen to this day as all the aforementioned artists. Since then Detroit has seen many forms of music and many popular rappers come from there nowadays but they still turn out many rock and metal bands as well. Some of the more recent famous rockers from Detroit include Kid Rock, Taproot, and The White Stripes.
RUSSIAN ROCK MUSIC
Rock music has been a very popular form of music worldwide for many decades now, and every country in the civilized world has their unique styles and bands. Russian rock music first started out in the late sixties and were heavily influenced by American and European rock acts. In Russia at the time though there were many government restrictions on the people and they and no real venues for Russian rock bands to perform, so many would just play in their homes. Many of these Russian rock music bands first discovered rock and roll through albums that were smuggled into the country. Some of the artists that influenced Russian rock music are bands such as the Beatles, Elton John, and Deep Purple. During the late sixties is when many Russian rock bands started to gain popularity among the growing rock and roll underground.
It was during the eighties when Russian rock music gained even more popularity and several rock clubs opened up in some of the bigger cities, especially Moscow. Finally many of the Russian rock music bands had places to play, and this is what helped grow the popularity or rock and roll even more. Many bands starting playing new styles and this continued as Western music was so popular. Eventually the Russian bands started playing their own styles and stooped trying to sound like Western bands. Many of these Russian rock bands wrote about the depressed state of Russia and the social and economic hardships that they had to deal with on a daily basis. Now Russia has thousands of different bands among all styles of music, and some of them are becoming known around the world due to internet technologies. Russia now has thousands of music clubs that cater to everything and music is more popular than ever in Russia.
MODERN MUSIC
The first type of rock music, rock and roll, originated in the United States in the 1950s, and was largely derived from music of the American South. In the United States, the affluence that followed the end of World War II in 1945 and the emergence of a youth culture—based in part upon the rejection of older styles of popular culture—helped rock and roll to displace the New York City-based Tin Pan Alley songwriting tradition that had dominated the mainstream of American popular taste since the late 19th century. Rock and roll was a combination of the R&B style known as jump blues, the gospel-influenced vocal-group style known as doo wop, the piano-blues style known as boogie-woogie (or barrelhouse), and the country-music style known as honky tonk.
During the 1950s the term rock and roll was actually a synonym for black R&B music. Rock and roll was first released by small, independent record companies and promoted by radio disc jockeys (DJs) like Alan Freed, who used the term rock 'n' roll to help attract white audiences unfamiliar with black R&B. Indeed, the appeal of rock and roll to white middle-class teenagers was immediate and caught the major record companies by surprise. As these companies moved to capitalize on the popularity of the style, the market was fueled by cover versions (performances of previously recorded songs) of R&B songs that were edited for suggestive lyrics and expressions and performed in the singing style known as crooning, by white vocalists such as Pat Boone. The most successful rock-and-roll artists wrote and performed songs about love, sexuality, identity crises, personal freedom, and other issues that were of particular interest to teenagers.
Popular rock-and-roll artists and groups emerged from diverse backgrounds. The group Bill Haley and the Comets, which had the first big rock-and-roll hit with the song “Rock Around the Clock” (1955), was a country-music band from Pennsylvania that adopted aspects of the R&B jump-blues style of saxophonist and singer Louis Jordan. The unique style of Chuck Berry came from his experience playing a mixture of R&B and country music in the Midwest. The rock-and-roll piano style of Fats Domino grew out of the distinctive sound of New Orleans R&B, which also influenced singer and songwriter Little Richard. Rockabilly, a blend of rock-and-roll and country-and-western music, was pioneered by Memphis producer Sam Phillips, who first recorded artists Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins on his Sun Records label. The earthy style of guitarist Bo Diddley derived from the blues of the Mississippi Delta region. The standard four-piece instrumentation of rock bands (drum set and lead, rhythm, and bass guitars) was developed by Texas musician Buddy Holly, who produced his own studio recordings. From the urban North came the vocal style of doo wop, which influenced such vocal groups as the Chords, the Penguins, and the Platters.
The golden age of rock and roll, which lasted only five years, from 1955 to 1959, is exemplified by the recordings of Berry, Presley, Little Richard, and Holly. By the early 1960s, the popular music industry was assembling professional songwriters, hired studio musicians, and teenage crooners to mass-produce songs that imitated late-1950s rock and roll. In the early 1960s professional songwriters in Manhattan, New York, such as Carole King and Neil Sedaka, produced numerous hit songs, many of which were recorded by female ensembles known as girl groups, such as the Ronettes and the Shirelles. Also during this period, the role of the record producer was expanded by Phil Spector, a producer who created hits by using elaborate studio techniques in a dense orchestral approach known as the wall of sound.
Beginning about 1962, producer Berry Gordy expanded the crossover market (music by black performers purchased by white youth) with a number of hits for his Motown record company, based in Detroit, Michigan. Popular Motown groups included the Supremes, the Temptations, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles . Other distinctive regional styles also developed during this period, such as the surf sound of the southern California band the Beach Boys and the urban folk music of the Greenwich Village movement—based in that neighborhood in New York City—which included singer and lyricist Bob Dylan.
In 1964 the Beatles traveled to New York City to appear on a television broadcast (The Ed Sullivan Show, 1948 to 1971) and launched the so-called British Invasion. Influenced by American recordings, British pop bands of the period invigorated the popular music mainstream and confirmed the international stature of rock music. Soon, several British groups had developed individual distinctive styles: The Beatles combined the guitar-based rock and roll of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly with the artistry of the Tin Pan Alley style; the Animals blended blues and R&B influences; and the Rolling Stones joined aspects of Chicago blues to their intense, forceful music.
As with early rock and roll, the major American record companies did not take the British bands seriously at first—the Beatles' first hit singles in the United States were released through small, independent record companies. Soon, however, the success of the British bands became too difficult to ignore, and some American musicians reacted by developing their own styles. In 1965 Bob Dylan performed live and in-studio with a band that played electric instruments, alienating many folk-music purists in the process. The folk-rock style was further pioneered the same year by the American band the Byrds, who had a number-one hit on the Billboard magazine music charts with a version of Dylan's song “Mr. Tambourine Man.” The short-lived group Buffalo Springfield, formed in 1966, blended aspects of rock and country-and-western music to create country rock.
During the late 1960s, rock music diversified further into new styles while consolidating its position in the mainstream of American popular music. The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the first rock concept album, established new standards for studio recording and helped to establish the notion of the rock musician as a creative artist. Once again, American musicians responded to the British musical stimulus by experimenting with new forms, technologies, and stylistic influences.
San Francisco rock, or psychedelic rock, emerged about 1966 and was associated with the use of hallucinogenic drugs, such as Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, or LSD; psychedelic art and light shows; and an emphasis on spontaneity and communitarian values, epitomized in free-form events called be-ins. Musicians such as Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead experimented with long, improvised stretches of music called jams. Despite the antiestablishment orientation of the youth culture in San Francisco, such musicians and groups as Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Santana (led by Carlos Santana) signed lucrative contracts with major recording companies.
Another important center of rock music in the 1960s was Los Angeles, where film student Jim Morrison formed the group the Doors and guitarist and composer Frank Zappa developed a unique blend of risqué humor and complex jazz-influenced compositional forms with his group the Mothers of Invention. In the late 1960s hard rock emerged, focusing on thick layers of sound, loud volume levels, and virtuoso guitar solos. In London, American Jimi Hendrix developed a highly influential electric-guitar style. His fiery technique gained exposure at the first large-scale rock festivals in the United States, Monterey Pop (1967) and Woodstock (1969). In 1966 the first so-called power trio was formed in London—the band Cream, which showcased the virtuosity of guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. In the late 1960s additional styles emerged in the United States, including southern rock, pioneered by the Allman Brothers Band; jazz rock, proponents of which included the band Blood, Sweat & Tears; and Latin rock (a blend of Latin American music, jazz and rock influences, and R&B styles), exemplified by the music of Santana.
In the early 1970s the popular mainstream was dominated by superstar rock groups, such as the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Chicago, and by individual superstars, such as Stevie Wonder and Elton John. Each of these groups and individual artists produced multiple albums, each of which sold millions of copies, pushing the industry to operate at a new scale.
Also highly popular was the singer-songwriter genre, an outgrowth of urban folk music led by artists Carole King, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne. At the other end of the stylistic spectrum, the heavy-metal style was pioneered by bands Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, all of which featured aggressive guitar-laden songs. Art rock, represented by bands such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, combined influences from classical music and displays of technical skill with spectacular stage shows. Glitter rock, or glam rock, cultivated a decadent image complete with such musicians as David Bowie and Marc Bolan wearing heavy makeup and sequined costumes and presenting themselves as sexually androgynous.
The most popular dance music of the 1970s was disco. Initially associated with the gay subculture of New York City, disco drew upon black popular music and simplified rhythms by adding steady bass-drum beats. Although much despised by aficionados of heavy metal, disco had a substantial impact on rock music, especially after the release of the motion picture Saturday Night Fever (1977) and its hugely successful disco soundtrack featuring the group the Bee Gees.
The 1970s also saw the development of funk, a variant of soul music that was influenced by rock. Influential funk musicians included singer Sly Stone with his San Francisco band Sly and the Family Stone, and vocalist George Clinton, whose groups Parliament and Funkadelic blended social satire and science-fiction imagery with African-derived rhythms, jazz-influenced horn music, long improvised jams, and vocal group harmonies.
About 1976 punk rock originated in New York City and London as a reaction against the commercialism of mainstream rock and the pretentiousness of art rock. Punk-rock music was raw, abrasive, and fast. London punk groups included the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Police, while New York punk and new wave (a style similar to punk) music included the bands the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads, and vocalist Patti Smith.
Also in the mid-1970s, reggae music—developed by musicians in the shantytowns of Kingston, Jamaica—began to attract attention among youth in Great Britain and the United States. The style, associated with political protest and the Rastafarian religion, combined elements of Jamaican folk music with American R&B influences. Reggae's popularity among American college students was stimulated by the 1973 film The Harder They Come, which starred reggae singer Jimmy Cliff in the role of an underclass gangster. The superstar of the style was Bob Marley, who by the time of his death in 1981 had become one of the most popular musicians in the world.
Despite these diverse stylistic developments, the music business in the United States had actually become more centralized in the 1970s. Spontaneous mass gatherings, epitomized by Woodstock, had been replaced by carefully managed stadium concerts. The individualistic local radio programming of the late 1960s was substituted with national radio formatting, in which music tailored to sell products to certain audiences was distributed nationally on tape to be broadcast from local stations. Economic factors encouraged major record companies to pursue almost exclusively artists with the potential to sell millions of copies of albums. While potential profits from hit albums had risen greatly, the financial risks involved in producing such music had also increased considerably. From 1978 to 1982 the American rock-music industry experienced financial difficulties as sales of recorded music dropped by almost $1 billion and receipts from live concerts experienced a similar decline.
Technological advances led to a revival of the music industry during the 1980s. The market for popular music expanded with new media formats, including music video, introduced by the Music Television (MTV) network in 1981, and the digitally recorded compact disc (CD), introduced in 1983. In 1982 entertainer Michael Jackson released Thriller, which became the biggest-selling album in history, and established a trend in which record companies relied upon a few massive hits to generate profits. Jackson's success contributed greatly to proving the promotional value of music videos. It thereafter became very difficult for record companies to achieve hit records without having the music receive intensive airplay on music-video networks.
Other mainstream rock hits of the 1980s came from a group of charismatic artists, each of whom attracted mass-audience followings extending across traditional social boundaries. Singer Bruce Springsteen appealed to many as a working-class hero. Other superstars followed Jackson's lead by integrating dance and video presentations into their work, including Prince, whose 1984 single “When Doves Cry” was the first song in more than 20 years to top both the pop and R&B charts in Billboard magazine; and Madonna, who came to symbolize female sexual liberation through her controversial videos and lyrics. Also during the 1980s the audience for heavy metal expanded from its original white-male, working-class core to include more middle-class fans, both male and female. By the end of the decade, heavy-metal bands, such as Van Halen, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica, accounted for as much as 40 percent of all sound recordings sold in the United States.
Another genre of rock music, labeled alternative rock, rejected the heavy marketing and video-driven culture of the 1980s. In general, alternative rock bands recorded for independent labels, played in small clubs, and maintained a defiant stance toward the conformity and commercialism of the music industry. They were committed to songwriting that explored taboo issues (drug use, depression, incest, suicide) and were interested in social issues such as environmentalism, abortion rights, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) activism. During the 1980s groups such as R.E.M., the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and the Pixies attracted a cult following, primarily through airplay on college radio stations and word of mouth.
Anticipated by reggae in the 1970s, worldbeat music (also called ethnopop) began to emerge during the early 1980s, with the success of the album Juju Music (1982) by Nigerian musician King Sunny Ade. Ade's music, which blended traditional African drums with electric guitars and synthesizers, helped to stimulate an interest in non-Western music in the United States and the United Kingdom, and opened the way for artists such as Youssou N'Dour, from Senegal; Papa Wemba, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire); Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa; Ofra Haza, from Israel; Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, from Pakistan; and the Gipsy Kings, from France. Rock superstars, such as Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, and Paul Simon—whose 1985 hit album Graceland featured musicians from Africa and Latin America—played an important role in exposing worldbeat musicians to audiences in the United States and Europe, and reaffirmed the worldwide appeal of rock music.
Perhaps the most significant rock-music development of the 1980s was the rise of rap, a genre in which vocalists perform rhythmic speech, usually accompanied by music snippets, or samples, from prerecorded material or from music created by synthesizers. Rap originated in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx community of New York City and was initially associated with a cultural movement called hip-hop, which included acrobatic dancing (known as break dancing) and graffiti art. DJs such as Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa experimented with innovative turntable techniques, including switching between multiple discs; back-spinning, or rotating the disc by hand in order to repeat particular phrases; and scratching, moving the phonograph needle across vinyl record grooves to create rhythmic sound effects.
The first rap records were made in 1979 by small, independent record companies. Although artists such as the Sugarhill Gang had national hits during the early 1980s, rap music did not enter the popular music mainstream until 1986, when rappers Run-DMC and the hard-rock band Aerosmith collaborated on a version of the song “Walk This Way,” creating a new audience for rap among white, suburban, middle-class rock fans. By the end of the 1980s, MTV had established a program dedicated solely to rap, and artists such as MC Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell) and the Beastie Boys had achieved multi-platinum record sales to broad interracial audiences.
During the 1990s, trends that had been established during the 1980s continued, including growth in the popularity of genres such as rap, heavy metal, and worldbeat and the introduction of new technologies for the digital generation, transmission, and reproduction of sound. The 1990s also saw the further splintering of rock music into a variety of specialized subgenres.
The 1990s were a significant decade for bringing rap music into the commercial mainstream. MC Hammer (later known simply as Hammer) went to the top of the charts in 1990 with Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em, which sold 13 million copies in its first year and became the bestselling rap album of all time. A broader phenomenon was the harder-edged style known as gangsta rap, which emerged on the West Coast beginning in the late 1980s. The multimillion-selling recordings of gangsta rap artists such as the group N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude), Dr. Dre (Andre Young), Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus), Tupac (2Pac) Shakur, and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) combined grim stories of urban street life with gleeful celebration of the “gangsta” lifestyle. Gangsta rap became incredibly successful in the 1990s by attracting a predominantly white middle-class audience eager to experience gritty street culture from a safe distance.
Electronic dance music, or techno, also became more widely popular during the 1990s. The genre first emerged in the 1970s. Some forms of techno were influenced by punk rock; others by experimental art music, jazz, and world music; and still others by black popular music, including funk and rap. Although techno produced few commercial hits during the decade, the recordings of musical groups such as the Prodigy, Orbital, and Moby did make inroads into the charts during the late 1990s, and techno recordings were increasingly licensed as the soundtracks for technology-oriented television commercials and films.
The popularity of alternative rock exploded during the 1990s, featuring bands as diverse as R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and the Dave Matthews Band. The genre spawned a number of substyles, such as the grunge rock of Seattle-based groups Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam.
More than any other group, Nirvana was responsible for the commercial breakthrough of alternative rock in the early 1990s. Between 1991 and 1994 Nirvana—a group made up of singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl—released two multiplatinum albums (Nevermind and In Utero) and moved alternative rock’s blend of hardcore punk and heavy metal out of specialty record stores and into the commercial mainstream. Cobain’s stunning 1994 suicide was widely viewed as at least partly attributable to the pressures faced by alternative rock musicians who achieve commercial success and then face accusations of “selling out.”
One of the most striking features of rock music in the first years of the 21st century was its sheer stylistic diversity. The most influential recordings of the year 2000 include retro-rocker Carlos Santana’s Supernatural, which won the Grammy Award for best album; a re-release of the Beatles’s number-one hits of the 1960s; the hard-edged rap-metal fusion of Limp Bizkit; gangsta rap stars Dr. Dre and Eminem (Marshall Mathers); techno musician Moby’s album Play (tracks from which were used on dozens of television commercials); and the teen-oriented pop-rock of Britney Spears and N SYNC.
Technological innovation continues to drive changes in the way rock music is produced, heard, and sold. The development of low-cost digital technology has allowed musicians to make professional-quality recordings in their homes. The emergence of Internet services such as MP3.com and Napster, which allow fans to download their favorite music in the form of compressed files, has raised thorny legal questions about copyright laws while at the same time making the music of unsigned and alternative musicians much more widely available. The development of home compact disc recorders has enabled rock fans to create their own digital compilations, mixing genres, artists, and musical epochs to suit their own taste.
Rock music in the 21st century is increasingly influenced by the global marketplace. Of the five major transnational corporations now responsible for as much as 90 percent of music sales worldwide, only one is officially headquartered in the United States. Along with the expansion of the global audience for North American and European rock music, there is increasing influence by musicians from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world.