Rock On...

by **marko** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:12 pm

Rock is kinda hard to pin down as it's taken influences from so many other music genres. you can go as far back as you want to find the roots of rock, different people start from different places, usually going by their own tastes.

One great site for charting the history of rock was George Starostin's Rock review page, which is unfortunately not online anymore.

In the first half of the 20th century the majority of popular music in the US (home of rock roots whether you like it or not) was devided along ethnic lines , black people listened to and played blues (and varients thereof) and white people listened to country and folk.

All this fused into rock and roll in the middle of the 50's (first a fusion of Blues and Jazz, folk came later) with BB King, Little Richard, and slightly later Elvis, being the pioneers. This became a hugly popular genre with young people, and the word was spread about the world. rock n' roll from the 50's usually has pretty mindless lyrics about driving cars, holding peoples hands, and love.

in the early 60's came the folk movement, influenced by folk heros like Woodie Guthery, and concerned mainly with politics and protest songs. Best example of this is early Bob Dylan, with songs like "The times are a changin" and "Blowin in the wind". From here several things happened at once. First off, Dylan went electric. This went down like farting in a lift with his folk crowd, he got boo'd every time he went on stage for years. However his new songs were revolutionary, rock and roll with word that meant something, with poetic imagery, and not a mention of cars or girls in sight. Look for "Bringing it all back Home" for this, the Dylan album he opened with "Subterranian Homesick Blues", a legendary song that nobody knew what to make of at the time. He still had strong folk influences in his music, this shone through in subseqent albums like "Blonde on Blonde", an album which regularly tops lists of the best albums ever made.

at the same time as this came the Beatles, from Liverpool in England. They started of as a very ordinary band, and continued to produce a few average records with catchy tunes. Then they came out with Rubber Soul, a real gem and a sign of things to come. "Nowhere Man" on this album was the first song The Beatles sung that had nothing to do with love, "Norwegian Wood" has a sitar played terribly by George Harrison, and a few of the songs they added in at the last minute pointed the way to their next album, and another that's hailed as one of the best albums of all times, Revolver. This is heavly influenced by drugs, but it's best to ignore that cos the songs are amazing anyhow. "I'm Only Sleeping" is one of the most hazy, dreamy songs ever, and "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a masterpiece of studio engineering, impossible to recreate now. It features John Lennon reading from the tibetan book of the dead, and weird backwards guitar solos (my sig is taken from this song). "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" is great, if a little overrated. More brilliant lyrics ("Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall", for one), great catchy tunes, and one that many people have listened to for more than 30 years and still get more out of it.

At the same time as all of this came the Rolling Stones. Another English band, they were more blues influenced than either Dylan or The Beatles, and IMO sound slightly more dated now. Still great though, try Beggars Banquet, or Let it Bleed. "Sympathy for the Devil" is a great song, probably my favourite stones song at the moment.

Then in the late 60's/early 70's The Beatles broke up, Dylan went shite for a while, and some of the stones died. Classic Rock came in a big way (although they didn't call it this at the time), lead by Led Zepplin, The Clash, the Who, etc. These guys are BIG into their guitar solos, sometimes lyrics and rythm went out the window. Leading into these guys was Jimi Hendrix, VERY blues influenced, loads of heavy guitar solos, best known for his version of the American national anthem, often known as the Star Mangled Banner.

This was taken to a new level with Progressive Rock, not a genre i know a lot about, but Pink Floyd was one of the inovators in this. Still lots of guitar solos, but a more electronic, with a lot of studio processing.

Next came the Punks, pissed off with guitar solos, complex harmonys, heavy drug use, and songs about things they didn't care about, they reduced music down to the bare essentials, lots of rythmic power chords and screamed vocals, usually extremely catchy in its simplicity. The Ramones were a breakthrough band from the states (New York i think), as they put it themselves they had no cars and no girlfriends so they wrote songs about sniffing glue, stealing cars, etc. Now punk sounds aged, however at the time it blew away a lot of the pretensions in music, and it cleared the way for Metal, and later Grunge. The Ramones are the best, but the Sex Pistols are probably a better introduction to the genre, more catchy i reckon.

(this is where my music collection stops, with the exception of Nirvana and the Pixies)

Metal i cant tell you much about, natural progression from Punk really, but with more effort put in.

Grunge was a movement started in Seatle in the states, everyone knows about Nirvana but there's better Grunge out there.

Now nobody's coming up with anything new, just combining older genres.

my 2c.

by **asli_badmash** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:19 pm

marko wrote:Rock is kinda hard to pin down as it's taken influences from so many other music genres. ....Now nobody's .....just combining older genres.

my 2c.

Thats a whole lottof 2cents. You pretty much put down the history of rock.

It was a good read though.

by **marko** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:23 pm

asli_badmash wrote:
marko wrote:Rock is kinda hard to pin down as it's taken influences from so many other music genres. ....Now nobody's .....just combining older genres.

my 2c.
Thats a whole lottof 2cents. You pretty much put down the history of rock.

It was a good read though.

well i know my sh1t when it comes to 60's music, after and before that i'm a bit clueless.

by **The Jackal** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:54 pm

asli_badmash wrote:
marko wrote:Rock is kinda hard to pin down as it's taken influences from so many other music genres. ....Now nobody's .....just combining older genres.

my 2c.
Thats a whole lottof 2cents. You pretty much put down the history of rock.

It was a good read though.

Yup it was definetly a good read.

by **black wizard** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:27 am

Band: Cynic

Song: The veil of maya

Album: Focus

Genre: Jazz-metal

by **Jaan** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:26 am

Marko! Thanks man! I appreciate that. Good read.

:):):):):)

Jaan

by **Habitual Perfectionist** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 1:21 am

My song of the day :

Band : Dire Straits

Song : Money for nothing

Album : Dire Straits

Genre : Classic Rock

by **azazel** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 3:52 pm

Band : Nile

Song : Sarcophagus

Album : In Their Darkened Shrines

Genre : Brutal Death Metal :twisted:

by **Sharjeel** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:17 pm

Habitual Perfectionist wrote:Band : Dire Straits
Song : Money for nothing
Album : Dire Straits
Genre : Classic Rock

Theyre sooooooooooooooooo good, I'll double that recommendation!

Band : Dire Straits

Song : Sultans of Swing

Album : Alchemy

by **black wizard** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:30 am

Band: Slayer

Song: Angel of death

Album: Reign in blood

Genre: Thrash metal :twisted:

by **Habitual Perfectionist** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:10 am

Song of the day :

Band : Metallica

Song : Unforgiven

Album : Metallica

Genre : Metal

by **Alexis** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:01 am

Band: Metallica

Song: All the songs, esp Hero Of the Day.

Album: S&M

Genre: Metal.

by **black wizard** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:01 am

Band: Emperor

Song: I Am The Black Wizards :twisted:

Album: In The Nightside Eclipse

Genre: Black Metal

by **azazel** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:14 pm

Band - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Song - Give It Away

Album - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Genre - Alt. Rock :twisted:

by **Habitual Perfectionist** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:48 pm

Song of the day :

Band : Jethro Tull

Song : Locomotive Breath

Album : Aqualung

Genre : Classic Rock

by **black wizard** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:59 am

Song: Aggression

Band: Sadus

Album: Elements Of Anger

Genre: thrash metal

by **malakpetmasala** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:12 am

Song: Kashmir tu hai

Band: Pentagram

Genre: Patriotic Indian Hard rock(if u consider this to be a new genre)

by **Sharjeel** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:23 pm

Band: Led Zepellin! *Woot Woot!!!*

Album: Led Zep IV

Song: Stairway to heaven (:D), Moby _

Genre: Heavy Metal

by **black wizard** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:39 pm

Sharjeel wrote:Band: Led Zepellin! *Woot Woot!!!*
Album: Led Zep IV
Song: Stairway to heaven (:D), Moby _
Genre: Heavy Metal

eh? Led Zep isnt heavy metal! :evil:

Song: Under A Glass Moon

Band: Dream Theater

Album: Images & Words

Genre: Progressive Metal

by **Sharjeel** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:02 pm

I stand corrected. Led Zep is Classic Rock. Thanks Wizzy!

by **The Jackal** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 8:57 pm

Artist:Metallica

Song:Enter Sandman(The long version),Sanatarium

Album:S&M

Genre:Hard Rock/metal

by **Alexis** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 9:40 pm

azazel wrote:Band - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Song - Give It Away

Album - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Genre - Alt. Rock

I love that song and its video! Anthony was hot back then.

by **azazel** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:35 am

Alexis wrote:I love that song and its video! Anthony was hot back then.

great song, my intro to the band.. doesnt matter if he's hot or not, as long as he keeps singing with tht energy :wink:

Song - Lost Control

Band - Anathema

Album - Alternative 4

Genre - Doom Metal

by **Sharjeel** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:13 pm

Band: Jimi Hendrix

Song: Machine Gun, Purple Haze

Album: ...

Genre: Electric Guitar God :twisted:

by **black wizard** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:24 pm

Sharjeel wrote:Genre: Electric Guitar God

how can the genre be electric guitar god?

Band: Marduk

Song: Baptism By Fire :twisted:

Album: Panzer Division Marduk

Genre: Black Metal

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