Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a form of music characterised by aggressive, driving rhythms and highly amplified distorted guitars, generally with grandiose lyrics and virtuosic instrumentation.

History

The discussion of the history of heavy metal, from its 1960s precursors to the proliferation of heavy metal sub-genres of the late 1980s, can be summarised in the following key artists from three main waves of bands that to a large extent came out of Britain:

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• influential rock bands like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who and The Rolling Stones in the 1960s;
• "early" heavy metal exemplified by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in the early and mid 1970s; and
• the New Wave of British Heavy Metal pioneered most successfully by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Origins

American blues music was highly popular and influential among the early British rockers; bands like the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds had recorded covers of many classic blues songs, sometimes speeding up the tempo and using electric guitar where the original used acoustic. (Similar adaptations of blues and other race music had formed the basis of the earliest rock and roll, notably that of Elvis Presley).

Related Topics:
American - Blues music - British - The Rolling Stones - The Yardbirds - Tempo - Electric guitar - Acoustic - Race music - Elvis Presley

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Such powered-up blues music was encouraged by the intellectual and artistic experimentation that arose when musicians started to exploit the opportunities of the electrically amplified guitar to produce a louder, more discordant sound. Where blues-rock drumming styles had been largely simple shuffle beats on small drum kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard with the increasingly loud guitar sounds; similarly vocalists modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylised and dramatic in the process. Simultaneous advances in amplification and recording technology made it possible to successfully capture the power of this heavier approach on record.

Related Topics:
Intellectual - Discordant - Shuffle beat

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The earliest music commonly identified as heavy metal came out of the Birmingham area of the United Kingdom in the late 1960s when bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath applied an overtly non-traditional approach to blues standards and created new music often based on blues scales and arrangements. These bands were highly influenced by American psychedelic rock musicians including Jimi Hendrix, who had pioneered amplified and processed blues-rock guitar and acted as a bridge between black American music and white European rockers.

Related Topics:
Birmingham - United Kingdom - 1960s - Led Zeppelin - Black Sabbath - American - Psychedelic rock - Jimi Hendrix

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Other oft-cited influences include Vanilla Fudge, who had slowed down and psychedelicised pop tunes, as well as earlier British rockers such as The Who and The Kinks, who had paved the way for heavy metal styles by introducing power chords and more aggressive percussion to the rock genre. Another key influence was Cream, who exemplified the power trio format that would become a staple of heavy metal. Some also cite The Beatles as a key influence; they had increasingly used distortion and heavier arrangements as early as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Related Topics:
Vanilla Fudge - The Who - The Kinks - Power chord - Cream - Power trio - The Beatles - 1967 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

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Perhaps the earliest song that is clearly identifiable as prototype heavy metal is "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks (1965). By late 1968 heavy blues sounds were becoming common: many fans and scholars point to Blue Cheer's 1968 cover of Eddie Cochran's hit "Summertime Blues" as the first true heavy-metal song; Beatles scholars cite in particular the song "Helter Skelter" from The White Album (1968), which set new standards for distortion and aggressive sound on a pop album. Dave Edmunds' band Love Sculpture released an aggressive heavy guitar version of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance in November 1968. The Jeff Beck Group's album Truth (late 1968) was an important and influential rock album released just before Led Zeppelin's first album, leading some (especially British blues fans) to argue that Truth was the first heavy metal album. The Yardbirds' 1968 single "Think About It" should also be mentioned, as that employed a similar sound to that which Jimmy Page would employ with Led Zeppelin. Also, progressive rock band King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" from their debut album, In The Court Of The Crimson King, featured most of the thematic, compositional and musical characteristics of heavy metal: a very heavily distorted guitar tone and discordant soloing by Robert Fripp, lyrics that focused on what is wrong about what the 21st century human would be, a dark mood and even Greg Lake's vocals were passed through a distortion box. However, it was the release of Led Zeppelin in 1969 that brought worldwide notice of the formation of a new genre.

Related Topics:
The Kinks - 1965 - Blue Cheer - Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues - Helter Skelter - The White Album - 1968 - Dave Edmunds - Love Sculpture - Khachaturian - Sabre Dance - November - Jeff Beck - Led Zeppelin - Album - Jimmy Page - Progressive rock - King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King - Robert Fripp - Greg Lake

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The early heavy metal bands, like Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, UFO and Black Sabbath are often called hard rock bands rather than heavy metal, especially those bands whose sound was more similar to traditional rock music. In general, the terms heavy metal and hard rock are often used interchangeably, in particular when discussing the 1970s. Indeed, many such bands are not categorised as "heavy metal bands" per se, but rather as having contributed individual songs or works that contributed to the genre; few would consider Jethro Tull a heavy metal band in any real sense, for example, but few would dispute that their song Aqualung was a quintessential early Heavy Metal song.

Related Topics:
Led Zeppelin - Uriah Heep - UFO - Black Sabbath - Hard rock - 1970s - Jethro Tull - Aqualung

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Many people, including Heavy Metal musicians of prominent groups, believe that the foundations of the definite style and sound of pure heavy metal were laid down by Judas Priest (another Birmingham band) with three of their early albums: "Sad Wings Of Destiny" (1976), "Sin After Sin" (1977) and "Stained Class" (1978).

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(Although Rainbow is sometimes cited as pioneering the pure heavy metal genre, one could also make this claim about the later albums of Deep Purple such as Burn and Stormbringer. Both bands are generally considered to be hard rock bands).

Related Topics:
Rainbow - Deep Purple - Burn - Stormbringer

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The term "heavy metal"

The origin of the term heavy metal is uncertain. An early use of the term was by counter-culture writer William S. Burroughs. In his 1962 novel The Soft Machine, he introduces the character "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid". His next novel in 1964 Nova Express, develops this theme further, heavy metal being a metaphor for addictive drugs.

Related Topics:
William S. Burroughs - 1962 - 1964

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"With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms - Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes - And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music"

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:Burroughs, William S, (1964). Nova Express. New York: Grove Press. p. 112

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Given the publication dates of these works it is unlikely that Burroughs had any intent to relate the term to rock music; however Burroughs' writing may have influenced later usage of the term.

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The first use of the term "heavy metal" in a song lyric is the words "heavy metal thunder" in the 1968Steppenwolf song "Born to be Wild" (Walser 1993, p. 8):

Related Topics:
1968 - Steppenwolf

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"I like smoke and lightning

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Heavy metal thunder

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Racin' with the wind

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And the feelin' that I'm under"

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The word "heavy" (meaning serious or profound) had entered beatnik/counterculture slang some time earlier, and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common; indeed, Iron Butterfly first started playing Los Angeles in 1967, their name explained on an album cover, "Iron- symbolic of something heavy as in sound, Butterfly- light, appealing and versatile...an object that can be used freely in the imagination" Iron Butterfly's 1968 debut album was entitled Heavy. The fact that Led Zeppelin (whose moniker came partly in reference to Keith Moon's jest that they would "go down like a lead balloon") incorporated a heavy metal into its name may have sealed the usage of the term.

Related Topics:
Beatnik - Counterculture - Slang - Iron Butterfly - Los Angeles - Heavy - Led Zeppelin - Keith Moon

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In the late 1960s, Birmingham, England was still a centre of industry and (given the many rock bands that evolved in and around the city, such as Led Zeppelin, The Move, and Black Sabbath) some people suggest that the term Heavy Metal may have some relation to such activity. Biographies of The Move have claimed that the sound came from their 'heavy' guitar riffs that were popular amongst the 'metal midlands'.

Related Topics:
Birmingham, England - The Move - Black Sabbath

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Sandy Pearlman, original producer, manager and songwriter for Blue Öyster Cult, claims to have been the first person to apply the term "heavy metal" to rock music in 1970.

Related Topics:
Sandy Pearlman - Blue Öyster Cult - 1970

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A widespread but disputed hypothesis about the origin of the genre was brought forth by "Chas" Chandler, who was a manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969, in an interview on the PBS TV programme "Rock and Roll" in 1995. He states that "...it was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance", and claims the author described the Jimi Hendrix Experience "...like listening to heavy metal falling from the sky". The precise source of this claim, however, has not been found and its accuracy is disputed.

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The first well-documented usage of the term "heavy metal" referring to a style of music appears to be the May 1971 issue of Creem in a review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come. In this review we are told that "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book".

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Regardless of its origin, heavy metal may have been used as a jibe initially but was quickly adopted by its adherents. Other, already-established bands, such as Deep Purple, who had origins in pop or progressive rock, immediately took on the heavy metal mantle, adding distortion and additional amplification in a more aggressive approach.

Related Topics:
Deep Purple - Progressive rock

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1970s

The 1970s history of heavy metal music is highly debated among music historians. Some would call the period an era of "selling-out," in which bands like Blue Öyster Cult achieved moderate mainstream success and the Los Angeles hair metal scene began finding pop audiences, especially in the 1980s. Others ignore or downplay the importance of these bands, instead focusing on the arrival of classical influences, which can be heard in the work of Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads and such like. And still others highlight the late-70s cross-fertilization of heavy metal with fast-paced, youthful punk rock (e.g. Sex Pistols), culminating in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal around the year 1980, led by bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. In the 1980s and onwards, heavy metal further spawned a host of new "metal" genres such as death metal.

Related Topics:
Selling-out - Blue Öyster Cult - Los Angeles - Hair metal - 1980s - Eddie Van Halen - Randy Rhoads - Punk rock - Sex Pistols - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Judas Priest - Iron Maiden - Death metal

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The explosion of guitar virtuosity (pioneered by Jimi Hendrix a musical generation earlier) was brought to the fore by Eddie Van Halen, and many consider his 1978 solo "Eruption" (Van Halen, 1978) a milestone. Ritchie Blackmore (formerly of Deep Purple), Randy Rhoads (with pioneers Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot) and Yngwie Malmsteen went on to solidify this explosion of virtuoso guitar work, and in some cases, classical guitars and nylon-stringed guitars were played at heavy metal concerts. Classical icons such as Liona Boyd also became associated with the heavy metal stars as peers in a newly diverse guitar fraternity where conservative and aggressive guitarists could come together to "trade licks."

Related Topics:
Eruption - Van Halen - 1978 - Ritchie Blackmore - Randy Rhoads - Ozzy Osbourne - Quiet Riot - Yngwie Malmsteen - Liona Boyd

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This explosion would cool down in the music of Ronnie James Dio (who himself had a tenure at lead vocals with the legendary Black Sabbath) and continue to settle towards Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, who may be the final and complete consummation of "pure" heavy metal in the lineage of the "grandfathers" —Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Following the emergence in the early 1980s of Metallica and Slayer, metal would push the limits of aggressive loudness in thrash metal, speed metal, black metal and death metal.

Related Topics:
Ronnie James Dio - Black Sabbath - Judas Priest - Iron Maiden - Metallica - Slayer - Thrash metal - Speed metal - Black metal - Death metal

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1980s and beyond

In a separate development, taking place mostly in the U.S., heavy metal would return full circle through the pop vanity of the L.A. scene, led by Quiet Riot. During the 1980s, a pop-based form of hard rock, with a party-hearty spirit and a glam-influenced visual aesthetic (sometimes referred to as "hair metal" due to the long and painstakingly-styled hair of band members) dominated the music charts in some parts of the world, and superstars like Def Leppard, Poison, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, and Ratt helped lead the way. While their music has endured as representative of a particular view, time and place, this form is not always seen by metal purists as a particularly pure or well-executed form of metal. The 1987 debut of Guns N' Roses, a hard rock band with its Aerosmith influences worn prominently on its sleeve, and whose image reflected the grittier underbelly of the Sunset Strip, was at least in part a reaction against the overly-polished image of hair metal, but that band's wild success was in many ways the last gasp of the L.A. hard-rock and metal scene.

Related Topics:
Quiet Riot - Def Leppard - Poison - Bon Jovi - Mötley Crüe - Ratt - Guns N' Roses

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By the mid-1980s, as the term "heavy metal" became the subject of much contestation, heavy metal had branched out in so many different directions that new sub-classifications were created by fans, record companies, and fanzines, although sometimes the differences between various sub-genres were unclear, even to the artists purportedly belonging to a given style (see List of heavy metal genres). Notable early 80s sub-genres where the overarching term "heavy metal" is occasionally still in use include the faster thrash metal, pioneered by the 'Big Four Of Thrash' (including Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer, with San Francisco quintet Testament sometimes being included in this group), and a hard-edged form of pop-metal (sometimes categorised pejoratively by purists as hair metal), from bands like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard that brought pop-friendly music to mainstream audiences (to a mix of critical acclaim, mainstream popularity and purist disavowal).

Related Topics:
List of heavy metal genres - Thrash metal - Big Four Of Thrash - Anthrax - Megadeth - Metallica - Slayer - Testament - Hair metal - Bon Jovi - Def Leppard

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Later styles of heavy rock music in the 1990s, such as grunge (the typical example being Seattle's Nirvana), show influences of heavy metal but are typically not labelled sub-genres of heavy metal, as opposed to thrash metal and hair metal. The general absence of virtuosic guitar solos is perhaps one reason grunge bands have not been considered heavy metal bands. Later work by Megadeth, combined the relentless, speedy thrash metal riffs with the fancy guitar soloing of classic metal ala Judas Priest.

Related Topics:
Grunge - Nirvana - Megadeth - Thrash metal - Classic metal - Judas Priest

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