Rock (music)

:For other uses of "Rock", see Rock.

Rock diversifies in the 1980s

Main article: 1980s in music

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In the 1980s, popular rock diversified. The early part of the decade saw Eddie Van Halen achieve musical innovations in rock guitar, while vocalists David Lee Roth (of Van Halen) and Freddie Mercury (of Queen) raised the role of frontman to near performance art standards. Concurrently, pop-New Wave bands remained popular, while pop-punk performers, like Billy Idol and The Go-Go's, gained fame. American heartland rock gained a strong following, exemplified by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and others. Led by the American folk singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the British former prog rock star Peter Gabriel, rock and roll fused with a variety of folk music styles from around the world; this fusion came to be known as "world music", and included fusions like Aboriginal rock. Amidst this, Michael Jackson would reach the peak of his career with the album Thriller.

Related Topics:
1980s - Eddie Van Halen - David Lee Roth - Freddie Mercury - Pop-punk - Billy Idol - The Go-Go's - Heartland rock - Bruce Springsteen - Bob Seger - Singer-songwriter - Paul Simon - Prog rock - Peter Gabriel - World music - Aboriginal rock - Michael Jackson - Thriller

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Hard rock and hair metal

Main article: Hair metal (also see Hard rock and Heavy metal.)

Related Topics:
Hair metal - Hard rock - Heavy metal

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Heavy metal languished in obscurity until the mid- or late 1970s. A few bands maintained large followings, like Queen, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, and there were occasional mainstream hits, like Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper". Music critics overwhelmingly hated the genre, and mainstream listeners generally avoided it because of its strangeness. However this changed in 1978 with the release of the hard rock band Van Halen's eponymous debut, which ushered in an era of widely popular, high-energy rock and roll, based out of Los Angeles, California.

Related Topics:
Queen - AC/DC - Led Zeppelin - Aerosmith - Blue Öyster Cult - 1978 - Hard rock - Van Halen - Debut - Los Angeles, California

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While bands like Van Halen and Metallica innovated in the genre, and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal found fans, a group of musicians formulated what later became known as hair metal. Taking cues from Van Halen, but without their humor, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, and Ratt are often regarded as the first hair metal bands to gain popularity. They became known for their debauched lifestyles, teased hair, feminized use of make-up, clothing (usually spandex,) and over-the-top posturing. Their songs were bombastic, aggressive, and often defiantly macho, with lyrics focused on sex, drinking, drugs, and the occult. After Def Leppard's wildly popular Pyromania, and Van Halen's seminal 1984, hair metal became ubiquitous. Many hair metal bands became one-hit wonders, or as David Lee Roth once said of them, "here today, gone later today," (for example, Winger and Slaughter.)

Related Topics:
Metallica - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Hair metal - Mötley Crüe - Bon Jovi - Ratt - Spandex - Def Leppard - Pyromania - 1984 - One-hit wonder - Winger - Slaughter

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By the middle of the 1980s, a formula developed in which a hair metal band had two hits -- one a soft ballad, and the other a hard-rocking anthem. The original line-up of Van Halen broke up in 1985, creating something of a quality vacuum in the genre; however, in 1987, Guns n' Roses released Appetite for Destruction, which became phenomenally successful. Until hair metal's demise in the early-1990s, Guns n' Roses were hard rock's standard-bearers, and influenced its sound by incorporating influences from punk rock, and thrash metal.

Related Topics:
1985 - 1987 - Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction - 1990s - Thrash metal

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Birth of Chinese rock

Main article: Chinese rock

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Beginning about 1986, the Northwest Wind (xibeifeng, 西北风) style of rock began to enter the burgeoning youth culture in China. The first Chinese rock song may be "I Have Nothing" by Cui Jian, now the widely-admired godfather of the Chinese rock scene. Spurred by pro-democracy activism, such as at Tiananmen Square, and by governmental repression, rock flourished in the Chinese counterculture. Of especial popularity later in the decade were melancholy tunes called prison songs. By 1990, Chinese rock had begun to enter the mainstream, but almost immediately incorporated sounds and styles from the Cantopop style. Though alternative bands remained, Chinese rock became subverted, often by bands working in cohesion with the Chinese government and in favor of the status quo; many of rock's fans in China became disillusioned as a result, leading to a general decline in popularity later in the decade.

Related Topics:
1986 - Northwest Wind - Cui Jian - Tiananmen Square - Prison song - 1990 - Cantopop

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Alternative music and the indie movement

Main article: Alternative music

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The term alternative music (also often known as alternative rock) was coined in the early 1980s to describe bands which didn't fit into the mainstream genres of the time. Bands dubbed "alternative" could be most any style not typically heard on the radio, however, most alternative bands were unified by their collective debt to punk. Although these groups never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on the generation of musicians who came of age in the 80s. Two of the most famous bands to arise from this genre were R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Related Topics:
Alternative rock - 1980s - Punk - R.E.M. - Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Grunge and the anti-corporate rock movement

Main article: Grunge music

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By the late 1980s rock radio was dominated by aging rock artists, slick commercial pop-rock, and hair metal; MTV had arrived and brought with it a perception that style was more important than substance. Any remaining traces of rock and roll rebelliousness or the punk ethic seemed to have been subsumed into corporate-sponsored and mass-marketed musical product. Disaffected by this trend, some young musicians began to reject the polished, glamor-oriented posturing of hair metal, and created crude, sometimes angry music. The American Pacific Northwest region, especially Seattle, became a hotbed of this style, dubbed grunge.

Related Topics:
MTV - Pacific Northwest - Seattle

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Early grunge bands, particularly Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, took much of their sound from early heavy metal and much of their approach from punk, though they eschewed punk's ambitions towards political and social commentary to proceed in a more nihilistic direction. Grunge remained a mostly local phenomenon until the breakthrough of Nirvana in 1991 with their album Nevermind. A slightly more melodic, more completely produced variation on their predecessors, Nirvana was an instant sensation worldwide and made much of the competing music seem stale and dated by comparison, hair metal faded almost completely from the mainstream.

Related Topics:
Alice in Chains - Soundgarden - Nirvana - Nevermind

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Nirvana whetted the public's appetite for more direct, less polished rock music, leading to the success of bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden took a somewhat more traditional rock approach than other grunge bands but shared their passion and rawness. Pearl Jam were a major commercial success from their debut but, beginning with their second album, refused to buy in to the corporate promotion and marketing mechanisms of MTV and Ticketmaster, with whom they famously engaged in legal skirmishes over ticket service fees.

Related Topics:
Pearl Jam - Soundgarden - MTV - Ticketmaster

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While grunge itself can be seen as somewhat limited in range, its influence was felt across many geographic and musical boundaries; many artists who were similarly disaffected with commercial rock music suddenly found record companies and audiences willing to listen, and dozens of disparate acts positioned themselves as alternatives to mainstream music; thus alternative rock emerged from the underground.

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Britpop

Main article: Britpop

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While America was full of grunge, post-grunge, and hip hop, Britain launched a 1960s revival in the mid-90s, often called Britpop, with bands like Oasis, the Verve, Radiohead, Pulp and Blur. These bands drew on myriad styles from the 80s British rock underground, including twee pop, shoegazing and space rock and from the alternative rock. For a time, the Oasis-Blur rivalry was similar to the Beatles-Rolling Stones rivalry. While bands like Blur tended to follow on from the Small Faces and The Kinks, Oasis mixed the attitude of the Rolling Stones with the melody of the Beatles. The Verve and Radiohead took inspiration from performers like Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd and R.E.M. with their progressive rock music, manifested in their most famous album, OK Computer. These bands became very successful, and for a time Oasis was given the title "the biggest band in the world" thanks to an album selling some 14 million copies worldwide but slowed down after band breakups, publicity disasters in the United States and slightly less popular support. The Verve disbanded after on-going turmoil in the band, but on the other hand Radiohead threw themselves into electronic experimentation in their latest records and have stood the test of time in both the U.K and the USA as a major act.

Related Topics:
Britpop - Oasis - The Verve - Radiohead - Pulp - Blur - Twee pop - Shoegazing - Space rock - Elvis Costello - Pink Floyd - R.E.M. - OK Computer

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Indie rock

Main article: Indie rock

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Alternative music and the rebellious, DIY ethic it espoused became the inspiration for grunge, the popularity of which, paradoxically, took alternative rock into the mainstream. By the mid-90s, the term "alternative music" had lost much of its original meaning as rock radio and record buyers embraced increasingly slick, commercialized, and highly marketed forms of the genre. At the end of the decade, hip hop music had pushed much of alternative rock out of the mainstream, and most of what was left played pop-punk and highly polished versions of a grunge/rock mishmash.

Related Topics:
DIY - Hip hop music - Pop-punk

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Following the lead of Pearl Jam, many acts who, by choice or fate, remained outside the commercial mainstream, became part of the indie rock movement. Indie rock acts placed a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, often releasing albums on their own independent record labels and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, and airplay on independent or college radio stations for promotion. Linked by an ethos more than a musical approach, the indie rock movement encompasses a wide range of styles, from hard-edged, grunge influenced bands like Superchunk to punk-folk singers such as Ani DiFranco.

Related Topics:
Indie rock - Superchunk - Ani DiFranco

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Currently, many countries have an extensive local Indie scene, flourishing with bands with much less popularity than commercial bands, just enough of it to survive inside the respective country, but virtually unknown outside them.

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