Its been some 35+ years since rock came bursting out of nowhere, stealing the hearts and minds of many by blending already exsisting genres into something big, bold and beautiful but also spawning the very foundation for future music to come, everything from pop to metal. Join on the nostalgic ride and put on your rose tinted glasses as we travel back in time to experience rock throughout the decades.
The 50’s
Let us being our journey by sending our time machine to the Rock’s humble beings in the early 1950’s. Rock was born from a fusion of styles reminiscent of the big band era but most importantly, rhythm and blues, also know as race music as it was mainly an African american audience. That changed when black artists such as little Richie, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino emerged , weaving r&b , boogie, soul, jazz and gospel with fast guitar chords. The first true rock n roll song to hit the charts was by Bill Hader and his comets, rock around the clock. By the late 1950’s, rock n roll is played on all the popular musics stations and is now viewed less as “devils music” and more as a mainstream genre, bringing together both black and white people from all walks of life.
Notable artists:
Fun fact: Rock n roll was black slang for sex, as first heard in Trixie Smith’s song “My man rocks me (with one steady roll)”
The 60’s
We now enter rock’s growing stages, even as a pretty new genre, rock was becoming more and more popular, dominating the charts and well as branching out into new genres with surf, British rock and girl groups rising into current pop culture. Fueled by political and social movements, song writing became more about world issues rather than sappy love songs. Popular bands such as The Supremes, who incorporated soul and r&b with simple sweet pop lyrics. The Beatles and other supergroups let the British rock Invasion into America , who’s small group format set the stage for all future band setups; included drums, lead guitar bass with keyboards and either a main singer or someone harmonizing, with deep analytical lyrics . Surf Music was influenced by the growing surf culture, with the electric guitar techniques made to sound like crashing waves and lyrics about girls, drugs and cars, with bands like The 5.6.7.8’s who infuse garage, soul, surf , rockabilly with simple Japanese style lyrics. Outdoor music festivals started in the late sixties, such as Woodstock and Monterrey pop festival, which gives people a chance to experience live music among a group of like minded music lovers.
Notable Artists:
The 70’s
We now step out of our time machine into probably one of the most convoluted but noteworthy decade of music history, the 70’s. Fueled by the growing hippie movement and the slogan “peace, love, and rock n roll”, rock in this decade reaches its high point both lyrically and musically due to the fact everyone was high on drug s(lots of creativity). Some of the best songs were written during this period, and genres such as progressive rock(psychedelic) with song lengths anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, lyrics were poetic and told stories in a creative way. The lyrics where often shaped around the music and clever analogies were used to describe something without revealing what it was, music was made to be listened to, focusing more on long solos, random interludes and time signature changes, with bands such as Canadian trio Rush, Pink Floyd and David Bowie who stayed popular by reinventing himself every decade to match what was trending in music.
Prog rock eventually diminished and morphed into heavy metal, hard rock and alternative with bands such as black sabbath, Alice cooper and Moltley Cru. A very clear line develops between mainstream top 40 radio and rock oriented radio, with live albums being super popular and bands playing sold out area tours instead of smaller venues. Disco was the new mainstream fad, lead by Swedish band ABBA, prevalent in clubs and music tv shows like Soul Train.
Notable Artists:
Literally about a girl dancing at a club.
This song by Hart is about lead singer Ann who fell in love with a man much older than herself and running away with him, to her mother’s disapproval.
About the Vietnam war
Fun fact: George Lucas got the idea for Star Wars from this song by Rush about a dystopian planet ruled by priests who take orders from giant computers and control every aspect of the people’s lives . A nameless man finds a guitar in a cave, rediscovering music and resulting chaos, and death.
This song follows an astronaut named major Tom who goes into space but things go wrong, his spaceship malfunctions and he gets lost in space.
The 80’S
Our time machine has now landed in the decade of glamour, emphasis on over excessive lifestyles, groundbreaking advances on technology, gender-bending, the 80’s. The music industry balloons into a billion dollar money making giant, bringing issues such as artists having creative control over their own music. With shows such as MTV and VH1, the act of using music videos helps introduce new genres such as metal (more of a resurfacing), new wave, hip hop and pop. The rise and popularity of female artist like pop icon Madonna or the growing Riot Grrl movement with bands like Joan jett or the Go Go’s ,who set record sales and in the top 40 charts. reggae music gains popularity in America with British rock trio The Police, who incorporate ska, British rock, jazz , punk and reggae. Donna and Althea and most famously Bod Marley and the Wailers were the ones to first introduce the world to Reggae. New wave and goth music is made cool with former new wave bands like Joy Division , Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure and Tears for Fear; who shift toward darker lyrics and punk meets goth music. Sub genres of metal and hard rock bands emerge with the likes of Judas Priest, Metallica and iron Maiden.
Notable Artists:
The 90’s
Almost immediately into the 90’s Alternative, metal and its subgenres (grunge, punk and garage) exploded, dominating the charts throughout most of the decade. there is a big fight between Big labeling companies and small independent companies; the big labels have tried to bully a lot of indie artists away from signing onto smaller labeling companies but many refuse as they don’t want to conform to a single genre to be mainstream. Metal splits and grows into new subgenres like industrial with bands like Nine inch nail who use heavy techno almost machine like sound and very dark and dep lyrics. Nu metal is made popular with bands like Slipknot, combining rap lyrics and metal music. In European countries, metal morphs into death metal with its shredding guitars, impressive vocal feats(growling, screaming) and super fast double bass(drums). Symphonic metal is another really popuar genre in Europe which combines opera, full symphonies and death metal with very beautifully poetic story like lyrics, made famous most notably by bands like Nightwish and Epica. In Iceland a lot of weird music like Bjork and her former alternative band The Sugarcubes emerged combining basically everything and not really sticking to one genre. Grunge bands like Nirvana rise to the top 40 with depressingly ironic lyrics and the garage rock infused music. technology improved, with thin plexiglass CDs replacing cassettes and tape recordings and soon in the very late 90’s the internet replacing all of that, making it possible to listen to songs and albums online.
Notable Artists:
This song was originally released in the late 90’s with the band’s original singer Angela (their new singer Alissa is singing in this video)
btw: the guy with the long beard playing bass is not the one growling in the chorus 🙂
*there a lot of swearing in here
Metal and rock festivals are 100x more crazy than pop festivals (due to mosh pits, wall of death, crowd surfing etc) as demonstrated by this video
Fun fact: this song is based off the fibonacci sequence
The 2000’s
We now arrive back where we started, the final and current decade where label companies see mainstream pop and its potential, and make it their main priority to sign pop singers. Rock it seemed, had been forgotten, and was left to fend for on its own. in the early 2000’s, modern rock was very mellow and toned down with bands such as Nickelback and Theory of a dead man. Bands like Evanescence broke free from that trend by combining Christian rock, classical, and a bit of heavy metal. Music in general was pretty good until 2010 hit, the there seemed to be a change in the way music was made and the view toward talent. Music became more carbon copy manufactured, almost like a factory, quantity over quality, and people where accepting it. Many alternative stations play indie bands, helping them to become popular such as The Beaches, Twenty one pilots and Florence and the Machine as they are not controlled by a big record company, they tend to blend many genres and actually have talent. In Japan, J-metal icons BabyMetal have gained a cult following all over the world, played sold out shows in huge stadiums and created their own niche; dubbed kawaii metal with the Kami band made up of japan’s top musicians. Their new album Metal Galaxy has reached top 3 in the top 40 charts. Today many bands are making come backs releasing albums to newer generations and exposing them to good music like Tool. After 13 years of refusing to release their music on streaming services(basically if you wanted to listen to them you either went on YouTube or bought their album) this year they released a full length album and their whole music catalogue on all streaming platforms, they also became the most downloaded/streamed artist and their album fear inoculum reached the #1 spot on the top 40. In the metal scene, Ukraine band Jinjer combines different vocal styles with influences from Amy Winehouse, Opeth, and elements of prog rock.
Notable Artists:
At exactly 5:11(half way) of this song singer MKJ says mitosis (which is the spliting of a cell into two parts)
Fun fact: To be able to switch seamlessly from clean to harsh vocals, metal singers use a combination of their false chards(flaps of skin above vocal chords) and their diaphragm.
from their 2017 album late show
*lots of gore and violence in this video, from their new album we are not your kind
References:
http://www.rockmusictimeline.com/
Dear Savannah,
I felt this was a very nice culmination of the music of the past century. I don’t listen to rock at all, but you’ve definitely given me some noteworthy playlist additions. For feedback, I would just suggest maybe giving us some idea of what these pieces mean to you emotionally.
Love,
Tolu.