Genre Description:
← Older revision
Revision as of 23:06, July 29, 2012
(One intermediate revision by one user not shown)
Line 5:
Line 5:
==Genre Description==
==Genre Description==
-
'''Heavy metal''', usually abbreviated to '''metal''' is a loosely based genre generally characterized by its distorted guitar work, loudness, shock value, and experimentation with lead vocals. The origin of heavy metal music is unclear, but it most likely started in 1966 when Jimi Hendrix took influence from bluesy and psychedelic guitar and incorporated them in his sound. A "triple band explosion" of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin followed Hendrix in 1969 which further influenced the genre. Ironically, these three bands took Heavy Metal towards three very different directions. Black Sabbath became the lead pioneer for the depressing Doom Metal, Deep Purple became one of the lead pioneer for the technical/progressive metal, and Led Zeppelin became one of the lead pioneers for the music commonly labeled "hard rock" and "classic rock" by self proclaimed non-metalheads who do not associate the metal bands they like with metal. This music would eventually be called Glam metal which brought heavy metal to the mainstream in the late 70s and 80s, giving way to a theoretical Golden Age of Heavy Metal. Besides Zeppelin, other heavy metal bands and musicians who helped pioneer this music, included Aerosmith, Steppenwolf, Foghat, Kansas, Kiss, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Boston, Vixen, Warrant, Quiet Riot, Van Halen, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, the Scorpions, and Z.Z. Top. Then the 80s came along and an event called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which sought to revive the early heavy metal music which, other than glam metal, was declining in popularity. One could argue the movement was to Heavy Metal what the Punk Movement was to Rock & Roll, since the NWOBH bands were rougher and a bit less bluesy than the early heavy metal, yet still sought to revive it. And like the Punk Movement, the NWOBH was short lived, but it was essential in the heavy metal timeline. After a few years the NWOBH movement ended up splitting into two new subgenres of metal, Thrash Metal and Power Metal, and Thrash Metal ended up further splitting into Death Metal and Black Metal. Death Metal took influence from the thrash bands Slayer, Possessed, and Atheist, is generally characterized by blast beats, low-pitched beastly vocals (growls, roars, snarls, etc.), highly distorted, low tempo guitar solos, and meanings pertaining to issues concerning religion, the government, and other topics in society. Whereas Black Metal took influence from the thrash bands Venom, Celtic Frost, and Hellhammer, is generally characterized by chaotic drum beats, possessed shrieks with diaphragm ussage, use of corpse paint, and meanings usually based on either Christian Blasphemy, Norse Paganism or Darkness/Despair. Although Death Metal is musically the most violent, Black Metal is actually the most extreme existing form of Heavy Metal. Now we're going back to 1969 with Deep Purple's pioneering of progressive metal. Now, progressive metal was originally very different from Progressive Rock, possessing mainly a bluesy mood and originally incorporated organ work, not synthenization. But eventually when the 80s came along, like Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal took more influence from synthesizers and neoclassical orchestras, with bands like Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, and Queensryche. Power Metal evolved in a similar fashion, so the two are often interchangeable, with bands like Theocracy, Symphony X, Rhapsody of Fire, Blind Guardian, Dragonforce, Dragonland, and Stratovarius.
+
'''Heavy metal''', usually abbreviated to '''metal''' is a loosely based genre generally characterized by its distorted guitar work, loudness, shock value, and experimentation with lead vocals. The origin of heavy metal music is unclear, but it most likely started in 1966 when Jimi Hendrix took influence from bluesy and psychedelic guitar and incorporated them in his sound. A "triple band explosion" of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin followed Hendrix in 1969 which further influenced the genre. Ironically, these three bands took Heavy Metal towards three very different directions. Black Sabbath became the lead pioneer for the depressing Doom Metal, Deep Purple became one of the lead pioneer for the technical/progressive metal, and Led Zeppelin became one of the lead pioneers for the music commonly labeled "hard rock" and "classic rock" by self proclaimed non-metalheads who do not associate the metal bands they like with metal. This music would eventually be called Glam metal which brought heavy metal to the mainstream in the late 70s and 80s, giving way to a theoretical Golden Age of Heavy Metal. Besides Zeppelin, other heavy metal bands and musicians who helped pioneer this music, included Aerosmith, Steppenwolf, Foghat, Kansas, Kiss, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Boston, Vixen, Warrant, Quiet Riot, Van Halen, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, the Scorpions, and Z.Z. Top. Then the 80s came along and an event called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which sought to revive the early heavy metal music which, other than glam metal, was declining in popularity. One could argue the movement was to Heavy Metal what the Punk Movement was to Rock & Roll, since the NWOBH bands were rougher and a bit less bluesy than the early heavy metal, yet still sought to revive it. And like the Punk Movement, the NWOBH was short lived, but it was essential in the heavy metal timeline. After a few years the NWOBH movement ended up splitting into two new subgenres of metal, Thrash Metal and Power Metal, and Thrash Metal ended up further splitting into Death Metal and Black Metal. Death Metal took influence from the thrash bands Slayer, Possessed, and Atheist, is generally characterized by blast beats, low-pitched beastly vocals (growls, roars, snarls, etc.), highly distorted, low tempo guitar solos, and meanings pertaining to issues concerning religion, the government, and other topics in society. Whereas Black Metal took influence from the thrash bands Venom, Celtic Frost, and Hellhammer, is generally characterized by chaotic drum beats, possessed shrieks with diaphragm ussage, use of corpse paint, and meanings usually based on either Christian Blasphemy or Viking Paganism. Although Death Metal is musically the most violent, Black Metal is actually the most extreme existing form of Heavy Metal. Now we're going back to 1969 with Deep Purple's pioneering of progressive metal. Now, progressive metal was originally very different from Progressive Rock, possessing mainly a bluesy mood and originally incorporated organ work, not synthenization. But eventually when the 80s came along, like Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal took more influence from synthesizers and neoclassical orchestras, with bands like Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Symphony X, and Queensryche. Power Metal evolved in a similar fashion, so the two are often interchangeable. For instance the power metal bands Rhapsody of Fire and Theocracy are often labeled "progressive power metal." Despite this, the two subgenres are separate and independent, with a few notable differences. The first, is that prog metal bands incorporate whole, complex orchestras with all different kinds of classical instruments, whereas power metal bands don't incorporate orchestras but may have band members that play classical instruments, most commonly pianists and violinists. The second is that, even with the orchestras prog metal bands still retain more of a bluesy sound to it, whereas power metal bands play very epic, melodic music, the kind of epic you'd see in a lot of fantasy games. And the third is that power metal bands tend to speed up their drum beats in studios, giving it a much faster pase (Dragonforce is best known for doing this) whereas prog metal bands don't.
==Key Artists==
==Key Artists==