Chapter 13 – Hard Rock and Heavy Metal “As its detractors have always claimed, heavy- metal rock is nothing more than a bunch of noise; it is not music, it’s distortion—and that is precisely why its adherents find it appealing” Lester Bangs, Rock Critic McGraw-Hill/IrwinCopyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Influences From the sixties Blues Revival era include the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Yardbirds, the Who, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience Hard Rock and Heavy Metal both loud, powerful and aggressive, but separated during the seventies with Hard Rock more traditional rock lyrics and Heavy Metal more about power, death, and destruction Feedback and fuzztone common in both styles Power chords and lowering the pitch of instruments added to the aggressive sound Bass riffs common in both styles In later years, the two terms were used interchangeably 13-2

Listening Guide “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream (1967) Tempo: 116 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: 24-bar blues (same as 12-bar blues, but each bar of the 12 is double Features: A 2-bar bass riff is paralleled by the guitar and the beginning of the vocal melody The blue note F is bent to about halfway between F and F# in the riff B sections vary the chords from the blues progression and do not include the bass riff The drummer uses two bass drums to produce a heavy, throbbing pulse The recording ends with a long extension and a fade out Lyrics: The beginning expresses the anticipation of spending the night with a lover, then later the singer rhapsodizes about the experience Charts: Pop, #5, British hits, #

Hard Rock Bands British hard rock bands include Free and Bad Company, which was formed by singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke after Free broke up American hard rock bands included Stepppenwolf, Boston, and Heart 13-4

Listening Guide “Magic Man” by Heart (1976) Tempo: 100 beat per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: After a 4-bar instrumental introduction, the verses vary in length Features: The rhythm section of guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums repeats a 2-bar pattern throughout most of the recording Backbeat in drums Occasional solos by electric guitar or synthesizer play during instrumental sections Lyrics: A young girl has been whisked off by an older man who seems to have “magical” powers, and her mother is worried. Charts: Pop, #9 13-5

Led Zeppelin Robert Plant, singer Jimmy Page, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter John Paul Jones, electric bass guitar and keyboards John Bonham, drums Zeppelin’s influence on the development of British Heavy Metal came from their songs that used long, slow, descending bass riffs and extended instrumental improvisations such as “Dazed and Confused” from 1969 Led Zeppelin’s music cannot be categorized as heavy metal, however, because they also played the Blues, Celtic folk music, and other styles 13-6

Listening Guide “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin (1969) Tempo: 168 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: After an 8-bar instrumental introduction, there are three 18-bar verses, an 8-bar refrain sung between verses, and much unstructured freestyle improvisation Features: The distorted guitar riff in the introduction is repeated during the refrains, and repeated again to end the recording The refrain repeats the text “Wanna Whole Lotta Love” four times A very free style improvisation creates a frenetic building of passion with vocals ranging from moans to screams The improvisation includes Jimmy Page’s playing of an electronic instrument called a theremin Lyrics: The overly amorous singer wants to “school” the object of the song in various sexual activities Charts: Pop, #4 13-7

British Heavy Metal: Power at the center of the style, much use of power chords and low tuning Group names such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden as well as album covers and posters with symbols of witchcraft and death, shocked some parents and others Songs most often about fear, not worship, of evil, as real fans knew Powerful images supported by loud, aggressive music that often included low, descending bass riffs and psychedelic-influenced instrumental improvisations Many early heavy metal bands had three instrumentalists, guitar, bass, and drums, as well as a singer In 1974, Judas Priest thickened their sound by adding a second lead guitar, and many bands followed that instrumentation 13-8

Listening Guide: “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath (1970) Tempo: 164 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: Based on 4-bar phrases, paired into 8-bar periods Features: Even beat subdivisions in drums and bass, but uneven in voice and guitar Bass drum and electric bass guitar pound out each beat Strong backbeat in drums Much repetition off bass riff patterns Fuzztone used in guitar solo Lyrics: Mental illness and inability to experience happiness combine to make the singer a spiritually lost soul whose brain is its own private hell. Charts: Pop, #61, British hits, #4 13-9

Listening Guide “Victim of Changes” by Judas Priest (1976) Tempo: 84 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar, some use of double- time creates feel twice as fast Form: Section lengths vary Beginning riff returns at the end, balancing the structure Features: Heave backbeat in drums Electronic sounds at the beginning, then bass riff enters and continues A new riff, lighter is used in the section about the past Some use of stop time Lyrics: An unfaithful woman is analogized to bad whisky, and an intoxicating woman eventually becomes destructive 13-10

Other important seventies and eighties heavy metal bands in the British tradition Scorpions (from Germany) UFO AC/DC (from Australia) Iron Maiden Def Leppard 13-11

American Heavy Metal Like the British bands, American heavy metal bands used distorted guitars and descending bass riffs, as well as long improvised instrumental sections Song lyrics, however, tended to be more similar to subjects of general concern to young people and group images of power were closer to fears created by horror movies than evil Important American bands of the seventies and eighties include: Iron Butterfly Alice Cooper Ted Nugent Aerosmith Van Halen Guns N’ Roses 13-12

Listening Guide “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper (1972) Tempo: 132 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: After a 12-bar introduction, the sections are unequal in lengths The recording ends with an extension, a school bell ringing, and then a descending electronic sound Features: Uneven beat subdivisions The backbeat is not stressed’ A 2-bar opening guitar riff is played six times in the introduction, and repeated during some sections The guitar plays fills after vocal phrases Lyrics: The singer is both forceful and exuberant about the ending of the school term Charts: Pop, #7, British hits, #1ss 13-13

Listening Guide “You Really Got Me” by Van Halen (1978) Tempo: 138 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: The recording begins with an 8-bar introduction consisting of 8 repetitions of a 1-bar guitar riff that continues to repeat through most of the recording The drums enter in the 5 th bar The length of sections to follow vary Features: Even beat subdivisions Strong backbeat in drums Elaborate sound effects and fuzztone in the guitar Riff pattern begins with a ½ beat pickup Some abrupt key changes, pitch of the riff changes with them The accenting of “really” and “me” in the vocal line imitates the original recording by the Kinks in 1964 Lyrics: The singer is enraptured by his girlfriend Charts: Pop, #

Speed Metal and Thrash Speed metal combined heavy-metal vocals and fuzztone guitar timbres with throbbing beat of punk Speed metal solos played at breakneck speed Thrash similar to speed metal, but angrier and more often stressed the demonic themes of earlier British heavy metal American speed metal and thrash generally dissolved the differences between British and American heave metal of the seventies Important bands: Motörhead, formed in 1975, name slang for addition to methedrine, or “speed” Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer 13-15

Listening Guide: “Master of Puppets” by Metallica (1986) Tempo: 208 beats per minute, but a center section slows to half that speed. Most bars have 4 beats, but some have five ½ beats and some 2 beats The overall form is A B A B C D inst. A B inst. Features: Even beat subdivisions Drums sometimes accent the backbeat, and sometimes accent beats of the bass riff and guitar pattern Guitar and bass play together in short riff patterns The intensity of speed is aided by the shortened bars Power chords add depth The slower instrumental C section provides a break from the intensity of the rest of the recording The recording ends with the band members laughing at their puppet victim Lyrics: The singer plays the role of a drug that has gained control of the person who took it and promises to kill his puppet victim 13-16

Death Metal Influences from the images of death and the power of the devil or other demons from music by Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and others Death metal began with underground bands that took those images further to more real-life connections No longer underground by mid-eighties Bands such as Death, Possessed, Morbid Angel, and Slayer 13-17

Glam Bands Androgynous hairdos and makeup from Glitter movement Popular eighties bands Mötley Crüe Twisted Sister Poison 13-18

Listening Guide “Nothin’ But a Good Time” by Poison (1988) Tempo: 130 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar Form: Instrumental introduction of a 4-bar riff played four times, then extended 2 more bars Mostly 8-bar phrases with some extensions and some use of two ½ beat pickups Features: Uneven beat subdivisions Strong backbeat in drums 24-bar instrumental section ends with opening riff played twice Solo guitar featured in the instrumental section Lyrics: The singer resents having to work so hard to get money to have a good time Charts: Pop, #

Discussion Question Does the sound of music or the meaning of song lyrics cause listeners to do things they would not otherwise do? 13-20