1. Music Appreciation: The History of Rock
Chapter 19: Heavy Metal

2. A by-product of psychedelic rock…
Heavy metal is a term from music that developed from the psychedelic rock of the 1960’s.
Other names include hard rock and it has substyles including speed metal, thrash and death metal.
Punk, new wave and grunge share some characteristics of heavy metal rock.

3. Root of “heavy metal”
19th century- it referred to large guns on warships. It then began to be used to describe a man of heavy power or influence or a person of great ability or power (bodily and mentally).
In music, it refers to concepts, images and experiences of power and/or intensity.

4. Naming a metal band…
Electrical or mechanical power: Tesla, AC/DC, Motorhead
Dangerous or unpleasant animals: Scorpions, Ratt
Dangerous or unpleasant people: Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue
Blasphemy or mysticism: Judas Priest, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath
Death or the terror of death: Anthrax, Poison, Slayer, Megadeth

5. First appearance of the term
The term “heavy metal” first appeared in the second verse of the song Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf and is actually referring to a motorcycle.
Loud volume of music=loud volume of engines, etc.

6. Characteristics of heavy metal style
Sound: Loud volumes, lead guitar-oriented, distortion, thick sounds, voices are mixed in equally with instruments.
Form: Mostly riff-based songs. Some on blues, some on standard AABA
Harmony: Generally simple chord progressions, usually 3 to 5 chords, bass generally plays an ostinato riff.

7. Characteristics of heavy metal style
Time: Tempos are generally fast, some do slow ballads (power ballads), typically simple duple meter, drums provide heavy backbeat.
Melody: Vocals are generally limited range, sometimes shouted monotone; guitar solos cover the entire fingerboard to demonstrate the facility of the lead guitarist.
Other: Most bands are album-oriented, a few have actually had a top 10 single, some have very controversial topics.

8. The almighty….POWER CHORD
This is a full-barred chord played without the thirds of that chord emphasizing tonic, perfect fourths and perfect fifth intervals.
It can be percussive or rhythmic or sustained indefinitely to suspend or express time. It is the musical articulation of power. Think of Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water…

9. Steppenwolf
Formed in 1967 under the leadership of John Kay, title taken from a novel by Hermann Hesse, an author.
Considered to be one of the first heavy metal bands and exhibit all the characteristics of heavy metal. The band is related to psychedelic rock due to subject matter: Magic Carpet Ride, Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam and The Pusher. First single was Born to be Wild.

10. Black Sabbath
British band formed in 1969 and started as the name Earth and changed it to Black Sabbath. It established them as an occult-oriented band with somewhat evil overtones.
International fame came with the release of their second album, Paranoid, and the title track.

11. Deep Purple British group formed in 1968 as a pop-oriented outfit.
Some their hits include the hits Hush, Smoke on the Water, Woman from Tokyo, Space Truckin’ and Highway Star.
Big ego problems and multiple personnel changes led to their breakup.

12. Led Zeppelin
Blues-based in its background, but many writers refer the band as heavy metal. Also shades of British and Celtic folk music from their third album on as well as lyrical ideas inspired by Celtic mythology (think Lord of the Rings….)

13. The Yardbirds
Songs include I’m a Man, Train Kept A-Rollin’, Shapes of Things…..
While Beck (Clapton’s replacement) was with the band, he began in the introducing feedback and electronic distortion effects into the music- one of the first to do this.
The bass player quit and Jimmy Page was asked again to do this and he accepted. Beck began to have issues but left and then came back. This collaboration with Page produced two songs only, one of which was Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

14. Members- Led Zeppelin
Jimmy Page, guitar (originally offered a job in the Yardbirds when Clapton left the group)
John Paul Jones, piano, organ, bass and guitar.
Robert Plant- singer, came on to help Jimmy Page when he was left with the commitments of the Yardbirds.
John Bonham- drummer- same reason as Plant for joining the group.

15. The sound of Led Zeppelin
Characterized by the use of speed (fast tempos and guitar licks) and power, unusual rhythmic patterns, the wailing vocals of Robert Plant, the distortion of Page’s guitar and the heavy drum sound of Bonham.

16. Major album differences
First album: basically the New Yardbirds. Some are hard-rocking, some are blues-oriented. Includes Good Times, Bad Times and Communication Breakdown.
Second album: did better on the charts than album one. Starts off with Whole Lotta Love and includes What Is and What Should Never Be.

17. Album differences…3 and 4
Third album: Similar crossings of blues and hard rock. Included The Immigrant Song, Since I’ve Been Loving You.
Fourth album: The entire album is considered to be the group’s best effort and the song Stairway to Heaven is considered to be a masterpiece of rock. Black Dog and Rock and Roll are also on there.
The Battle of Evermore was inspired by Tolkien.

18. Stairway to Heaven and later
The lyrics are about a woman searching for spiritual perfection.
Some say it is code for a story about the largest drug bust in British History.
Some say it contains satanic messages mixed backwards into the song.
Plant was almost killed in a car crash in 1975, Bonham died in 1980.
Their ninth album, In Through the Out Door, included the song In the Evening.

19. Metal bands in the late 70’s and early 80’s
Increase of bands, especially from Britain
AC/DC- Australian group and centered around brothers Malcolm and Angus Young.
Catchy riffs, especially intros and endings and lyrics are concerned with sex, violence and drinking.

20. Van Halen
Formed in 1974 with the brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Other members included Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth. Sammy Hagar replaced DLR in 1985.
Van Halen brothers were classically trained. Eddie pioneered the technique known as “tapping” or “tap technique” that is used by plucking and hammer the guitar neck.

21. More Van Halen
The band covered the Kinks’ The band covered the Kinks’ You Really Got Me and had their own hit on their first album called Runnin’ With the Devil.
A cadenza is an improvised solo section and Van Halen had one called Eruption that immediately followed the Devil track.

22. Judas Priest Birmingham-based band from England in the 1970’s.
Their album, Sad Wings of Destiny, is considered to be one of the most influential albums on the 1980’s generation of metal bands, including Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Megadeth and Metallica.
Their song, Better by You, Better Than Me, illustrates what they were about- a darker, heavier sound than the punk and new wave on the radio at the time.

23. Around 1983….
A new wave of metal bands came out of Los Angeles and included Motley Crue, Slayer, Quiet Riot, and Dokken. LA became the center of heavy metal and bands like Poison and Guns and roses moved to LA.
All of a sudden, heavy metal fan magazines began appearing and heavy metal spread world-wide.

24. Big changes for metal music
Blues were abandoned in favor of easier to find chords on guitar.
Almost no use of 12-bar blues progressions.
Chord progressions move by whole step or half step
More dependence melodically on scale patterns rather than blues scales.
Extremely fast tempos
Rapidly-played scale passages (thrashing)
Tapping became a common practice
Blues guitar techniques (slide, bends) are abandoned.

25. Metallica
Members included Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine (until Kirk Hammett) and Cliff Burton.
Came about in LA when punk groups like X and Black Flag were the main acts.
Mustaine was fired due to drinking and drugs, Kirk came in and they released the albums Kill Em’ All and Ride the Lightning.

26. More Metallica
Third album was Master of Puppets and had the very successful title cut that tells about the story of drug addiction as a parable of power.
During touring in Sweden, Cliff Burton was thrown out of the bus during a wreck and died. He was replaced with Jason Newstead.

27. Popularity of Heavy Metal
Metal broadened its audience base and become older (college age), younger (pre-teen) and more female.
MTV had a late-night show called Headbanger’s Ball
Heavy Metal influenced other popular music and the so-called “hair bands” led to groups who couldn’t play well, but the looked good (Poison, Cinderella, etc.) and the 2000’s led to a fusion of metal and rap.