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/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hard Rock/Heavy Metal InfluencesFrom 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

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Listening Guide

“Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream (1967)Tempo: 116 beats per minute, 4 beats per barForm: 24-bar blues (same as 12-bar blues, but each bar of the 12 is doubleFeatures: A 2-bar bass riff is paralleled by the guitar and the beginning of

the vocal melodyThe blue note F is bent to about halfway between F and F# in the

riffB sections vary the chords from the blues progression and do not

include the bass riffThe drummer uses two bass drums to produce a heavy,

throbbing pulseThe 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 experienceCharts: Pop, #5, British hits, #25

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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

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Listening Guide

“Magic Man” by Heart (1976)Tempo: 100 beat per minute, 4 beats per barForm: After a 4-bar instrumental introduction, the verses vary in

lengthFeatures: The rhythm section of guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums repeats a 2-bar pattern throughout most of the recording

Backbeat in drumsOccasional solos by electric guitar or synthesizer play

during instrumental sectionsLyrics: 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

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Led ZeppelinRobert Plant, singerJimmy Page, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriterJohn Paul Jones, electric bass guitar and keyboardsJohn 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

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Listening Guide

“Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin (1969)Tempo: 168 beats per minute, 4 beats per barForm: 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 activitiesCharts: Pop, #4

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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

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Listening Guide:

“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath (1970)Tempo: 164 beats per minute, 4 beats per barForm: Based on 4-bar phrases, paired into 8-bar periodsFeatures: Even beat subdivisions in drums and bass, but uneven in

voice and guitarBass drum and electric bass guitar pound out each beatStrong backbeat in drumsMuch repetition off bass riff patternsFuzztone 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

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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 fastForm: Section lengths vary

Beginning riff returns at the end, balancing the structureFeatures: 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 pastSome use of stop time

Lyrics: An unfaithful woman is analogized to bad whisky, and an intoxicating woman eventually becomes destructive

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Other important seventies and eighties heavy metal bands in the British traditionScorpions (from Germany)UFOAC/DC (from Australia)Iron MaidenDef Leppard

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American Heavy MetalLike 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 ButterflyAlice CooperTed NugentAerosmithVan HalenGuns N’ Roses

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Listening Guide

“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper (1972)Tempo: 132 beats per minute, 4 beats per barForm: 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 subdivisionsThe backbeat is not stressed’A 2-bar opening guitar riff is played six times in the

introduction, and repeated during some sectionsThe 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

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Listening Guide“You Really Got Me” by Van Halen (1978)Tempo: 138 beats per minute, 4 beats per barForm: 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 5th barThe length of sections to follow vary

Features: Even beat subdivisionsStrong backbeat in drumsElaborate sound effects and fuzztone in the guitarRiff pattern begins with a ½ beat pickupSome abrupt key changes, pitch of the riff changes with themThe accenting of “really” and “me” in the vocal line imitates the

original recording by the Kinks in 1964Lyrics: The singer is enraptured by his girlfriendCharts: Pop, #36

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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

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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 patternsThe intensity of speed is aided by the shortened barsPower chords add depthThe slower instrumental C section provides a break from

the intensity of the rest of the recordingThe recording ends with the band members laughing at

their puppet victimLyrics: 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

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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

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Glam BandsAndrogynous hairdos and makeup from Glitter movement

Popular eighties bandsMötley CrüeTwisted SisterPoison

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Listening Guide“Nothin’ But a Good Time” by Poison (1988)Tempo: 130 beats per minute, 4 beats per barForm: Instrumental introduction of a 4-bar riff played four times,

then extended 2 more barsMostly 8-bar phrases with some extensions and some use

of two ½ beat pickupsFeatures: Uneven beat subdivisions

Strong backbeat in drums24-bar instrumental section ends with opening riff played

twiceSolo 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, #6

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Discussion Question

Does the sound of music or the meaning of song lyrics cause listeners to do things they would not otherwise do?

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