Genre Of The Month: Rock

27 May 2009

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Everyone knows that I’m a little bit partial to the good old genre of rock music, so as we gear up for the onslaught of Download Festival in a few weeks, we thought it best to honour the rock legends that have shaped the music scene to date.

Generally defined as a music genre which revolves around the electric or acoustic guitar with a heavy bass and drum-laiden rhythm keeping the pace, with most ‘rock bands’ having four members; an electric guitarist, lead singer, bass guitarist, and a drummer, with some choosing to ditch one of the members in favour of a lead singer who also thrashes around on an instrument.

The Beginning

Many would argue that true rock music began in the US in the late 1940’s with Rock and Roll music which brought together rhythm and blues, gospel music, and country and western.

Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts in 1955, and is thought to have been the cornerstone upon which this entire genre has been built.

But as usual, the British weren’t far behind jumping on this bandwagon, and slowly but surely, we developed our own rock and roll scene, without the ‘race barriers’ that marred the US music scene, and shocking as this may sound, it was Cliff Richard who had the first ever British rock and roll hit, with Move It.

Then, of course, came The Beatles, who took British rock over to the US with their hit, I Want To Hold Your Hand, closely followed by The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Yardbirds.

Psychedelic rock and the Summer of Love

As with most genre’s of music, there has to be offshoots, and although there are many subgenre’s, we only have enough space to discuss a couple, so we thought it fitting to mention that in the 1096’s we began to see the emergence of Psychedelic rock.

Although the LSD inspired vibe began in the folk scene, it quickly took off with rock fans when Pink Floyd decided to have a little go and from there a new ‘scene’ was made; In August 1966 The Beatles released their Revolver album, which featured psychedelia in "Tomorrow Never Knows" and in "Yellow Submarine", along with the memorable album cover, whilst The Beach Boys responded in the U.S. with Pet Sounds.

But is wasn’t until 1967 that the scene really took off, with The Doors and Jefferson Airplane releasing drug-themed LPs and the Beatles releasing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band whilst The Rolling Stones released Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Of course, who can ignore the Glam Rock scene that emerged as a direct result of Psychedelic rock? Defined by the likes of T. Rex, Roxy Music, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, and David Bowie, we still see bands jumping on that bandwagon today in the form of The Darkness and Steel Panther.

Then came the turn of bands who wanted to ‘push the boundaries’ of rock music and started to experiment with different instruments and just be a bit more ‘wild’ or ‘out there.‘

It got to the point where bands such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and Procol Harum experimented with new instruments including wind sections, string sections, and even full-blown orchestras, whilst in turn, dishing out longer, more elaborate songs to anyone who had enough time to listen.

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