Rock History

Rock
Rock music is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody

accompanied by guitar, drums, and bass. Many styles of rock music also use
keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or synthesizers. Rock music usually
has a strong back beat, and often revolves around guitar, either electric or
acoustic.
Rock music has its roots in 1950s-era rock and roll and rockabilly. In the late
1960s, rock music was blended with folk music to create folk rock, blues to
create blues rock and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion, and without a time
signature to create psychedelic rock. In the 1970s, rock incorporated influences
from soul, funk, and latin music. Also in the 1970s, rock developed a number of
subgenres, such as soft rock, hard rock, progressive rock, heavy metal and punk
rock. Rock subgenres from the 1980s included glam metal, synth-rock, thrash
metal, hardcore punk and alternative rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included
grunge-style rock, britpop, indie rock, piano rock, and nu metal.
Origins: Rock and roll
Rock 'n' roll came from rhythm and blues (R'n'B), country, and in turn its
influence fed back to these cultures, a process of borrowings, influences that
continue to develop rock music. Rock 'n' roll had runaway success in the U.S.
and brought R'n'B-influenced music to an international audience. Its success led
to a dilution of the meaning of the term "rock and roll", as promoters were quick
to attach the label to other commercial pop.
Rock 'n' roll started off in the early-to-mid 1950s in the United States. African-
American artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Fats
Domino played predominantly to African American crowds. While these key early
rockers were indisposed to racism, local authorities and dance halls were very
much divided upon racial lines.
Mainstream acceptance of rock and roll came in the mid-1950s when what Bo
Diddley describes as 'ofay dudes' (or whites) signed to major labels and started
covering their material. Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy
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AFDA: School of MUSIC. © 2007
44 Frost Avenue, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
Holly, The Big Bopper, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash often toured and
played together in dance halls and clubs across the US and Britain.
Towards the end of the 1950s "chessboard" crowds (both black and white
patrons) would emerge at rock and roll concerts, as fans discovered the original
artists of the songs they knew from television and the radio, such as Little
Richard's "Tutti Frutti". The genre ignited British enthusiasm for rhythm and blues
and the development of British rock.
The mid-1950s-early 1960s

• Early British rock
In the United Kingdom the trad jazz movement brought visiting blues music
artists to Britain. Lonnie Donegan's 1955 hit "Rock Island Line" was a major
influence, and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the
country, including John Lennon's the Quarry Men, the 1957 precursor to The
Beatles. Britain developed a major rock and roll scene, without the race barriers
which kept "race records" or rhythm and blues separate in the U.S.
The Who released "My Generation" - 13th Mar 1967

Townshend's instrument-smashing became integral to their live performances.
Cliff Richard had the first British rock 'n' roll hit with "Move It", effectively ushering
in the sound of British rock. At the start of the 1960s, his backing group The
Shadows was one of a number of groups having success with surf music
instrumentals. And while rock 'n' roll was fading into lightweight pop and
schmaltzy ballads, at clubs and local dances British rock groups, heavily
influenced by blues-rock pioneers like Alexis Korner, were starting to play with an
intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts.
By the end of 1962, the British rock scene had started, with groups drawing on a
wide range of American influences including soul music, rhythm and blues and
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surf music. Initially, they reinterpreted standard American tunes, playing for
dancers doing the twist, for example. These groups eventually infused their
original rock compositions with increasingly complex musical ideas.
Cream live - 1967

Cream in Copenhagen performing a TV Special.
The Beatles brought together an appealing mix of image, songwriting and

personality, and achieved an unprecedented level of worldwide popularity. In
mid-1962 The Rolling Stones started as one of a number of groups increasingly
showing blues influence, along with The Animals and The Yardbirds. In late
1964, The Kinks, The Who and The Pretty Things represented the new Mod
style. Towards the end of the decade, British rock groups began to explore
psychedelic musical styles that made reference to the drug subculture and
hallucinogenic experiences.
Jimi Hendrix - 1960s

Hendrix played a Fender Stratocaster guitar turned upside down.
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After their initial success in the UK, the Beatles launched a large-scale US tour to
a frenzy of fan interest known as Beatlemania, which spread worldwide with the
Beatles' first visit to the US in 1964 including their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show
on 9 February 1964. In the wake of Beatlemania, other British bands headed to
the US, notably the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Yardbirds.
• 1960s garage rock
The British Invasion spawned a wave of imitators that played mainly to local
audiences and made inexpensive recordings, a movement later called garage
rock. Some music from this trend is included in the compilation album Nuggets.
Some of the better known bands of this genre include The Sonics, ? & the
Mysterians, and The Standells.
The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios - 24th June 1967

The Beatles before performing All You Need Is Love on live satellite link up.
• 1960s Surf music
The rockabilly sound influenced a wild, mostly instrumental sound called surf
music, though surf culture saw itself as a competing youth culture to rock and
roll. This style, exemplified by Dick Dale and The Surfaris, featured faster
tempos, innovative percussion, and reverb- and echo-drenched electric guitar
sounds. In the UK, British groups included The Shadows. Other West Coast
bands, such as The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean slowed the tempos down
and added lush harmony vocals to create what became known as the "California
Sound".
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Rock as a counterculture movement (1963-1974)
Woodstock - 1969
Joe Cocker's band setting up on stage.
In the late 1950s the US beatnik counterculture was associated with the wider
anti-war movement building against the threat of the atomic bomb, notably CND
in Britain. Both were associated with the jazz scene and with the growing folk
song movement.
• Folk rock
The folk scene was made up of folk music lovers who liked acoustic instruments,
traditional songs, and blues music with a socially progressive message. The folk
genre was pioneered by Woody Guthrie. Bob Dylan came to the fore in this
movement, and his hits with Blowin' in the Wind and Masters of War brought
"protest songs" to a wider public.
Bob Dylan in The Madhouse on Castle Street - 1962

Dylan's first visit Britain to take part in a BBC play called 'The Madhouse'.
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The Byrds, who playing Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, helped to start the
trend of folk rock, and helped to stimulate the development of psychedelic rock.
Dylan continued, with his "Like a Rolling Stone" becoming a US hit single. Neil
Young's lyrical inventiveness and wailing electric guitar attack created a variation
of folk rock. Other folk rock artists include Simon & Garfunkel, Joan Baez, The
Mamas & the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Bobby Darin and The Band.
In Britain, Fairport Convention began applying rock techniques to traditional

British folk songs, followed by groups such as Steeleye Span, Lindisfarne,
Pentangle, and Trees. Alan Stivell in Brittany had the same approach.
• Psychedelic rock
With a background including folk and jug band music, the Grateful Dead fell in
with Ken Kesey's LSD fuelled Merry Pranksters, playing at their Acid Tests then
providing an electric acid rock soundtrack to their Trips Festival of January 1966,
together with Big Brother & the Holding Company.
The Fillmore was a regular venue for groups like another former jug band,
Country Joe and the Fish, and Jefferson Airplane. Elsewhere, The Byrds had a
hit with Eight Miles High. The 13th Floor Elevators titled their album The
Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The music increasingly became
associated with opposition to the Vietnam War.
The Beatles - 1967

The Beatles outside Brian Epstein's house for Sgt. Pepper launch.
In England, Pink Floyd had been developing psychedelic rock since 1965 in the
underground culture scene. In 1966 the band Soft Machine was formed.
Donovan had a folk music-influenced hit with Sunshine Superman, one of the
early psychedelic pop records. In August 1966 The Beatles released their
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Revolver album, which featured psychedelia in Tomorrow Never Knows and in
Yellow Submarine, along with the memorable album cover. The Beach Boys
responded in the U.S. with Pet Sounds. From a blues rock background, the
British supergroup Cream debuted in December, and Jimi Hendrix became
popular in Britain before returning to the US.
1967 was the year when the psychedelic scene truly took off. Many pioneering
records came out including the first album from The Doors and Jefferson
Airplane's highly successful Surrealistic Pillow. The Beatles' groundbreaking
album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in June, and by the
end of the year Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Cream's
Disraeli Gears. As the Summer of Love reached its peak, the Monterey Pop
Festival went underway headlining the top bands of the genre including Jefferson
Airplane and also introducing Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to the mainstream.
The culmination of rock and roll as a socially-unifying force was seen in the rock
festivals of the late '60s, the most famous of which was Woodstock in 1969 which
began as a three-day arts and music festival and turned into a "happening", as
hundreds of thousands of youthful fans converged on the site.
• Progressive rock
Progressive rock bands went beyond the established rock music formulas by
experimenting with different instruments, song types, and musical forms. The
Who popularized the rock opera. Some bands such as Pink Floyd, The Moody
Blues, Procol Harum, and Deep Purple experimented with new instruments
including wind sections, string sections, and full orchestras.
Deep Purple release Machine Head - 1972

Deep Purple in Denmark in 1972, the year Machine Head was released.
Many of these bands moved well beyond the formulaic three-minute rock songs
into longer, increasingly sophisticated songs and chord structures. With
inspiration from these earlier artists, referred to as "proto-prog", it flowered into its
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own genre, initially based in the UK, after King Crimson's 1969 genre-defining
debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King. Progressive rock bands borrowed
musical ideas from classical, jazz, electronic, and experimental music.
Progressive rock songs ranged from lush, beautiful songs to atonal, dissonant,
and complex songs. Few achieved major mainstream success, but large cults
followed many of the groups. Pink Floyd, Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull, and a few less
notable others were able to work in hit singles to their otherwise complex and
untraditional albums to garner a larger audience.
Pink Floyd - 1973

Rick Wright, Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
By the late-1960s, German audiences began listening to progressive rock bands

from Britain and the United States. During this period, avant-garde musicians in
Germany were playing electronic classical music. These German avant-garde
musicians adapted their electronic instruments for a style of music that blended
progressive rock and psychedelic rock sounds. By the early 1970s, German
progressive rock (later called krautrock) bands were blending jazz (Can) and
Asian music (Popol Vuh). The music by bands such as and influenced the
development of techno and other related genres.
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David Bowie Live - 1970s
Bowie re-invented his music and image throughout his career.
In Italy progressive rock was also popular in the 1970s. Some Italian progressive
rock bands were Premiata Forneria Marconi, Le Orme, Banco del Mutuo
Soccorso and Area International Popular Group.
Although Pakistan has a long history of rock music producing legendary bands
such as Junoon and Strings it was only in the 90s that progressive rock made its
mark on Pakistani rock scene. One of the bands is Mizraab from the city of
Karachi who started of in 1996 with their first album An Abstract Point of View.
Then Panchi in 1999. Failing to leave an impact with their first albums Mizraab
launched their third album Mazi Haal Mustaqbil in 2004 which proved a great
success. Pakistani progressive rock is slowely gaining popularity and more
bands are making this kind of music.
In Turkey progressive rock began to grow with Barış Manço in the mid-1970s.
His symphonic-progressive rock album 2023, released in 1975, is one of the
most important albums in Turkey. He made a contribution to the other genres of
rock music with his other albums and became a famous rock star in Turkey.
• Soft rock
Rock music had a short-lived "bubble gum pop" era, of soft rock, including
groups such as The Partridge Family, The Cowsills, The Osmonds, and The
Archies. Other bands or artists added more orchestration and created a popular
genre known as soft rock. Performers included Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond,
Olivia Newton-John, and Eric Carmen, and groups such as Bread, The
Carpenters, Electric Light Orchestra, England Dan & John Ford Coley, and Tina
Turner.
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The mid to late 70s
• Heavy metal
A second wave of British rock bands became popular during the 70s, with groups
that were more steeped in American blues music than their more pop-oriented
predecessors. Bands such as Cream, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest,
Queen and Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep played highly amplified, guitar-driven
blues-rock.
Judas Priest - 1979

Rockers Judas Priest at the Cover shoot for the 'Live in Japan' LP.
These bands laid the foundations for the heavy metal rock sound. Heavy metal
languished into obscurity in the mid 1970s. A few bands including Queen,
AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith maintained large followings and there were
occasional mainstream hits such as Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) the Reaper".
Music critics overwhelmingly disliked the genre. This began to change in 1978
following the release of Van Halen's eponymous debut. The album helped to
usher in an era of high-energy rock and roll, based out of Los Angeles, California.
Black Sabbath - 1969

Early shot of Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward.
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• Arena rock
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Grand Funk Railroad and The Who began the
practice of live performances for large audiences in stadiums and arenas. The
growing popularity of metal and progressive rock led to more bands selling out
large venues. Entertainment companies marketed a series of arena rock bands,
such as: Journey, Boston, Styx, Heart, and Foreigner in the late 70s.
Although The Beatles did not find this form of performance to their taste, other
bands carried on, driving the development of technology for large scale concerts,
notably The Who, the Grateful Dead and Queen.
• Punk rock
Punk rock started off as a reaction to the lush, producer-driven sounds of disco,
and against the perceived commercialism of progressive rock that had become
arena rock. Early punk borrowed heavily from the garage band ethic: played by
bands for which expert musicianship was not a requirement, punk was stripped-
down, three-chord music that could be played easily. Many of these bands also
intended to shock mainstream society, rejecting the "peace and love" image of
the prior musical rebellion of the 1960s which had degenerated, punks thought,
into mellow disco culture. Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone stated, "In its
initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what
happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of Hendrix started
noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere. By 1973, I knew
that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bad rock 'n' roll". While
the Ramones were often regarded as the first punk band they had many
contemporaries from the same era in the New York scene. Artists like Patti
Smith, The Heartbreakers, and Television played the same fast paced, stripped-
down, style of rock, and often played shows along with the Ramones at
burgeoning club CBGB's.
The Ramones - 1970s

Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone and Tommy Ramone.
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In 1976 the Ramones, along with British punk band the Sex Pistols, went on a
tour of the United Kingdom. The tour was widely credited for inspiring the first
wave of English punk bands such as The Clash, The Damned, and The
Buzzcocks. In England, the music became a more violent and political form of
expression, represented with the Sex Pistols first two singles "Anarchy in the
U.K." and "God Save the Queen". Despite an airplay ban on the BBC, the
records rose to the top chart position in the UK. Other bands, like the Clash, were
less nihilistic, more overtly political and idealistic.
As the Sex Pistols toured America, they spread their music to the West Coast.
Before, punk was mostly an East Coast phenomenon in the US, with scenes in
New York and Washington D.C.. In the late 70s California punk bands such as
the Dead Kennedys, X and Black Flag, gained greater exposure.
The Sex Pistols shooting video - 1977

This shot was taken during the recording of the 'Pretty Vacant' video
• New Wave
Punk rock attracted devotees from the art and collegiate world and soon bands
sporting a more literate, arty approach, such as the Talking Heads, and Devo
began to infiltrate the punk scene; in some quarters the description New Wave
began to be used to differentiate these less overtly punk bands.
If punk rock was a social and musical phenomenon, it garnered little in the way of
record sales (small specialty labels such as Stiff Records had released much of
the punk music to date) or American radio airplay, as the radio scene continued
to be dominated by mainstream formats such as disco and album-oriented rock.
Record executives, who had been mostly mystified by the punk movement,
recognized the potential of the more accessible New Wave acts and began
aggressively signing and marketing any band that could claim a remote
connection to punk or New Wave. Many of these bands, such as The Cars and
the Go-Go's were essentially pop bands dressed up in New Wave regalia; others,
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including the Police and the Pretenders managed to parlay the boost of the New
Wave movement into long-lived and artistically lauded careers.
Between 1982 and 1985, influenced by Kraftwerk and Gary Numan, New Wave
went in the direction of such New Romantics as Duran Duran, A Flock of
Seagulls, Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk and the Eurythmics, sometimes using the
synthesizer to replace all other instruments. This period coincided with the rise of
MTV and led to a great deal of exposure for this brand of synth-pop. Some rock
bands reinvented themselves and profited too from MTV's airplay, for instance
Golden Earring, who had a second round of success with "Twilight Zone", but in
general the times of guitar-oriented rock were over. Although many "Greatest of
New Wave" collections feature popular songs from this era, New Wave more
properly refers to the earlier "skinny tie" rock bands such as the Knack or
Blondie.
• Post-punk
Alongside New Wave, post-punk developed as an outgrowth of punk rock.

Sometimes thought of as interchangeable with New Wave, post-punk was
typically more challenging, arty, and abrasive. The movement was effectively
started by the debut of Public Image Ltd. in 1978, formed by former Sex Pistols
singer John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten), and was soon joined by bands such
as Joy Division, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Fall, Gang of Four, and Echo &
the Bunnymen. Predominantly a British phenomenon, the genre continued into
the 1980s with some commercial exposure domestically and overseas, but the
most successful band to emerge from post-punk was Ireland's U2, which by the
late 1980s had become the biggest band in the world.
Rock diversifies in the 1980s

In the 1980s, popular rock diversified. This period also saw the New Wave of
British Heavy Metal. The early part of the decade saw Eddie Van Halen achieve
musical innovations in rock guitar, while vocalists David Lee Roth (of Van Halen)
and Freddie Mercury (of Queen as he had been doing throughout the 1970s)
raised the role of frontman to near performance art standards. Bono of U2 would
continue this trend. Concurrently, pop-New Wave bands remained popular, with
performers like Billy Idol and The Go-Go's gaining fame. American heartland rock
gained a strong following, exemplified by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Donnie
Iris, John (Cougar) Mellencamp and others. Led by the American folk singer-
songwriter Paul Simon and the British former prog rock star Peter Gabriel, rock
and roll fused with a variety of folk music styles from around the world; this fusion
came to be known as "world music", and included fusions like aboriginal rock.
Also, more extreme forms of rock music began to evolve; in the early eighties,
the harsh and aggressive thrash metal attracted large underground audiences
and a few bands, including Metallica and Megadeth, went on for mainstream
success.
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Springsteen on Born in the USA Tour - 1985
Bruce Springsteen's epic Born in the USA tour took him around the world.
• Glam metal (Hair metal)
One genre that was widely popular in the 1980s (c.1983) was glam metal. Taking
influence from various artists such as Aerosmith, Queen, Kiss, Alice Cooper (all
but Queen would eventually play glam metal at some point in the 80s), Sweet
and the New York Dolls. The earliest glam metal bands to gain notability
included: Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P. and Ratt. They became known for their
debauched lifestyles, teased hair and use of make-up and clothing. Their songs
were bombastic and often defiantly macho, with lyrics focused on sex, drinking,
drugs, and the occult.
Queen on Top of the Pops - 1970

(L-R) John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May. 1986
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By the mid 1980s, a formula developed in which a glam metal band had two hits -
- one a "power ballad" (slow-dance tempo, with soft verses and bombastic
anthemic choruses), and the other a hard-rocking anthem. In 1987 a second
wave of glam metal acts, sometimes referred to as sleaze rock, emerged
including: Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat. Guns N' Roses' debut
album, Appetite for Destruction, became a huge seller. The band would continue
its success into the early 90s, with the release of Use Your Illusion I & II.
• Instrumental rock
Instrumental rock was also popularised during this period with Joe Satriani's
release of Surfing with the Alien. With many heavy metal guitarists being
virtuosos, many of them felt constrained by their bands and were releasing solo
albums. Guitarists such as George Lynch, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen and
Steve Morse have all greatly contributed to the genre.
• Alternative music and the indie movement
The term alternative music (also often known as alternative rock) was coined in
the early 1980s to describe bands which didn't fit into the mainstream genres of
the time. Bands dubbed "alternative" could be most any style not typically heard
on the radio; however, most alternative bands were unified by their collective
debt to punk. Important bands of the '80s alternative movement included R.E.M.,
Sonic Youth, the Smiths, Pixies, Hüsker Dü, the Cure, and countless others.
Artists largely were confined to indie record labels, building an extensive

underground music scene based around college radio, fanzines, touring, and
word-of-mouth. Although these groups never generated spectacular album sales,
they exerted a considerable influence on the generation of musicians who came
of age in the 80s and ended up breaking through to mainstream success in the
1990s. Notable styles of alternative rock during the 80s include jangle pop, gothic
rock, college rock, and indie rock. The next decade would see the success of
grunge in the US and Britpop in the UK, bringing alternative rock into the
mainstream.
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The Pixies - 16th April 1992
The Pixies pictured after the release of 'Trompe Le Monde'
Success of hybrid genres (1994-1999)

• Pop punk
With the death of Kurt Cobain, rock and roll music searched for a new face,
sound, and trend. A second wave of alternative rock bands began to become
popular, with grunge declining in the mid-90s. A fusion of pop music and punk
rock, known as pop punk had been around since the 80s. In 1994 pop punk
bands Green Day and The Offspring brought the genre, to the mainstream with
their multi-platinum selling albums Dookie and Smash respectively. As the 90s
progressed other pop punk bands like Sum 41, Blink-182 and Good Charlotte
also experienced success. Anarchist or anti-establishment themes have been
common in pop punk music. In 2002 the album series Rock Against Bush was
introduced, in an effort to "change the government". Punk bands including Anti-
Flag, NOFX, Sum 41, Green Day, and The Offspring were showcased.
Nirvana - 1991
Kurt Cobain recording at Hilversum Studios in Holland.
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• Post-grunge
Also in the wake of Cobain's death, many considered grunge to have died with
him. A new style of music called post-grunge evolved. Much like the case of pop
punk and punk rock, post-grunge differed from grunge in its more mainstream
sound such as being more radio friendly. Bands like the Foo Fighters, Creed,
Fuel, Everclear, Live, and Seether spearheaded rock radio by playing this style of
music.
Female solo artist Alanis Morissette also found success while being labeled
under the post-grunge tag. In 1995 her album Jagged Little Pill became a major
hit by featuring blunt, revealing songs such as "You Oughta Know". Combining
the confessional, female-centered lyrics of artists such as Tori Amos with a post-
grunge, guitar-based sound created by producer Glen Ballard, it succeeded in
moving the introspection that had become so common in grunge to the
mainstream. The success of Jagged Little Pill influenced successful more pop-
oriented female artists during the late 90s including Fiona Apple and Jewel.
• Rapcore and Nu metal
In the early 90s bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine,
P.O.D. and later Deftones and Korn had brought a fresh sound by combining rap
and rock with much success. Later in the decade this style, which contained a
mix of grunge, metal, and hip-hop, became known as rapcore and spawned a
wave of successful bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. Many of these bands
also considered themselves a part of the similar genre nu metal.
Present day (2000-present)

• Internet influence
In the early 2000s the entire music industry was shaken by claims of massive
theft of music rights using file-sharing tools such as Napster, resulting in lawsuits
against private file-sharers by the recording industry group the RIAA.
During much of the 2000s, rock has not featured as prominently in album sales in
the US as in other countries such as the UK and Australia. By contrast to those
countries, hip hop music has dominated the US single charts, with artists such as
the Game, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Nelly, Eminem and Jay-Z. According to a
recent study by Teenage Research Unlimited, hip hop is the most popular format
of music among adults from ages 18-34 in the United States. R&B acts like
Mariah Carey, Usher and Alicia Keys are very popular on the pop charts,
although with the exception of Carey, none of these acts, rap or R&B, sell as
many albums as rock did. Nearly all of the best selling albums of all time are still
rock.
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The biggest factor that has contributed to the resurgence of rock music is the rise
of paid digital downloads in the 2000s. During the 90s, the importance of the
buyable music single faded when Billboard allowed singles without buyable,
album-separate versions to enter its Hot 100 chart (charting only with radio
airplay). The vast majority of songs bought on paid download sites are singles
bought from their albums; songs that are bought on a song-by-song basis off
artist's albums are considered sales of singles, even though they have no official
buyable single.
• Garage rock revival
After existing in the musical underground, garage rock saw a resurgence of

popularity in the early 2000s, with the garage rock revival. Bands like the White
Stripes, the Strokes, Jet, the Vines, and the Hives all released successful singles
and albums. This wave is often referred to as back-to-basics rock because of its
raw sound.
• Post-punk revival
Franz Ferdinand live - 7th September 2004

Franz Ferdinand at the 2004 Mercury Music Awards.
Additionally, the retro trend has led to a post-punk revival. Bands like Hot Hot
Heat, the Libertines, the Killers, Bloc party, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, the
Strokes, and the Bravery mix post-punk sensibilities with electronic beats, and
are among the UK's biggest selling artists.
Social impacts
The influence of rock and roll is far-reaching, and has had significant impact
worldwide on fashion, film styles. This impact is broad enough that "rock and roll"
may also be considered a lifestyle in addition to a form of music. Its impact has
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arguably been extremely positive as well, the phenomenal worldwide popularity
of many rockstars facilitating charity events such as Live Aid.
The spiritual aspects of music are undeniable, and rock music especially has
generated a discussion of where it lies in the scheme of good and evil. In 1966
John Lennon became infamous in the U.S. for a statement that The Beatles were
"more popular than Jesus," and other songwriters like Pete Townshend have
explored these spiritual aspects within their work. The common usage of the term
rock god acknowledges the religious quality of the adulation some rock stars
receive.
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Rock History

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Rock

Rock music is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody

Origins: Rock and roll

The mid-1950s-early 1960s

The Who released "My Generation" - 13th Mar 1967

Cream live - 1967

The Beatles brought together an appealing mix of image, songwriting and

Jimi Hendrix - 1960s

• 1960s garage rock

The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios - 24th June 1967

• 1960s Surf music

Bob Dylan in The Madhouse on Castle Street - 1962

In Britain, Fairport Convention began applying rock techniques to traditional

The Beatles - 1967

Deep Purple release Machine Head - 1972

Pink Floyd - 1973

By the late-1960s, German audiences began listening to progressive rock bands

Judas Priest - 1979

Black Sabbath - 1969

The Ramones - 1970s

The Sex Pistols shooting video - 1977

Alongside New Wave, post-punk developed as an outgrowth of punk rock.

Rock diversifies in the 1980s

• Glam metal (Hair metal)

Queen on Top of the Pops - 1970

• Alternative music and the indie movement

Artists largely were confined to indie record labels, building an extensive

Success of hybrid genres (1994-1999)

• Rapcore and Nu metal

Present day (2000-present)

• Garage rock revival

After existing in the musical underground, garage rock saw a resurgence of

Franz Ferdinand live - 7th September 2004

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