https://www.weblogs.com/userservice?action=activateuser&key=2c96140f0d2229c8010d2fd28766005c House of Rock: Rock diversifies in the 1980s

House of Rock

House of Rock is dedicated to all the rock bands that have rocked the world. Here you will find information about rock music, the origins, the various genres and also information on bands, their lyrics, pictures and interviews. Do enjoy your stay here and do come back often… ROCK NEVER DIES!!!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Rock diversifies in the 1980s

Search Engine Submission & Optimization

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 1970's) raised the role of frontman to near performance art standards. Bono of U2 would continue this trend. Concurrently, pop-New Wave bands remained popular, while pop-punk performers, like Billy Idol and The Go-Go's, gained fame. American heartland rock gained a strong following, exemplified by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, 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.

Hard rock, glam metal and Instrumental rock

See also: Hard rock, Heavy metal music, and Instrumental rock
Heavy metal languished in obscurity until the mid- or late 1970s. A few hard rock bands maintained large followings, like Queen, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, and there were occasional mainstream hits, like Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper". Music critics overwhelmingly hated the genre, and mainstream listeners generally avoided it because of its strangeness. However this changed in 1978 with the release of the hard rock band Van Halen's eponymous debut, which ushered in an era of widely popular, high-energy rock and roll, based out of Los Angeles, California.

The most popular rock genre of the 1980s, was that of group of glam metal. Taking influence from various artists such as Aerosmith, the Sweet, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The earliest glam metal bands to gain notability are often considered as Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P., and Ratt. They became known for their debauched lifestyles, teased hair, use of make-up and clothing. Their songs were bombastic, aggressive, and often defiantly macho, with lyrics focused on sex, drinking, drugs, and the occult.

By the mid 1980s, a formula developed in which a glam metal band had two hits -- one a "power ballad" (slow-dance tempo, but just as loud and driving as anything else by the group), and the other a hard-rocking anthem. The original line-up of Van Halen broke up in 1985. In 1987 a subgenre of glam metal emmerged that would change it forever, spearheaded by, L.A. Guns, Faster Pussycat, and most famously Guns N' Roses whos debut album Appetite for Destruction, became phenomenally successful. Until glam metal's demise in the early-1990s, Guns N' Roses were hard rock's standard-bearers, and influenced its sound by incorporating influences from punk rock, and blues.

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. A notable exception to the low album sales that followed alternative rock is U2, whose continual stylistic re-invention found mainstream success in the late 1980s. 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.

Google

View My Stats More blogs about