Post on 06-Jul-2018
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G1FP1
Foundations of Popular Contemporary Music
Trimester 2, 2015
LECTURE 1
Heavy Rock: From Metal to Grunge
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Heavy Metal
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The Roots of Heavy Metal
• What is it?
– Overdriven and distorted guitars
– Consistent rhythms – Harmonically complex. Or simple. It depends.
– Solid bass
– Heavy Metal Vocals – Heavy Metal Lyrics
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Where does it come from?
• Several roots of metal
• Folk / Blues
• Blues Rock• Psychedelic Rock
• Neo-Classical• Surf Rock / Garage Rock
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The First ‘Metal’
• Cream / Kinks / Hendrix
• Iron Butterfly / Steppenwolf
• Beatles (Helter Skelter, White Album)• Led Zeppelin
• Deep Purple• Black Sabbath
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Early ‘Metal’ Bands
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Deep Purple
• Formed 1968, inspired by Cream and the Who
• Keyboards: Jon Lord, Jazz educated organist.
Guitar: Ritchie Blackmore, classically
influenced (but self-taught) guitarist; Ian Gillan,vocals;
• Heavy, hard, keyboard dominated guitar: often
simple riffs• “Smoke on the Water”; Concerto for Orchestra
and Rock Band
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Black Sabbath
• Formed
• Hard riffs; introduces horror elements
• Lead vocalist John “Ozzy” Osbourne;
William ‘Geezer’ Butler on bass; Tony
Iommi on guitar; and Bill Ward on drums
• Much less musically sophisticated than
other groups
• Sociological and economic background.
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Metal in the 70s
• By the mid-70s, the first wave of Heavy
Metal bands was receding
― Punk and (later) New Wave was ascendant.
― Sales of Heavy Metal declined.
Inspired by Punk's lo-fi do-it-yourself ethos,
Heavy Metal bands began releasingcheaply recorded releases to small, devoted
audiences.
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The influence of Punk…
• Punk’s DIY ethic influences bands who
wish to play better, but couldn’t afford to
record, and don’t have the obvious appeal
to get a contract.
• Mötorhead combines both
punk and metal for an
energetic, aggressive
and loud musical experience
Ace of Spades Motörhead
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Metal in the 70sNew Wave of British Heavy Metal
NWOBHM bands:― Toned down the blues elements of earlier bands such
as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.
― Bands included: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon
― Incorporated elements of punk, though unlike punkstrived for (and often achieved) virtuosity.
― Increased the tempo
― Adopted a tougher sound
―
Fashioned the “look” of laterheavy metal.▪ i.e. long hair, denim jackets,
leather and chains
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Glam Metal
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Metal in the 80sVan Halen
• In 1980, Black Sabbath on
tour in the US were
regularly upstaged by their
opening act Van Halen― Eddie Van Halen
established himself as one
of the foremost guitarvirtuosos of the 80s
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Metal in the 80sGlam Metal
Inspired by Van Halen's success a metalscene began to develop in Southern
California: Glam Metal―
Influenced by traditional heavy metal of the earlier 1970sand incorporated the theatrics (and sometimes makeup) of
glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper and Kiss.
― The lyrics of these glam metal bands characteristically
emphasised hedonism and wild behavior.
Quiet Riot
Ratt
Mötley Crüe
W.A.S.P.Poison
Cinderella
80s Southern Californian H.M.
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Metal: The late 80s and beyond
• The rise of Thrash: Metallica, Slayer,
Anthrax, Megadeth.
• Fusion with Hip Hop.
– Bodycount
– Anthrax/Public Enemy
• The rise of sub-genres: – Funk metal – RHCP, Faith No More.
– Death metal/back metal/doom metal
– Nu-Metal
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Grunge
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What influenced Grunge?
• Punk
• Classic Rock
• Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
• Is Grunge Heavy Metal? Yes. No.
Maybe...
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Punk• Evolves as a
reaction to
psychedelia, disco
and classic rock
• An attempt to
retrieve rock for
working classes
• Trained musiciansdisparaged: 3
chords is enough
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Ok, what about grunge?
• Although Seattle is most associated with grunge, it
was found throughout the US
• Australia also had proto-grunge bands which have
major influence
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The origins of grunge
• Many bands played what we might
call grunge: most of them came from
the punk rock tradition• Music in the 1980s: corporatised;
'glam metal'; 'processed' (use of
synthesisers)• Always a reaction...
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The early grunge bands
• Many influences on punkwere also influences on
grunge bands
• Iggy and the Stooges; Alice
Cooper
• Neil Young (Canadian
rocker and folkie...)
• The Pixies
• Sonic Youth
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The Australian Factor
• In Australia, a thriving pub scene.
• By the mid 1980s, bands that might be called
'indie' or 'grunge' were starting to be prominent.
• X; Hard On’s; Cosmic Psychos; Beasts of
Bourbon; Jimmy and the Boys; The Scientists;
The Birthday Party (Nick Cave).
• Some release overseas, but mostly fueled through
JJJ, the live scene and independent record
companies.
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The Australian Factor
• Through a thriving network of independent labels,
recordings by Australian indie and alternative bands
had been drifting into Seattle for years. When the
Cosmic Psychos played there in 1990, they were
amazed at their following.
• The specific Melbourne-Seattle connection can be
traced to the early ’80s, when local rock fan Bruce
Milne started swapping his cassette fanzine, Fast
Forward , with another one in Seattle called Sub Pop
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The Australian Factor
• Based on his success in Europe, Kim Salmon
thinks the Australian influence may have been
underestimated by history. “For a while there,” he
says, “I felt that Australia was where credible hardrock was coming from. A lot of people think it died
after the Sex Pistols’ punk thing and it was reborn
with grunge, but there was sort of a missing link
there, and it was in Australia.” – From, The Age Grunge city February 23, 2005
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The scene...
• Like Melbourne, the localmusic scene in Seattle is
thriving, though it is a small
audience, many bands
form.
• Mudhoney (which came out
of Green River)
• Mother Love Bone (which
later morphed into PearlJam)
• The Melvins (still touring)
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Why Seattle?
• Seattle’s isolation – from music scene
(NYC & LA) – from media.
• Bands couldn’t get signed, so created their
own local industry
• High youth unemployment
• Sub-Pop’s singles club
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Nirvana
• Nirvana become the firstinternationally prominent
grunge band
• Nevermind
• Based around Kurt Cobain's
songs, Dave Grohl's drumming
and Krist Novosolic's bass
playing
• Nevermind became a genre
defining album
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The impact on music
• Labels see the success of Nevermind
• Sign minor label bands to major
labels.• 'Smells Like Teen Spirit': massive hit
• Pearl Jam: Ten
• Soundgarden
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Soundgarden
• Formed 1984
• First grunge band to be
signed to a major label
• Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil,Hiro Yamamoto (replaced by
Ben Shepherd); Matt
Cameron (from 1986)
• Superunknown (single: 'BlackHole Sun')
• Break up 1997; reunite 2010
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Alice in Chains
• Formed 1987
• Layne Staley; Jerry Cantrell;
Sean Kinney; Mike Starr
(later replaced by Mike Inez)
• Jar of Flies and eponymous
album both reach Billboard
#1
• Death of Layne Staley 2002
• Reunites 2005 with new
vocalist
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Pearl Jam
• On demise of Mother LoveBone, Pearl Jam formed
• allmusic.com: 'The most
popular American Rock and
Roll band of the 90s'
• Eddie Vedder; Stone Gossard;
Jeff Ament and Mike
McCready. Matt Cameron is
the drummer (see
Soundgarden)
http://allmusic.com/http://allmusic.com/
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Silverchair
• formed in 1992 as the InnocentCriminals in Newcastle, NSW
• Got their big break in 1994
when they won a national
demo competition conductedby SBS TV show Nomad and
ABC radio station, Triple J.
• Their second album ‘Freak
Show’ was certified gold in the
US, 4× platinum in Australia
and global sales eventually
exceeded 1.5 million copies.
Successful Australian heavy rock and
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Successful Australian heavy rock and
alternative rock bands
• AC-DC• Baby Animals
• The Screaming Jets
• Silverchair
• TISM
• Powderfinger
• Regurgitator
• Dirty Three
• The Living End
• You Am I• The Vines
• Spiderbait
• Wolfmother
• Jet
• Airbourne
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What happened next
• Many 'similar' bands appear:Stone Temple Pirates, Hole;
Babes in Toyland, Smashing
Pumpkins.
• 'Independent' goes
mainstream
• Unplugged; Grammys
• Pressure Builds
• 1994: Cobain commits
suicide
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The Death of Grunge
• Cobain's suicide has deep ramifications
• Nirvana splits: Novosolic eventually enters politics.
Nothing is ever heard of Dave Grohl again.
( Actually… forms Foo-Fighters)
• Records sales start to slide (though not Pearl Jam)
• Other genres start to become prominent: Britpop (areaction to grunge (though only limited success in the
US)
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Conclusion
• Grunge has many parallels to punk
• Rather than though destroying
grunge (like what some sayhappened with grunge) industry is
able to absorb it.
• Still a force, though it is argued theterm 'indie' is devalued.