RESEARCH INTO ROCK MUSIC

Rock music, is a popular genre of music amongst millions around the world; it evolved from rock ‘n’ roll and pop music during the mid and late 1960’s developing later into various styles as the years went on, particularly in the United States and UK. Other genres influenced the making of the genre, these genres are; electric blues, folk and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other sources of music.

Rock music had a huge influence on fashion in the world and the ways in which music videos were made. It is seen by many that it had a positive impact due to worldwide events that have come out of it such as Live Aid and numerous other music events that take place. Funk rock is the combination of rock and funk with many instruments being incorporated into the music that is produced; the music is mainly heard with the use of drums, electric guitars and bass guitars. The drums and bass get their sounds from funk but have been intensified giving it the rock music feel to it.

Audience

• Majority of the music is listened to by the younger generation, with a lot of these people being white people both male and female.

• The music has always emphasises masculinity with a large majority of bands in this genre being male based with few female rock bands.

• The audience often seem to be interested in the same style of clothing, linking them all together and giving them their own identity around the world with people referring to them as moshers, emos, goths etc.

• In a recent survey of 100 people, it showed that out of the 100 people that took part in the survey, 63 people liked rock music making it an extremely popular genre of music around the world.

Bands

The Beatles;• An English rock band from Liverpool in the 1960’s.• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and George Harrison the four members that were

in the band• They were given credit for influencing and the developing a new style of rock music that

changed rock music forever, making them one of the most recognised bands in history.• The music produced was unique with the lyrics of their songs being very easy to follow and

were catchy making it hard not to sing along to.

Nirvana;• An American rock band formed in 1987 by lead singer and guitarist, Kurt Cobain.• After the death of Cobain in 1994, the band went their separate ways with drummer Dave

Grohl forming one of the biggest bands known, Foo Fighters.• Before the death of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana headlined the Reading Festival in 1992 showing

the success they had made in the 5 years they had been together when reaching this point.

Genres

Alternative rock;• A genre of rock music that has come from the independent music underground, 1980’s and

has since become very popular in the 1990’s-2000’s.• Alternative rock came appeared in the wake of the genre punk rock since the mid 1980’s.• It has been defined by its rejection of commercialism of mainstream culture, however,

since contested, many alternative artists have achieved mainstream success or co-opted with major labels from 1990’s onwards.

Dance rock;• Dance rock is a post disco genre that has been linked with electronic and pop rock just with

fewer rhythms and blues.• It developed in the early 80’s after the ‘death’ of disco and punk. Spandau Ballet being the

most recognised band in the genre.

Genres Continued…

Electronic rock;• Electronic rock, a genre that is produced by the use of electronic instruments. It is also

highly dependent on technological developments.• Late 1960’s rock music began to use electronic instruments with the use of musical

synthesizers becoming available for musicians in the mid 60’s.• Bands that are associated with this genre; Linkin Park, Muse, The Prodigy and Pendulum.

Funk Rock;• A genre of music that blends funk and rock elements together. The earliest experience on

record was in the late 1960’s right through to the mid 1970’s, by bands such as; Jimi Hendrix Experience.

• During the 80’s and 90’s funk rock experienced an increase in popularity with bands such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers mixing funk rock with different genres such as; heavy metal, hip hop, experimental rock and punk rock and this lead to the development of funk rock sub genre funk metal.

Funk rockGlam rockHard rockIndie rockPop rockPunk rock

Genres Continued…

Glam Rock;• A genre of music developed in the UK in the early 70’s combining rock and pop music, it

was performed by artists who wore outrageous clothing, make up and hairstyles. • It peaked during the mid 70’s with artists such as; David Bowie in the UK and the Alice

Cooper group.• It declined in the mid 70’s but influenced other genres including punk, gothic rock, glam

metal and new romantics and has since been revived in the 90’s.

Hard Rock;• Hard rock, a sub genre of rock music that came around in the mid 60’s with the garage,

psychedelic and blues rock movements.• Uses aggressive rock vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums and is often

accompanied with the use of pianos and keyboards. • Was developed into a major form of popular music in the 70’s with bands along the lines of

Led Zepplin, The Who, Deep Purple, Aerosmith and ACDC.• During the 80’s, some hard rock bands turned towards pop rock while others began to

return to hard rock.

Indie rockPop rockPunk rock

Genres Continued…

Indie Rock;• A genre of alternative rock that originated in the UK in the 80’s. it was diverse with sub

genres including indie pop, jangle pop and lo-fi. • Originally used to describe record labels, the term was associated with the music they

produced and was initially used with alternative rock.

Pop Rock;• A genre of music that has a catchy pop style and light lyrics, guitar based rock songs.• The term pop rock has been used to describe more commercially successful music that

used elements from rock music.• Pop rock is often deride as a slick, commercial product and is less authentic than rock

music.

Punk rock;• Punk rock is a genre of music that was developed between 1974-76 in the US, UK and

Australia.• Punk bands often use short or fast paced songs, with hard edged melodies and singing

styles, stripped down instruments and often political lyrics.