15T2 G1FP1 Week 10 - Heavy Rock - From Metal to Grunge

8/17/2019 15T2 G1FP1 Week 10 - Heavy Rock - From Metal to Grunge

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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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• 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

(more on this later).


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• 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.

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15T2 G1FP1 Week 10 - Heavy Rock - From Metal to Grunge