Music Banter - View Single Post - Rock/Metal/Prog Education Thread
View Single Post
Old 02-03-2006, 04:33 PM   #6 (permalink)
Merkaba
Whitewater!
 
Merkaba's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 2,885
Default

Country Rock

This is country music (a blend of blues, gospel, and folk that came from early western civilisations) fused with rock music. This style of music has generally always been around since the birth of rock but it’s around the late 60’s to early 70’s where the country sound really came across strong and there were also a few major artists making this particular style of music.

Examples: Neil Young, The Byrds and even later outfits such as The Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Folk Rock
This can be referred to as the tidy genre. The music is completely clean. The guitar work is free of distortion, the vocals are crisp and harmonious and can be associated with early Northern American white people. The boundaries of this genre are always hard to define, as it is so similar to Celtic rock.

Examples: Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills and Nash, Bob Dylan

Funk Rock

Four words. Red Hot Chili Peppers. There are others but these are world renowned artists and attempting to define Funk Rock while separating it from Avant rock would be a nightmare. Basically Funk Rock is a large portion of drum and bass, electric guitaring and sharp vocals with an upbeat attitude. Funk Rock is meant to sound happy, enthusiastic, or happy while aggressive.

Examples: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trapeze, Incubus, (some) Sublime

Garage/Punk Rock(See the Punk Education Thread in the Punk Forum)

This is raw, undiluted rock. The music is fast paced, short and aggressive. Garage rock is linked to young artists or poor artists who couldn’t afford a big label so they set up shop in their own garages and belted out rock that was heavily inspired by bands like the Beatles and much of the British Invasion.

Examples: (Early) The Count Five, The Seeds. (Modern) Jet, The Hives, The Strokes.

Glam Rock

Like Arena Rock, this is not so much about the music, but about things associated with the music. Glam Rock is about the image an artist conveys. Generally Glam Rock meant the artist wore glittery outfits or objects of a glamorous nature. Often these costumes were outrageous and definitely earned them the spotlight.

Examples: David Bowie, Brian Eno, Slade, Members of T-Rex

Gothic Rock

Emerging after the punk surge in the 70’s gothic music was originally rooted in the punk music of that time. But later on it became more and more involved in the literary sides of symbolism and philosophical ideas of religion and mysticism. Being involved in all this symbolism and not so much the punk music, has made the gothic genre kind of redundant, because it now isn’t so much of a genre as it’s more of a culture or image.

Examples: Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend, Marilyn Manson, Southern Death Cult.

Hard Rock

Hard Rock in its simplest form, is aggressive Rock n Roll. While the range of Hard Rock is vast, the structures are all very similar from song to song. A general layout for a hard rock song consists of: Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental, chorus, outro. Hard Rock is meant to consist of High Energy aggression with charged vocals and often has a menacing guitar riff of some sort.

Examples: ACDC, Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, Deep Purple.

Instrumental Rock

This is rock music with no singing. Usually a popular song is nothing without some form of catchy chorus but when done right these instrumentals could also become popular hits too such as Honky Tonk by Bill Doggett Combo. The instrumentals range from funk tunes, to the Blues, to Metal.

Examples: Steve Vai, Lee Allen, Jimmy Reed, Joe Satriani.

J-Rock

Japanese Rock. Japanese vocals accompanied by the standard rock set up of bass guitar and drums.

Examples: After Dinner, YB02, Kenso

Krautrock

Krautrock is pretty much all things German. The earliest Krautrock took off around the world in the 60’s with their mechanical style of music, it was precise and predictable but people loved it. Since then they’ve helped develop the world of industrial, progressive and psychedelic rock. The Germans are also pretty damn prominent in the electronic department of music.

Examples: Tangerine Dream, Can, Faust, Mouse On Mars, Cluster

Math Rock

This style emerged just before the 90’s or around the late 80’s. It is a very complex genre accompanying unorthodox meters. While most rock uses a 4 beat meter, math rock incorporates beats of 7/8, 11/8 or 13/8 creating complex structural layouts. Vocals aren’t often the main focus of math rock as the music is complex enough to pull off it’s own fan base and attention. Many Math Rock bands so far have been purely instrumental. For a glimpse of early, early Math Rock, check out bands like Genesis, King Crimson and Pink Floyd. They won’t be mentioned in the examples since they’re mainly Progressive Rock but bands as such, paved the way for the intentional Math Rock of today.

Examples: The Blood Brothers, Autoclave, Crain, Hella.

Medieval Rock

This genre does not refer to music of medieval times, but is of a medieval nature. The music is often of a Celtic or Folk genre. The interesting part is that the lyrics are often poems or melodies from medieval times. In rare occasions you will get bands using authentic medieval instrumentation while other bands require synthesisers. Harps and other various string objects are not uncommon. Be aware of the similarity this genre has with Celtic Rock, the minor differences will likely be in the style of lyrics.

Examples: Cultus Ferox, In Extremo, Subway To Sally.

Modern Rock

Is not so much a genre, but more or less a constantly changing definition for the music of today. In the 70’s Modern Rock meant mainstream artists who were popular on the airwaves. The Modern Rock of the 70’s is now known as Classic Rock. The Modern Rock for today is music associated with pop-punk, emo and Nu metal. As you can see Modern rock simply refers to the music of today.

Examples: Linkin Park, Offspring, Bad Religion, Heroin.

Noise Rock

This is punk rock mixed with an Avant style of musicianship. It’s basically distorted, fast hardcore techno music with an intense amount of energy. Early influences came in the form of Velvet Underground and some of The Stooges work.

Examples: God Is My Co-Pilot, The Locust, Mindflayer, Scratch Acid

Piano Rock

Speaks for itself. Mainly known as a sub-genre of Pop Rock, this is for artists who use Piano as their instrument of choice.

Examples: Elton john, Missy Higgins, Coldplay, Billy Joel

Pop Rock

Okay this is both Pop music with a Rock edge and Rock music with a Pop edge. Again The Beatles are the first recognised Pop Rock artist and with the amount of success they had it’s not surprising. Pop is music that is traditionally popular with the masses and there are certain simplistic things done to make it this style of music, be it a catchy beat or a fun sing-a-long chorus. And when this is mixed with rock we get an amped version of Pop or what true rock fans regard as a watered down version of Rock music.

Examples: Lifehouse, Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, The Beatles

Psychedelic Rock

Psychedelic refers to the experience the mind has when in an almost subliminal state. The boundaries of this genre are not clearly defined and spill into Stoner Rock, Acid Rock, and Progressive Rock among others. The aim is to create trippy pieces of music using vocals that either flitter or are of a low rumble. The bass is usually quite prominent to create a heavy, sedated feel and the guitar riffs are very distorted and either very jumpy or smooth and paralysing. The Beatles Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is the first recognised album to incorporate psychedelic features. Bands from all over the rock world can fit into this genre.

Examples: Ozric Tentacles, Kyuss, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind

Rockabilly/Rock N Roll

Alrighty then. This is where much of all rock music formed. A fusion of all things good and nice, some Blues, Folk, Western, Bluegrass, Country and more made up the genre of Rock. Rockabilly incorporates a good portion of Western and hillbilly music, the beat is rather bouncy and feels enthusiastic. The genre wasn’t at first noted thanks to artist experimentation but it was thanks to the work of some early producers who incorporated distinct hillbilly style instrumentation. Such producers include Sam Philips and Leonard Chess.

Examples: Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis
Merkaba is offline   Reply With Quote