Genre:
Metal
Music
Heavy
metal is a form of music characterized by aggressive,
driving rhythms and highly amplified distorted guitars,
generally with grandiose lyrics and virtuosic instrumentation.
Heavy metal is a development of blues, blues rock, rock
and prog rock. Its origins lie in the hard rock bands
who between 1967 and 1974 took blues and rock and created
a hybrid with a heavy, guitar and drums centered sound.
Heavy metal had its peak popularity in the 1980s, during
which many of the now existing subgenres first evolved.
Although not as commercially successful as it was then,
heavy metal still has a large world-wide following.
Early
examples and influences
American
blues music was highly popular and influential among the
early British rockers; bands like the Rolling Stones and
the Yardbirds had recorded covers of many classic blues
songs, sometimes speeding up the tempo and using electric
guitar where the original used acoustic. (Similar adaptations
of blues and other race music had formed the basis of
the earliest rock and roll, notably that of Elvis Presley).
Such
powered-up blues music was encouraged by the intellectual
and artistic experimentation that arose when musicians
started to exploit the opportunities of the electrically
amplified guitar to produce a louder, more discordant
sound. Where blues-rock drumming styles had been largely
simple shuffle beats on small drum kits, drummers began
using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach
to match and be heard with the increasingly loud guitar
sounds; similarly vocalists modified their technique and
increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming
more stylised and dramatic in the process. Simultaneous
advances in amplification and recording technology made
it possible to successfully capture the power of this
heavier approach on record.
The
earliest music commonly identified as heavy metal came
out of the Birmingham area of the United Kingdom in the
late 1960s when bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath
applied an overtly non-traditional approach to blues standards
and created new music often based on blues scales and
arrangements. These bands were highly influenced by American
psychedelic rock musicians including Jimi Hendrix, who
had pioneered amplified and processed blues-rock guitar
and acted as a bridge between black American music and
white European rockers.
Other
oft-cited influences include Vanilla Fudge, who had slowed
down and psychedelicised pop tunes, as well as earlier
British rockers such as The Who and The Kinks, who had
paved the way for heavy metal styles by introducing power
chords and more aggressive percussion to the rock genre.
Another key influence was Cream, who exemplified the power
trio format that would become a staple of heavy metal.
Some also cite The Beatles as a key influence; they had
increasingly used distortion and heavier arrangements
as early as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Perhaps
the earliest song that is clearly identifiable as prototype
heavy metal is "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks
(1965). By late 1968 heavy blues sounds were becoming
common: many fans and scholars point to Blue Cheer's 1968
cover of Eddie Cochran's hit "Summertime Blues"
as the first true heavy-metal song; Beatles scholars cite
in particular the song "Helter Skelter" from
The White Album (1968), which set new standards for distortion
and aggressive sound on a pop album. Dave Edmunds' band
Love Sculpture released an aggressive heavy guitar version
of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance in November 1968. The Jeff
Beck Group's album Truth (late 1968) was an important
and influential rock album released just before Led Zeppelin's
first album, leading some (especially British blues fans)
to argue that Truth was the first heavy metal album. The
Yardbirds' 1968 single "Think About It" should
also be mentioned, as that employed a similar sound to
that which Jimmy Page would employ with Led Zeppelin.
However, it was the release of Led Zeppelin in 1969 that
brought worldwide notice of the formation of a new genre.
The
early heavy metal bands, like Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep,
UFO and Black Sabbath are often called hard rock bands
rather than heavy metal, especially those bands whose
sound was more similar to traditional rock music. In general,
the terms heavy metal and hard rock are often used interchangeably,
in particular when discussing the 1970s. Indeed, many
such bands are not categorised as "heavy metal bands"
per se, but rather as having contributed individual songs
or works that contributed to the genre; few would consider
Jethro Tull a heavy metal band in any real sense, for
example, but few would dispute that their song Aqualung
was a quintessential early Heavy Metal song.
Many
people, including Heavy Metal musicians of prominent groups,
believe that the foundations of the definite style and
sound of pure heavy metal were laid down by Judas Priest
(another Birmingham band) with three of their early albums:
"Sad Wings Of Destiny" (1976), "Sin After
Sin" (1977) and "Stained Class" (1978).
(Although Rainbow are also sometimes cited as pioneering
the pure heavy metal genre, although one could also make
this claim about the later albums of Deep Purple such
as Burn and Stormbringer, these bands are generally considered
to be hard rock bands).
Origins
of "heavy metal"
The
origin of the term heavy metal is uncertain. An early
use of the term was by counter-culture writer William
S. Burroughs. In his 1962 novel The Soft Machine, he introduces
the character "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid".
His next novel in 1964 Nova Express, develops this theme
further, heavy metal being a metaphor for addictive drugs.
"With
their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite
life forms - Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool
blue mist of vaporized bank notes - And the Insect People
of Minraud with metal music"
Burroughs,
William S, (1964). Nova Express. New York: Grove Press.
p. 112
Given
the publication dates of these works it is unlikely that
Burroughs had any intent to relate the term to rock music;
however Burroughs' writing may have influenced later usage
of the term.
The
first use of the term "heavy metal" in a song
lyric is the words "heavy metal thunder" in
the 1968 Steppenwolf song "Born to be Wild"
(Walser 1993, p. 8):
"I
like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under"
The
word "heavy" (meaning serious or profound) had
entered beatnik/counterculture slang some time earlier,
and references to "heavy music"—typically
slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were
already common; indeed, Iron Butterfly first started playing
Los Angeles in 1967, their name explained on an album
cover, "Iron- symbolic of something heavy as in sound,
Butterfly- light, appealing and versatile...an object
that can be used freely in the imagination" Iron
Butterfly's 1968 debut album was entitled Heavy. The fact
that Led Zeppelin (whose moniker came partly in reference
to Keith Moon's jest that they would "go down like
a lead balloon") incorporated a heavy metal into
its name may have sealed the usage of the term.
In
the late 1960s, Birmingham, England was still a centre
of industry and (given the many rock bands that evolved
in and around the city, such as Led Zeppelin, The Move,
and Black Sabbath) some people suggest that the term Heavy
Metal may have some relation to such activity. Biographies
of The Move have claimed that the sound came from their
'heavy' guitar riffs that were popular amongst the 'metal
midlands'.
Sandy
Pearlman, original producer, manager and songwriter for
the Blue Öyster Cult, claims to have been the first
person to apply the term "heavy metal" to rock
music in 1970.
A
widespread but disputed hypothesis about the origin of
the genre was brought forth by "Chas" Chandler,
who was a manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969,
in an interview on the PBS TV programme "Rock and
Roll" in 1995. He states that "...it [heavy
metal] was a term originated in a New York Times article
reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance", and claims
the author described the Jimi Hendrix Experience "...like
listening to heavy metal falling from the sky". The
precise source of this claim, however, has not been found
and its accuracy is disputed.
The
first well-documented usage of the term "heavy metal"
referring to a style of music, appears to be the May 1971
issue of Creem, in a review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom
Come. In this review we are told that "Sir Lord Baltimore
seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks
in the book".
Regardless
of its origin, heavy metal may have been used as a jibe
initially but was quickly adopted by its adherents. Other,
already-established bands, such as Deep Purple, who had
origins in pop or progressive rock, immediately took on
the heavy metal mantle, adding distortion and additional
amplification in a more aggressive approach.
History
The
1970s history of heavy metal music is highly debated among
music historians. Some would call the period an era of
"selling-out", in which bands like Blue Öyster
Cult achieved moderate mainstream success and the Los
Angeles hair metal scene began finding pop audiences,
especially in the 1980s. Others ignore or downplay the
importance of these bands, instead focusing on the arrival
of classical influences, which can be heard in the work
of Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads and such like. Others
still highlight the late-70s cross-fertilization of heavy
metal with fast-paced, youthful punk rock (e.g. Sex Pistols),
culminating in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal around
the year 1980, led by bands like Judas Priest and Iron
Maiden. In the 1980s and onwards, heavy metal further
spawned a host of new "metal" genres such as
death metal.
The
explosion of guitar virtuosity (pioneered by Jimi Hendrix
a musical generation earlier) was brought to the fore
by Eddie Van Halen, and many consider his 1978 solo "Eruption"
(Van Halen, 1978) a milestone. Ritchie Blackmore (formerly
of Deep Purple), Randy Rhoads (with pioneers Ozzy Osbourne
and Quiet Riot) and Yngwie Malmsteen went on to solidify
this explosion of virtuoso guitar work, and in some cases,
classical guitars and nylon-stringed guitars were played
at heavy metal concerts. Classical icons such as Liona
Boyd also became associated with the heavy metal stars
as peers in a newly diverse guitar fraternity where conservative
and aggressive guitarists could come together to "trade
licks".
This
explosion would cool down in the music of Ronnie James
Dio (who himself had a tenure at lead vocals with the
legendary Black Sabbath) and continue to settle towards
Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, who may be the final and
complete consummation of "pure" heavy metal
in the lineage of the "grandfathers" - Hendrix,
Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. After Iron
Maiden, metal would push the limits of aggressive loudness
in thrash metal, speed metal, black metal and death metal.
In
a separate development, taking place mostly in the U.S.,
heavy metal would return full circle through the pop vanity
of the L.A. scene, led by Mötley Crüe. During
the 1980s, a pop-based form of hard-rocking heavy metal
(sometimes referred to as "hair metal" due to
the long, curled hair of band members) dominated the music
charts in some parts of the world, and superstars like
Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Poison, Mötley Crüe,
and Ratt helped lead the way. While their music has endured
as representative of a particular view, time and place,
this form is not always seen by metal purists as a particularly
pure or well-executed form of metal. Grunge music appeared
as a popularised endpoint of the punk rock-influenced
alternative rock music of the 1990s which fought any mainstream
influence (seen as "selling out") articularly
reacted against overly-aggressive and increasingly formulaic
hair metal bands from Ratt to Extreme. Grunge evolved
out of Seattle in the work of Alice In Chains, Nirvana,
Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Cover
versions of classic rock songs would become a standard
part of many metal bands' repertoire. Notable is Mötley
Crüe's version of "Helter Skelter" which
very strongly brings to the fore the heavy metal undertones
implied in the Beatles song.
Instrumentation
The
most commonly used line-up for metal is: a drummer, sometimes
using a double bass-drum, a bass guitar, a rhythm guitar,
a lead guitar (in early metal bands a single guitarist
often sufficed -- see power trio), and a singer (who is
sometimes also one of the instrumentalists); sometimes
a keyboard player can also be found. Guitar playing is
very important in heavy metal. Amplification of guitars,
as well as innovative effects and electronic processing
is used to thicken the sound. The result was a simple
yet powerful impact (although some of the original heavy
metallers joked that their simplified sound was more the
result of limited ability than of innovation.).
There
is a great variety of ways that heavy metal singers sing,
from mid-range clean vocals to a high-pitched wail to
a deep growl. The black and death metal scene tend to
use distorted and guttural voices called death grunts
(as exemplified by the Florida band Death). Generally,
it is hard to understand what the singer is "singing".
Often, the text is considered to be too crude to be spoken
out clearly (such as in Cannibal Corpse), but there are
some bands that will have very good lyrics obscured by
the style of the singing.
Intricate
solos and riffs are a big part of heavy metal music. Guitarists
use sweep-picking, tapping and similar techniques to obtain
amazingly fast playing. Heavy metal is not limited, however,
to the standard outfit of guitars and drums. The Finnish
cello quartet, Apocalyptica, has created their own version
of heavy metal, difficult to categorise but leaning towards
the darker side of metal. They apply various familiar
effects to their sounds such as the all-familiar distortion,
chorusing, flanging, etc. to create their style, which
has fallen under a mixed assortment of applause and criticism
due to their deviance.
The
American band Grand Funk Railroad was one of the early
proto-heavy metal bands (along with The Who, etc.) who
set new benchmarks for volume levels during shows. The
volume of the music was seen as the important factor rather
than its musical qualities; though this influence is often
denigrated as pointless extravagance, it has proven enormously
influential and still dominates many people's perceptions
of the genre. Motörhead and Manowar are more recent
examples of bands that pride themselves of keeping the
volume very high (cf. Manowar's 1984 song "All Men
Play On Ten").
Themes
Heavy
metal, as an art form, is more than just music; it is
as much visual as it is audible. Album covers and stage
shows are almost as important to the presentation of the
material as the music itself. Thus, through heavy metal,
many artists collaborate to produce a menu of experiences
in each piece, offering a wider range of experiences to
the audience. In this respect, heavy metal becomes perhaps
more of a diverse art form than any single form dominated
by one method of expression. Whereas a painting is experienced
visually, a symphony experienced audibly, a heavy metal
band's "image" and the common theme that binds
all their music is expressed in the artwork on the album,
the set of the stage, the tone of the lyrics, in addition
to the sound of the music.
Rock
historians tend to find that the influence of Western
pop music gives heavy metal its escape-from-reality fantasy
side, as an escape from reality through outlandish and
fantastic lyrics, while African-American blues gives heavy
metal its naked reality side, focusing on loss, depression
and loneliness.
If
the audio, and thematic components of heavy metal are
predominantly blues-influenced reality, then the visual
component is predominantly pop-influenced fantasy. The
themes of darkness, evil, power, and apocalypse are fantastic
language components for addressing the reality of life's
problems. Further, in reaction to the "peace and
love" hippie culture of the 1960s, heavy metal developed
as a counterculture, where light is supplanted by darkness,
and the happy ending of pop is replaced by the naked reality
that things do not always work out in this world. Whilst
fans claim that the medium of darkness is not the message,
critics have accused the genre of glorifying the negative
aspects of reality.
Heavy
metal themes are typically more grave than the generally
airy pop from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, focusing on
war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, political
and religious propaganda. Black Sabbath's "War Pigs",
Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants" and Metallica's
"...And Justice for All" are examples of serious
contributions to the discussion of the state of affairs.
The commentary on reality sometimes tends to become over-simplified
because the fantastic poetic vocabulary of heavy metal
deals primarily with very clear dichotomies of light and
dark, hope and despair, good and evil, which do not make
much room for complex shades of grey.
Some
might differentiate by observing that pure heavy metal
does not generally sing about love, while many hair metal
songs are focused on love. In some respects, one might
argue that the hair metal scene of the 1980s was the logical
endpoint of the glitter or glam rock movement of the 1970s;
the visual similarities between the two, with the make-up
and fanciful costumes, makes the argument more compelling.
Glitter rock, however, was lyrically focused on sexual
ambiguity, free expression and individuality, while hair
metal was unambiguously macho and heterosexual, with little
room for diversity of political or social opinions. Ultimately,
"pure" heavy metal would position itself at
the periphery of pop culture, never quite at centre, and
metal denizens contend that the move towards the centre
was a commercialism that compromised both the artistic
integrity of the form and the opportunity for messages
to be taken seriously.
Classical
influence
The
appropriation of classical music by heavy metal typically
includes the influence of Bach and Paganini rather than
Mozart or Franz Liszt. Though Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore had been experimenting with musical
figurations borrowed from classical music since the early
1970s, Edward Van Halen's solo cadenza "Eruption"
(released on Van Halen's first album in 1978) marks an
important moment in the development of virtuosity in metal.
Following Van Halen, the "classical" influence
in metal guitar during the 1980s actually looked to the
early eigtheenth century for its model of speed and technique.
Indeed, the late Baroque era of western art music was
also frequently interpreted through a gothic lens. For
example, "Mr. Crowley," (1981) by Ozzy Osbourne
and guitarist Randy Rhoads, uses both a pipe organ and
Baroque-inspired guitar solos to create a particular mood
for Osbourne's lyrics on the legendary occultist Aleister
Crowley. Like many other metal guitarists in the 1980s,
Rhoads quite earnestly took up the "learned"
study of musical theory and helped to solidify the minor
industry of guitar pedagogy magazines (such as Guitar
for the Practicing Musician) that grew up during the decade.
In most instances, however, metal musicians who borrowed
the technique and rhetoric of art music were not attempting
to be classical musicians. (An exception can arguably
be found in Yngwie Malmsteen, though many argue that his
music relies more on virtuosity and the use of classical-sounding
elements such as the harmonic minor scale to appear classical
without actually being classical).
The
Encarta encyclopedia claims that "when a text was
associated with the music, Bach could write musical equivalents
of verbal ideas". As heavy metal uses apocalyptic
themes and images of power and darkness, the ability to
translate verbal ideas into musical ideas that successfully
convey the ideas of the words is critical to heavy metal
authenticity and credibility. An excellent example of
this is the theme album Powerslave, by Iron Maiden. The
cover is of a dramatic Egyptian pyramid scene, and many
of the songs on the album have subject matter that requires
a sound suggestive of life and death, including a song
entitled "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner",
based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Key
artists
The
above discussion of the history of heavy metal, from its
1960s precursors to the proliferation of heavy metal sub-genres
of the late 1980s, can be summarised in the following
key artists from three main waves of bands that to a large
extent came out of Britain:
1.
influential rock bands like The Beatles, The Who and The
Rolling Stones in the 1960s;
2. "early" heavy metal exemplified by Led Zeppelin,
Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in the early and mid 1970s;
and
3. the New Wave of British Heavy Metal pioneered most
successfully by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in the late
1970s and early 1980s.
Importantly,
it was this last generation of metal musicians who first
self-consciously marketed themselves as "heavy metal"
bands. By the mid-1980s, as the term "heavy metal"
became the subject of much contestation, heavy metal had
branched out in so many different directions that new
sub-classifications were created by fans, record companies,
and fanzines, although sometimes the differences between
various sub-genres were unclear, even to the artists purportedly
belonging to a given style (see List of heavy metal genres).
Notable early 80s sub-genres where the overarching term
"heavy metal" is occasionally still in use include
the faster thrash metal, pioneered by the 'Big Four Of
Thrash' (including Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer,
with San Francisco quintet Testament sometimes being included
in this group), and a hard-edged form of pop-metal (sometimes
categorised pejoratively by purists as hair metal), from
bands like Guns N' Roses and Def Leppard that brought
pop-friendly music to mainstream audiences (to a mix of
critical acclaim, mainstream popularity and purist disavowal).
Later
styles of heavy rock music in the 1990s, such as grunge
(the typical example being Seattle's Nirvana), show influences
of heavy metal but are typically not labelled sub-genres
of heavy metal, as opposed to thrash metal and hair metal.
The general absence of virtuosic guitar solos is perhaps
one reason grunge bands haven't been considered heavy
metal bands. Later work by Megadeth, combined the relentless,
speedy thrash metal riffs with the fancy guitar soloing
of classic metal ala Judas Priest.
Cultural
impact
The
loud, confrontational aspects of heavy metal have led
to friction between fans and mainstream society in many
countries. Due to the hedonistic nature promoted by the
music and its occasional anti-religious sentiments heavy
metal as a sub-culture has come under attack in many Islamic
countries where even wearing a black T-shirt can be an
arrestable offence. In Europe and America, the fan base
for heavy metal consists primarily of young white males,
many of whom are attracted to heavy metal's overtly anti-social
yet fantastical lyrics and extreme volume and tempos.
Hence, the stereotype of the spotty-faced, adolescent
headbanger venting his rebellious urges by listening to
presposterously loud, morbid music. This image has been
highlighted in popular culture with such television shows
and movies as "Beavis and Butthead"" and
"Airheads". Heavy metal's bombastic excesses,
exemplified by hair metal, have often been parodied, most
famously in the film This Is Spinal Tap (see also the
phenomenon of the heavy metal umlaut). Douglas Adams neatly
satirised the propensity for excessive volume in The Hitch
Hikers Guide to the Galaxy with the fictional rock band
Disaster Area — creators of the loudest sound in
the known universe. It should be noted, however, that
Adams was satirising Pink Floyd stage shows specifically,
rather than heavy metal in general.
Many
heavy metal stylings have made their way into everyday
(albeit ironic) use; for instance, the "devil horns"
hand sign first popularised by Ronnie James Dio has become
a common sight at many rock concerts. During the late
1970s and early 1980s, flirtation with occult themes by
artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, W.A.S.P. and Iron Maiden
lead to accusations of "Satanic" influences
in heavy metal by conservative Christians. One popular
contention during that period was that heavy metal albums
featured hidden messages urging listeners to worship the
Devil or to commit suicide (see Judas Priest and backward
message and Allegations of Satanism in popular culture).
Subgenres
and related styles
Heavy
Metal has proven somewhat difficult to categorise. Some
fans and musicians have a firm concept of genre and subgenre,
but others reject such categorisation as limiting or useless.
Heavy
metal is the progenitor of the "metal-family"
of genres including black metal, death metal, thrash metal,
hair metal and others. Most metal derives directly from
blues and rock, while some sub-genres include an evident
influence of Western classical music. Thus, even if classical
heavy metal and avant-garde black metal belong to the
same family, there are important differences between them.
Pure heavy metal is mainly blues-based, with pentatonic
scales and a blues-like song structure; black metal and
related forms often draw on classical music, even if at
a first glance it seems to be only distorted guitars playing
a very fast repeating melody.
Glitter
rock, a short-lived era in the mid-1970s, is the extreme
exploration of the fantasy-side of the reality-fantasy
parents of heavy metal. T. Rex, David Bowie and Alice
Cooper are among the more popular standard examples of
this sub-genre.
Hard
rock, mentioned earlier, is also closely related to heavy
metal, but does not consistently match the description
of what purists consider the definition heavy metal. While
still guitar-driven in nature and sometimes deriving off
of riffs, its themes and execution differ from that of
the major heavy metal bands listed earlier in the article.
This is perhaps best examplified by The Who in the late-1960s
and early-1970s, as well as other 1970s and 1980s bands
like Queen, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy and AC/DC.
Punk
rock is a sometimes closely related form, established
by The Ramones, the Clash, The Stooges, Black Flag, The
Velvet Underground, The New York Dolls, The Misfits and
Sex Pistols.
In
the early 1980s the New Wave of British Heavy Metal made
metal music very popular (especially in Europe) with bands
like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Saxon.
However,
the purest form of Heavy Metal was evident in the early
1980s, in the form of Classic metal, which included of
such true metal artistes as Judas Priest, Dio, Dokken,
Iron Maiden, W.A.S.P., Scorpions and Motörhead (although
Motorhead often straddled the hard rock category due to
having more of a blues influence than the other bands
cited here). These bands played traditional metal, but
there was a youthful vibe and an air punching dynamo confluenced
intricately with melody. This genre was characterised
by thumping fast basslines, extended lead guitar solos,
high pitched vocals and pounding drums. Classic metal
should not be confused with the Traditional metal or the
Roots Of Metal genre which was evident in the 1970s with
pioneering artistes like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and
Alice Cooper.
