A Young Person's Guide to Rock Styles

[Zzzptm]

So what do those adjectives like stoner, sludge, and shoegaze mean? What do other words used to describe music, from heavy to light, from metal to mellow, mean? This is where the good folks at The Community can come together to explain all this stuff to everyone. And then argue about it where we disagree. Don't take disagreement to be a bad thing. It might actually help you to better understand what we mean when we use particular words. With that said, it's time to define...

HARD ROCK: Rock and roll was wild for the 50s and 60s, but Hard Rock was even too wild for some of those other rockers. Stuff like "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles, "Badge" by Cream, and "Are You Ready" by Grand Funk got the Hard Rock ball rolling and bands still continue in that style to this day.

HEAVY METAL: Also known as just "Metal". Lots and lots of sub-genres in this genre, too... the first bands to play Metal basically took the Hard Rock sounds and turned up the volume, the aggression, and the power. Early Heavy Metal would include "Speed King" by Deep Purple, "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf, and "The Red and the Black" by Blue Oyster Cult. Keep in mind that in the early days of Metal, not every Metal song was played by a band that defined itself as being Heavy Metal.

DOOM: I left Black Sabbath out of the list above because they typify the Doom sound. Take metal, downtune it to an evil-sounding minor key, and let the chords drone and sustain as needed. "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath is the archetypical Doom song. "Child in Time" by Deep Purple can also be considered to have Doom elements in it. Bands didn't really try to do 100% Doom until some time after the music of the 70s and 80s ran its course.

STONER: In the mid- to late-90s, bands in Southern California started heading out to the desert to jam and play music that didn't suck. If a band couldn't do that, it didn't keep playing. Their sound was characterized by being more hard rock than metal, but with benefits of modern technology in really bringing up the bass sound in the mix without making the sound muddy overall. This style is also known as "Desert". No real difference between Stoner and Desert except the bands that call themselves Desert don't sing about weed as much as the Stoner bands do. But the real beginning of the Stoner sound goes back to Black Sabbath, with the song "Sweet Leaf." Not just because it's about weed, but because of the mid-tempo thudding that goes with that song. There are fast Stoner songs, true, but that's not the main thrust of the genre. For more modern Stoner stuff, try out "Hell on Wheels" by Fu Manchu, "Lost Highway" by Wo Fat, and "Desert Cruiser" by Truckfighters.

At this point, you're able to combine terms, like "Stoner Doom" and "Doom Metal". Stoner Doom would be some downtuned bass-heavy jamming, with lyrics probably about vampires and stuff. Doom Metal would be bands trying to make every song sound like "Black Sabbath". Let's continue...

SLUDGE: Loud stuff, plenty of jams like in stoner, but there is no singing. It's all screaming. No me gusta, but you might like it. I won't recommend sludge bands because I'm not into them and wouldn't know where to start.

SOUTHERN: Be careful with this one. It used to mean Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and 38 Special, but now it means it sounds kind of like those guys but with sludge-y screaming. Sometimes, it's used to apply to a band with some rough sounding singing, so I don't steer away from this adjective... but I hear a guy start screaming, I'm done with the band.

FUZZ: So named because the equipment used by the band is geared towards making the sound, well... Fuzzy. They use fuzz pedals, Orange amps, Gibson SG guitars, Fender basses, and Hammond organs. Quite a lot of Deep Purple Mk2 sounds fuzzy, except for Blackmore's Fender Stratocaster. "Hole in the Sky" by Black Sabbath is definitely a fuzz piece. Modern Fuzz bands tend to play faster than Stoner bands and sing a lot more about cars. "Stoner Fuzz" is almost redundant, but it's not. Check out Fusskalt on Bandcamp for some great examples of Fuzz. Wo Fat's "Analog Man" is a masterpiece of blues-driven fuzz.

SPACEROCK: Sounds a lot like metal or hard rock... but there's a difference. Try out Hawkwind's amazing live set Space Ritual and focus on "Orgone Accumulator", "Brainstorm", and "Master of the Universe". That, my friends, is Space Rock. There are extended sections of repeated riffs, with minimal or no soloing going on. Lyrics tend to deal with sci-fi themes and the jams can get really space-y. Some would say even self-indulgent. Spacerock is less about the metal and more about getting people to think about the infinite distances between stars.

KRAUTROCK: If the jams in Spacerock weren't long enough for you, how about even fewer beats and longer notes? And maybe the lyrics are about space, and maybe there aren't any lyrics at all? And maybe even the band didn't even write the song before they recorded it? Usually, bands doing this are German, so this style gets labeled Krautrock. Try Samsara Blues Experiment or Electric Moon for examples of this genre.

NWOBHM: New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Used to refer to bands from Britain from around 1978-1982, like Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Diamond Head. Now the bands that use this label aren't new, aren't part of a wave, and likely as not British. They are still Heavy Metal. NWOBHM sound has sharper guitar attacks, tend toward faster numbers, higher-pitched vocals, and a much sharper overall sound. Bass is important, but treble is king in NWOBHM.

[Zzzptm]

Here's where I expect some *lively* discussion...

Granted, I'm not a fan of these genres, so what I say is meant as a friendly teasing...

DEATH METAL: Like heavy metal, but the vocalist sounds like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

BLACK METAL: Like death metal, but the vocalist is singing in some crazy falsetto voice all. the. time. If you've never heard Mercyful Fate, give that a try. The song opens and you're going, "wow, pretty good metal" and then... King Diamond starts to sing... 

Most folks either love it or hate it, not a lot of middle ground.

[Billy Underdog]

Here's where I expect some *lively* discussion...

It will come in due time...

[JSTHECONQUEROR]

Black Metal= Mercyful Fate?

[Zzzptm]

Black Metal= Mercyful Fate?

Well, not *ALL* of it. But, again, I'm not a fan so someone else will need to explain it properly.

[JSTHECONQUEROR]

Mercyful Fate is definitely the worse example of Black Metal ever. King wore corpse paint but that it about it. maybe some of the lyrical content. Probably Darkthrone or Burzum would be good descriptions of Black Metal. Lo Fi music with tremolo picked riffing and atmosphere. I don't know, I am not an expert at all.

[Zzzptm]

Mercyful Fate is definitely the worse example of Black Metal ever. King wore corpse paint but that it about it. maybe some of the lyrical content. Probably Darkthrone or Burzum would be good descriptions of Black Metal. Lo Fi music with tremolo picked riffing and atmosphere. I don't know, I am not an expert at all.

That's a better description than I had.

Which reminds me of the "black ambient" style, which is pretty much black metal, but played to be ambient music. Really really hard for me to get into...

[Billy Underdog]

Some bits and pieces that needs to be picked on here
But starting with the two easiest ones first:

KRAUTROCK: If the jams in Spacerock weren't long enough for you, how about even fewer beats and longer notes? And maybe the lyrics are about space, and maybe there aren't any lyrics at all? And maybe even the band didn't even write the song before they recorded it? Usually, bands doing this are German, so this style gets labeled Krautrock. Try Samsara Blues Experiment or Electric Moon for examples of this genre.

NWOBHM: New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Used to refer to bands from Britain from around 1978-1982, like Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Diamond Head. Now the bands that use this label aren't new, aren't part of a wave, and likely as not British. They are still Heavy Metal. NWOBHM sound has sharper guitar attacks, tend toward faster numbers, higher-pitched vocals, and a much sharper overall sound. Bass is important, but treble is king in NWOBHM.

You forgot one major NWOBHM band: Motörhead. Them and Judas Priest being a bit ahead the rest, this is where Metal Proper begins.
All the bands that were called Metal in the 70's i see as Hard Rock or "proto-Metal". That includes Sabbath, though i agree they was part of starting almost every sub-genre of Metal.

Krautrock: That span a whole lot of different music, from the prog rock more in vein with the British one, like Faust and Popol Ace to the pure electronica of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dreams. It's really more an umbrella term for German experimental music from the 70's. Originally it was used as a derogatory term for German music by British Music Journos.

Will be back for more

[Zzzptm]

Motörhead... they're a tricky one for me because I see the punk influence in them much more strongly than the metal one...

[Billy Underdog]

Motörhead... they're a tricky one for me because I see the punk influence in them much more strongly than the metal one...

Certainly. Which you can see as an influence on Metal as a whole. You see it in the other NWOBHM bands too, and in later genres, particularly the thrash/extreme genres.

[Zzzptm]

One of the most difficult hairs to split is the difference between thrash metal and hardcore punk. There's a difference, I know it when I hear it, but it's hard to put into words...

[Billy Underdog]

One of the most difficult hairs to split is the difference between thrash metal and hardcore punk. There's a difference, I know it when I hear it, but it's hard to put into words...

If someone put acid in the water in the late 60's, someone put speed in the water in the 80's. Tap water, that is. Bottled water had coke in it...

[Zzzptm]

One of the most difficult hairs to split is the difference between thrash metal and hardcore punk. There's a difference, I know it when I hear it, but it's hard to put into words...

If someone put acid in the water in the late 60's, someone put speed in the water in the 80's. Tap water, that is. Bottled water had coke in it...

I read that only half-joking. The drugs band members take can really influence their playing and composition styles. George Harrison on cocaine is *not* George Harrison on acid or marijuana.

[Billy Underdog]

I read that only half-joking. The drugs band members take can really influence their playing and composition styles. George Harrison on cocaine is *not* George Harrison on acid or marijuana.

No, and you hear that on his 80's albums    But i was talking about the general atmosphere, though ofcourse the drugs in fashion will also have it's influence. Which also fits with my last post.

[Zzzptm]

OK, next set of styles:

PROGRESSIVE or just PROG: Rejecting the tight song structures of original Rock and Roll and taking a tip from The Beatles' inclusion of British Music Hall tradition on their Sgt. Pepper album, the prog-rockers went for lengthy songs that drew in diverse influences, including but not limited to jazz, classical and romantic composers, and world music. Some of their songs would grow to take up the entire album, like Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick. Also look to Yes, with their lengthy, involved works. Genesis is another oft-cited example of prog-rock, even though I don't like them as much as I do Tull and Yes.

PUNK: Rejecting the excesses of the disco and prog-rock of the 70s, the Punk movement went back to the basics and beyond, with many bands embracing old beat up equipment played in garages. Energetic, tight songs and the bands themselves didn't necessarily have talent, just raw nerve. Even so, quite a few punk bands *were* actual musicians and their influence on rock is important. Look to The Clash and the early records from The Damned as good examples of Punk. Later on, though, The Damned got into Goth, which is likely the next style I'll take on.