Transcript Heavy Metal
HEAVY METAL Characteristics include loud volume, distortion, sreeching vocals, emphatic beats, extended guitar solos, technical skills on instruments, and provides an ideal outlet for frustrastion. Themes include Social Chaos, good vs. evil, the afterlife, dark/morbid issues, and the supernatural HEAVY METAL visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal heavy metal band's "image" is expressed in album sleeve art, logos, stage sets, clothing, and music videos Some known for outrageous and wild performance personas PROTOTYPICAL HEAVY METAL BANDS Led Zeppelin Black Sabbath Deep Purple (Blue Cheer’s Summertime Blues often cited as first heavy metal song) WORKING CLASS VALUES Heavy Metal rose out of distrust of American Government “Nixon Scandal,” Anti-War sentiments, high unemployment, increasingly more depressed society, wanting to explore issues such as drugs, mythology, and the afterlife Ter m “Heavy Metal” First appeared in a few William Burroughs books The Soft Machine and Nova Express. “Heavy Metal Kid.” (Heavy Metal Kid was refferred to as someone with drug addictions). Steppenwolf ’s Born to Wild “Heavy Metal Thunder” L e d Z e p p e l i n a n d “ S t a i r way t o H e ave n ” f r o m L e d Z e p p e l i n I V Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 in London. • • • • Jimmie Page, guitar John Bonham, drums John Paul Jones, electric bass and organ Robert Plant, vocals Guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant were fascinated by mythology, Middle Earth fantasy, and the occult. They became one of the most enduring bands in rock history, selling over 50 million records. Influences drew from various sources: urban blues, San Francisco psychedelia, the virtuoso guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix “Stairway to Heaven” • Anthem of heavy metal music Thunderous volume The eight-minute track was never released as a single. You had to purchase the album to own a copy of the song. The album cover did not bear the name of the album, band, or record company. Led Zeppelin IV eventually sold fourteen million copies and reached Number Two on the Billboard Top 10 LP charts; it stayed on the charts for five years. “Stairway to Heaven” Text composed by Robert Plant • References to mythological beings • The May Queen and the Piper • Rural images • Paths and roads, rings of smoke through the forest, a songbird by a brook, the whispering wind • Helped create a cumulative mood of mystery and enchantment Structure of the song • Basic building blocks are straightforward four- and eight-measure phrases • Three main sections • The arrangement is constructed to create continual escalation in density, volume, and speed. BLACK SABBATH British Band Formed in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne(vocals), Tony Lommi(guitar, Geezer Butler(bass), and Bill Ward(drums). Originally formed as heavy blues band named Earth covering Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf songs DEEP PURPLE English Rock Band formed in 1968 Once listed in Guiness Book of World Records as “loudest pop group.”