Portal:Rock music

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Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew from the African-American musical genres of blues and rhythm and blues, as well as from country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other styles. Rock is typically centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers.

Usually, rock is song-based music with a ⁴
₄ time signature and using a verse–chorus form; however, the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the western world from the 1960s up to the 2010s.

Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s "classic rock" period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, southern rock, raga rock, and jazz rock, which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock, influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene. New genres that emerged included progressive rock, which extended artistic elements, heavy metal, which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave, post-punk and eventually alternative rock. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various rock music-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson's record "Roll 'Em Pete" is regarded as a precursor to rock and roll. (from Rock and roll)
Image 2"There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" made the cover of True Life Romance in 1956. (from Rock and roll)
Image 3Sign commemorating the role of Alan Freed and Cleveland, Ohio, in the origins of rock and roll (from Rock and roll)
Image 4Buddy Holly and his band, the Crickets (from Rock and roll)
Image 5Rush on stage in Milan, Italy, 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 6Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 7Drum notation for a backbeat (from Hard rock)
Image 8Poison, seen here in 2008, were among the most successful acts of the 1980s glam metal era. (from Hard rock)
Image 9Little Richard in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 10LaVern Baker was an R&B singer who was influential on rock and roll (from Rock and roll)
Image 11Aerosmith performing at Quilmes Rock in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 15, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 12Disc jockey Alan Freed is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll" and introducing the genre across racial barriers in the 1950s (from Rock and roll)
Image 13The transistor radio (1958 Emerson pictured) introduced FM radio and rock and roll music to baby boomer children in American households. (from Rock and roll)
Image 14Wolfmother, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 15Tommy Steele, one of the first British rock and rollers, performing in Stockholm in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 16Nirvana were at the forefront of the 1990s grunge era. (from Hard rock)
Image 17Elvis Presley in a promotion shot for Jailhouse Rock in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 18Cliff Richard became an early British rock and roll star with his 1958 hit "Move It". (from Rock and roll)
Image 19Foo Fighters performing an acoustic show in 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 20The Who on stage in 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 21Johnny Rivers was a key 1960s rock artist known for hits like "Memphis" and his "Go-go" style. (from Rock and roll)
Image 22Bill Haley and his Comets performing in the 1954 Universal International film Round Up of Rhythm (from Rock and roll)
Image 23Golden Earring receives a gold record in 1970. (from Hard rock)
Image 24Chuck Berry in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 25Baker, Bruce and Clapton of Cream, whose blues rock improvisation was a major factor in the development of the genre (from Hard rock)
Image 26Kiss on stage in Boston in 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 27Original member Izzy Stradlin' on stage with Guns N' Roses in 2006 (from Hard rock)

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Nirvana was an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. Founded by lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, the band went through a succession of drummers, most notably Chad Channing, before recruiting Dave Grohl in 1990. Nirvana's success popularized alternative rock, and they were often referenced as the figurehead band of Generation X. Their music maintains a popular following and continues to influence rock culture.

In the late 1980s, Nirvana established itself as part of the Seattle grunge scene. They released their first album, Bleach, for the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. Their sound relied on dynamic contrasts, often between quiet verses and loud, heavy choruses. After signing to the major label DGC Records in 1990, Nirvana found unexpected mainstream success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the first single from its landmark second album, Nevermind (1991). A cultural phenomenon of the 1990s, Nevermind was certified 13× Platinum in the US and is credited for ending the popularity of hair metal.

Characterized by a punk aesthetic, Nirvana's fusion of pop melodies with noise, combined with its themes of abjection and social alienation, brought them global popularity. Following extensive touring and the 1992 compilation album Incesticide and EP Hormoaning, the band released its highly anticipated third studio album, In Utero (1993). The album topped both the US and UK album charts, and was acclaimed by critics. However, in April 1994, Nirvana disbanded following Cobain's suicide. Further releases have been overseen by Novoselic, Grohl, and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. The live album MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) won Best Alternative Music Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards.

Nirvana is one of the best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including certified sales of 60 million in the US. During its three years as a mainstream act, Nirvana received an American Music Award, Brit Award, and Grammy Award, as well as seven MTV Video Music Awards and two NME Awards. The band achieved five number-one hits on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and four number-one albums on the Billboard 200. In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked Nirvana 30th on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, their first year of eligibility. In 2023, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. (Full article...)

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Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is a British retired musician who was the drummer for the Beatles from 1960 to 1962. He was dismissed shortly before the band attained global fame and is one of several people referred to as a fifth Beatle.

Best's mother, Mona Best (1924–1988), opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the Bests' house in Liverpool. The Beatles (at the time known as the Quarrymen) played some of their first concerts at the club. The Beatles invited Best to join the band on 12 August 1960, on the eve of the group's first Hamburg season of club dates. Ringo Starr eventually replaced Best on 16 August 1962 when the group's manager, Brian Epstein, fired Best at the request of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison following the band's first recording session. Over 30 years later, Best received a significant monetary payout for his work with the Beatles after the release of their 1995 compilation of their early recordings on Anthology 1; Best played the drums on 10 of the album's tracks, including the Decca auditions.

After being a member of several commercially unsuccessful groups, Best left the music industry to pursue a career as a civil servant for 20 years before forming the Pete Best Band, active from 1988 until 2025. (Full article...)

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Moondance is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 27 January 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album Astral Weeks (1968), Morrison moved to upstate New York with his wife and began writing songs for Moondance. There, he met the musicians who would record the album with him at New York City's A & R Studios in August and September 1969.

The album found Morrison abandoning the abstract folk jazz compositions of Astral Weeks in favour of more formally composed songs, which he wrote and produced entirely himself. Its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. The music incorporated soul, jazz, pop, and Irish folk sounds into songs about finding spiritual renewal and redemption in worldly matters such as nature, music, romantic love, and self-affirmation.

Moondance was an immediate critical and commercial success. It helped establish Morrison as a major artist in popular music, while several of its songs became staples on FM radio in the early 1970s. Among the most acclaimed records in pop/rock history, Moondance frequently ranks in professional listings of the greatest albums. In 2013, the album's remastered deluxe edition was released to similar acclaim. (Full article...)

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"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a song by the English pop rock band Tears for Fears from their second studio album Songs from the Big Chair (1985). It was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes and produced by Hughes. It was released on 22 March 1985 by Phonogram, Mercury, and Vertigo Records as the third single from the album. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a new wave and synth-pop song with lyrics that detail the desire humans have for control and power, and centres on themes of corruption.

An international success, the song peaked at number two in Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom and at number one in Canada, New Zealand, and on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Cashbox. It was certified gold by both Music Canada (MC) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Retrospectively, music critics have praised "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", with some ranking the song among the decade's best. Along with "Shout" (1984), it is one of the band's signature songs.

A music video received promotion from MTV. In 1986, the song won Best Single at the Brit Awards, and was re-recorded by the band as a charity single for the Sport Aid campaign the same year. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" has been covered extensively since its release, most notably by New Zealand singer Lorde for the soundtrack to the film adaptation of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. (Full article...)

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Credit: Stefan Krause LAL

Henrik Freischlader performing in Saarbrücken, Germany in 2009.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Desulfovibrio vulgaris can remove toxic heavy metals from the environment?
... that director Abel Ferrara "delayed" the 64th Locarno Film Festival by singing rock and roll songs?
... that the British rock musician Hannah Grae went viral online with an anti-sexual harassment parody of Aqua's "Barbie Girl"?
... that before charting on the UK Albums Chart with Are We There Yet?, the indie rock musician James Marriott had made a career of mocking other YouTubers' music?
... that the heavy metal band Cradle of Filth released a T-shirt that was so offensive that several people were arrested for wearing it?
... that raw material waste from the West influenced a generation of rock music in China?

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Industrial metal is the fusion of heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Prominent industrial metal acts include Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Rammstein, KMFDM, and Godflesh.

Industrial metal developed in the late 1980s, as industrial and metal began to fuse into a common genre. Industrial metal did well in the early 1990s, particularly in North America, with the success of groups such as Nine Inch Nails, but its popularity began to fade in the latter half of the 1990s. (Full article...)

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