Rock Music

Rock music, as the name suggests, is there to shake your inners and make you stand up on your feet to its beats. It is the most popular form of English music and has been around for more than half a century now.

The huge popularity as well as extreme condemnation of Rock music is due to some pretty hard-hitting reasons. Actually,

Rock confronts, what we rather ignore,

It celebrates, what we often deny and

It indulges in, what we fear most.

We can trace the roots of Rock music to the early 1950’s Rock n’ Roll, Blues, Rocabilly and Country music influences. The diversification of Rock started from the 1960’s and as a result of constant fusion and hybridization with other forms of music, many new genres and sub-genres have evolved.

Rock songs boast a prominent vocal melody which revolves around the guitar and is accompanied by a strong back-beat. Primarily, a guitar, drums and bass act as the musical instruments. In some styles though, use of key-boards, violin, flute, banjo etc (along with primary instruments) is also seen.

Rock artists, more commonly Rockstars, generally don’t perform alone. Rather, they tend to form a quartet (i.e. a group of four) to establish themselves as a band. In such a band, there’s a lead singer (or vocalist), a lead guitarist, a drummer and a bassist (bass guitarist). In some rock bands, a single artist takes of multiple roles, forming duo’s or trio’s and sometimes a band also includes additional musicians as rhythm guitarist, key-boardist etc. The scenario of rock artists is exceedingly male dominated, with a very few exceptions of female solo artists and even fewer female Rock bands.

Here’s a decade-wise split up of the evolutionary trends of different genres of rock music and the key artists of that decade, starting from the 1950’s.

♪ Late 1950’s: Shaping Up

Traditional British Rock

Famous Artists: The Quarrymen, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Alexis Korner

♫ 1960’s: Counterculture

Garage Rock, Surf Music, Folk Rock, Psychedelic Rock

Famous Artists: The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Who, The Sonics, The Surfaris, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joan Baez, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, Donovan, Pink Floyd

♪ Early 1970’s: A Movement

Soft Rock, Progressive, Arena, Hard Rock, Punk Rock.

Famous Artists: Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, Black, Sabbath, Deep Purple, John Lennon, AC/DC, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys

♫ Late 1970’s: A New Sound

Mainstream Rock, Heavy Metal, New Wave

Famous Artists: Aerosmith, Van Halen, Queen, Rush, Eagles, The Police, Black Flag, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Go-Go’s, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Kraftwer

♪ 1980’s: Diversification

Metal, Power Ballad, Alternative, Instrumental Rock

Famous Artists: Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Freddy Mercury, Megadeath, Guns N’ Roses, Dream Theater, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Scorpions, Queen, The Smiths, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bryan Adams

♫ Early 1990’s: Alternative goes Mainstream

Grunge, Nu Metal, Brit Pop

Famous Artists: Green River, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, System of a Down, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Alanis Morissette, Blur, Stone Temple Pilots

♪ Late 1990’s: Hybridization

Pop Punk, Rapcore, Indie Rock, Post-Grunge

Famous Artists: The Offspring, Green Day, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit, Cypress Hill, KoRn, Radiohead, Oasis, Creed, Foo Fighters

♫ Early 2000’s: Revival

New Age Alternative, Post-Punk Revival

Famous Artists: P.0.D., Linkin’ Park, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Editors, Cradle of Filth, Lamb of God, Interpol

♪ Present Day: Ahead of Time

Garage Rock Revival, Emo, Metalcore

Famous Artists: The Strokes, The White Stripes, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Bullet for My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Puddle of Mudd, Poets of the Fall