Portal:Rock music

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Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the blues and rhythm and blues genres of African-American music and from country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock has 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 using a verse–chorus form, but 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 1950s 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 number of 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, 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.

From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk, electronic rock, rap rock, and rap metal. Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including the garage rock/post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. (Full article...)

General images - load new batch

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

Image 1Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 2Elvis Presley in a promotion shot for Jailhouse Rock in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 3Wolfmother, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 4Sign commemorating the role of Alan Freed and Cleveland, Ohio, in the origins of rock and roll (from Rock and roll)
Image 5Rush on stage in Milan, Italy, 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 6Poison, seen here in 2008, were among the most successful acts of the 1980s glam metal era. (from Hard rock)
Image 7Aerosmith performing at Quilmes Rock in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 15, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 8Nirvana were at the forefront of the 1990s grunge era. (from Hard rock)
Image 9Buddy Holly and his band, the Crickets (from Rock and roll)
Image 10Foo Fighters performing an acoustic show in 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 11Original member Izzy Stradlin' on stage with Guns N' Roses in 2006 (from Hard rock)
Image 12The Who on stage in 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 13Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson's record "Roll 'Em Pete" is regarded as a precursor to rock and roll. (from Rock and roll)
Image 14Tommy Steele, one of the first British rock and rollers, performing in Stockholm in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 15"There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" made the cover of True Life Romance in 1956. (from Rock and roll)
Image 16Kiss onstage in Boston in 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 17Bill Haley and his Comets performing in the 1954 Universal International film Round Up of Rhythm (from Rock and roll)
Image 18Chuck Berry in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 19Drum notation for a backbeat (from Hard rock)
Image 20Golden Earring receives a gold record in 1970. (from Hard rock)
Image 21Little Richard in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 22Baker, Bruce and Clapton of Cream, whose blues rock improvisation was a major factor in the development of the genre (from Hard rock)

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Black Sabbath in 1970. From left to right: Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne.

Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with their first three albums Black Sabbath, Paranoid (both 1970) and Master of Reality (1971). Following Osbourne's departure in 1979, the band underwent multiple line-up changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout their history.

After previous iterations of the group – the Polka Tulk Blues Band, and Earth – the band settled on the name Black Sabbath in 1969. They distinguished themselves through occult themes with horror-inspired lyrics and down-tuned guitars. Signing to Philips Records in November 1969, they released their first single, "Evil Woman", in January 1970, and their debut album, Black Sabbath, was released the following month. Though it received a negative critical response, the album was a commercial success, leading to a follow-up record, Paranoid, later that year. The band's popularity grew, and by 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, critics were starting to respond favourably. This album, along with its predecessor Vol. 4 (1972) and its successors Sabotage (1975), Technical Ecstasy (1976) and Never Say Die! (1978), saw the band explore more experimental and progressive styles.

Osbourne's excessive substance abuse led to his firing in 1979. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Sabbath recorded three albums with Dio: Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981) and the live album Live Evil (1982), the last two featuring drummer Vinny Appice replacing Ward. Following Dio and Appice's departures, Iommi and Butler recorded Born Again (1983) with then-former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan and Ward returning on drums, while the latter was replaced by then-Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan on the subsequent tour. Black Sabbath split in 1984, with Iommi assembling a new version of the band the following year. For the next twelve years, the band endured many personnel changes that included vocalists Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin, as well as several drummers and bassists. In 1991, Iommi reunited with Butler, Dio and Appice to record Dehumanizer (1992), though Dio and Appice had both departed again by the end of 1992. After the release of Forbidden (1995), which was Black Sabbath's last studio album for eighteen years, the band went on a one-year hiatus until the original line-up reunited in 1997. They released a live album, Reunion, in the following year, and continued to tour sporadically until 2005, most of which saw Black Sabbath headline Osbourne's annual festival tour Ozzfest. The band went on hiatus in 2006 when the Mob Rules lineup reunited as Heaven & Hell, touring during the late 2000s and releasing its sole studio album, The Devil You Know, in 2009 before disbanding after Dio's death in the following year. The original line-up of Black Sabbath reunited once again in 2011, though Ward departed prior to the recording of their final studio album and 19th overall, 13 (2013). During their farewell tour, Black Sabbath played their final concert in their home city of Birmingham on 4 February 2017. Occasional partial reunions have occurred since, most recently when Osbourne and Iommi performed together at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Black Sabbath have sold over 70 million records worldwide as of 2013, making them one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands. Black Sabbath, together with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". They were ranked by MTV as the "Greatest Metal Band of All Time" and placed second on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number 85 on its "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list. Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. They have also won two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance, and in 2019, the band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. (Full article...)

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Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, and author whose 1975 debut album Horses made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fused rock and poetry in her work. In 1978, her most widely known song, "Because the Night", co-written with Bruce Springsteen, reached 13th on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and fifth on the UK Singles Chart.

In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In November 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids, written to fulfill a promise she made to Robert Mapplethorpe, her longtime partner. She is ranked 47th on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, published in 2010, and was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2011. (Full article...)

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Coming Up to Breathe is the fourth studio album by Christian rock band MercyMe. Released on April 25, 2006, by INO Records, the album was intended by MercyMe to be edgier than their previous albums. Coming Up to Breathe sold 58,000 copies its first week, MercyMe's biggest sales week at the time. It debuted and peaked at number one on the Billboard Christian Albums chart, number five on the Rock Albums chart, and number thirteen on the Billboard 200. It also appeared on the Alternative Albums chart in 2007, peaking at number thirteen. Coming Up to Breathe was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2007, signifying shipments of over 500,000 copies.

Coming Up to Breathe received positive reviews from critics. It was also nominated for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album at the 49th Grammy Awards, and for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year at the 38th GMA Dove Awards. The song "Bring the Rain" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 39th GMA Dove Awards.

Three singles were released in promotion of Coming Up to Breathe. Lead single "So Long Self" peaked at number one on the Christian Songs chart, spending four weeks atop that chart. The second single from the album, "Hold Fast", peaked at number three on the Christian Songs chart. The third and final single from the album, "Bring the Rain", spent one week at number one on the Christian Songs chart. "So Long Self" and "Hold Fast" also appeared on the Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at number sixteen and number twenty-seven, respectively. (Full article...)

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"Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" is a song composed and written by Jim Steinman, and recorded by Meat Loaf. The song was released in 1994 as the third single from the album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and it reached number 38 on US's Billboard Hot 100, and number 26 in the UK Top 40. With its chart success, this song became the hit with the longest un-bracketed title at fifty-two characters . The title is derived from the safety warning on car side mirrors in the US, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear".

Parts of the melody were adapted from Steinman's earlier tune "Surf's Up", which appears on Steinman's solo album Bad for Good. Steinman later reused the melody, with new lyrics by Michael Kunze, for "Die Unstillbare Gier", a song in the Tanz der Vampire productions, and for "Confession of a Vampire" in the ill-fated US version (Dance of the Vampires). (Full article...)

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Credit: Sven-Sebastian Sajak

Hayley Williams, lead vocalist of the American rock band Paramore, at Rock im Park ("Rock in the Park") 2013 in Nuremberg, Germany.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the Diaspora Yeshiva Band infused rock and bluegrass with Jewish lyrics, creating a music style it called "Hasidic rock" or "Country and Eastern"?
... that heavy metal led Ossian D'Ambrosio to druidism?
... 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 the Liverpool Echo described British rock and roll star Tommy Steele as "quite unable to sing and play the guitar at the same time" when reviewing his first album?
... that Skálmöld & Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands documents a symphony orchestra playing heavy metal music?
... that the British rock musician Hannah Grae went viral online with an anti-sexual harassment parody of Aqua's "Barbie Girl"?

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Baroque pop (sometimes called baroque rock) is a fusion genre that combines rock music with particular elements of classical music. It emerged in the mid-1960s as artists pursued a majestic, orchestral sound and is identifiable for its appropriation of Baroque compositional styles (contrapuntal melodies and functional harmony patterns) and dramatic or melancholic gestures. Harpsichords figure prominently, while oboes, French horns, and string quartets are also common. (Full article...)