Heavy metal music can be difficult to define. As it encompasses multiple genres of rock music, but also has distinct traits of its own.
These characteristics include distorted guitar sounds, fast drumming and dark lyrics. Although its roots can be traced back to hard rock music, this genre has since expanded and taken many different forms.
Origins
Heavy metal evolved out of sixties rock and blues when musicians began using amplified guitars to produce a louder, discordant sound. According to scholars, two songs by The Kinks (‘You Really Got Me’ in August 1964 and Satisfaction by Rolling Stones (June 1965) may have been proto-metal hits; later that decade bands like Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf, and Iron Butterfly combined heavy blues sounds with electric guitar solos and distorted chords into something closer to metal music than before.
Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple are widely recognized as pioneering metal bands. These groundbreaking acts pioneered a style of heavy, dense, intense rock music which combined influences from blues, rhythm and blues, classical music as well as their signature sounds of distorted guitars, thunderous drumming and powerful vocals to create something truly exciting and distinctive – often described as the first “metal bands.”
Metal musicians first gained recognition in the early 1970s. Influencing young people from working class areas who felt alienated from society, metal provided an alternative rebellious alternative that many found comforting and rebellious compared to mainstream culture; many bands also integrated elements from punk rock and jazz into their sound.
Sandy Pearlman, original producer for Blue Oyster Cult and one of its members, coined the term ‘heavy metal’ to describe their image and music, which often featured references to the occult. Perhaps his inspiration came from alchemical symbols representing lead – one of the heaviest metals.
Heavy metal music encompasses any musical style incorporating distorted guitars, loud drumming, and pulsing bass lines – often known by other names such as thrash metal or hardcore metal – into its soundscape. Motorhead, Alice Cooper and Kiss have modified it accordingly; often opting out of using the word heavy in their name altogether and simply calling it metal instead.
Characteristics
Heavy metal music is typically associated with amplified guitars, loud volumes and an aggressive and powerful soundscape. Additionally, this genre often utilizes highly rhythmic electric guitar parts and doubled or tripled electric guitars. Furthermore, heavy metal lyrics often depict antisocial or fantastic themes to help listeners escape modern society through music – but critics have long since attacked its music for glorifying violence and chaos that leads to social problems like drug abuse or suicide.
Heavy metal originated in Britain during the late 1960s when bands such as Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple used non-traditional approaches to traditional blues scales and arrangements. Influenced by American psychedelic rock musicians like Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix, these early pioneers of heavy metal pioneered amplified guitar sound that has come to define heavy metal genre.
Heavy metal music can be defined by its use of distorted “power chords” and mythologically inspired lyrics, an aggressive drum style and emphasis on riffs rather than melody; heavy metal vocalists range from multi-octave operatic voices such as Black Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio to harsh vocals found in bands like Motorhead or Iron Maiden.
Heavy metal music emerged during the 1970s with bands such as Alice Cooper and Kiss, who blended raw sleazy sounds with shock elements into their music. Later, more accessible forms such as hard rock and glam metal emerged through bands such as Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Poison as well as more extreme subgenres of metal like thrash metal and death metal were also popular during this period.
Influences
As rock music matured throughout the ’60s, bands started using distortion to amp up their guitars and include power chords with their songs. This transition set the stage for heavy metal music – which would take its raw energy to new heights of intensity.
Heavy metal music primarily relies on electric guitar, with amplified tones creating its characteristically distorted tone. Furthermore, fast drumming and bass guitar can play powerful rhythms or riffs; keyboard instruments may occasionally feature; most metal bands consist of drummers, bass guitarists, lead guitarists and singers.
Heavy metal’s early days saw many bands adopt themes now considered classics of the genre, such as Satanism and apocalypse, that became signature elements. Some saw these themes as reactions against hippie culture of late 1960s while others perceived them as responses against harsh realities of everyday life in working-class areas like Birmingham where economic development suddenly stopped progressing.
Policy makers and mental health professionals have taken seriously the potential of metal music to influence problem behavior, with correctional institutions restricting access to it. Correlational links between listening to heavy metal music and suicide have caused some controversy (see Hines & Brown 2016 and Phillipov 2011), yet causation cannot be inferred from correlational data alone; any concerns should also be taken into consideration with other risk factors like depression, substance misuse and low socioeconomic status as possible contributors.
Styles
Metal music takes many forms, from the early chugging sound of Black Sabbath to melodic solos and riffs found in Power metal. A typical metal band features drummer, bass guitarist, rhythm guitar player (in many hard rock bands such as Mountain or Deep Purple this may be handled by one individual — for instance Leslie West or Ritchie Blackmore handle both guitars) and lead guitarist; sometimes other members such as keyboard players or distorting amplifying effects may be added for thickness of sound.
While paintings or symphonies can only be experienced visually and aurally, metal songs offer an immersive sensory experience from its lyrics through stage presentation to clothing. Metal bands typically wear loud, fast music while dressing in clothes such as jeans ripped at the knees with holes punched through and T-shirts covered with tattoos featuring mythology themes; with long hair flowing down their back. Their songs feature loud guitar solos featuring mythological, fantasy or metaphysical themes while some even incorporate political or social messages in their songs’ lyrics.
Heavy metal music has long been seen as an expression of counterculture, deviating from the hippie ideallism that dominated rock culture during the 1960s and embracing its darker themes and power compared to what pop idealists imagined as happy endings. Furthermore, heavy metal’s roots in blues rock add a cathartic reality and sense of loss that many find comforting.
Some of the first heavy metal musicians emerged from Britain’s Midlands region, home of the steel industry. Black Sabbath helped define this genre with their doom-laden sounds and occult-themed lyrics; their frontman Ozzy Osbourne became known as Prince of Darkness due to his outsized stage presence and extravagant image; his style would go on to influence future metal acts through their influence of heavy metal music.
Conclusions
In the 1980s, various politically and religious groups opposed heavy metal music and its fans. They often accused this type of music for everything from crime and violence to suicide, and some groups even claimed heavy metal promoted hedonism. Meanwhile, those defending this genre claimed it simply expressed reality buried beneath hippie culture of the 1960s (with all its “peace and love”) hippie utopianism.
Heavy metal music is defined by its use of electric guitars and their capacity for distortion, creating an explosive sound through their distortion. Guitarists frequently play both rhythm and lead simultaneously for an especially aggressive effect. Lyrically speaking, heavy metal tends to focus on dark themes with violent and often occult lyrics; some groups may use clean vocals but most leading artists sing with high-pitched wails or low growls (especially within black and death metal).
At its foundation lies heavy metal music. Prominent examples include Steppenwolf’s 1968 song, “Born to Be Wild,” and Led Zeppelin’s debut album from 1969 as two examples of what would come to be known as heavy metal music. Both bands drew heavily upon blues rock for inspiration while using powerful amplified electric guitars to produce distinctive sounds unlike previous rock genres.
Heavy metal bands typically consist of a drummer, bass guitarist, rhythm guitarist and lead guitarist – sometimes also including keyboardists or saxophonists as part of their lineups. Early heavy metal saw guitarists performing both lead and rhythm parts simultaneously – now known as power trio music.