Hard rock

In the late 1960s, bands such as Blue Cheer, the Jeff Beck Group, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Steppenwolf, Grand Funk, Free, and Deep Purple also produced hard rock.

The genre developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with the Who, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple being joined by Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Queen, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Van Halen.

[11] Early forms of hard rock can be heard in the work of Chicago blues musicians Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf,[16] the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" (1963) which made it a garage rock standard,[17] and the songs of rhythm and blues influenced British Invasion acts,[18] including "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks (1964),[19] "My Generation" by the Who (1965)[5] and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965) by the Rolling Stones.

[25] Dave Davies of the Kinks, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of the Who, Hendrix, Clapton and Beck all pioneered the use of new guitar effects like phasing, feedback and distortion.

The first 2:46 is typical psychedelic fare of the time, but then the song suddenly changes into a hard bass-and-guitar power chord with Steve Marriott's rhythm guitar and gut bucket singing, equal to the heaviest rock to be heard later.

[28] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic has referred to the "proto-metal roar" of "Helter Skelter",[29] while Ian MacDonald called it "ridiculous, with McCartney shrieking weedily against a massively tape-echoed backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing".

[30] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild", which contained the first lyrical reference to heavy metal and helped popularise the style when it was used in the film Easy Rider (1969).

[38] Deep Purple continued to define their unique brand of hard rock, particularly with their album Machine Head (1972), which included the tracks "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water".

[45] Scottish band Nazareth released their self-titled début album in 1971, producing a blend of hard rock and pop that would culminate in their best selling, Hair of the Dog (1975), which contained the proto-power ballad "Love Hurts".

"[52][53] Kiss built on the theatrics of Alice Cooper and the look of the New York Dolls to produce a unique band persona, achieving their commercial breakthrough with the double live album Alive!

[58] In the same year, hard rock bands featuring women saw commercial success as Heart released Dreamboat Annie and the Runaways débuted with their self-titled album.

The Irish band Thin Lizzy, which had formed in the late 1960s, made their most substantial commercial breakthrough in 1976 with the hard rock album Jailbreak and their worldwide hit "The Boys Are Back in Town".

[31] Australian-formed AC/DC, with a stripped back, riff heavy and abrasive style that also appealed to the punk generation, began to gain international attention from 1976, culminating in the release of their multi-platinum albums Let There Be Rock (1977) and Highway to Hell (1979).

He popularised a guitar-playing technique of two-handed hammer-ons and pull-offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen, which was highly influential in re-establishing hard rock as a popular genre after the punk and disco explosion, while also redefining and elevating the role of electric guitar.

The opening years of the 1980s saw a number of changes in personnel and direction of established hard rock acts, including the deaths of Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC, and John Bonham, drummer with Led Zeppelin.

[74] Black Sabbath had split with original singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Rainbow, giving the band a new sound and a period of creativity and popularity beginning with Heaven and Hell (1980).

This was followed by US acts like Mötley Crüe, with their albums Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983) and, as the style grew, the arrival of bands such as Ratt,[82] White Lion,[83] Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot.

After an 8-year separation, Deep Purple returned with the classic Machine Head line-up to produce Perfect Strangers (1984) which was a platinum-seller in the US and reached the top ten in nine other countries.

Among the first were ZZ Top, who mixed hard-edged blues rock with new wave music to produce a series of highly successful singles, beginning with "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (1983), which helped their albums Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985) achieve diamond and multi-platinum status respectively.

[96] Established acts benefited from the new commercial climate, with Whitesnake's self-titled album (1987) selling over 17 million copies, outperforming anything in Coverdale's or Deep Purple's catalogue before or since.

[101] Some of the glam rock bands that formed in the mid-1980s, such as White Lion and Cinderella experienced their biggest success during this period with their respective albums Pride (1987) and Long Cold Winter (1988) both going multi-platinum and launching a series of hit singles.

[103][104][105][106] A final wave of glam rock bands arrived in the late 1980s, and experienced success with multi-platinum albums and hit singles from 1989 until the early 1990s, among them Extreme,[107] Warrant[108] Slaughter[109] and FireHouse.

[72] Additionally, the Black Crowes released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker (1990), which contained a bluesy classic rock sound and sold five million copies.

[124] Bon Jovi appealed to their hard rock audience with songs such as "Keep the Faith" (1992), but also achieved success in adult contemporary radio, with the hit ballads "Bed of Roses" (1993) and "Always" (1994).

They emulated the attitudes and music of grunge, particularly thick, distorted guitars, but with a more radio-friendly commercially oriented sound that drew more directly on traditional hard rock.

[128] Among the most successful acts were the Foo Fighters, Candlebox, Live, Collective Soul, Australia's Silverchair and England's Bush, who all cemented post-grunge as one of the most commercially viable subgenres by the late 1990s.

There were reunions and subsequent tours from Van Halen (with Hagar in 2004 and then Roth in 2007),[132] the Who (delayed in 2002 by the death of bassist John Entwistle until 2006)[133] and Black Sabbath (with Osbourne 1997–2006 and Dio 2006–2010)[134] and even a one-off performance by Led Zeppelin (2007),[135] renewing the interest in previous eras.

[136][137] The long-awaited Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy was finally released in 2008, but only went platinum and failed to come close to the success of the band's late 1980s and early 1990s material.

Acts like Creed, Staind, Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback took the genre into the 2000s with considerable commercial success, abandoning most of the angst and anger of the original movement for more conventional anthems, narratives and romantic songs.

[157] In 2009 Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup that brought together Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones attracted attention as a live act and released a self-titled debut album that was a hit in the US and UK.