Progressive rock , 1973. Progressive or 'prog rock' developed out of late 1960s
blues-rock and
psychedelic rock. Dominated by British bands it was part of an attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility. Progressive rock bands attempted to push the technical and compositional boundaries of rock by going beyond the standard verse-
chorus-based
song structures. The
arrangements often incorporated elements drawn from
classical,
jazz, and
world music.
Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used "
concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme." UK mainstream rock was often derived from
folk rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies. It reached its peak in the mid- to late 1970s with acts like the reformed
Fleetwood Mac, whose
Rumours (1977) was the best selling album of the decade. Major British soft rock artists of the 1970s included
10cc,
Mungo Jerry and
Electric Light Orchestra. A large number of mainstream rock songs fit into the singer-songwriter classification. Some of the actives were
Cat Stevens,
Steve Winwood and
Elton John.
Kate Bush became the first solo woman to have a self-written song become a number 1 UK single and became a sensation, drawing on
art rock, literature, dance and
mime.
Hard rock and Heavy metal , 1977 The
hard rock and
heavy metal genres were developed from
blues-rock in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. Played louder and with more intensity, it often emphasised the electric guitar, both as a rhythm instrument using simple repetitive riffs and as a solo lead instrument, and was more likely to be used with
distortion and other effects. Adopting a form of boogie rock,
Status Quo became one of the UK's leading rock bands throughout the rest of the 1970s. From the late 1960s the term heavy metal began to be used to describe some hard rock played with even more volume and intensity. By 1970 three key British bands had developed the characteristic sounds and styles which would help shape the subgenre.
Led Zeppelin added elements of
fantasy to their riff laden blues-rock,
Deep Purple brought in symphonic and medieval interests from their progressive rock phase and
Black Sabbath introduced facets of the
gothic and
modal harmony, helping to produce a "darker" sound. These elements were taken up by a "second generation" of heavy metal bands into the late 1970s.
Rainbow helped turn the genre into a form of arena rock;
Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its
blues influence and
Motörhead introduced a
punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the
new wave of British heavy metal, such as
Iron Maiden and
Saxon, followed in a similar vein. Unlike progressive rock, heavy metal (already a minority sub-culture) was able to survive the rise of punk and electronic music intact. Despite a lack of airplay and very little presence on the singles charts, late-1970s heavy metal built a considerable following, particularly among adolescent working-class males in North America and Europe.
Glam rock Glam or glitter rock was developed in the UK in the post-
hippie early 1970s. It was characterised by outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots. The flamboyant lyrics, costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a
campy, playing with categories of sexuality in a theatrical blend of
nostalgic references to science fiction and old movies, all over a guitar-driven
hard rock sound. Rather than mixing electric music with forms of American influenced
progressive folk, it used traditional English music as its basis. A significant moment was the release of Fairport Convention's 1969 album
Liege & Lief, which developed further in the 1970s, when it was taken up by groups such as
Pentangle,
Steeleye Span and
The Albion Band. It was also influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain, such as the US and Canada and gave rise to the subgenre of
Medieval folk rock and the fusion genres of
folk punk and
folk metal. and is said to have begun in May 1971 with
Eggs over Easy, an American band, playing in the Tally Ho! in
Kentish Town. A group of musicians who had been playing in blues and R&B bands during the 1960s and early 70s soon formed influential bands like
Brinsley Schwarz,
Ducks Deluxe. Brinsley Schwarz was probably the most influential group, achieving some mainstream success both in the UK and in the States. The second wave of pub rock included
Kilburn and the High Roads,
Ace and
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers; these were followed by the third and final wave of pub rock, including
Dr. Feelgood,
Eddie and the Hot Rods, Ian Dury,
Nick Lowe and
Sniff 'n' the Tears. Several pub rock musicians joined the new wave acts such as
Graham Parker's backing band,
The Rumour,
Elvis Costello & the Attractions and even
The Clash.
Punk rock Punk rock developed between 1974 and 1976, originally in the United States, where it was rooted in
garage rock, and other forms of what is now known as
Proto-punk music. This was taken up in Britain by bands also influenced by the
pub rock scene and US punk rock, like the
Sex Pistols and
The Clash,
The Damned,
The Jam,
The Stranglers,
Generation X, The
Buzzcocks,
Sham 69,
Siouxsie and the Banshees and the
Tom Robinson Band, who became the vanguard of a new musical and cultural movement, blending simple aggressive sounds and lyrics with
clothing styles and a variety of
anti-authoritarian ideologies. Punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock, creating fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political,
anti-establishment lyrics. Post-punk laid the groundwork for
alternative rock by broadening the range of punk and
underground music, incorporating elements of
Krautrock (particularly the use of synthesisers and extensive
repetition), Jamaican
dub music (specifically in bass guitar), American
funk, studio experimentation, and even punk's traditional polar opposite,
disco, into the genre. During 1976–77, in the midst of the original UK punk movement, bands emerged such as Manchester's
Joy Division,
The Fall, and
Magazine, Leeds'
Gang of Four, and London's
The Raincoats that became central post-punk figures. Some bands classified as post-punk, such as
Throbbing Gristle and
Cabaret Voltaire, had been active well before the punk scene coalesced; others, such as
The Slits and
Siouxsie and the Banshees, transitioned from punk rock into post-punk.
New wave As the initial punk impulse began to subside, with the major punk bands either disbanding or taking on new influences, the term new wave began to be used to describe particularly British bands that emerged in the late 1970s with mainstream appeal. These included bands like
XTC,
Squeeze and
Nick Lowe, the
electronic rock of
Gary Numan as well as songwriters like
Elvis Costello, rock & roll influenced bands like
Pretenders, the reggae influenced music of bands like
the Police, as well as bands of the
ska revival like
the Specials,
the Beat, and
Madness. Significant popular British new wave acts at the end of the decade included
the Boomtown Rats,
Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and
Lene Lovich.
Synth rock and electronic music Many progressive rock bands had incorporated synthesisers into their sound, including
Pink Floyd,
Yes and
Genesis. In 1977
Ultravox member
Warren Cann purchased a
Roland TR-77 drum machine, which was first featured on their October 1977 single release "Hiroshima Mon Amour". The ballad arrangement, metronome-like percussion and heavy use of the
ARP Odyssey synthesiser was effectively a prototype for nearly all synth-pop and rock bands that were to follow. In 1978, the first incarnation of
the Human League released their début single "
Being Boiled". Others were soon to follow, including
Tubeway Army, a then little-known outfit from West London, who dropped their
punk rock image and jumped on the bandwagon, topping the UK charts in the summer of 1979 with the single "
Are "Friends" Electric?". This prompted the singer
Gary Numan to go solo and in the same year he released the
Kraftwerk inspired album,
The Pleasure Principle and again topped the charts for the second time with the single "
Cars". Particularly through its adoption by the
New Romantics, synthesisers came to dominate the pop and rock music of the early 1980s. Albums such as
Visage's
Visage (1980),
John Foxx's
Metamatic (1980),
Gary Numan's
Telekon (1980),
Ultravox's
Vienna (1980),
the Human League's
Dare (1981) and
Depeche Mode's
Speak & Spell (1981) established a sound that influenced most mainstream pop and rock bands, until it began to fall from popularity in the mid-1980s. ==Pop==