Portal:Rock music

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The Rock Music Portal

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

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Deftones performing at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, UK on 24 August 2011.

Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by frontman Chino Moreno, lead guitarist Stephen Carpenter and drummer Abe Cunningham, with bassist Chi Cheng and keyboardist and turntablist Frank Delgado joining the line-up in 1990 and 1999, respectively. The band's experimental nature has led some critics to describe them as "the Radiohead of metal".

After the line-up settled in 1993, the band secured a recording contract with Maverick Records, and subsequently released their debut album Adrenaline in 1995. Extensive touring and word-of-mouth promotion of the album helped Deftones garner a dedicated fan base. Their second album Around the Fur (1997), reached chart positions along with its singles, and became the band's first to receive certification from the RIAA.

The band found even further success with their third album White Pony (2000), which marked a transition from their earlier, more aggressive sound into a more experimental direction. Its lead single "Change (In the House of Flies)" is the band's most commercially successful single, and the track "Elite" won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance; it was also the band's first of three albums to be certified platinum in the United States. Their self-titled fourth album was released in 2003. While the group's critical success continued, sales proved to be lackluster compared to White Pony. Deftones' fifth studio effort, Saturday Night Wrist (2006), received similar praise, although the album's production was marred by creative tensions and personal issues within the band, some of which influenced its material.

In 2008, while Deftones were working on an album tentatively titled Eros, Cheng was involved in a traffic collision. As a result, he was left in a minimally conscious state until his death in 2013 of cardiac arrest. After Cheng's accident, Deftones halted production on Eros and recruited Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega until his departure in early 2021. The band released the critically celebrated Diamond Eyes in 2010 and embarked on a triple-headline tour with Alice in Chains and Mastodon throughout North America. Their seventh and eighth albums, Koi No Yokan (2012) and Gore (2016) respectively, saw the band continue to move in an increasingly experimental direction and were released to critical acclaim. Their latest album, Ohms (2020), received significant critical praise for its return to the band's heavier sound. (Full article...)

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Gwen Stefani performing "The Real Thing" in Duluth, Georgia, United States.

Gwen Renée Stefani (/stəˈfɑːni/ stə-FAH-nee; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer and songwriter. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", and "Don't Speak", from their 1995 breakthrough studio album Tragic Kingdom, as well as "Hey Baby" and "It's My Life" from later albums.

During the band's hiatus, Stefani embarked on a solo pop career in 2004 by releasing her debut studio album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Inspired by pop music from the 1980s, the album was a critical and commercial success. It spawned six singles, including "What You Waiting For?", "Rich Girl", "Hollaback Girl", and "Cool". "Hollaback Girl" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while also becoming the first US download to sell one million copies. In 2006, Stefani released her second studio album, The Sweet Escape. Among the singles were "Wind It Up" and "The Sweet Escape", the latter of which was number three on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart of 2007. Her third solo album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like (2016), was her first solo album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Her fourth solo album and first full-length Christmas album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas, was released in 2017 and charted 19 tracks on Billboard's Holiday Digital Song Sales component chart in the United States. Stefani has released several singles with husband Blake Shelton, including "Nobody but You" (2020), which reached number 18 in the US.

Stefani has won three Grammy Awards. As a solo artist, she has received an American Music Award, a Brit Award, a World Music Award, and two Billboard Music Awards. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line inspired by Japanese culture and fashion. Billboard magazine ranked Stefani the 54th most successful artist and 37th most successful Hot 100 artist of the 2000–2009 decade. VH1 ranked her 13th on their "100 Greatest Women in Music" list in 2012. Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 60 million records worldwide. (Full article...)

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Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose is the ninth studio album by Meat Loaf, and the third and final album in the Bat Out of Hell trilogy. It was released in Ireland on October 20, 2006, 29 years after Bat Out of Hell (1977), and 13 years after Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993). It was released in the UK on October 23, 2006, and in the US on October 31, 2006.

Produced by Desmond Child, it is the only Bat album not involving Jim Steinman in its production. The album was subject to a legal dispute between Meat Loaf and Steinman, who had registered the phrase "Bat Out of Hell" as a trademark and attempted to prevent the album using the phrase. In the end, seven songs that Steinman wrote for various other projects were included.

As with its predecessors, the album received mixed reviews. A tour, named The Seize the Night Tour, followed the release, concentrating upon songs from the Bat albums. (Full article...)

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"Kicks" is a song composed by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, best known as a 1966 hit for American rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Mann and Weill wrote the song for the Animals, but the band's lead singer Eric Burdon turned it down. Instead, Paul Revere & the Raiders recorded and released it as a single in 1966. The single was a number one hit in Canada, and reached number four in the United States. "Kicks" was included on the band's fifth album, Midnight Ride, released in May 1966. A live version of the song was recorded on the band's 1996 Greatest Hits Live compilation album.

Considered one of the earliest anti-drug songs, "Kicks" was composed and released during an era in which pro-hippie, pro-experimentation, and other counterculture themes were gaining popularity on U.S. FM radio stations. The song's message was consequently perceived as outdated by the emerging youth counterculture, as popular artists ranging from the Beatles to Jefferson Airplane had written songs whose themes sharply contrasted that of "Kicks." However, the song has received generally positive reviews by music critics in the decades since its release. In 2004, "Kicks" was ranked number 400 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (Full article...)

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Credit: Rama

Paul Simonon former bassist for The Clash at the Eurockéennes of 2007 with The Good, the Bad & the Queen.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Greg Cooper based the character of suffragist Kate Sheppard in punk-rock musical That Bloody Woman on Bette Midler in concert in Cleveland?
... that the heavy metal musician Leah has sometimes been called "the metal Enya"?
... that heavy metal band Judas Priest took their name from Bob Dylan's song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"?
... that Dutch radio and TV presenter Hanneke Kappen presented the second Dutch radio show dedicated to heavy metal music?
... that when rock musician Warren Zevon received a terminal diagnosis of lung cancer, he learned to "enjoy every sandwich"?
... that the heavy metal band Cradle of Filth released a T-shirt that was so offensive that several people were arrested for wearing it?

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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...)