Heavy metal music before 1970

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Since the dawn of rock music in the 1950s and continuing through the 1960s, various artists pushed the boundaries of the genre to emphasize speed, aggression, volume, theatricality, and other elements that became staples of the heavy metal style. In the late 1960s, this experimentation coalesced into various rock subgenres like hard rock, acid rock, and psychedelic rock, which were all influential in the development of heavy metal. These albums would later be retroactively categorised as proto-metal.

Bands formed

1955

1958

1959

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

Songs

1949

  • "Cold Blooded Blues" by The Great "Gates" & His Wampus Cats

1950

1951

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Walser 1993, p. 9 "Mid-1960s groups like the Yardbirds, Cream and the Jeff Beck Group combined the rock and roll style of Chuck Berry with the earthy blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Along with Jimi Hendrix, these British blues band developed the sounds that would define metal: heavy drums and bass, virtuosic distorted guitar, and a powerful vocal style that used screams and growls as signs of transgression and transcendence."
  2. ^ a b c d e f Borthwick & Moy 2001, p. 138 "In the main, the earliest manifestation of metal in the mid to late 1960s (and known at the time as 'rock' or 'hard rock') can be found in the work of groups such as The Yardbirds, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Britain, and Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf and Vanilla Fudge in the US."
  3. ^ Bukszpan 2003, p. 300 "Detroit's MC5 is widely regarded as one of the forerunners of punk rock, but the group's raw, distorted style certainly helped define heavy metal as well."
  4. ^ De Leon 1994, p. 450 " And historians of rock music agree that the band was a formative influence in the "power rock" tradition that would yield both heavy metal and punk."
  5. ^ a b Bukszpan 2003, p. 288 "The Kinks and The Who stretch rock-and-roll boundaries with "You Really Got Me" and "My Generation" respectively, creating primitive versions of heavy metal in the process."
  6. ^ a b c d e Walser 1993, p. 10 "A "second generation of heavy metal," the first to claim the name unambiguously, was also active throughout the 1970s: KISS, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Ted Nugent, Rush, Motorhead, Rainbow, Blue Öyster Cult. Scorpions, from Germany, became the first heavy metal band from a non-English speaking country to achieve international success."
  7. ^ Buckley 2003, p. 523 "It is widely believed that the term 'heavy metal' was coined to describe the less than delicate sound of Iron Butterfly, a band vilified when they first emerged and still not accorded the respect they deserve."
  8. ^ Crocker 1993, p. 106 "Still recording into the eighties, Budgie was among the heaviest metal of its day."
  9. ^ Barnet & Burriss 2001, p. 87 "It was not so much the music as it was his over-the-top theatrical stage show that made him instantly infamous. Thus, Alice Cooper started what many pop music historians believe was the first true prototype for heavy metal."
  10. ^ a b c Walser 1993, p. 10 "The sound that would become known as heavy metal was definitely codified in 1970 with the release of Led Zeppelin II, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and Deep Purple In Rock."
  11. ^ Hoffmann & Ferstler 2005, p. 454 "A populist blend of heavy metal and updated blues boogie, Grand Funk Railroad provided a model for rock band successes in the 1970s."
  12. ^ a b Frith & Goodwin 1990, p. 85 "The lack of intermediary strata between heavy metal audiences and groups was further determined by another characteristic of the music. Most of the groups that were predominant - Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Humble Pie, Deep Purple, and so on - were British."
  13. ^ Borthwick & Moy 2001, p. 57 "Certain elements of psychedelic coding found their way into genres as diverse as soul, funk, proto-metal (the "space rock" of Hawkwind, for instance), folk (Roy Harper, The Flying Burrito Brothers), jazzy rock (Steely Dan's early work), indie, dance genres such as acid house and trance, ambient and commercial chart pop."
  14. ^ Buckley 2003, p. 702 "Although Mountain will probably be remembered only for the anthemic "Mississippi Queen" and the seemingly endless "Nantucket Sleighride", Felix Papparlardi (bass/keyboards) and Leslie West (guitar/vocals) were the musical fuel of a band that, along with Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath, pioneered the bottom heavy sludge that would become heavy metal."
  15. ^ Weinstein 1994, p. 66 "But until the late 1980s there were almost no black heavy metal musicians (Exceptions such as the late Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy can be counted on the fingers of one hand.)"
  16. ^ Buckley 2003, p. 1116 "In the end, UFO are probably best regarded as having brought a touch of class to heavy metal, for having great tunes and a cool logo, and for being so out of it that even "Mad Mickey" Schenker couldn't stand the heat."
  17. ^ Walser 1993, p. 9 "Some credit Jimi Hendrix with the first heavy metal hit, the heavily distorted, virtuosic "Purple Haze" of 1967."
  18. ^ Everett 2008, p. 267 "Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" may prove more influential to the post-'60s future of heavy metal than the more often-cited Led Zeppelin in the nonfunctional and nondiatonic basis of its chord relationships."
  19. ^ "King Crimson". Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  20. ^ Buckley 2003, p. 477, "Opening with the cataclysmic heavy-metal of "21st Century Schizoid Man", and closing with the cathedral-sized title track,"
  21. ^ Andy Mabbett (28 September 2010). Pink Floyd- The music and the mystery: The Music and the Mystery. Omnibus Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-85712-418-0.
  22. ^ Pink Floyd- Uncensored on the Record. Coda Books Ltd. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-908538-27-7.

References

Preceded by
none
 Heavy Metal Timeline
Pre-1970 		Succeeded by
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