Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[1] With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion and fast guitar solos. The All Music Guide states that "of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality."[2]
Heavy metal has long had a worldwide following of fans known as "metalheads" or "headbangers". Although early heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, they were often critically reviled at the time, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence; the New Wave of British Heavy Metal followed in a similar vein, fusing the music with a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed.
Heavy metal became broadly popular during the 1980s, when many now-widespread subgenres first evolved. Variations more aggressive and extreme than metal music of the past were mostly restricted to an underground audience; others, including glam metal and, to a lesser extent, thrash metal went on to mainstream commercial success. In recent years, styles such as nu metal have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Contents [show] 1 Characteristics 1.1 Musical language 1.1.1 Rhythm and groove 1.1.2 Chords 1.1.3 Typical harmonic relationships 1.1.4 Classical influence 1.2 Themes 1.3 Physical gestures 2 Origin of the term heavy metal 3 History 3.1 Pre-history (mid-1960s) 3.2 Origins and early popularity (late 1960s and early 1970s) 3.3 Mainstream dominance (late 1970s and 1980s) 3.4 Underground metal (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s) 3.4.1 Thrash metal 3.4.2 Death metal 3.4.3 Black metal 3.4.4 Power metal 3.4.5 Doom and gothic metal 3.5 The alternative era and nu metal (1990s and 2000s) 3.6 Recent trends (mid-2000s) 4 See also 5 Sources 6 References 7 External links

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Characteristics

Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these tropes. The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Acoustic keyboards were popular with early metal bands—especially the organ and occasionally the mellotron—but they are now uncommon. Electronic keyboards are often featured today by bands in a variety of styles, including progressive metal, power metal, and symphonic metal.
The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification is historically the key element in heavy metal.[3] Guitars are often played with distortion pedals through heavily overdriven tube amplifiers to create a thick, powerful, "heavy'" sound. In the early 1970s, some popular metal groups began cofeaturing two guitarists. Leading bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden followed this pattern of having two or three guitarists share the roles of both lead and rhythm guitar. A central element of much heavy metal is the guitar solo, a form of cadenza. As the genre developed, more intricate solos and riffs became an integral part of the style. Guitarists use sweep-picking, tapping, and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many subgenres emphasize virtuosic displays.
The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension. Metal vocals vary widely in style, from the multioctave, theatrical manner of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, to the intentionally gruff approach of Motörhead's Lemmy and Metallica's James Hetfield, to the straight-out screaming and growling of Lamb of God's Randy Blythe and At the Gates' Tomas Lindberg, to the phlegm-clogged, possessed style of black metal singers such as Mayhem's Dead. The bass guitar plays an important role in most metal bands, providing the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy."[4] In addition, the bass is often distorted and modified by a variety of effects pedals. Metal bassists frequently use picks instead of their fingers to get a stronger articulation. The drum setup is generally much larger than with other forms of rock music.[5] Aside from the standard toms, bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, ride, and crash cymbals, there is often a double bass drum, additional toms and cymbals (e.g., "splash" cymbals), and other instruments such as a cowbell.
In terms of live sound, volume is considered vital.[6] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix and The Who—which once held the distinction of "World's Loudest Band" in the Guinness Book Of World Records—early heavy metal bands set new benchmarks for volume. Dick Peterson of Blue Cheer says, "We had a place in forming that heavy-metal sound. Although I'm not saying we knew what we were doing, 'cause we didn't. All we knew was we wanted more power."[7] Tony Iommi, guitarist for the pioneering Black Sabbath, is among the numerous heavy metal musicians to suffer substantial hearing loss due to the volume of their live performances. Heavy metal's volume fixation was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap in which guitarist "Nigel Tufnel" reveals that his Marshall amplifiers have been modified to "go to eleven."

Musical language

[edit] Rhythm and groove The heavy metal main groove is characterized by short, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures—generally made up of 8th or 16th notes—in staccato thanks to palm-muted technique on the rhythm guitar.[8] Heavy metal thus often involves the use of dynamic and off-handed rhythmic patterns thanks to the adjunction of brief, abrupt rhythmic cells. However, heavy metal may also employ long rhythmic figures such as the whole note that let the chords ring, particularly in slow-tempo songs such as ballads, or to add ambience and texture with one guitarist letting a chord ring while another plays faster passages.
[edit] Chords One of the signatures of the genre is the guitar power chord.[9] In technical terms, the power chord is relatively simple: it involves just one main interval, generally the perfect fifth, though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root. Other types of power chords are also used: often the traditional perfect fifth is replaced by a different interval such as the fourth, the minor third/-major third, the diminished fifth, and the minor sixth.[10] The power chord makes possible a high level of distortion without unintended dissonance. Various power chords can also be played with a consistent finger arrangement that slides easily up and down the fretboard.[11]
[edit] Typical harmonic relationships Heavy metal is usually riff-based. Riffs are frequently created with three main harmonic traits: modal scales progressions, tritone and chromatic progressions, and the use of pedal point.
Modal harmony
Traditional heavy metal tends to employ modal scales, in particular the Aeolian and Phrygian modes.[12] Harmonically speaking, this means the genre typically incorporates modal chord progressions such as aeolian progression like I-VI-VII, I-VII-(VI) or I-VI-IV-VII and phrygian progressions implying the relation between I and ♭II (I-♭II-I, I-♭II-III or I-♭II-VII for example).
Examples of aeolian harmony include Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law", Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name", and Accept's "Princess of the Dawn", each employing a I-VI-VII progression as its main riff.
Examples of phrygian harmony include, Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy" (main riff I-♭II-I-VI-V), Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" (main riff built on the ♭II-I relation) and Sodom's "Remember the Fallen" (Introduction + main riff - the riff closing implies a phrygian cadence: I-♭II-III)
Tritone and chromatism
A trademark of many heavy metal subgenres is the use of tense harmony, such as chromatic or tritone relationships.[13][14] The tritone, an interval spanning three whole tones—such as C and F#—is one of the fundamental expressions of dissonance in Western music. The tritone was banned from medieval ecclesiastical singing because of its dissonant quality, which led monks to call it diabolus in musica—"the devil in music."[15] Because of that original symbolic association, it came to be heard in Western cultural convention as “evil.” Today the interval continues to suggest an "oppressive," "scary," or "evil" sound. Heavy metal has made extensive use of diabolus in musica because of these connotative qualities; it is frequently used in guitar solos and riffs, for example at the beginning of "Black Sabbath," the lead song on the band's debut album.
Pedal point
Heavy metal often makes extensive use of pedal point as a harmonic basis. A pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass range, during which at least one foreign (i.e., dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts.[16] Heavy metal riffs are frequently constructed over a persistent repeating note played on the low strings of the bass or rhythmic guitar, most usually on the E, A, and D strings.[17] In other words, a single bass note—most frequently low E or A—is persistently repeated while some different chords are successively played, including chords that don't normally incorporate that bass note. An example is the opening riff of Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." In this case, one guitar plays the pedal point in F#, while the second guitar plays the chords.
[edit] Classical influence The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal typically involves musical elements associated with Baroque, Romantic, and Modernist composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Niccolò Paganini, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Béla Bartók, and Igor Stravinsky. The tritone, for instance, was already exploited for its dark, anguished connotations by Romantics like Franz Liszt and 20th century classical composers such as Bartók, Stravinsky, and Arnold Schoenberg. Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore began experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, guitarists Randy Rhoads and Uli Jon Roth looked to the early 18th century for models of speed and technique. Yngwie Malmsteen, drawing from similar roots, has inspired myriad neoclassical metal players including Michael Romeo, Michael Angelo Batio, and Tony MacAlpine.
Despite the fact that many metal musicians have cited classical composers as inspiration, heavy metal is hardly the modern descendant of classical music.[18] As many critics and analysts have observed, heavy metal musicians focus on and borrow only superficial aspects of classical music, such as motifs, melodies, and scales. Heavy metal bands, including progressive and neoclassical metal bands, generally do not try to observe the basic compositional and aesthetical exigencies of classical music. Classical music is erudite music, whereas heavy metal is popular music.[19] Players who cite Bach as an influence, for example, seldom make use of the complex counterpoint that is central to the composer's work. Moreover, the extensive use of power chords in heavy metal, implying countless consecutive fifths and octaves, violates rules of harmony at the heart of the classical aesthetic.[20]

Themes

Common themes in heavy metal lyrics are sex, violence, fantasy, and the occult. The sexual nature of many heavy metal lyrics, ranging from Led Zeppelin's to those of latter-day nu metal bands, derives from the genre's roots in blues music.[21] Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden's songs, for instance, were frequently inspired by mythology, fiction, and poetry, such as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "The Wizard," Megadeth's "The Conjuring" and "Five Magics," and Judas Priest's "Dreamer Deceiver." Other artists base their lyrics on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, and politics or religion. Examples include Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants," Metallica's ...And Justice for All, Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight" and "For the Greater Good of God," Accept's "Balls to the Wall," and Megadeth's "Peace Sells." Death is a predominant theme in heavy metal, routinely featuring in the lyrics of such different bands as Black Sabbath, Slayer, and W.A.S.P.
As with much popular music, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. A heavy metal band's "image" is associated with the thematic content of their lyrics, and is expressed in album sleeve art, stage sets, the clothes of the band, and even band logos, as well as the sound of the music.[22]
The thematic content of heavy metal has long been a target of criticism. Music critics have often deemed metal lyrics and imagery banal, and others have objected to what they see as advocacy of misogyny and the occult. During the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry due to objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs.

[edit] Physical gestures

Certain body movements are widely performed at heavy metal concerts, including headbanging, moshing, and various hand gestures such as the infamous devil horns, popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio while with Black Sabbath and Dio.[14] Gene Simmons of Kiss claims to have been the first to make the gesture in concert.[23] Stage diving, air guitar, and crowd surfing are also practiced.

[edit] Origin of the term heavy metal

The origin of the term heavy metal in a musical context is uncertain. The phrase has been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy, as shown by citations in the Oxford English Dictionary. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by countercultural writer William S. Burroughs. His 1962 novel The Soft Machine includes a character known as "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid." Burroughs's next novel, Nova Express (1964), develops the theme, using heavy metal as a metaphor for addictive drugs: "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms—Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes—And The Insect People of Minraud with metal music."[24]
Metal historian Ian Christe describes what the components of the term mean in "hippiespeak": "heavy" is roughly synonymous with "potent" or "profound," and "metal" designates a certain type of mood, grinding and weighted as with metal.[25] The word "heavy" in this sense was a basic element of beatnik and later countercultural slang, and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common by the mid-1960s. Iron Butterfly's debut album, released in early 1968, was titled Heavy. The first recorded use of heavy metal in a song lyric is in Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," also released that year:[26] "I like smoke and lightning/Heavy metal thunder/Racin' with the wind/And the feelin' that I'm under." A late, and disputed, claim about the source of the term was made by "Chas" Chandler, former manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In a 1995 interview on the PBS program Rock and Roll, he asserted that heavy metal "was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance," in which the author likened the event to "listening to heavy metal falling from the sky." A source for Chandler's claim has never been found.
The first documented use of the term to describe a musical style is in a May 1971 Creem review by Mike Saunders of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come: "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book."[27] Creem critic Lester Bangs is credited with popularizing the term via his early 1970s essays on bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.[28] "Heavy metal" may have initially been used as a jibe by a number of music critics, but it was quickly adopted by fans of the style.
The terms "heavy metal" and "hard rock" have often been used interchangeably, particularly in discussing bands of the 1970s, a period when the terms were largely synonymous.[29] For example, according to an entry in the 1983 Rolling Stone encyclopedia, "known for its aggressive blues-based hard-rock style, Aerosmith was the top American heavy-metal band of the mid-Seventies."[30] Few would now characterize Aerosmith's classic sound, with its clear links to traditional rock and roll, as "heavy metal." Even some acts closely identified with the emergence of the genre, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, are not considered heavy metal bands by some in the present-day metal community.

Mainstream dominance (late 1970s and 1980s)

Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s as a reaction against contemporary social conditions as well as the overindulgent rock music of the time, including heavy metal. Sales of heavy metal records declined sharply in the late 1970s in the face of punk, disco, and more mainstream rock.[57] With the major labels fixated on punk, many newer British heavy metal bands were inspired by the movement's high-energy sound and do-it-yourself ethos, putting out releases independently to small, devoted audiences.[58] British music papers such as the NME and Sounds began to take notice, with Sounds writer Geoff Barton christening the movement the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal."[59] NWOBHM bands including Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Diamond Head, and Def Leppard reenergized the heavy metal genre. Following Judas Priest's lead, they toughened up the sound, reduced its blues elements, and emphasized increasingly fast tempos.[60] In 1980, NWOBHM broke into the mainstream, as albums by Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Saxon reached the British top 10. The next year, Motörhead became the first band in the movement to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. Other NWOBHM bands, such as Diamond Head and Venom, though less successful would also have a significant influence on metal's development.[61]
The first generation of metal bands was ceding the limelight. Deep Purple had broken up soon after Blackmore's departure in 1975, and Led Zeppelin folded in 1980. Black Sabbath was routinely upstaged in concert by its opening act, the Los Angeles band Van Halen.[62] Eddie Van Halen established himself as one of the leading metal guitar virtuosos of the era—his solo on "Eruption," from the band's self-titled 1978 album, is considered a milestone.[63] Randy Rhoads and Yngwie J. Malmsteen also became famed virtuosos, associated with what would be known as the neoclassical metal style. The adoption of classical elements had been spearheaded by Blackmore and the Scorpions' Uli Jon Roth; this next generation progressed to occasionally using classical nylon-stringed guitars, as Rhoads does on "Dee" from former Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz (1980).
Inspired by Van Halen's success, a metal scene began to develop in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles, during the late 1970s. Based around the clubs of L.A.'s Sunset Strip, bands such as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P. were influenced by traditional heavy metal of the earlier 1970s[64] and incorporated the theatrics (and sometimes makeup) of glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper and Kiss.[65] These glam metal bands—along with similarly styled acts such as New York's Twisted Sister—became a major force in metal and the wider spectrum of rock music.
In the wake of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Judas Priest's breakthrough British Steel (1980), heavy metal became increasingly popular in the early 1980s. Many metal artists benefited from the exposure they received on MTV, which began airing in 1981—sales often soared if a band's videos screened on the channel.[66] Def Leppard's videos for Pyromania (1983) made them superstars in America and Quiet Riot became the first domestic heavy metal band to top the Billboard chart with Metal Health (1983). One of the seminal events in metal's growing popularity was the 1983 US Festival in California, where the "heavy metal day" featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and others drew the largest audiences of the three-day event.[67] Between 1983 and 1984, heavy metal went from an 8 percent to a 20 percent share of all recordings sold in the U.S.[68] Several major professional magazines devoted to the genre were launched, including Kerrang! (in 1981) and Metal Hammer (in 1984), as well as a host of fan journals. In 1985, Billboard declared, "Metal has broadened its audience base. Metal music is no longer the exclusive domain of male teenagers. The metal audience has become older (college-aged), younger (pre-teen), and more female."[69]
By the mid-1980s, glam metal was a dominant presence on the U.S. charts, music television, and the arena concert circuit. New bands including Poison and New Jersey's Bon Jovi became major draws, while Mötley Crüe and Ratt remained consistently successful. In 1987, MTV launched a show, Headbanger's Ball, devoted exclusively to heavy metal videos. However, the metal audience had begun to factionalize, with those in many underground metal scenes favoring more extreme sounds and disparaging the popular style as "lite metal" or "hair metal."[70] One band that reached diverse audiences was Guns N' Roses. In contrast to their glam metal contemporaries in L.A., they were seen as much rawer and more dangerous. With the release of their chart-topping Appetite for Destruction (1987), they "recharged and almost single-handedly sustained the Sunset Strip sleaze system for several years."[71] The following year, Jane's Addiction emerged from the same L.A. hard-rock club scene with its major label debut, Nothing's Shocking. Reviewing the album, Rolling Stone declared, "as much as any band in existence, Jane's Addiction is the true heir to Led Zeppelin."[72] The group was one of the first to be identified with the "alternative metal" trend that would come to the fore in the next decade.