Brief History of Rock Music

Rock music originated as “Rock and Roll” in America in the 1950s and developed in to many different styles in the 1960s. It is heavily influenced by blues, Rhythm and Blues and country music; however modern bands often stray from these roots and incorporate different sounds and elements. Rock music has branched out and created new genres such as Punk Rock, Electronic Rock, Indie Rock, Grunge and early forms of Heavy Metal.

The term was first used as “Rock and Roll” in the 1940s and was created by fusing the various music genres together (called “race music” at the time) such as Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Country and Western music. Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right (Mama)” could be considered the first “rock and roll” record. It also popularized the use of the electric guitar with distortion by people such as Chuck Berry and Scotty Moore.

The 1960s is considered by many as “The Golden Age” of Rock Music. This is when Rock music skyrocketed into popularity in Britain and America by bands and artists such as The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple.

The 1970s was named “The Punk Era”. The punk bands at this time created short, stripped down songs with political, anti-establishment lyrics. The sub culture of Punk expressed youthful rebellion, distinctive clothing styles and Anti-Authoritarian Ideologies. In the beginning of the 1980s, punk branched out and evolved into several sub genres of Hardcore Punk such as Grindcore (created by British band Napalm Death), Anarcho Punk (Crass) and Crust Punk.

The 1990s give birth to a number of new genres which broke the barriers between Rock, Rap, Pop and Metal. Pop Punk, Rap Rock and Nu Metal all blurred the lines between genres. Pop Punk mixed Power Pop melodies with fast tempos and loud guitars (Pioneered by bands such as Green Day). Rap Rock mixed Groove, Jazz and Rock guitars with rapped vocals (Pioneered by bands such as Rage Against The Machine). Nu Metal usually mixed Groove Metal riffs with screamed and rapped vocals and electronics (Pioneered by bands such as Linkin Park).

The 2000s and 2010s continued to break the barriers between Rock and Pop music with several critical acclaimed albums by Rock artists (Sempiternal by Bring Me The Horizon and American Idiot by Green Day most notably) the 2000s also saw the rise in popularity of Emo (Jimmy Eat World), Post Hardcore (Siverstein), Metalcore (Killswitch Engage) and Electronic Rock and Electronicore (Enter Shikari).

My Target Audience is young (16-30) Males who have a disposable income and like all types of modern rock music.

Rock Artists That Could Feature on my Front

Cover

Asking Alexandria/Attila/Capture The Crown: these male fronted bands would be good bands for my front cover their music appeals to more of a male audience. Their music is characterized by mostly screamed vocals, musical breakdowns and lyrics about sex and drugs. This type of music doesn’t appeal to females that much as females mostly prefer sung vocals than screamed

Neck Deep/Knuckle Puck/State Champs: these Male fronted pop punk bands appeal to both males and females but appeal to the younger market as their music is designed to be simple, easy to understand and fun to listen to. Pop Punk is the embodiment of youthfulness and immaturity and would appeal more to the younger audience as they can relate to the bands’ music and lyrics. The older market do not enjoy their music as much their music tastes have evolved and changed to liking more complex, more mature music.