Portal:Rock music

The Rock Music Portal

Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew from the black musical genres of blues and rhythm and blues, as well as from country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other styles. Rock is typically 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 and using a verse–chorus form; however, 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 up 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 few 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, which extended artistic elements, heavy metal, which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock, which highlighted 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. (Full article...)

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various rock music-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Little Richard in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 2Drum notation for a backbeat (from Hard rock)
Image 3Baker, Bruce and Clapton of Cream, whose blues rock improvisation was a major factor in the development of the genre (from Hard rock)
Image 4"There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" made the cover of True Life Romance in 1956. (from Rock and roll)
Image 5Rush on stage in Milan, Italy, 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 6Sign commemorating the role of Alan Freed and Cleveland, Ohio, in the origins of rock and roll (from Rock and roll)
Image 7Johnny Rivers was a key 1960s rock artist known for hits like "Memphis" and his "Go-go" style. (from Rock and roll)
Image 8Tommy Steele, one of the first British rock and rollers, performing in Stockholm in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 9Nirvana were at the forefront of the 1990s grunge era. (from Hard rock)
Image 10Chuck Berry in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 11Kiss onstage in Boston in 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 12Aerosmith performing at Quilmes Rock in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 15, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 13Cliff Richard became an early British rock and roll star with his 1958 hit "Move It". (from Rock and roll)
Image 14Buddy Holly and his band, the Crickets (from Rock and roll)
Image 15Foo Fighters performing an acoustic show in 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 16Bill Haley and his Comets performing in the 1954 Universal International film Round Up of Rhythm (from Rock and roll)
Image 17Elvis Presley in a promotion shot for Jailhouse Rock in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 18Alan Freed disc jockey who is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll" in the 1950s, helping break down racial barriers. (from Rock and roll)
Image 19Golden Earring receives a gold record in 1970. (from Hard rock)
Image 20The Who on stage in 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 21Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 22Ritchie Valens best known for his 1958 hit "La Bamba", which blended traditional Mexican music with rock and roll. (from Rock and roll)
Image 23Poison, seen here in 2008, were among the most successful acts of the 1980s glam metal era. (from Hard rock)
Image 24LaVern Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. “Jim Dandy” and “Tweedlee Dee” helped shape the sound of the 1950s rock scene. (from Rock and roll)
Image 25Original member Izzy Stradlin' on stage with Guns N' Roses in 2006 (from Hard rock)
Image 26Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson's record "Roll 'Em Pete" is regarded as a precursor to rock and roll. (from Rock and roll)
Image 27Wolfmother, 2007 (from Hard rock)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band in Western popular music and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.

Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, starting in 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or other members of the band's entourage were sometimes informally referred to as a "fifth Beatle".

By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964). A growing desire to refine their studio efforts, coupled with the challenging nature of their concert tours, led to the band's retirement from live performances in 1966. During this time, they produced albums of greater sophistication, including Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). They enjoyed further commercial success with The Beatles (also known as "the White Album", 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). The success of these records heralded the album era, increased public interest in psychedelic drugs and Eastern spirituality, and furthered advancements in electronic music, album art and music videos. In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multi-armed multimedia corporation that continues to oversee projects related to the band's legacy. After the group's break-up in 1970, all principal former members enjoyed success as solo artists. While some partial reunions occurred over the next decade, the four members never reunited. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain musically active.

The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide. They are the most successful act in the history of the US Billboard charts, with the most number-one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart (20), and they hold the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15) and most singles sold in the UK (21.9 million). The band received many accolades, including eight Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Featured article

Read more

edit

Selected biography

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold over 165 million records worldwide. Perry is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. The world's highest-paid female musician in 2015 and 2018, Billboard named her one of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century.

At 16, Perry released a gospel album titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted her stage name from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock album containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively.

The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"— the only album by a female singer to do so. The album's reissue titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her fourth album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made her the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. Afterwards, she released the albums Witness (2017), Smile (2020) and 143 (2024) to varying critical and commercial success.

Four of Perry's songs have received diamond certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her accolades include a Billboard Spotlight Award, four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, a Juno Award, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Apart from music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012, voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs film series (2011–2013), and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017. Perry served as a judge on American Idol from the sixteenth season in 2018 to the twenty-second season in 2024. With an estimated net worth of $350 million, she is one of the world's wealthiest musicians. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

Featured article

Read more

edit

Selected album

Who's Next is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released on 2 August 1971, by Track Records in the United Kingdom and by Decca Records in the United States. It developed from the aborted Lifehouse project, a multi-media rock opera conceived by the group's guitarist Pete Townshend as a follow-up to the band's 1969 album Tommy. The project was cancelled owing to its complexity and to conflicts with Kit Lambert, the band's manager, but the group salvaged some of the songs, without the connecting story elements, to release as their next album. Eight of the nine songs on Who's Next were from Lifehouse, with the lone exception being the John Entwistle-penned "My Wife". Ultimately, the remaining Lifehouse tracks would all be released on other albums throughout the next decade.

The Who recorded Who's Next with assistance from recording engineer Glyn Johns. After producing the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, they relocated to Olympic Studios to record and mix most of the album's remaining songs. They made prominent use of synthesizers on the album, particularly on "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley", which were both released as singles. The cover photo was shot by Ethan Russell; it made reference to the monolith in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as it featured the band standing by a concrete piling protruding from a slag heap in South Yorkshire, apparently having urinated against it.

The album was an immediate critical and commercial success and has since been viewed by many critics as the Who's best album, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. It has been reissued on CD several times, often with additional songs originally intended for Lifehouse included as bonus tracks. In 2020, Who's Next was ranked number 77 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". (Full article...)

More selected albums

Read more

edit

Selected song

"Band on the Run" is a song by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, the title track to their 1973 album Band on the Run.

Released as a single in April 1974 in the US and in June 1974 in the UK, it topped the charts and sold over a million copies in 1974 in the United States, and reached number 3 in the United Kingdom. An international success, it has become one of the band's most famous songs.

A medley of three distinct musical passages that vary in style, "Band on the Run" is one of McCartney's longest singles at 5:09. The song was partly inspired by a comment that George Harrison had made during a meeting of the Beatles' Apple record label. The song-wide theme is one of freedom and escape, and its creation coincided with Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr having parted with manager Allen Klein in March 1973, leading to improved relations between McCartney and his fellow ex-Beatles.

The original demos for this and other tracks on Band on the Run were stolen shortly after Wings arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, to begin recording the album. With the band reduced to a trio consisting of McCartney, his wife Linda, and Denny Laine, "Band on the Run" was recorded at EMI's Lagos studio and completed at AIR Studios in London. (Full article...)

More selected songs

Read more

edit

Selected picture

Credit: Stefan Krause LAL

Henrik Freischlader performing in Saarbrücken, Germany in 2009.

More selected pictures

Read more

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the Liverpool Echo described British rock and roll star Tommy Steele as "quite unable to sing and play the guitar at the same time" when reviewing his first album?
... that during his tenure as Governor of Central Java, Muhammad Ismail banned rock music concerts and car rallies?
... that heavy metal band Judas Priest took their name from Bob Dylan's song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"?
... that when rock musician Warren Zevon received a terminal diagnosis of lung cancer, he learned to "enjoy every sandwich"?
... that Rolling Stone listed Ácido Argentino as the most essential album of Argentine heavy metal?
... that raw material waste from the West influenced a generation of rock music in China?

edit

Selected genre

The new wave of British heavy metal (often abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that began in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an article by Geoff Barton in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of heavy metal bands in the mid-to-late 1970s, as punk rock declined amid the dominance of new wave music. (Full article...)