The Convergence of Two Musical Styles - Essay Example

The pioneers who made rock and roll popular were obviously Little Richard, Bill Haley Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly. Elvis Presley song, “Blue Suede Shoes” is considered as the first rockability (rock and Roll) record. This song was available in the newer 45-RPM format. The year 1960 was the period when America and other parts of the world were introduced to the British invasion, a famous one was Beatle. Beatles took what Elvis and others created in the 1950s and made it different.

In this case, a new age of rock was born. After the Beatlemania started to sing rock, other popular psychedelic and hippy bands such as The Who, The Yardbirds, the Grateful Dead and others began to rule the world. Other genres of rock began to emerge including the progressive rock-experimental with other instruments like guitar, bass, and drums which were popularized by Pink Floyd, folk rock- tradition rock songs with a blues undertone popularized by Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, and heavy metal-which is a thick, heavy, and highly improved type of Rock popularized by Black Sabbath.

The world started to witness the power rock really had on society. The song “Be My Baby” in 1963 was recorded with a range of instruments including guitars, multiple pianos, saxophones and horns with innovative studio mixing and over-dubbing. The 1850s is most famous for hair bands. Heavy metal bands with soaring guitar solos, insane hair, and highly leathered pants characterize this time. Amid the pioneers include Guns and Roses, Van Helen, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Motley Crue.

They are best remembered for their power ballads and great guitar solos. Artist such as Divo, Talking Heads, The B52’s and Blondie, made new wave-which is a genre that originated from punk, disco, and funk, popular. An alternative rock began to emerge in the late 1980s. Various artists including U2, R.E.M, The Cure, Sonic Youth, and The Smiths mainly pioneered this. The music was very popular with college students. “Honesty” by Billy Joel is a piano ballad with synthesized embellishments.

This song opens up with “sad and tender” piano chords. The early 1990s were the era of grunge and alternative rock. This opens up into other forms of rock music that best suit the audience. The most known grunge bands of the 1990s were Nirvana. This grunge music originated from Seattle, Washington, this music can be described as strong guitar riffs and dirty guitar, with distortion and feedback. Grunge had dark lyrics and expressed teenage anguish. The popular grunge and alternative bands include Nirvana, Alice in Chains, pearl jam, and Jane’s Addiction.

In Metallica song, “Enter Sandman” three rhythm guitar tracks of the same riff being played to create a ‘wall of sound’. Alternative rock is one of the most popular and broadcasted genres of rock in the present time. The Emo, a rock subgenre has intensely emotional lyric with hardcore punk roots. Bands such as sense fail, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, From First to Last, popularized them the used and softer bands including dashboard confessional Bright Eyes described as indie.

Even though indie represents independence and refers to the name of bands part of the independent record label, indie has a new meaning currently. Indie is a miscellaneous category of sorts, mainly underground and softer type of alternative rock. The popular indie bands include; the strokes, The Decembrists, Elliott Smith, The Arcade Fire, and Death cap for Cutie. Sub-genres such as the black metal, thrash metal and death metal that are very loud, aggressive and fast were reached.