Top 3 Bands That Revolutionized Hard Rock
A sub-genre of rock music, hard rock is also known as ‘heavy rock’. It involves the use of distorted electric guitars, aggressive vocals, drums, and bass guitar. The origins of hard rock can be traced to the mid-1960s. This musical era was characterized by the garage, blues rock, and psychedelic movements.
Hard rock developed into a popular form of music in the 1970s. In the following decade, some of the hard rock bands moved on to pop rock. Here are some of the best bands that revolutionized this genre of rock music:
1. Led Zeppelin
This English rock band were originally ‘The New Yardbirds’. Their emergence in the late 1960s in London gave the city another exciting hard rock band. Often described as one of hard rock and heavy metal’s progenitors, their music mainly consisted of guitar-driven, heavy sound. The members of this band were Robert Plant, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones. Led Zeppelin’s music also had a considerable influence of blues and folk.
The band had a significant impact in the development of stadium rock and album-oriented rock. Guitarist Jimmy Page wrote most of their music in their early days. Vocalist Robert Plant had written most of the lyrics. The compositions of bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones became a major part of Led Zeppelin’s music.
2. Queen
Yet another rock band formed in London, Queen had an impressive line-up of talented musicians. They were Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, Brian May, and John Deacon. This British rock band came into existence during the year 1970. Much of their earlier works had an influence of hard rock, progressive rock, and heavy metal. Later they ventured into works that were more radio-friendly and conventional.
May and Taylor were a part of the rock band ‘Smile’ before the forming of Queen. The year 1971 saw bassist John Deacon joining this band of talented rock musicians. With their second album, they became chart-toppers in the United Kingdom. The tracks We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You have now become anthems. Both these tracks are from their 1977 album News of the World.
3. Aerosmith
With the formation of this American rock band in 1970, the country got its ‘Bad Boys from Boston’. They toured extensively throughout the 1970s and came up with top hits such as Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion. The original members of this band were Steven Tyler, Tom Hamilton, Joe Perry, Ray Tabano, and Joey Kramer.
Although their music style has its roots in blues-based hard rock, they incorporate other elements. Most of these are heavy metal, pop rock, glam metal, and rhythm and blues. In the year 1971, Brad Whitford replaced Ray Tabano. By the end of the 1970s, Aerosmith was one of the world’s most popular hard rock bands.
Whitford and Perry departed from the band in 1979 owing to internal conflict and drug addiction. They were back in the band during 1984 and gave several hits later on. Among the most popular ones was I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. It was a part of the soundtrack of the film Armageddon.