Bands, hard rock. Hard rock: foreign bands

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Hard rock (the first word translates as “heavy”) is a musical style that appeared in the 60s and gained the greatest popularity in the 70s of the last century. What are his distinguishing qualities? Firstly, heavy guitar riffs, and secondly, a rather calm pace, which can not be said about heavy metal, which appeared a little later.

The birth of style

It is believed that this style was founded by the group "The Kinks", who released a simple song "You Really Got Me" in 1964. She, however, was interesting in that the musicians played overblown guitars. Just imagine: we would probably not know anything about this style if it were not for the contribution of this group. Hard rock appeared precisely thanks to this team. At about the same time, Jimi Hendrix was active, who performed music in the same style. But there was a touch of psychedelia in it. Blues-playing bands such as the "Yardbirds" and "Cream" also began to come to the newly minted style.

Best Bands, Early 70s

It should be noted that this direction was most actively developed in the UK, and soon the best hard rock bands were formed:Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. All-time hits like "Paranoid" and "In Rock" soon followed.

The most successful hard rock album was "Machine Head", which included a song that everyone now knows, it was called "Smoke On The Water". At the same time, a rather gloomy group from Birmingham, calling themselves "Black Sabbath", worked on a par with their illustrious colleagues. Also, this team laid the foundation for a style called doom, which began to develop only ten years later. As soon as the 70s began, new hard rock bands appeared - Uriah Heep, Free, Nazareth, Atomic Rooster, UFO, Budgie, Thin Lizzy, Black Widow ", "Status Quo", "Foghat". And this is not all the bands founded at that time. There were also bands among them that flirted with other styles (for example, "Atomic Rooster" and "Uriah Heep" did not shy away from progressive, "Foghat" and "Status Quo" played boogie, and "Free" gravitated towards blues-rock).

But be that as it may, they all played hard. In the US, too, many drew attention to this style. The bands "Bloodrock", "Blue Cheer", and "Grand Funk Railroad" appeared there. The teams were not bad at all, howeverthey did not achieve wide popularity. But many still fell in love with these groups. The hard rock they played ignited the hearts of their fans.

Mid to late 70s

In the mid 70's such great bands as "Montrose", "Kiss" and "Aerosmith" were founded. In addition, Alice Cooper, who performed shock rock, and Ted Nugent began to gain popularity. Followers of the style from other countries also began to appear: Australia put forward the kings of hard rock and roll under the name "AC / DC", Canada gave us "April Wine", a rather melodic group "Scorpions" was born in Germany, formed in Switzerland " Krokus".

But "Deep Purple" did not go very well - they were going through a difficult period in their lives. Soon the group ceased to exist, but after that two wonderful bands were formed - "Rainbow", founded by R. Blackmore (later he gave birth to "Dio"), and "Whitesnake" - the brainchild of D. Coverdale. However, the end of the 70s could not be called a prosperous time for hard rock, since then new wave and punk began to gain popularity. It is also important that the kings of style began to lose ground - "Deep Purple" no longer existed, "Black Sabbath" lost their leader and unsuccessfully searched for a new one, nothing was heard about "Led Zeppelin" after John Bonham died.

90s

The 90s were marked by a widespread interest in the alternative, including grunge, and hard rock at that time was relegated to the background, although occasionally there were good bands. The group "Guns N' Roses", which shocked the world with their song "Use Your Illusion", attracted the most interest, followed by the European bands "Gotthard" (Switzerland) and "Axel Rudi Pell" (Germany).

A little later…

Music in this style was performed later, however, some bands, for example, "Velvet Revolver" and "White Stripes", sounded a little different, there was an admixture of alternative, it was not pure hard rock. The bands are foreign for the most part and did not try to adhere to any standards.

But the most devoted followers of the style, who have not forgotten about the classical traditions, can be called "Answer", "Darkness", and "Roadstar", however, the last two of them soon ceased to exist.

Gorky Park

Of a number of Russian representatives of hard rock, this group stands out most clearly. It was popular back in the USSR, the guys sang songs in English. In the 80s, the team was also known in America, and soon it became the first domestic team to be shown on MTV. Many people remember such “chips” of this group as Soviet symbols and folk clothes.

Performance with Scorpions, new album, video shooting, popularity in America

The Gorky Park team was founded in 1987. 12 months later, the team sang on the same stage with the Scorpions when they were in St. Petersburg.

Shortly after that, the guys began to call themselves in English - "Gorky Park", and in 1989 an album of the same name was recorded. The cover had an interesting design - the letters G and P were displayed on it, resembling a hammer and sickle in shape. The group then flew to New York to make videos there called "Bang!" and My Generation. In Western countries at that time, many were interested in the USSR, and the team fell in love with a wide range of Americans. And no wonder, because it was the best Russian hard rock. The bands that play this style in our homeland could be counted on the fingers, and Gorky Park undoubtedly surpassed them all. Their success has been tremendous.

World Music Festival

"Gorky Park" began to travel both in their native country and in the states. In 1989, the band performed their songs at the famous "Music Festival of the World" in the capital, then one hundred and fifty thousand music lovers heard them.

Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Cinderella and Scorpions performed on the same stage. Of course, this was a great event for the band, the guys were happy that they were able to sing along with such legendary musicians. They later recalled this festival as one of the best events in the band's history, and they were right.

Tour Europe

Two years later, the group received the status of the most successful new international team. At the dawn of the 90s, the team successfully toured Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. For a long time these countries have not seen such a wonderful group. Hard rock in their performance was just great. At each performance there was a full house, people went in crowds to listen to good music. And no one was left disappointed, everyone was delighted with the performance of this group. But could one expect anything else from a team, each member of which was really talented? Therefore, it is not surprising that the group has been successful.

"Moscow Calling", the departure of Alexander Minkov, the breakup of the group

However, after a while, Russia stopped captivating the minds of people in the West, and Gorky Park was forgotten in America. Soon the team released the album "Moscow Calling", and began touring our country.

1998 was marked by the departure of Alexander Minkov from the team, who came up with the name "Alexander Marshal" and began to sing separately from the group. After that, Gorky Park began to experience hard times, and soon the team actually ceased to exist. However, Yan Yanenkov, together with Alexei Belov, continued to perform old compositions. They began to call themselves "Belov Park".

But the former members of the once famous group did not forget about each other and sometimes got together for performances. Well, not a bad idea. Their fans were happy to see the newly assembled team and listen to their favorite songs. Each time they sang it along with their idols, wondering if this was the last performance or if they would have another opportunity to hearlegendary band.

Hard rock bands list

Summing up, we should list the bands playing in this style. Just for ease of reference.

Foreign artists: Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Nazareth, Atomic Rooster, Uriah Heep, Free, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Black Widow, Status Quo, Foghat, Budgie, Bloodrock, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad, Montrose, Kiss, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, April Wine, Krokus, Rainbow, Dio, Whitesnake, Guns N' Roses, Gotthard, Axel Rudi Pell, Velvet Revolver, White Stripes, Answer, Darkness, Roadstar.

Russian bands: Gorky Park, Bes Illusions, Moby Dick, Voice of the Prophet.

Here are the most successful bands. Hard rock is performed by completely different and at the same time somewhat similar bands.