A Biased History of Music

Alright... I've been meaning to do this for a long time... just for my satisfaction. Note down as much a history of music as I can. The description that follows is in no way complete and no way unprejudiced or untainted by my personal preferences (for example, sue me, but you won't find any mention of Ms. Spears, The Boys Backstreet, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi and what not after this point). If your favorite artist does not appear below, it is more likely that I don't like him/her/it than the fact that I haven't heard that music (which in rare cases maybe the case).

The Beginnings
Let's take a quick look at what existed before rock, pop and blah. The Europeans had their so called Classical music, as did the Asians (although, at that time, it was probably called simply music). There was Chopin, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Schoenberg, Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven and all. The music of this era was typically characterized by an orchestra. The orchestra included a number of stringed instruments (violins, cellos, harps etc.) as well as some pianos, and sometimes tubas. This music was majorly inspired from Christian liturgical music, before which, I have little or no knowledge of.
The main reason for playing with such a huge ensemble of players was the lack of amplification (what with the absence of microphones and amplifiers). This point is good to note and may hold sudden importance later during this quick anthology.

'Black' Music
As classical music and light instrumentals and vocals based on these compositions meandered through people's lives, one particular group of people brought a definite change in the way people perceived music - the African Americans. According to me, the African Americans have given the world more in terms of music than any other race has.
Factory workers and local African American labor class, wanted something different to hear. They couldn't relate to classical music and rightly so. They brought in a new genre of music, known at the time as 'Black' Music, currently known as Jazz. African sound was brought to America with the inclusion of percussion instruments (drum kits - they invented it, literally), guitars, saxophones, trumpets etc.
Jazz has it's root in an older African-American sound called the Blues.
Pioneers of Jazz include Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden, and many more. Jazz then branched into a variety of forms like Bebop, Cool Jazz, Free Jazz and Swing.
Interestingly, Country music has its roots in Jazz.

Rock n' Roll
It is difficult to pin-point who first produced a Rock n' Roll song. One thing however, is sure, Rock n' Roll evolved from a combination of Classical, Jazz styles, Country, Folk and R&B. The main aim was to bring music to the masses and cater to the sensibilities of the 'white' folk. In other words, making 'black' music 'white'.
A lot of people can be credited for promoting this genre of music - Big Joe Turner, Jackie Brenston, Chuck Berry and of course a certain Mr. Elvis Presley (although his music was more Rockabilly, a derivative of Rock n' Roll). Away from North America, a small hurricane, swept Europe and the rest of the world for that matter. A hurricane called The Beatles.

Rock
The Beatles took over the world with a storm. The quartet of Paul, John, George and Ringo are still considered to be a cult in some circles. However, other Rock n' Roll faces emerged as Rock n' Roll began to take the shape of Rock. The Hollies, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, all burst out of Britain to sweep a world off its feet with electric guitars, amplifiers, crunches and mild distortions, mildly loud drums and bass lines.
Rock originated as a sign of rebellion. A form of going against the society, and basically everything that was 'supposed to be done this way'.
Moppy, unruly, long hair, slowly crept into this rebel movement.
Rock began to take shape in the form of Garage Rock (dealing with young teenage life) and more importantly - Blues-Rock. Inspired by the Blues stylings of artists such as Lead Belly, Blues-Rock introduced the world to Eric Clapton, Janis Joplin, earlier Led Zeppelin (The New Yardbirds), Jefferson Airplane, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Jimi Hendrix.
Slowly people realized that a guitar with distortion turned up and loud drums make a sensible listening. From now on guitars get more distorted and drums, louder.

Rock - Now What?
Rock subdivided itself into more genres than one can count and definitely more than I can remember or list here. However, here are some of the main ones:

Folk Rock
Influenced by Folk music (duh) and utilizing mainly acoustic instruments, Folk Rock was successfully pioneered by none other than the great Bob Dylan. Dylan whose commercial hits include 'Blowin in the Wind', 'Tambourine Man', etc. later switched to use of electric instruments and compositions, a move seen by many hardcore fans as a stab in the back. Another notable band is The Byrds. All these bands and almost a history of music till this point is presumably allured to in John Denver's song 'American Pie'.

Psychedelic Rock
Now was the time for LSD induced music! Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, The Who and of course Mr. Jim Morrison and The Doors, marched into Psychedelic territory. This genre was characterized by music that aided drug-induced euphoria and lyrics that lurked around under influence. The music and atmosphere would inevitably be surreal, with most (if not everyone) high and happy. The atmosphere would of course be laid-back. This nicely corresponded to the Hippy movement and along with the other then-current forms of Rock pretty much formed the basis of Woodstock '69 - 3 days of peace, love and music.

Hard... Harder... Metal
Things started getting harder and harder. Young men, especially the working class, wanted to hear something that they could relate to. Families were being broken and the Hippy movement hadn't turned out to be all that successful.
Music started getting heavy. Bands like Aerosmith with Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, provided the rough, heavily distorted, slightly sloppy tunes with high-pitched, screeching vocals.
Also at this time, in come a medley of Glam Rock bands. Glam Rock, though often considered more of a fashion statement than music, filled in the gap in between.
Adorned with dangerously appealing feminine lingerie and trans-sexual dressing, with sprayed hair pulled high up, bands like Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Poison, Van Halen, and Skid Row brought the heavy metal sound, albeit with a bad wardrobe.
At the time Sunset Blvd., Hollywood was the place to be, with every glammed-up band showing up there for a chance to hit pay-dirt. Band members were randomly exchanged, music randomly made and out of this chaos, rose a no-nonsense and promising band called Guns n' Roses. Slash's stuttering guitars and Axl Rose's high pitched, nasal voice had people head-banging everywhere.
More important than Guns, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Motorhead, Kiss etc. quickly moved the metal music scene to the hungry listeners or metal-heads as they are called.
However, according to me, the quintessential metal band of the era was none other than Black Sabbath, fronted by vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.

Punk Rock
Punk Rock evolved as a result of some people not relating to the endless solos and complicated compositions of traditional Rock and Metal music.
It is a no-nonsense form of Rock that relies a lot on energy and quick, simple riffs and hardcore power chords, with a decent amount of distortion or crunch. Most songs follow a traditional 4/4 time signature. It was originally, supposedly meant for people who were not that great with instruments, but still wanted to express themselves - to this I beg to differ.
Punk started out as an underground movement, with artists who become commercially successful, shunned by the Punk community.
The pioneers of Punk include The Clash, The Ramones, The Crass, Stiff Little Fingers, Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, The Zeroes, The Germs, The Screamers, The Skulls, The Offsprings etc.
Recently some bands have gained commercial success, outcasting them from hardcore punk circles - Greenday, Arctic Monkeys being some examples.

Grunge
This sub-genre of Rock is a mix of punk, with some metal-like riffs and distortions. Sometimes referred to as the Seattle-sound, it originated in Seattle, Washington. The forerunner in popularizing and reinventing this genre was a scrawny man called Kurt Cobain and the band Nirvana also including Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic (now doing gospel music). Their song 'Smells Like Teenspirit' talked of teenage angst and (at the risk of sounding hackneyed) became an anthem for a generation. After Kurt's death with a shotgun to his head at age 27, Dave Grohl formed the band Foo Fighters.
Other bands that influenced Grunge music include Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Mudhoney among others.

The Sub-Sub-Genres of Metal - The Devil's Note
Before diving into the sub-genres of Metal, let me explain what Metal is. Metal is an extreme form of music, with extremely heavy distortion on guitars, fast drumming (usually with a double bass), loud, prominent bass lines, guitars sometimes tuned down and odd counts and time signatures.
Another defining factor of Metal is the Tritone. The tritone is a harmony interval spanning three whole tones (eg. C/F#). This gives a sound like in horror movie background scores, or more importantly, the sound of the 'devil'. For this reason, playing these combination of notes in medieval times was banned, for it was supposed to invoke the devil himself (or herself).
As amplifiers and equipment improved, people realized that their guitar sounds could be sustained for long periods of times just like in olden times of Classical music (as in violins and cellos). They could now form similar harmonies using their cranked up distortion. This led to the riffs and sound of Metal.

Black Metal
Using fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking in sometimes hypnotic patterns, and unconventional song structure, Black Metal tries to create a depressing, morbid environment.
Venom, Bathory, HellHammer and Celtic Frost propagated this sub-genre.
Certain Norwegian bands such as Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Satyricon, and Emperor propagated satanic beliefs and rituals. Compared to American Metal Bands like Slayer, who mainly use pagan symbols as stage image, these Norwegian bands actually indulged in church burnings, torture and fatal rituals towards paganism.

Death Metal
This genre typically uses heavily distorted guitars, low-pitched, growled, harsh vocals, and morbid lyrics. Morbid Angels is an example of this genre.

Thrash Metal
Bands like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth.

Groove Metal
Examples of groove metal include Pantera, Machine Head and Sepultura.

Industrial Metal
Nine Inch Nails.

Neo-classical Metal
Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore.

Nu Metal
Korn, Slipknot and Mudvayne.

Power Metal
Dio.

Progressive Metal
Queensrÿche, Dream Theater.

Speed Metal
Motorhead.

Other Metal Sub-Genres:
Doom Metal
Drone metal
Metalcore
Stoner metal
Sludge metal
Gothic Metal


Of course apart from all these genres there are a multitude of other genres, sub-genres and artists that I don't mention here. Music is beautiful - be it Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A or Gorgoroth's distorted guitars. Love, Peace, Empathy.

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