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edits
Changes
Rock
,→Sub-Genres
* Alternative - Alternative came around in the early 1990's as an attempt to move away from the technicality, pop-influence, "cheesiness", and synthetic "perfection" of the 80's. It featured a return towards folk and classic rock styles, yet the sound had a more modern edge due to more advanced production and playback technology. Vocal ranges returned to the normal range of most humans compared to the high-pitched vocals popular in the 80's. Guitar riffs were made simpler and less prominent. Guitar timbre features more clean and slightly broken up tones - heavy distortion was often nasty and rough instead of smooth and searing like the 80's. Examples: Nirvana, Better than Ezra, Spin Doctors, Alanis Morisette
* Alternative or Nu Metal - Appeared in the late 90's as an outgrowth of alternative rock, particularly grunge. It incorporates the more downtrodden vocal stylings and modern sound of alternative rock with the riffing and rhythms of heavy metal. Yet it goes further by favoring down-tuned guitars and frequent usage of completely screamed vocals. Many groups also incorporated rapped vocals. While starting out as an underground movement, it eventually became mainstream and lost much of its identity in the process. Examples: Korn, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Disturbed
* Black Metal -
* Blues-Rock - Although all rock and roll is strongly influenced by (and in fact an outgrowth of) blues, blues-rock is a term that came about to describe artists whose compositions were structurally based solidly in blues but used rock instrumentation and rhythms. Examples: B.B. King, George Thorogood, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jeff Beck, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Moore
* Death Metal - A more modern subgenre of heavy metal, death metal features a very extreme sound and style employing fast dissonant guitars usually playing in diminished scales, gutteral vocals, disjointed rhythms, and blast beat drumming. Examples: Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus* Doom Metal - Another sub-genre of heavy metal, doom uses slower tempos and large distorted chords on downtuned guitars to create a dissonant, dark atmospheric tone, combined with simple, chant-like melodies or sustained screamed vocals. Rhythms are rather straight-forward, signaling an unending march towards oblivion. Examples: Allogoch, Opeth, Eyehategod, Exhorder, Crowbar
* Emo -
* Grunge - A sub-genre of alternative, this was almost a protest of 80's music, having a kind of punk element. It replaced 80's cheesiness with quirkiness, featuring uncomfortable screaming, crying, whining, noise, or other unsettling soundscapes. Rather than focus on poppy one-line hooks in choruses, grunge would focus on depressing or brooding melodies, often with double-tracked or processed vocals. Guitars and bass were often distorted using a raucous fuzz distortion. Examples: Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Veruca Salt
* Heavy Metal - Heavy Metal began in the 70's with groups that pushed rock and roll into a harder edge, featuring heavily distorted guitars, more involved drums, and screeching vocals. Rather than establish simple shuffles, the guitars would establish tonality through more complex riffs. Examples: Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Judas Preist
* Melodic Death Metal -
* Metalcore - Another sub-genre of metal, metalcore focused on uniting the elements of thrash-metal inspired guitar riffs and drumming with the modernity and aggressiveness of hardcore
* Pop-Punk - Examples: Blink 182
* Progressive Rock -