Popular music of the 20th and 21st

centuriesRock music

What is meant by rock music

Rock music developed out of rock ‘n’ roll.

It is a genre of popular music which often has an instrumental group of electric lead guitar, bass guitar, drum kit and sometimes a keyboard, often an electronic keyboard or synthesiser.

This is an emphasis on the lead guitar and a strong back beat

What is meant by rock music

Rock music is often extremely loud and exciting, displaying virtuoso performances (brilliant technique and showmanship).

Sometimes it expresses anger and frustration.

There are many different types of rock music, the main categories being:

psychedelic rock

progressive rock

hard rock

punk rock.

Psychedelic rock

This style of rock music tries to recreate the mind-altering experience of drugs.

It emerged during the 1960s when it was felt that the taking of certain drugs, such as LSD, that caused hallucinations and distorted time and sesnation could take the mind to a higher plane of experience and understanding.

Of course, this was not a permanent state, and for many it was disaster, resulting in addiction and depression, sometimes death.

Psychedelic rock is characterised by strange, weird lyrics, the use of unusual and exotic instruments, such as the sitar and table, extended instrumental solos and the use of technological effects such as panning (moving sound between the two stereo speakers), reverb and reversing sounds recorded on tape.

Progressive rock

Progressive rock emerged during the late 1960s.

It extended the normal 3-5 minutes of popular music forms into pieces lasting up to 15 minutes or more.

In this sense it tried to copy classical music and jazz, where the development of musical ideas takes much more time.

Progressive rock pieces often involve lengthy instrumental solos, copying the improvised solos in jazz, and slow-moving chord patterns.

Progressive rock groups often unified their ideas in concept albums, which have an underlying theme, or tell an epic story.

Activity

Research and listen to some examples of psychedelic rock and try to identify the different technological effects.

What effect do they have on the music?

Listening Activity

Listen to some examples of progressive rock, for example albums by Pink Floyd, or concept albums such as Rick Wakeman’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII, or Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s pop version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

What influences from classical music or jazz can you identify in these pieces?

Hard rock

Hard rock, or heavy rock, has an emphasis on the solo guitar.

It plays riffs, virtuoso solos using many different techniques that help the speed of playing, and fills.

Typical instrumentation comprises solo guitar, bass guitar, drum kit, keyboards (usually electronic organ or synthesiser) and vocalist.

Hard rock often uses a range of tonalities, including modal scales.

Punk rock

Punk rock developed during the mid-1970s, and was a reaction against the commercial and intellectual developments of rock music.

In the eyes of punk musicians, rock music had abandoned its roots and become too complicated.

Rock music was the music of the ‘superstar’ performer – comfortable and elite.

Punk rock demanded a return to the raw side of rock music – the simple chords and structures of rock ‘n’ roll, and the rebellious attitudes found in its singers and audiences.

Punk rock

Punk music often contains a limited number of chords, played at a fast tempo, and distorted.

The melody is a mixture of shouted rants, and the structure is often simple and repetitive, with an unvarying, powerful rhythm.

The lyrics are provocative and anti-establishment, even anarchic.

Listening activity

Listen to ‘Child in Time’ by Deep Purple.

The opening organ riff is modal, so listen for the characteristic tone between the leading note and tonic – in this case the first three notes, which are repeated to form the riff.

Research study

Punk rock

Find out more about punk rock, its fashions, groups and style.

In what ways did punk rock return to the original ideals of rock music?

Listening Quiz

Listen to ‘On the run’ from Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon

a) What term best describes the rhythm and melody heard in this excerpt?

broken chords chromatic sequence ostinato

b) What electronic keyboard instrument can be heard in this excerpt?

c) What effect do the electronic effects have on the music?