How Music Genres Got Their Names
Right from the early 50s till today, there have been a huge
number of rock and roll fans. Right from Chuck Berry to the legendary Elvis,
and from The Rolling Stones to the great Beatles, the legacy is still going on…
and as the music got heavy, people got a new genre- METAL- to listen. Heavy
Metal music is still ruling the world in spite of all those Laws, Protests, and
much more things that prevented it. Rock and Heavy music is considered to be
really true music- just like classical
music, with laying its roots in classical music.
But one thing that has always occurred to rock and metal
listeners is that how, when, what and why so many genres of metal were formed.
And so today it is interesting to seek answers to the questions- Reasons why the genres were
named so, the pioneering forces behind it, and the bands that have continued to
carry forward the legacy to still make that genre still rocking.
So, let’s begin from the most fundamental form of Metal-
Heavy Metal. So, what exactly it is? Some loud thing played even louder than we
can imagine? No! it’s a form of expression. Satanism, drugs, women, sex- These
are the lyrical themes! Not the reasons behind the loud sound! Heavy metal is
more of a louder form of rock and roll... with much louder sound.
Many people think that Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were
responsible for naming the genre. Definitely not! The thing dates back to late
60s- An era with probably one of the best and important eras of music. And they
had a band called Steppenwolf. Amazing band. They had this song called ‘Born To
Be Wild’, and the lyrics go as follows...
‘I like smoke and lightning
HEAVY
METAL thunder
Whistling
like a wind
And
the feeling that I’m under ‘
From this it’s quite obvious that the genres name came out
to be as HEAVY METAL. You might think they used it at random. Possibly. But the
song itself expresses the urge to be free and to explore the wild in those
golden days of life, and just love nature… be free!
But it does not always mean that to express these things its
Heavy Metal. The war[1]
had also ended… and people living in those days had really dark days… like
really DARK- and so it all began in Birmingham, England-a band called BLACK
SABBATH came out. Yes, the band which, after ruling the world of rock and roll
from 1967-2017, finally split up. The band had really some dark days, and they
expressed it in the form of music. Doom, Occultism, Reality were the lyrical
themes. Black Sabbath is considered as the first Heavy Metal and Doom Metal
band ( More about Doom later), followed by Deep Purple, Judas Priest , Motorhead
and Scorpions, to name a few.
So far we have got how Heavy Metal got its name. Yes, we are
in the 80s! Now that people knew Heavy Metal and were
banging their heads to it… some people came up with the idea to make much more
heavier music.. more heavy than Heavy Metal.. and so a group of boys tried to
combine Heavy Metal and Punk Rock.. they called it Speed Metal. The year was
1983. The new genre was really good.. and the people loved it. Guess who were
they? METALLICA! With their first album,
‘Kill Em All’ including hits like ‘Hit The Lights’ and ‘Motorbreath’.
But the genres name came from a band called Anthrax, with
their first album ‘Fistful Of Metal’ in
1984, with the song, ‘Metal Thrashing Mad’. The sound was similar to that of
Metallica, and thus it was named Thrash Metal. And thus Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth
and Slayer- The BIG 4 OF THRASH METAL- formed the base for the genre- after which
we know many legends ruled.
The lyrical themes of Thrash Metal are same as that of
Heavy- Youth, the energy in them, and the anxiety to do stuff… except for
Slayer. Slayer has lyrics related to Satan, Blood, War, and Atheism.
Day by day, therefore the music grew heavier and people
wanted some more heavy music. And it happened. Some guys from Canada formed a
band called Voor, which released a song called ‘Evil Metal’. Voor
made music that had lyrics much more related to death, killing, blood…
and much more of different vocals- Growling. This new genre could be called as
‘Evil Metal’ – but, in 1984, another band called Possessed- released their
song- Death Metal, which resembled Voor’s music, but it was much pretty
heavier. And so the genres name came to be known as DEATH METAL. Possessed
therefore came to be known as the ‘GODFATHERS OF DEATH METAL’.
But the thing didn’t stop there. The most extreme level was
yet to come-YES.IT WAS. Back in the 80s, when the New Wave Of British Metal (NWOBHM) was taking place, a
band called Venom, which was a part of the wave, released an album called BLACK
METAL, which had a song by the same name. The album had lyrics related to
Satanism and Atheism. Before Venom a Band called King Diamond also had satanic
lyrics, but people classified it under heavy metal only, because of its melodic
nature.
And so a new genre was given birth- Black Metal- which is up
till the most extreme metal genre. The first movement took place in Norway,
with bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone and Celtic
Frost. This genre has extensive use of Tritone ( A 3 note piece which was
believed to invite the Satan) , corpse painting, and releasing all albums in
Black And White colours… these people perform less On Stage.
There are many other genres too. Power metal, whose origins
can be traced back to the 60 s (Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin) had some lyrics
related to Norse and Greek Mythology. This genre was classified under heavy
metal only until the Legendary Dio and bands like Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray
made mythological songs. And so the genres name.
Another important genre to be considered is Glam metal. Some
say it destroyed metal, but bands like W.A.S.P. and Twisted Sister proved them
wrong. Their music was also as heavy as Iron Maiden. The genre was named Glam
because of lyrics related to Girls, Relationships, Sex, and the bands outfits
that resembled the outfit of women. But one can Differentiate!
I also mentioned the genre Doom Metal. As the name suggests,
this music has lyrics related to death, war, depression, and is very slow. Like
the guitars are played at relatively low BPM.
Black Sabbath is also considered an important band in inventing the
genre, followed by Candlemass, Trouble and Melvins (Yes. They do have some Doom
Metal albums).
From this it can be seen that, Rock and Roll, which told
some happy stories of life, and was fun and loving music, also became dark when
metal became a part of it, as metal brought some reality and darker shades of
life in front of the people. Some made it with simple acoustic guitars, while
some made it with the most down tuned guitars of all time. Some made it using
spoken word, while some made it using without lyrics. But all had only one
intention- to Rock and Roll.
In the later periods , we can see intense mix of metal with
other genres. For example, Linkin Park fused DJ and Rock music to develop
something new- Nu Metal( Anthrax is credited for this) and so did Slipknot and
Korn. Folk metal also came up( Eluveite , Saor) which fused local music and
rock and roll.
Being a learner of Guitar, one has also grown up listening
to these bands. I found true, honest dedication for music in these artists.
These bands faced real dark days and so is their music. Not only they helped to
bring people together but made all of them Blood Brothers- to rock and roll
forever. Even though some don’t enjoy this music at all… it doesn’t matter.
There has to be hatred in order that rock and roll still can survive.
At last, all I know is that there is a lot more to explore,
a lot to be known, and a lot to be learned. There is a lot of music to be
discovered. This is just the beginning, and there is a lot out there. Rock and
Roll has made many legends, and has shown many people to live a life. And it
still will continue to rule the world. Forever.
References-
1.Encyclopedia Metallum- The Metal Archives (Official
Website of Metal bands)
2.Wikipedia
