Final Exam Flashcards
How was heavy metal termed?
retroactively
Where did heavy metal emerge from?
1960s England - emerged from London Blues Scene
what genre are recurring riffs and where did it come from?
- heavy metal took blues and riff based London blues scene - on steroids
What is the main value of heavy metal? and how is it conveyed?
power
- extreme volume
what is the primary instrument used in heavy metal?
electric guitar - rivalled lead singer as focal point
What are guitar gods?
- centering on electric guitar
- developed virtuosic and loud styles of playing (to fill large stadiums)
- amplification for electric guitar - guitar distortion
- players normally classically trained - virtuosity
what did the electric guitar symbolize?
sex ;)
What is Pete Townshed famous for and symbolize?
smashing guitar - symbolized violence (gun)
How did vocalists in heavy metal sing?
loud screaming style (distortion of voice)
what is distortion?
metaphor for going too far/over the line
Yardbirds
- originate location
- members
- from London blues scene
- Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton etc.
Jimmy Paige
founding member of Led Zeppelin
- one of the founders of heavy metal/hard rock
Members of Led Zeppelin (4)
Jimmy Paige, Robert Plant, John Bonham, John Paul Jones
Led Zeppelin name suggest by?
Keith from the Who
Master of the riff
Jimmy Paige
“Black Dog/Rock and Roll” musical aspects
- Led Zeppelin
riff, powerful sound/images, large base drum
“When the leaves break” characteristics
Led Zeppelin
- revolutionized drumbeat, used studio to develop sounds of power
who did heavy metal appeal to?
working class, white adolescents who were feeling powerless
“A Whole Lot of Love”
- band
- characteristics
- meaning
- Led Zeppelin
- covered man songs
- faced charge of plagiarism for this song
- insistent riff used to get across insistent projection of male sexuality
- electric guitar reflected great power
- psychedelic drum section/ weird guitar/percussion effects
- orgasmic moaning/screaming and violent sounds (accused of suggesting sexual violence)
What bad thing did Jimmy Paige do?
kept a young 14 year old ‘groupie’ locked in apartment as sex slave
flying orgy plane
explored the occult-dark, evil magic
Black Sabbath as a band
- originates
- singer
- album cover
- named after
- Birmingham - diary, industrial town
- Ozzy Osborne (singer)
- Tony Iommi (guitarist) - sliced off 2 fingertips - gave hand heavier sound - developed uniques sound
- art sets tone - witch holding a black cat, old gloomy grey sky, creepy house
named after horror movies
“Black Sabbath” song
- storm sounds, tolling of a bell, ominousness
- riff based song
- middle interval sounds like a siren (Tritone)
- sound suggestive of evil
- about being the chosen one by satan - steeped in darkness
tritone
diabolos in musica = devil in music
“Iron Man”
- Black Sabbath
- suggestive of power, iron = strong
- based on movie/book about man who travels to earth to warn other, goes through magnetic field and turns into iron man, nobody believes him so he brings forth the prophecy himself
- riff based song
- minor 2nd = ‘doom’ interval - like Jaws
tritone
Minor 2nd
‘doom’ interval - like Jaws
Deep Purple originated from
English band
“Highway Star”
- car theme - speed, excitement, power, notion of freedom
- parallel between a car and women - describe her features (objectifying) - power over everything including women
- baroque virtuosity - studied Baroque classical music techniques
Glam Rock/ Glitter Rock
- embrace theatricality - put taboos right in your face on stage (makeup, cross dressing, displaying ‘bulges’ prominently
- more elaborate, invented characters for performances (reinvented themselves)
- desperation to escape boredom of everyday, suburban life
- exploring anxieties of the day - gender issues, homosexuality, etc.
What did London, NY, and Detroit have in common in the early 70s?
economic hardship
white flight
white people moved from city to suburbs (boredom in suburbs)
What do Marc Bolan and David Bowie have in common??
London suburbs and hated living there, tried to stand out
pretty boys
1969 Stonewall Inn
- bar routinely raided by police b/c it was a homeosexual hang out
- during 1969, they fought back, birth of gay rights movement
Marc Boland
- started what band
- famous characteristics
- founded the band T.Rex
- carrier took off b/c of Chelita Secunda - took him shopping and remakes his image (decks him in latest women’s fashion - put on makeup)
- sexuality unclear - clearly crossed conventional lines of masculinity
“Bang a Gong (Get it on)”
T.Rex
- changed name to bang a gong as thought it was too suggestive for air play
- glam tries to tap into notion if sleazy sexuality
- explore other worlds - streets of sleaze and outer space - create alternative universes to escape boredom of suburban living
David Bowie
- original name?
- wife’s name
- what did he become
- David Jones
- Angela Bowie (gave him a makeover)
- made him into a glam star - used to be folk singer/ singer-song writer (music flopped)
“Space Odyssey”
- David Bowie
- minor hit - about big thing of the day (the moon landing)
- space exploration idea coming around
David Bowie meets Andy Warhol description and influence
- meets Andy Warhol (provocative artist) - went to the factory
- influenced by provocative theatricality - considered taboo to everyday folks
Wayne/Jayne Country
avant-gard art created to make others uncomfortable (theatre group)
Ziggy Stardust
- David Bowie’s persona
- alien being - seductive (beautiful)
What is David Bowie the first to do? + expand that influence
- first rock star to state that he was bisexual
- took society through an exploration of what it means to be male
- let others live ‘larger than life existence’ vicariously
“Life on Mars”
- David Bowie
- riff that borrows rocket theme from classic music - ascending interval, flurry of notes at top (explosion like)
- played by Mark Ronson
- light vulnerable
sex =
biological
gender =
performative/social
Where does Glam rock start and spread to?
England then US