Genre busting: the origin of music categories | Music | The Guardian Pop and rock Genre busting: the origin of music categories Where did the terms retro-nuevo and skronk originate? Or hip-hop? Michaelangelo Matos runs through an exhaustive catalogue of music's phrasemakers and trendsetters Music's phrasemakers (clockwise from top left): Brian Eno, Bikini Kill, William S Burroughs and Ornette Coleman. Photograph: Redferns/Corbis Pop and rock Genre busting: the origin of music categories Where did the terms retro-nuevo and skronk originate? Or hip-hop? Michaelangelo Matos runs through an exhaustive catalogue of music's phrasemakers and trendsetters Thursday 25 August 2011 17.04 EDT First published on Thursday 25 August 2011 17.04 EDT Share on Messenger Close Music comes from everywhere, and so do the names we call it by. There's a longstanding cliche that only the music business needs genre names – everyone else either likes it or they don't.

That is, of course, bunk, as anyone who's heard enough people trot out lines such as "I like all music except for rap and country" is aware. Not least because quite a lot of those genre names come from the artists themselves. Gospel, for example, was more or less invented by Rev Thomas A Dorsey . As Georgia Tom , Dorsey played jazz and blues piano before turning to the Bible for inspiration in 1932 and selling songs such as Precious Lord, Take My Hand to churches in Chicago, then across America. His group's name was the University Gospel Singers. Similarly, bluegrass originates from the name of the country singer-mandolinist Bill Monroe 's backing band from 1938 to his 1996 death: the Blue Grass Boys. They were named after Monroe's native Kentucky, "the Blue Grass State". Glitter rock – a synonym for glam – comes from Gary Glitter, about which the less said, the better. More often, a genre name will come from a musician's works.

Free jazz comes from Ornette Coleman 's 1960 album of the same name; ditto blue-eyed soul, from the Righteous Brothers' 1963 LP. The mid-60s Jamaican boogie dubbed rocksteady is named for an 1966 Alton Ellis single , while reggae followed it into Jamaican dancehalls on the heels of the Maytals' Do the Reggay in 1968. Soca is a condensation of Trinidadian artist Lord Shorty 's Soul of Calypso, from 1974, while acid house, originally from Phuture's 1987 single Acid Tracks , has come to mean anything with a yammering, squealing TB-303 on it. Ambient, of course, comes from Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978).

Eno says in his famous liner notes from 1975's Discreet Music that the idea had come to him while recuperating in hospital after getting hit by a car in January 1975; a guest put 18th-century harp music on at low volume, then left the immobile Eno to ponder its placement. The guest remembers it differently: in Geeta Dayal's Another Green World, Eno's then-girlfriend Judy Nylon says she put the harp music on intending to balance it with the pouring rain outside, and that Eno caught on immediately. Sometimes lyrics become genres. Doo-wop comes from any number of primordial R&B harmony vocal-group records – the two most obvious are the Turbans' 1955 When You Dance ("Doo-wop, de-doo-doo," runs the end of the refrain) and the Five Satins' In the Still of the Nite a year later (under the sax solo, the chant "Doo-bop, doo-bah!"). In the late '60s, New York oldies radio DJ Gus Gossert put it into wide use, though he claimed he got it from California aficionados.

Old-school Bronx DJ Lovebug Starski claims to have coined the term hip-hop by rhyming "hip-hop, hippy to the hippy hop-bop" at early parties, telling Peter S Scholtes in 2006: "Me and Kid Cowboy from [Grandmaster Flash's] the Furious Five used to say it together. I'd say the 'hip', he'd say the 'hop'." The term jungle came from a soundsystem yard tape from Jamaica that featured the chant "Alla the junglists". MC Navigator of pirate station Kool FM told critic Simon Reynolds in his book Energy Flash: "There's a place in Kingston called Tivoli Gardens, and the people call it the Jungle." When Rebel MC sampled it, breakbeat-led house had a new name. Reynolds points out that the British rave label Ibiza had "the first use of the word 'jungle' on their [12-inch] sleeves", including 1991's Noise Factory single, Jungle Techno .

Sometimes record labels become genre names, as with industrial, named after Throbbing Gristle's imprint , established in 1976, and lovers rock , industrial's polar opposite: sentimental, romantic reggae named for the London label of Dennis and Eve Harris from around the same time. And sometimes record labels just mandate new terms. Outlaw country, no wave and techno all came into use via compilation albums: respectively, 1976's Wanted! The Outlaws (featuring Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser); 1978's No New York (Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Contortions, Mars and DNA); 1988's Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit (Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson). There are occasions, too, when an artist just says something is something, and that is that. Think of Afrobeat – not be confused with Afropop, an old catch-all to describe, well, all pop from Africa.

Afrobeat was the name coined in 1968 by Fela Kuti to describe the music he was inventing around that time, made up of funk, jazz, Nigerian highlife, anti-authoritarian lyrics and high-grade weed. The 90s were rife with musician-coined genres. Riot grrrl was the name of a 1991 fanzine put together by four of that music's key players: Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile; Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill. Illbient was coined in 1994 by DJ Olive, of the trio We, to describe a multimedia presentation to a journalist in Brooklyn. "Some older man who said he was a journalist asked me if this was ambient music," Olive says, "and I blurted out as a joke, 'Nope, this is illbient.' We all had a laugh about it." And in 1996, producers Ed Rush and Trace of the No U Turn label minted the phrase techstep to describe their blaring, dense, hard-as-hell style of drum and bass. But sometimes an artist assigns a title that becomes something else.

Power-pop was coined by Pete Townshend in 1967 to define the Who, but wound up being what Eric Carmen of prime power-pop practitioners the Raspberries described as "groups that came out in the 70s that played kind of melodic songs with crunchy guitars and some wild drumming". Not to mention the endless acolytes who mimicked them. Often, technology drives musical changes, so equipment plays its role, too. Acid, noted above, is one example. So is dub, short for the "dubplate" (duplicate platter) Jamaican sound system operator Ruddy Redwood ordered in late 1967 from Duke Reid's pressing plant. The recording was On the Beach by the Paragons, and the engineer, Byron Smith, accidentally wiped the vocal. Reid played it alongside the vocal version ; the response was so strong he began putting instrumentals on the B-sides. Eventually, creative engineers such as King Tubby and Lee Perry would take the dub side into whole new areas of bass-heavy abstraction. Of course, journalists need these terms more than anyone, in a sense – a recognisable genre name is powerful shorthand.

As the longtime bible of the American music industry, thanks to its trendsetting album and single charts, Billboard has played a significant role in disseminating musical titles. Easy listening, for instance, was coined in the 17 July 1961 edition (not, sadly, included on the magazine's Google Books archive, though every other 1961 issue is). Rhythm & blues came to be in 1947, when Jerry Wexler, then a Billboard editor, began using it to denote the kind of postwar black pop that he went on to pioneer with Atlantic Records. Rhythm & blues became a chart name in the 25 June 1949 issue, replacing the previous issue's "Race Records". Long before producing The Chris Rock Show and Good Hair, Nelson George was himself a Billboard reporter (he was behind the magazine's use of the term "black music"). But it was in the Village Voice that George came up with retro-nuevo, while reviewing Anita Baker in 1986. The term meant 80s black pop with roots in pre-disco R&B. "Black pop music had always felt grounded in a very adult perspective on life and love," George says.

"The music became a lot more juvenile in the 80s. To me, 'retro-nuevo' was a way to highlight singers who were very contemporary but hadn't totally abandoned tradition." George's longtime Voice editor was Robert Christgau , who made his own coinage with skronk, a phrase synonymous with no wave that Christgau first used in 1978. "It was a complete piece of onomatopoeia," Christgau says. "It just popped into my head. I was looking for a way to describe DNA and Mars. That's what the guitars sounded like to me." Heavy metal was also first used to describe ugly guitars. The phrase, of course, originated with William S Burroughs in his 1962 novel The Soft Machine, featuring Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid. Then John Kay of Steppenwolf sang the phrase "heavy metal thunder" in 1968's Born to Be Wild .

But it first reached print as a synonym for hard rock via Mike Saunders (later Metal Mike Saunders, singer for early-80s punks the Angry Samoans), in a review of Humble Pie's As Safe As Yesterday in Rolling Stone from 1970, describing the album as "more of the same 27th-rate heavy metal crap". The same year, punk rock was coined Stone's Detroit rival, Creem, via Dave Marsh, who used it in a ? & the Mysterians live review ("Needless to say, it was impossible to pass up such a landmark explosion of punk rock, even after two nights running of Tina Turner"). Punk magazine came along a few years later. Britain does nomenclature like no one else. Krautrock came from NME's Ian MacDonald in 1972, to describe Neu! and Can and the like; a year later, Faust led their album IV with the 12-minute epic Krautrock .

Similarly, Simon Reynolds began using post-rock in early 1994 (he says he used it in Melody Maker, and the May 1994 issue of The Wire has his essay on it) to denote bands using rock instruments to non-rock ends. "I didn't actually coin it," says Reynolds, citing Richard Meltzer and Paul Morley's use of it before him as "an avant-rock synonym". He explains: "I made it into a concept." Also in 1994, Andy Pemberton coined trip-hop in the June 1994 edition of Mixmag to describe the head-nodding instrumentals of DJ Shadow and the early Chemical Brothers. Similarly, dubstep first entered print in 2002, in sometime Guardian writer Dave Stelfox 's XLR8R magazine feature on UK garage producers Horsepower Productions. According to the journalist Martin Clark, the term originally stems from a "tight circle" and originates either with UK promoter Ammunition or DJ Hatcha, whose Dubstep Allstars Vol 1 came out in June 2003. As that indicates, the music business needs to know what it's selling and who it's selling to.

Hillbilly music, a term that predates country music, was the coinage of Ralph Peer , who in 1925 recorded a North Carolina group he named the Hillbillies. When Peer recorded Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family two years later, the name stuck to the sound. Sire label boss Seymour Stein famously came up with new wave to sell punk to US audiences who were afraid of punk's violent connotations. In 1995, Motown executive Kedar Massenburg, who signed D'Angelo and Erykah Badu, came up with neo-soul as a way to sell them. (It definitively supplanted Nelson George's retro-nuevo.) Then there is advertising. Bossa nova – Portuguese for "new wave" – gained currency, according to Brazilian music historian Ruy Castro, when it appeared in an advert for a 1958 multi-artist concert put on by Grupo Universitário Hebraico do Brasil. World music was hashed out in 1987 at an industry meeting.

It was intended only for a brief marketing campaign to pump non-Anglophone musicians in retail spaces they might not otherwise fit into, only to remain an acknowledged, if unwieldy, category. Radio formats sometimes impose themselves on the music. AOR is a US abbreviation for "album-oriented radio" (later "rock") coined in 1972 by Lee Abrams and Kent Burkhart's consultancy firm for the FM rock radio stations that would define ultra-slick middle-American rock: Styx, Boston , Aerosmith. In practise, it usually translates to "definitively pre-punk".

And of course, radio plays a big role in the history of the term rock'n'roll itself – though it had been used in blues records dating back to 1922 (Trixie Smith's My Man Rocks Me with a Steady Roll, for example) and, as Preston Lauterbach's superb new book The Chitlin' Circuit makes clear, was basically everyday talk in postwar R&B: Roy Brown's 1947 Good Rockin' Tonight (later cut by Wynonie Harris and, on his second single, Elvis Presley); Wild Bill Moore's We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll (1947); the Dominoes' Sixty Minute Man (1950) ("I'll rock 'em, roll 'em all night long"). Then in 1952, Cleveland DJ Alan Freed switched his radio show's name from Record Rendezvous to The Moondog Rock'n'Roll House Party. We'll leave it there. 'Heavy metal' - the meaning and origin of this phrase Heavy metal Hard rock music, usually electric guitar-based and always loud. Origin 'Heavy metal' seems at first a strange label to apply to a form of music.

However, a little investigation into the symbolism behind the name reveals it to be a rather obvious choice. 'Heavy' was coined in the beatnik era of the 1950s to mean serious or profound and the term 'heavy music' was then and later applied to music in that vein. It's clear to see this meaning of heavy is derived from the usual meaning, that is, weighty or massive. Okay, that's 'heavy' explained but why should a form of music be called metal? Well, most metals are heavy, especially the metals favoured by the bands who played that genre and used metals in their names, for example Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, Iron Maiden and Metallica. Also, the term 'heavy metals' in the chemical sense includes mercury, lead and cadmium, which have just the right image of toxicity to suit the musical style. So, both 'heavy' and 'metal' are suitable candidate words for this genre. Add to that the fact that heavy metal had already been widely used as a military term for heavily fortified tanks/guns etc. and it starts to look like an ideal choice as a label.

The first heavy metal bands, notably Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest, hailed from Birmingham, which was then (sadly no longer) a principal centre of metal goods manufacturing in the UK. With the decline of that manufacturing tradition, most of the 'metal bashing', as it was known, is now done by these bands rather than by men with big hammers. Birmingham was the first industrialised city in the world and this industry was centred around the factories and furnaces of the aptly named Black Country, described by the US Consul to the city in 1868 as "Black by day, red by night". Many of the members of the above groups worked in factories by day (Ozzy Osbourne was, for example, a horn tester in a car factory) and played in hard rock bands by night. It's hardly surprising that the music reflected the sights and sounds that the band members were surrounded by. Black Sabbath are generally accepted to be the first heavy metal band. They were originally called Earth after J. R. R Tolkien's mythical Middle Earth. Tolkien was a local boy and is thought to have based the region of Mordor on the Black Country.

All in all, it's clear where the musical form heavy metal originated. Although Ozzy and friends were playing heavy metal in the late 1960's/early 1970s, they didn't use that expression to describe it - for that we need to cross to the USA. The term 'heavy metal' first appears in print in William Burroughs' 1962 novel The Soft Machine. His character Uranian Willy is described as "the Heavy Metal Kid". Burroughs later re-used the term in his 1964 novel Nova Express: "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms - Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes - And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music." The term 'heavy metal' was used in a musical context in the title of a 1967 album by the British avant-garde outfit Hapshash and the Coloured Coat - Featuring The Human Host And The Heavy Metal Kids. The title wasn't applied to a particular musical style and appears to have been a reference to the 'kids' in Burroughs' novel.

It isn't clear who first appropriated the term to refer to loud rock music, although several lay claim to it. The widely quoted description of Jimi Hendrix's music as 'like listening to heavy metal falling from the sky', while being a fairly accurate assessment, isn't the earliest use of the phrase. Some claim that the US rock music critic Lester Bangs, while working for Creem magazine, used the expression in 1968 to describe a performance of the band MC5 (Motor City Five), but I've been unable to find documentary evidence of that. Creem magazine themselves attribute the term to Mike Saunders, in an article about the 'Kingdom Come' album, by Sir Lord Baltimore, in the May 1971 edition of the magazine: "This album is a far cry from the currently prevalent Grand Funk sludge, because Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book." This has the benefit of being a traceable citation, as copies of the edition are still extant. So, until other hard evidence is found, that has to be the current strongest claim.

It would be surprising if the term had never been used in the musical context before 1971 though - after all Steppenwolf used it in the lyric of their 1968 song Born to be Wild: "I like smoke and lightning Heavy metal thunder Racin' with the wind And the feelin' that I'm under" The phrase may be American but the music was born, like my good self, in the 'jewel of the English Midlands' - the Black Country. The Origins Of Your Favourite Music Genres The Origins Of Your Favourite Music Genres Share Tweet Before a certain type of music is made into an official genre, like ‘punk’ or ‘rhythm and blues’, there’s just the music itself – a specific sound with its own cultural backstory. At what point then do these musical styles get given a neat little name, and who are the people making them up? We were curious to discover where some of the most well-known and obscure types of music originated, and at what moment in history they were given a title.

From the debate about who first scatted ‘hip hop’, to the journalist who invented ‘heavy metal’ as an insult, take a little musical history trip as we bust the myths behind the names of your favourite strands of music – their true origins are probably stranger than you think and bust a few music myths in the process. Afrobeat Sometimes genre names arise when artists feel like they can’t sufficiently describe their sound with a genre that already exists, so they just have to make their own. Afrobeat is traced back to 1968 when Nigerian artist and human rights activist Fela Kuti made up the word to describe his own funk-fused, jazzy Nigerian music. Ambient It wasn’t until Brian Eno was hit by a car in 1975 that the word ambient also took on the meaning of sparse, atmospheric music. While Eno was immobile in hospital, his then-girlfriend Judy Nylon put on 18th-century harp music in the background to compliment the pouring rain outside.

The combined sound went on to give Eno the inspiration for his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music For Airports, which gave birth to the ambience genre and created a new way for electronics to be used in music. Bluegrass This one derives from a band. Bill Monroe, country singer-mandolinist and verified forefather of the genre, used to perform with a backing band known as the Blue Grass Boys from 1938 to his death in 1996. The band itself were called after a common nickname for their home state of Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, a reference to their land’s strangely blue-hued grass. Chillwave Chillwave is a genre of typically woozy, shoe-gaze electronica created by samples, looping and vintage synthesizers that became popular on the blogosphere towards the end of the 2000’s. Led by the likes of Panda Bear, Toro y Moi and Washed Out, this resurgent style of lo-fi indie music was first called ‘chillwave’ as a joke by the parody blog Hipster Runoff, and ironically did such a good job of capturing the genre’s vibe that the name stuck.

Dubstep Hailing from Ammunition Promotions’ famous club night called Forward>> in Soho, London, dubstep started to be used in the late ’90s to describe the new style of warbling, bass-heavy electronica born out of two-step garage, drum and bass and breakbeat. It first appeared in print in the American magazine XLR8R in 2002, and since then has stayed as a popular buzzword. Heavy Metal ‘Heavy metal’ gets linked back to William S Burroughs’ 1962 novel, The Soft Machine, and its main protagonist Uranian Willy who was also known as ‘the Heavy Metal Kid’. The term then became a journalistic slur for crappy guitar-based music after a 1970 edition of Rolling Stone slammed Humble Pie’s debut album As Safe As Yesterday Is for sounding like “more of the same 27th-rate heavy metal crap”. Heavy metal music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Heavy metal music "Heavy metal" redirects here. For other uses, see Heavy metal (disambiguation) .

Heavy metal Fashion - History - Bands - Umlaut - Blast beat Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that emerged as a defined musical style in the 1970s, having its roots in hard rock bands which, between 1969 and 1974, [1] mixed blues and rock to create a hybrid with a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterised by the use of highly-amplified distortion . Out of heavy metal various subgenres later evolved, many of which are referred to simply as "metal". As a result, "heavy metal" now has two distinct meanings: either the genre and all of its subgenres , or the original heavy metal bands of the 1970s style sometimes dubbed "traditional metal", as exemplified by Deep Purple , Led Zeppelin , Blue Öyster Cult , Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper . Heavy metal began gaining popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, at which time many of the now existing subgenres first evolved. Heavy metal has a large world-wide following of fans known by terms such as " metalheads " and " headbangers ".

Contents [ edit ] Characteristics Heavy metal is typically characterized by a guitar-and-drum-dominated sound, strong rhythms and classical, bluesy or symphonic styles. However, heavy metal sub-genres have their own stylistic variations on the original form that often omit or alter many of these characteristics. There is a very wide variety of sounds and styles within the genre of Metal. According to Allmusic.com, "Of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality." [1] [ edit ] Instrumentation The most commonly used line-up for a metal band is a drummer , a bassist , a rhythm guitarist , a lead guitarist , and a singer (who may or may not be an instrumentalist). Keyboards were popular with early metal bands (especially the organ and occasionally the mellotron ), but were gradually used less and less frequently. Today they are used by some styles and shunned by others, though as different subgenres develop they have begun to become more popular. The guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification, however, is the key element in heavy metal music.

[2] Distortion of the guitar sound is used to create a more powerful, 'heavy' sound. Later, more intricate solos and riffs became a big part of heavy metal music. Guitarists use sweep-picking , tapping and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many sub-genres praise virtuosity over simplicity. Also, as technology has developed, new ways of altering the guitar's sound have been adopted. Metal vocals vary widely in style. Vocalists' abilities and styles range from the multi-octave operatic vocals of Judas Priest 's Rob Halford and of Iron Maiden 's Bruce Dickinson , to the intentionally gruff vocals of Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead . In terms of the live sound, volume is often considered as important as anything. [3] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix and The Who (who once held the distinction of "The World's Loudest Band" in the Guinness Book Of World Records ), early heavy metal bands set new benchmarks for sound volume during shows. Tony Iommi , guitarist in heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath , is just one of the early Heavy Metal musicians to suffer considerable hearing loss due to their live volume.

Detroit rocker Ted Nugent and guitarist Pete Townshend of The Who are nearly deaf. Heavy metal's volume fixation was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap by guitarist " Nigel Tufnel ", who revealed that his Marshall amplifiers had been modified to "go up to eleven." In the early part of the seventies, the use of twin lead guitars was 'invented' by Wishbone Ash and The Allman Brothers Band and was then expanded upon by Scorpions , and AC/DC . It was in the late 70s that Thin Lizzy who incorporated the dual lead as an integral part of their sound while Judas Priest incorporated the dual rhythm as theirs. Soon, many bands followed in this pattern, such as Iron Maiden who developed the concept of 'guitar harmonies' - having both guitarists share the role of lead and rhythm work, blending the two. [ edit ] Themes As with much popular music, visuals and images are part of heavy metal. Album covers and stage shows are as much a part of the presentation of the material as the music itself, though seldom exceeding the music in priority.

Thus, through heavy metal, many artists collaborate to produce a menu of experiences in each piece—offering a wider range of experiences to the audience. In this respect, heavy metal becomes perhaps more of a diverse art form than any single form dominated by one method of expression. Whereas a painting is experienced visually, a symphony experienced audibly, a heavy metal band's "image" and the common theme that binds all their music is expressed in the artwork on the album, the set of the stage, the tone of the lyrics, and the clothes of the band, in addition to the sound of the music. Rock historians tend to find that the influence of Western pop music gives heavy metal its escape-from-reality fantasy side, as an escape from reality through outlandish and fantastic lyrics. At the same time, heavy metal's deep roots in blues rock contributes a more realistic, cathartic quality, focusing on loss, depression and loneliness. If the aural and thematic components of heavy metal are predominantly blues-influenced reality, then the visual component is predominantly pop-influenced fantasy. The themes of darkness, evil, power and apocalypse are language components for addressing the reality of life's problems.

In reaction to the "peace and love" hippie culture of the 1960s, heavy metal developed as a counterculture , where light is supplanted by darkness and the happy ending of pop is replaced by the naked reality that things do not always work out in this world. Whilst some fans claim that the medium of darkness is not the message, critics have accused the genre of glorifying the negative aspects of reality. Heavy metal themes are typically more grave than the generally airy pop from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s—focusing on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, and political or religious propaganda. Black Sabbath 's " War Pigs ", Ozzy Osbourne 's "Killer of Giants", Metallica 's " ...And Justice for All ", and Iron Maiden 's " 2 Minutes to Midnight " are examples of contributions to the discussion of the state of affairs . The commentary tends to become over-simplified because the poetic vocabulary of metal deals primarily in dichotomies of good vs. evil, not leaving room for more complex "shades of grey".

[ edit ] Classical influence The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal typically includes the influence of Baroque , Romantic , and Modernist composers such as Bach , Paganini , Wagner , and Beethoven . Though Deep Purple / Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had been experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music since the early 1970s; following Ritchie Blackmore, Randy Rhoads and Uli Jon Roth the "classical" influence in metal guitar during the 1980s looked to the early eighteenth century for its model of speed and technique; notably, classically-inspired guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen , whose technical prowess inspired a myriad of neo-classical players including Michael Romeo , Michael Angelo Batio and Tony MacAlpine . Several music experts and metal musicians have noted of the role of the tritone in heavy metal, [4] a dissonant interval consisting of a root note and an augmented fourth/diminished fifth, e.g., C and F sharp, which ostensibly results in a "heavy," "evil" sound, so much so that its use was supposedly banned in medieval composition as "Diabolus in Musica" ("the devil in music").

The evocative tritone was exploited by Romantic composers and is definitive to the blues scale, part of metal's heritage and fundamental to its solos and riffs, e.g., the beginning of Black Sabbath's eponymous song. The late Baroque era of Western art music was also frequently interpreted through a gothic lens. For example, "Mr. Crowley," (1981) by Ozzy Osbourne and guitarist Randy Rhoads , uses both a pipe organ -like synthesizer and Baroque -inspired guitar solos to create a particular mood for Osbourne's lyrics concerning the occultist Aleister Crowley . For the introduction to 1982's "Diary of a Madman", Rhoads borrowed heavily from Cuban classical guitar composer Leo Brouwer 's "Etude #6". Like many other metal guitarists in the 1980s, Rhoads quite earnestly took up the "learned" study of musical theory and helped to solidify the minor industry of guitar pedagogy magazines (including Guitar for the Practicing Musician) that grew during the decade.

In most instances, however, metal musicians who borrowed the technique and rhetoric of art music were not attempting to be classical musicians. The Encarta encyclopedia states that "when a text was associated with the music, Bach could write musical equivalents of verbal ideas," and Progressive rock bands such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes had already explored this dynamic before heavy metal evolved. As heavy metal uses apocalyptic themes and images of power and darkness, the ability to successfully translate verbal ideas into music is often seen as critical to its authenticity and credibility[ citation needed ]. An example of this is the album Powerslave by Iron Maiden [ citation needed ]. The cover is of a dramatic Egyptian scene and many of the songs on the album have subject matter requiring a sound suggestive of life and death, including a song entitled " The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ," based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge . Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has cited progressive rock bands [2] such as Rush and Yes as influences, and it should be noted that the 1977 Rush album A Farewell to Kings features the eleven-minute "Xanadu," also inspired by Coleridge and pre-dating the Iron Maiden composition by several years.

[ edit ] History [ edit ] The term "heavy metal" The origin of the term heavy metal in relation to a form of music is uncertain. The phrase had been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy and is listed as such in the Oxford English Dictionary. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by counter-culture writer William S. Burroughs . In the 1962 novel, The Soft Machine, he introduces the character "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid". His next novel in 1964, Nova Express, develops this theme further, heavy metal being a metaphor for addictive drugs.

With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms — Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes — And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music [5] The first recorded use of heavy metal in a song lyric is the phrase "heavy metal thunder" in the 1968 Steppenwolf song "Born To Be Wild" [6] : I like smoke and lightning Heavy metal thunder Racin' with the wind And the feelin' that I'm under The book The History of Heavy Metal states the name as a take from "hippiespeak," heavy meaning anything with a potent mood, and metal, specifically designating what the mood would be, grinding and weighted as with metal. The word "heavy" (meaning serious or profound) had entered beatnik / counterculture slang some time earlier and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common; indeed, Iron Butterfly first started playing Los Angeles in 1967, their name explained on an album cover, "Iron- symbolic of something heavy as in sound, Butterfly- light, appealing and versatile...an object that can be used freely in the imagination".

Iron Butterfly's 1968 debut album was entitled Heavy . The fact that Led Zeppelin (whose moniker came partly in reference to Keith Moon 's jest that they would "go down like a lead balloon") incorporated a heavy metal into its name may have sealed the usage of the term. In the late 1960s, Birmingham, England was still a centre for manufacturing and (given the many rock bands that evolved in and around the city, such as Led Zeppelin, The Move , and Black Sabbath), some people suggest that the term Heavy Metal may have some relation to such activity. Biographies of The Move have claimed that the sound came from their 'heavy' guitar riffs that were popular amongst the 'metal midlands'. Cover from Blue Öyster Cult's 1986 album Club Ninja , depicting the group's use of alchemical symbol for lead - a heavy metal. Sandy Pearlman , original producer, manager and songwriter for Blue Öyster Cult , claims to have been the first person to apply the term "heavy metal" to rock music in 1970.

In creating much of the band's image, which included tongue-in-cheek references to the occult, Pearlman came up with a symbol for the group (similar to the use of a symbol Iron Maiden later included on their album cover artwork), the Alchemical symbol for lead - one of the heaviest of metals. He put forth this term to describe the type of music that Blue Öyster Cult played. A late, but disputed, hypothesis about the origin of the genre was brought forth by "Chas" Chandler, who was a manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969, in an interview on the PBS TV program "Rock and Roll" in 1995. He states that "...it [heavy metal] was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance," and claims the author described the Jimi Hendrix Experience "...like listening to heavy metal falling from the sky." The precise source of this claim, however, has not been found and its accuracy is disputed.

The first well-documented usage of the term "heavy metal" referring to a style of music, appears to be the May 1971 issue of Creem , in a review of Sir Lord Baltimore 's Kingdom Come. In this review we are told that "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book". [7] Creem critic Lester Bangs subsequently has been credited with popularizing the term in the early 1970s in regards to bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. [8] Heavy metal may have been used as a jibe initially by a number of music critics but was quickly adopted by its adherents. Other, already-established bands, such as Deep Purple , who had origins in pop or progressive rock , immediately took on the heavy metal mantle, adding distortion and additional amplification in a more aggressive approach. [ edit ] Origins (1960s and early 1970s) American blues music was highly popular and influential among the early British rockers; bands like the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds had recorded covers of many classic blues songs, sometimes speeding up the tempo and using electric guitar where the original used acoustic .

(Similar adaptations of blues and other African American music had formed the basis of the earliest rock and roll, notably that of Elvis Presley ). Such powered-up blues music was encouraged by the intellectual and artistic experimentation that arose when musicians started to exploit the opportunities of the electrically amplified guitar to produce a louder and more dissonant sound. Where blues-rock drumming styles had been largely simple shuffle beats on small drum kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard with the increasingly loud guitar sounds; similarly vocalists modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylised and dramatic in the process. Simultaneous advances in amplification and recording technology made it possible to successfully capture the power of this heavier approach on record. The earliest music commonly identified as heavy metal came out of the Birmingham area of the United Kingdom in the late 1960s when bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath applied an overtly non-traditional approach to blues standards and created new music often based on blues scales and arrangements.

These bands were highly influenced by American psychedelic rock musicians such as Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix, who had pioneered amplified and processed blues-rock guitar and acted as a bridge between black American music and white European rockers. Other oft-cited influences include Vanilla Fudge , who had slowed down and psychedelicised pop tunes, as well as earlier British rockers such as The Who and The Kinks , who had created an opening for heavy metal styles by introducing power chords and more aggressive percussion to the rock genre. Another key influence was Cream , who exemplified the power trio format that would become a staple of heavy metal. The Kinks' 1964 tune " You Really Got Me " has even been cited as one of the very first 'heavy metal' songs: it was perhaps the first to use a repetitive, distorted, power-chord riff as its basis. By 1968, heavy blues sounds were becoming commonplace—many fans and scholars point to Blue Cheer 's Jan. 1968 cover of Eddie Cochran 's hit " Summertime Blues " as the first true heavy metal song. Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" (released in Jan.

1968), and the Yardbirds' single, "Think About It" (recorded Jan. '68; released Mar. '68) should also be mentioned; the latter employed a similar sound to that which Jimmy Page would employ with Led Zeppelin; these were soon followed by Iron Butterfly 's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (July '68). Beatles scholars cite in particular the song " Helter Skelter " from The Beatles (more commonly known as The White Album) (Nov. 1968) and the single version of " Revolution " (Nov. 1968), which set new standards for distortion and aggressive sound on a pop album. Dave Edmunds ' band Love Sculpture also released an aggressive heavy guitar version of Khachaturian 's Sabre Dance in November 1968. The Jeff Beck Group's album Truth (August 1968) was an important and influential rock album; released just before Led Zeppelin's first album (Jan. 1969), leading some (especially British blues fans) to argue that Truth was the first heavy metal album.

Also, progressive rock band King Crimson 's "21st Century Schizoid Man" from their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), featured most of the thematic, compositional, and musical characteristics of heavy metal—a very heavily distorted guitar tone and discordant soloing by Robert Fripp with lyrics that focused on what is wrong about what the 21st century human would be, a dark mood and Greg Lake 's vocals were passed through a distortion box. The 1970 releases by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple defined and codified the genre that would be known as heavy metal. [9] The first heavy metal bands—Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep , UFO , and Black Sabbath, among a few—are often now called hard rock bands by the modern metal community rather than heavy metal, especially those bands whose sound was more similar to traditional rock music. In general, the terms heavy metal and hard rock are often used interchangeably, in particular when discussing the 1970s. Indeed, many such bands are not considered "heavy metal bands" per se, but rather as having contributed individual songs or works that contributed to the genre.

Few would consider Jethro Tull a heavy metal band in any real sense, for example, but few would dispute that their song Aqualung was an early Heavy Metal song. Another group that early on crossed the murky lines between Psychedelic and Heavy Metal was Hawkwind , with songs like "Master of the Universe" (1971) that enjoyed a cult following . [ edit ] Classic heavy metal (Late 1970s and early 1980s) Main article: Classic metal The late 1970s and early 1980s history of heavy metal music is highly debated among music historians. Bands like Blue Öyster Cult achieved moderate mainstream success and the Los Angeles glam metal scene began finding pop audiences—especially in the 1980s. Others ignore or downplay the importance of these bands, instead focusing on the arrival of classical influences—which can be heard in the work of Randy Rhoads and such like. Others still highlight the late-70s cross-fertilization of heavy metal with fast-paced, youthful punk rock (e.g.

Sex Pistols ), culminating in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal around the year 1980, led by bands like Motörhead and Iron Maiden . Some followers, including Heavy Metal musicians of prominent groups, believe that the foundations of the definitive style and sound of pure heavy metal were laid down by Judas Priest with three of their early albums: Sad Wings Of Destiny (1976), Sin After Sin (1977), and Stained Class (1978). Rainbow are also sometimes cited as pioneering a sort of pure heavy metal and one could also make this claim about the later albums of Deep Purple such as Burn and Stormbringer , but these bands are generally considered to be "hard rock" bands. Beginning with Judas Priest, metal bands quickly began to look beyond the almost exclusive use of the blues scale to incorporate diatonic modes into their solos. This more complex approach has since spread throughout many sub-genres of metal and along with an overall strong sense of musicianship are the main contributions classical music and jazz music (via progressive rock) have made to the metal genre.

Guitar virtuosity was brought to the fore by Eddie Van Halen, and many consider his 1978 solo " Eruption " ( Van Halen , 1978) a milestone. Ritchie Blackmore (formerly of Deep Purple), Randy Rhoads (with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot ) and Yngwie Malmsteen went on to further virtuoso guitar work; in some cases, classical nylon-stringed guitars were played at heavy metal concerts and on heavy metal albums, e.g., Rhoades' "Dee" on Blizzard of Ozz . Classical icons such as Liona Boyd also became associated with the heavy metal stars in a newly diverse guitar fraternity where conservative and aggressive guitarists could come together to "trade licks." This explosion would cool down in the music of Ronnie James Dio (who himself had a tenure at lead vocals with Black Sabbath ) and continue to settle towards Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, who may be the final and complete consummation of "pure" heavy metal in the lineage of the "grandfathers"— Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Uriah Heep.

[ edit ] Mainstream dominance (1980s) Main article: Glam metal The most popular subgenre of heavy metal emerged in the United States, coming from glam metal bands of the 1980s the epicentre for this explosion was mostly in the Sunset Strip from Los Angeles, California . The first wave of glam metal included the likes of Mötley Crüe , Ratt , W.A.S.P. , Dokken and Twisted Sister . Early glam metal groups were influenced by heavy metal acts such as Deep Purple , Black Sabbath and, incorporating guitar solos into the majority of their songs. Bands such as Mötley Crüe and W.A.S.P. expanded on the foundations laid by Alice Cooper and KISS in regards to stage show, often venturing into shock rock territory. In one form or another glam metal would dominate the mainstream airwaves from the early 1980s until the early 1990s. At times the likes of Dio , Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest experimented with glam metal stylings in their music.

The genre caused a divide in the evolving metal community of the 1980s, largely due to the glam metal bands' image, especially that of the more feminine-looking bands such as Poison and Bon Jovi . [ edit ] Underground/Extreme metal (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s) Many subgenres of heavy metal developed during the 1980s. [10] In a move away from metal's hard rock roots, a genre that took influences from hardcore punk emerged— thrash metal . The genre's sound was much more aggressive, louder and faster than the original metal bands or their glam metal contemporaries, and the guitar work was often more technically complex. Metallica , one of the main thrash metal groups This subgenre was popularized by the ' Big Four Of Thrash ', Anthrax , Megadeth , Metallica , and Slayer , [11] with bands like San Francisco's Testament and Exodus , New Jersey's Overkill and Brazil's Sepultura also making an impact.

With the exception of Metallica , who sold consistently in the millions and even appeared on the Billboard chart at #6 with " ...And Justice for All " during the 1980s, Thrash was more underground in terms of sales and media coverage, compared to more popular subgenres. During the 1990s, sales of Thrash improved, particularly that of the "big four". In the early and mid 1980s, thrash began to evolve and split further into more extreme metal genres such as death metal and black metal . Many death metal bands would eventually showcase levels of speed and technicality that were previsouly unheard of, and while highly skilled guitar work remained highly valued (as in most metal genres) death metal also featured a more prominent role from highly skilled, versatile, and fast drummers. Death metal (a term probably originating from Possessed 's song "Death Metal", off their Seven Churches album), led by Possessed and Death , would evolve into various sub-genres and would produce many notable bands, such as Nile and Suffocation . Death Metal vocals are typically fairly harsh and involve guttural growling, etc.

Black Metal is an extreme metal genre that began in Europe and is perhaps one of the most underground metal genres (although some symphonic black metal bands such as Dimmu Borgir have become very popular). Satanic and Pagan themes are common in the genre. Black metal (a term coined by Venom , from an album titled Black Metal ) eventually produced an "inner circle" of bands that would become associated with considerable violence in 90's (see black metal for details). Black metal can vary considerably in it's production quality and style. Denmark's Mercyful Fate are often considered the originators of the corpse paint that is common to Black Metal. Bathory (generally considered one of the first black metal acts although they later involved more Viking themes), Celtic Frost and Mayhem were key bands early on, and one of the most well known and technically proficient black metal bands is Emperor . From the 1980s and into the 1990s power metal , especially in Europe , evolved in an opposite direction from death metal and thrash by keeping the speed, anti-commercial mentality and intensity of heavy metal but focusing on upbeat and epic themes and melodies.

Power metal usually involves high pitched 'clean singing' similar to that of NWOBHM vocalists such as Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson , as opposed to death grunts . Traditional power metal bands such as Manowar and Hammerfall have a sound very close to classic heavy metal whilst more modern power metal bands such as Nightwish and Rhapsody often have a strong keyboard based symphonic influence, sometimes using orchestra and opera singers. Power metal has gained a strong fanbase in South America and Japan . With the growth of the metal underground, the number of sub-genres has increased rapidly over the past two decades. Several attempts have been made to map the complex world of underground metal, most notably by the editors of the online allmusic guide, as well as critic Gary Sharpe-Young . Sharpe-Young's multi-volume metal encyclopedias separate the underground into five major categories: thrash metal , death metal , black metal , power metal , and, lastly, the related sub-genres of doom , goth , and stoner metal.

Progressive metal , a fusion of the progressive stylings of bands like Rush , King Crimson and heavy metal began in the '80s, too, behind innovators like Fates Warning and later Queensrÿche and Dream Theater , who enjoyed substantial mainstream acceptance and success in the glam metal era. [ edit ] Alternative metal and nu metal (1990s and 2000s) The era of metal dominating the mainstream came to an end with the emergence of Nirvana and other grunge bands that signaled the popular breakthrough of alternative rock . [12] [13] With this breakthrough, bands active since the 1980s began to become more widely known and achieve mainstream attention. In particular, bands that had fused alternative rock and heavy metal styles began to gain momentum and formed the fusion genre called alternative metal . This included a wide variety of acts, including the grunge-based band Alice in Chains , the goth -influenced Jane's Addiction , the noise rock -infused White Zombie , and groups influenced by a wide variety of other alternative genres.

Red Hot Chili Peppers infused their alternative rock with punk , funk , hip hop and metal, Danzig continued Glenn Danzig 's progression from punk, through deathrock (with Samhain ) and into metal, Ministry began incorporating metal into their industrial music , and Primus combined elements of funk, punk, thrash metal and experimental music . As alternative metal achieved wider mainstream success, more notable bands from the genre, including Fear Factory , Helmet , Marilyn Manson , Rage Against the Machine and Tool , influenced a new wave of rock bands. These bands were not the preceding fusion of alternative rock and heavy metal, but a new genre derived from it, and came to be known as nu metal . Korn , Papa Roach , Limp Bizkit , Linkin Park , Slipknot , and Sevendust are among the most prominent nu metal bands. Nu metal gained mainstream success through heavy MTV rotation and the 1996 formation of Ozzy Osbourne 's Ozzfest metal music festival, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.

[14] Much debate has arisen over the nu metal's massive success and whether or not it is metal in the conventional sense, with fans of extreme metal genres (itself the subject of debate by purists)[ citation needed ] often insisting it is not. In recent years, Ozzfest has had many metalcore bands playing and has helped the genre gain popularity. Some see this style as nu metal's successor, whilst others believe that it will become popular and fashionable in the same way as nu metal. Pantera was a key formulator of the groove metal (post-thrash) distant subgenre of heavy metal music. Slower, eerier metal became more prominent as more bands left commonplace influences for the bluesy, deep sound of the original heavy metal groups like Led Zeppelin . The most prominent group of this first-wave metal revival was arguably Type O Negative , who claimed influence by Black Sabbath and even the later work of The Beatles . This led to a surge in the popularity of doom metal , as well as a resurgence of interest in early heavy metal bands.

[ edit ] Recent Trends (mid 2000s) Although many genres of metal are considered to be fairly underground, metal in all of it's forms is still very alive and well. This is likely due to the extremely dedicated fanbases of the various metal scenes. The late 90's and 2000's produced many bands that have built on and progressed from the work of their predecessors, and this has resulted in the evolution of unique and distinctive styles for bands such as Gojira , Strapping Young Lad , Nile , and Mastodon . In the mid 2000s a classic heavy metal revival of sorts has begun to emerge, with bands taking influence and playing music in the style of the original 1970s pioneers of the genre; such as Led Zeppelin , Black Sabbath , and Deep Purple . [15] These new bands include Wolfmother , The Illuminati , Witchcraft , The Sword , Witch and Irish band The Answer . These bands have been gaining recognition in popular music media recently such as, Revolver , Kerrang! , Guitar World and in particular Classic Rock , who voted The Answer "Best New Band 2005".

[16] While Wolfmother reached #25 in the United Kingdom album charts and #22 on the United States Billboard chart in 2005. [17] In addition, several reunions have helped gain some lost interest in the classic metal style. Black Sabbath's reunion in 1997, Iron Maiden's in 1999, Judas Priest's in 2003, as well as many others, have turned younger audiences to older bands. These bands have usually began with the idea of a one-off tour/gig but the bands have decided to stick together. Indeed, these reunions have seen the releases of new albums and developments in the sound of metal. [ edit ] Cultural impact The loud, confrontational aspects of heavy metal have led to friction between fans and mainstream society in many countries. The controversy results from the fact that public perception, especially in conservative societies, thinks of heavy metal subculture as a promoter of hedonism and occasional anti-religious sentiments. In Jordan , for example, all Metallica albums, past, present and future were banned in 2001.

[3] In Europe and America, the fan base for heavy metal consists primarily of white males in their teens and 20s[ citation needed ] —many of whom are attracted to heavy metal's overtly anti-social yet fantastical lyrics and extreme volume and tempos. Hence, the stereotype of the adolescent headbanger venting his rebellious urges by listening to loud, morbid music emerged. This image has been highlighted in popular culture with such television shows and movies as " Beavis and Butt-head " and " Airheads ." Heavy metal's bombastic excesses, exemplified by glam metal, have often been parodied, most famously in the film This Is Spinal Tap (see also the phenomenon of the heavy metal umlaut ). Many heavy metal stylings have made their way into everyday use; for instance, the " devil horns " hand sign popularized by Ronnie James Dio has become a common sight at many rock concerts. The origin of the " devil horns " hand sign was also said to have been popularized by KISS 's Love Gun album cover.

During the 1970s and 1980s, flirtation with occult themes by artists such as Black Sabbath , Iron Maiden , KISS , Mercyful Fate , Judas Priest , Led Zeppelin , Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne , Alice Cooper , and W.A.S.P. , led to accusations of " Satanic " influences in heavy metal by fundamentalist Christians . One popular contention, not necessarily true, during that period was that heavy metal albums featured hidden messages urging listeners to worship the Devil or to commit suicide (see Judas Priest and backward message and Allegations of Satanism in popular culture ). Lesser known, is the impact of heavy metal's complex musical structures on the avant garde classical music style of New Complexity music, pioneered by Brian Ferneyhough , Michael Finnissy , James Dillon , and later, American composer Jason Eckardt . On Eurovision 2006 a heavy metal band won the first place, for the first time in the contest's history. The band was Lordi from Finland with their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah".

This was an unexpected turn in the long tradition of Eurovision, which had been known for repeatedly giving the first prize to ballads and pop every year. This was also the first time Finland won the contest, their best position being 6th beforehand. [ edit ] Related styles Hard rock , mentioned earlier is closely related to heavy metal (and often the terms overlap in usage), but it does not always match the description of what purists consider the definition of heavy metal. While still guitar-driven in nature and usually riff-based, its themes and execution differ from that of the major heavy metal bands listed earlier in this article. This is perhaps best exemplified by The Who in the late-1960s and early-1970s, as well as other 1970s and 1980s bands like Queen who have had a large influence on heavy metal music, AC/DC , Aerosmith , KISS , Thin Lizzy , and Scorpions . Glam rock , a short-lived era in the early 1970s, relied on heavy, crunchy guitars, anthemic songs, and a theatrical image. T.

Rex , David Bowie (particularly in his incarnation as Ziggy Stardust ) and Alice Cooper are among the more popular standard examples of this sub-genre. Some cross-influence has occurred between punk rock and heavy metal. An example is Motörhead ; the band's leader Lemmy , spent time in punk band The Damned and attempted to teach Sid Vicious how to play bass guitar. Alternative rock, particularly grunge, sometimes takes influence from heavy metal. Some grunge bands such as Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were marketed as metal before alternative became a viable commercial force. [ edit ] Heavy metal movements There are certain body movements that are nearly universal in the metal culture, including headbanging , moshing (also known as 'pitting'), and various hand gestures such as the infamous devil horns (brought to popularity by legendary heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio during his time with Black Sabbath and his solo band Dio ). Stage diving , air guitar , and crowd surfing are also practiced, though air guitar practices are less popular today. [ edit ] Sources Christe, Ian (2003). Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins.

ISBN 0-380-81127-8 . Sharpe-Young, Gary (2004). "The Rock Detector A-Z Guide of Black Metal." "The Rock Detector A-Z Guide of Death Metal." "The Rock Detector A-Z Guide of Doom, Goth, and Stoner Metal." "The Rock Detector A-Z Guide of Power Metal." "The Rock Detector A-Z Guide of Thrash Metal." Cherry Red Books. Walser, Robert (1993). Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2 . Weinstein, Deena (1991). Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology. Lexington. ISBN 0-669-21837-5 . Revised edition: (2000) Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture. DaCapo. ISBN 0-306-80970-2 .

Question: Which musical genre derives its name from a phrase used in 1962 in a novel by William Burroughs?
Answer: Heavy Metal