Heavy Metal has been arguably one of the most influential genres of music of all time. Ever since the genre developed in the late 1960s, Heavy metal has managed to spark various new sub genres and fusion genres of metal, inspire countless of sub-cultures, as well as influence millions of people across the globe.
Why The Name "Heavy Metal?"
A question that I've personally had for a little while is "Why is heavy Metal called 'Heavy Metal'?" Turns out the reason for the name Heavy Metal used in a musical way isn't fully known. The word 'Heavy' was used around the 1950s as a way to describe music that was serious, which eventually led to the term "Heavy Music"
But what's the point behind calling a genre of music "Metal?" Well a fairly good reason for this is because some of the earlier metal bands would use metals off of the periodic table in their names. (For Example: Iron Maiden)
Also some of those earlier metal bands (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest) were all formed around Birmingham, which actually used to be a place of metal goods manufacturing in the UK.
Source: Origins Of Heavy Metal
Identifying Heavy Metal
To non metalheads, it's pretty simple to tell if a band plays heavy metal or not. If it has screaming in it it's obviously heavy metal, right?
Haha wrong. Sure the obvious trait that heavy metal bands give away is their overall loudness in general. But there's more to heavy metal than vocals. Heavy Metal originally was heavily influenced by mixing blues and rock together. From Doing this bands were able to get a much thicker sound that usual, thus making a song "Heavy" According to Allmusic.com "Of All Rock & Roll's Myriad Forms, Heavy Metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality." The typical Heavy Metal bands lineup consists of:
- Bass Guitarist
- Rhythm Guitarist
- Lead Guitarist
- Lead Vocalist (Occasionally might be an instrumentalist)
From Heavy Metal Countless of sub genres and fusion genres emerged over time. The first heavy metal bands became very popular classics among the metal community, sold tens of millions of records worldwide and attracted some huge audiences. Some of these bands include:
- Led Zeppelin
- Black Sabbath
- Deep Purple
However, most of the bands that are said to have pioneered heavy metal, are usually also classified as hard rock Led Zeppelin is a good example of a hard rock band that pioneered Heavy Metal.
Evolution of Heavy Metal
During the 1970s, A band known as Judas Priest helped the heavy metal genre progress and evolve through excluding the blues influence in their music. Another band by the name of Motörhead introduced more of a punk rock style and showed an increase in speed.
By the late 1970s, a bunch of bands in the new wave of British heavy metal bands followed in a similar vein, some examples would be Iron Maiden and Saxon. Before the end of the 70s, a term for heavy metal fans came around and is known as "metalheads" or "headbangers".
Heavy metal is usually known for having loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and strong energetic vocals. Guitar solos are a big part of this genre. Most heavy metal songs feature at least one guitar solo of some sort. In many heavy metal songs, there is a main groove that is characterized by small sometimes unnoticed, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures in which generally made up of 8th or 16th notes.
Source: Heavy Metal Music (Wikipedia)
For various artists and bands that play heavy metal or are anything related to the genre usually uses some sort of visual imagery. This plays a large role in heavy metal. In addition to a Bands sound and lyrics, you can see visual imagery from bands through things such as:
- Album Covers
- Music Videos
A Bands image has a really big impact on the audience that listens to them. From the image and/or style a band used, it will inspire their fans in various ways.
Notable Heavy Metal Bands are:
- Black Sabbath
- Iron Maiden
- Deep Purple
- Cirith Ungol
- Judas Priest