CLASS NOTES: 1980's Heavy Metal (History of Rock, 1970-Present)

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Notes on video lecture:

1980's Heavy Metal

History of Rock, 1970-Present

John Covach, University of Rochester

Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on September 10, 2016 (go to class or lectures)

Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

Ronni, Blackmore, Baroque, London, London, Butterfly, Beast, Wayne, lazy, 1978, thunder, sophisticated, Slade, characteristics, Zeppelin, violence, likable, alongs, Sheffeld, popular, theatrical, simple, fertile, Spades, flattering, corporate, Leather, 1970s, Rhoads, Neil, unison, Ian

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because heavy metal became so by the end of the 80s

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we tend to look back to the late 60s and early 70s and call a lot of that music heavy metal

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because it seems to share many of the

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but heavy metal music didn't begin to separate itself out from other blues-based rock music until the end of the and the early 1980s

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at the time when rock music was changing under the influence of rock

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heavy metal wanted its own kind of distinctiveness

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the term "heavy metal"

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Ozzie Osborne has criticized it as not a very interesting or term

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Steppenwolf "Born to be Wild"

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"...heavy metal ..."

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but here they were talking more about motorcycles

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prototypes

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1968 Iron , "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"

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MC5

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Iggy Pop

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roots of Heavy Metal

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Black Sabbath

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Ozzie Osborne

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at end of 70s, both Ozzie and Black Sabbath attained importance in the growth of Heavy Metal

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where grouped in with Deep Purple and Led

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Gothic, horror themes

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dark sound

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Iron Man

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all players are making the same sees

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dark, Gothic theme

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Deep Purple

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Jon Lord

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influences

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Ian Gillan

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typical and original high scream

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Led Zeppelin

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when they were heavy they were very heavy

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Kashmir

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a hard-driving piece

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Kiss and Alice Cooper

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performances

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into the bigger venues, e.g. stadiums

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the image of Heavy Metal

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back in the day and into the 90s

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Heavy Metal musicians and fans did not get much respect

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the music was thought of as being very -minded

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the people who listened to it were thought of as being not particularly

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the music was marked as blue collar, working class

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people prone to

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called headbangers

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but as music consumers who were not very sophisticated, they were happy to be called head bangers

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positive stereotypes: 's World

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honesty, loyalty and unselfish devotion to partying

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they are the lovable Heavy Metal fans

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not the sharpest knife in the drawer

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but guys

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negative stereotypes: Beavis and Butt-head

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ignorant, vulgar, and

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these stereotypes can still be used today to indicate a certain personality and place in the culture

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the rise of Heavy Metal

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in two places

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1. the United States centered around Los Angeles

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if you were an American kid wanted to play guitar in the popular music business at the end of the 70s, you probably ended up going to Los Angeles

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it was like every guitar player was in Los Angeles

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Van Halen

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Van Halen

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David Lee Roth on lead vocals

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1984 "1984"

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David Lee Roth leaves

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1986 "5150"

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Sammy Hagar

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"Why Can't This Be Love"

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Quiet Riot

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1983 Metal Health

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"Come On Feel the Noize"

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2. the UK centered around and the north of England

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The New Wave of British Heavy Metal

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Black Sabbath

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1968 formed

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1977 Ozzy leaves

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replaced him with James Dio

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1980 Heaven and Hell

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1981 Mob Rules

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Ozzy Osbourne

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1977 recruits Randy as guitarist

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1980 Blizzard of Ozz

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1981 Diary of a Madman

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both Black Sabbath and Ozzy leading the way

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other bands getting down to the core of what Heavy Metal really was

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Judas Priest

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1968 formed in Birmingham

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1979 Hell Bent for

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1980 British Steel

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Breaking the Law

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Living After Midnight

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Iron Maiden

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1975 formed in East London

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1982 Number of the

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Def Leppard

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1977 formed in , central England

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1981 High 'n' Dry

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1983 Pyromania

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Photograph

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Motörhead

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1975 formed in

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never had the success the other bands had

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Lemmy Kilmister, vocalist

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1980 Ace of

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shared characteristics

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virtuosic guitar solos

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à la Ritchie , of Deep Purple

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and their American cousin Eddie Van Halen

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the guitar solos often the showcases of these tracks

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unrelentingly heavy drum beats

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Los Angeles Metal

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if you were an American kid wanting to play guitar in the popular music business at the end of the 70s, you ended up going to Los Angeles

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it used to be New York

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fighting to get into groups

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provided a ground for groups that rose up

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Van Halen

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1978 Van Halen

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1984 1984

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Sammy Hagar comes in

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1986 5150

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Why Can't This Be Love

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Quiet Riot

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1983 Metal Health

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Come On Feel the Noize

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originally done by in the 1970s

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Ratt

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1984 Out of the Cellar

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"Round and Round"

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Mötley Crüe

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Vince

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Tommy Lee, drummer

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1983 Shout at the Devil

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1989 Dr. Feelgood

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Los Angeles Metal

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high screaming vocals

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imitating singers such as Robert Plant or Gillan

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loud, assertive drumming

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big beats

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like an airline cockpit

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a with anthem-like vocals

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setting the stage for stadium sing-

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everyone raising their fist and singing along

Ideas and Concepts:

From the 1960s heavy metal prototype department, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Iron Butterfly was an American psychedelic rock band out of San Diego best known for the 1968 hit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida which provided a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of 1980s heavy metal music. The title of the song was supposed to have been named 'In The Garden of Eden', but the singer was slurring his words when he told Ron Bushy, the drummer, the title, and the garbled name stuck. At slightly over 17 minutes, the song occupies the entire second side of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album. The lyrics are simple, and heard only at the beginning and the end. The song is considered significant in rock history because, together with music by Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, and High Tide, it marks the early transition from psychedelic music into heavy metal."

Another 1960s heavy metal prototype, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic rock style, and are also credited as being some of the earliest pioneers of heavy metal, with their cover of "Summertime Blues" sometimes cited as the first in the genre of heavy metal, or as Eric Clapton once said of them:"There was a band called Blue Cheer, who I think were probably the originators of heavy metal because they didn't really have traditional roots in the blues. They didn't have a mission. It was just about being loud."

A band before its time, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll: "MC5 was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1964. They were known for "crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening point". MC5's far left political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll paved the way for garage rock and heavy metal a decade later."

The cultural image of Heavy Metal, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class:

"Back in the 80s and into the 90s, Heavy Metal musicians and fans did not get much respect. The music was thought of as being very simple-minded. The people who listened to it were generally regarded as being not particularly sophisticated, the music marked as blue collar and working class. The fans, who were often prone to violence, were labeled as headbangers because of the way they would bob their heads up and down while they listened to the music, but as music consumers who were not very sophisticated, they were generally happy to refer to themselves as headbangers.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, two cultural stereotypes of Heavy Metal headbangers became popular, one mostly positive and the other quite negative. The positive stereotype was expressed in Wayne's World, a show in which Wayne and Garth were teen characters who were honest, loyal and displayed an unselfish devotion to partying. They were lovable Heavy Metal fans, not the sharpest knives in the drawer, so to say, but generally likable guys.

The negative stereotype came in the 90s in the form of the cartoon Beavis and Butt-head. The show centers on two socially incompetent, heavy metal-loving teenage wannabe delinquents. They have no apparent adult supervision at home, and are dim-witted, under-educated, barely literate, and both lack any empathy or moral scruples, even regarding each other. Their most common shared activity is watching music videos, which they tend to judge by deeming them "cool", or by exclaiming, "This sucks!", the latter is sometimes followed by the demand, "Change it!". They also apply these judgments to other things that they encounter, and will usually deem something "cool" if it is associated with violence, sex, or the macabre. Despite having no experience with women, their other signature traits are a shared obsession with sex, and their tendency to chuckle and giggle whenever they hear words or phrases that can even remotely be interpreted as sexual or scatological."

Full-throttle classic Heavy Metal via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Formed in 1975 in London, Motörhead never had the success of other bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Def Leppard, but Lemmy Kilmister, basist and vocalist who founded Motörhead in 1975, was known for his appearance including his friendly mutton chops, his distinctive gravelly voice, and his distinctive bass playing style. His band's ferocious, loud proto-thrash playing style appealed equally to punks and heavy metal fans."

Classic high school memories via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class:

"Quiet Riot was one of the more successful hard rock acts in Los Angeles in the mid to late 1970s. They often opened for Van Halen in several Los Angeles clubs including the Starwood and KROQ's Cabaret nightclub, before either act had a record deal.

The band's name was inspired by a conversation with Rick Parfitt of the British band Status Quo, in which Parfitt said he'd like to name a band Quite Right, but hisEnglish accent made it sound like he was saying Quiet Riot, hence the name.

"We'll get wild, wild, wild. I know you know the words, I want you to sing it so loud that your throats are gonna bleed, now, come on, let's do it together, now SING IT!"

Paradigm shift via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "OMG Quiet Riot stole the song Cum on Feel the Noise from the English glam rock band Slade, who performed it here back in 1973, Noddy Holder exuding an originality that makes this recording the most authentic, much more playful."

From the I-can't-believe-I-listened-to-this-crap-when-I-was-in-highschool deparment, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Out of the Cellar is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band Ratt. Released in 1984, it was an immediate success, with wide airplay on radio and heavy rotation on MTV of its singles, especially the decade-defining song 'Round and Round' which was was ranked number 51 on 'VH1:100 Greatest Songs of the 80's', and was named the 61st best hard rock song of all time also by VH1."