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The Rock Music Portal

Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, and country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock is centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a ⁴
₄ time signature using a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s.

Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s "classic rock" period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, Southern rock, raga rock, and jazz rock, which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock, influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene. New genres that emerged included progressive rock, which extended artistic elements, heavy metal, which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave, post-punk and eventually alternative rock.

From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk, electronic rock, rap rock, and rap metal. Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including the garage rock/post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various rock music-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Elvis Presley in a promotion shot for Jailhouse Rock in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 2"There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" made the cover of True Life Romance in 1956. (from Rock and roll)
Image 3Baker, Bruce and Clapton of Cream, whose blues rock improvisation was a major factor in the development of the genre (from Hard rock)
Image 4Golden Earring receives a gold record in 1970. (from Hard rock)
Image 5Wolfmother, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 6Rush on stage in Milan, Italy, 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 7Aerosmith performing at Quilmes Rock in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 15, 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 8Buddy Holly and his band, the Crickets (from Rock and roll)
Image 9Bill Haley and his Comets performing in the 1954 Universal International film Round Up of Rhythm (from Rock and roll)
Image 10Poison, seen here in 2008, were among the most successful acts of the 1980s glam metal era. (from Hard rock)
Image 11Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 12Sign commemorating the role of Alan Freed and Cleveland, Ohio, in the origins of rock and roll (from Rock and roll)
Image 13The Who on stage in 1975 (from Hard rock)
Image 14Kiss onstage in Boston in 2004 (from Hard rock)
Image 15Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson's record "Roll 'Em Pete" is regarded as a precursor to rock and roll. (from Rock and roll)
Image 16Chuck Berry in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 17Nirvana were at the forefront of the 1990s grunge era. (from Hard rock)
Image 18Drum notation for a backbeat (from Hard rock)
Image 19Little Richard in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 20Tommy Steele, one of the first British rock and rollers, performing in Stockholm in 1957 (from Rock and roll)
Image 21Foo Fighters performing an acoustic show in 2007 (from Hard rock)
Image 22Original member Izzy Stradlin' on stage with Guns N' Roses in 2006 (from Hard rock)

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Linkin Park performing in the Projekt Revolution 2007 Tour at Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Linkin Park is an American rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, bassist Dave Farrell, co-lead vocalist Emily Armstrong, and drummer Colin Brittain. The lineup for the band's first seven studio albums included lead vocalist Chester Bennington and drummer Rob Bourdon until Bennington's death by suicide in July 2017, which caused the band to enter an indefinite hiatus. In September 2024, Linkin Park's reformation was announced along with the addition of Armstrong and Brittain.

Categorized mainly as alternative rock and nu metal, Linkin Park's earlier music spanned a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop, while their later music features more electronica and pop elements. Linkin Park rose to international fame with their debut studio album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Released during the peak of the nu metal scene, the album's singles' heavy airplay on MTV led to the singles "One Step Closer", "Crawling", and "In the End" all charting highly on the US Mainstream Rock chart. The lattermost also crossed over to the number two spot on the nation's Billboard Hot 100. Their second album, Meteora (2003), continued the band's success. The band explored experimental sounds on their third album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). By the end of the decade, Linkin Park was among the most successful and popular rock acts.

The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types on their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds. The band's fifth album, Living Things (2012), combined musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound, while their seventh album, One More Light (2017), was a substantially more pop-oriented record. The band's eighth album, From Zero, was released in November 2024.

Linkin Park is among both the best-selling bands of the 21st century and the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. They have won two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards, and three World Music Awards. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade list. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared "the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now" by Kerrang!. (Full article...)

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Keith Moon in Ludwigshafen, Germany, 1967.

Keith John Moon (23 August 1946 – 7 September 1978) was an English musician who was the drummer for the rock band the Who. Regarded as one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock music, he was noted for his unique style of playing and his eccentric, often self-destructive behaviour.

Moon grew up in Wembley and took up the drums during the early 1960s. After playing with a local band, the Beachcombers, he joined the Who in 1964 before they recorded their first single. Moon was recognised for his drumming style, which emphasised tom-toms, cymbal crashes, and drum fills. Throughout his tenure with the Who, his drum kit steadily grew in size, and (along with Ginger Baker) he has been credited as one of the earliest rock drummers to regularly employ double bass drums in his setup. Moon occasionally collaborated with other musicians and later appeared in films, but considered playing in the Who his primary occupation, and remained a member of the band until his death. In addition to his talent as a drummer, Moon developed a reputation for smashing his kit on stage and destroying hotel rooms on tour. He was fascinated with blowing up toilets with cherry bombs or dynamite, and destroying television sets. Moon also enjoyed touring and socialising, and became bored and restless when the Who were inactive. His 21st birthday party in Flint, Michigan, has been cited as a notorious example of decadent behaviour by rock groups.

Moon suffered a number of setbacks during the 1970s, most notably the accidental death of chauffeur Neil Boland and the breakdown of his marriage. He suffered from alcoholism and acquired a reputation for decadence and dark humour; his nickname was "Moon the Loon". While touring with the Who, on several occasions he passed out on stage and was hospitalised. By the time of their final tour with him in 1976, and particularly during production of The Kids Are Alright and Who Are You, his deterioration was evident. Moon moved back to London from Los Angeles in 1978, dying that September from an overdose of clomethiazole, a drug intended to treat or prevent symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Moon's drumming continues to be praised by critics and musicians. He was posthumously inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1982, becoming the second rock drummer to be chosen, and in 2011 he was voted the second-greatest drummer in history by a Rolling Stone readers' poll. Moon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a member of the Who. (Full article...)

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New York Dolls is the debut studio album by the American rock band New York Dolls, released on July 27, 1973, by Mercury Records. An influential precursor to the 1970s punk rock movement, the eponymous album has been acclaimed as one of the best debut records in rock music and one of the greatest rock albums ever.

In early 1973, the two-year-old band had developed a local fanbase by playing regularly in New York City's lower Manhattan, but most music producers and record companies were reluctant to work with them because of their vulgarity and onstage fashion as well as homophobia in New York. Still, the Dolls signed a contract with Mercury and recorded their first album at the Record Plant in New York with producer Todd Rundgren, who was known for his sophisticated pop tastes and held a lukewarm opinion of the band. Despite stories of conflicts during the recording sessions, lead singer David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain later said Rundgren captured how the band sounded live. The resulting music on the album – a mix of carefree rock and roll, influences from Brill Building pop, and campy sensibilities – explores themes of urban youth, teen alienation, adolescent romance, and authenticity, as rendered in Johansen's colloquial and ambiguous lyrics. The album cover featured the members in drag for shock value.

New York Dolls received acclaim but sold poorly and polarized listeners. The band proved difficult to market outside their native New York and developed a reputation for rock-star excesses while touring the United States in support of the album. Despite its commercial failure, New York Dolls helped shape the 1970s punk rock movement; the group's crude musicianship and youthful attitude challenged the prevailing trend of musical sophistication in popular music, particularly progressive rock. (Full article...)

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"It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is a power ballad written by Jim Steinman. According to Steinman, the song was inspired by Wuthering Heights, and was an attempt to write "the most passionate, romantic song" he could ever create. The Sunday Times posits that "Steinman protects his songs as if they were his children". Meat Loaf, who had collaborated with Steinman on most of his hit songs, had wanted to record the song for years, but Steinman refused, saying he saw it as a "woman's song". Steinman won a court case, which prevented Meat Loaf from recording it. Girl group Pandora's Box went on to record it, and it was subsequently made famous through a cover by Celine Dion, which upset Meat Loaf because he was going to use it for a planned album with the working title Bat Out of Hell III.

Alternatively, Meat Loaf has said the song was intended for Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and given to the singer in 1986, but they both decided to use "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" for Bat II, and save this song for Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. Steinman at one point offered it to Bonnie Tyler, who was recording her album Hide Your Heart with producer Desmond Child. Confident that it would be a hit, she asked her record company to include it in the album; they declined, citing the cost of using Jim Steinman to produce it.

The song has had three major releases. The first version appeared on the concept album Original Sin, recorded by Pandora's Box. It was recorded by Celine Dion for her album Falling into You, and her version was a commercial hit, reaching No. 1 in the Canadian Singles Chart, No. 2 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1996. Meat Loaf eventually recorded it as a duet with Norwegian singer Marion Raven for Bat III and released it as a single in 2006. This version reached No. 1 in Norway and No. 2 on the UK Singles charts.

A music video was produced for each of the three versions; death is a recurring theme in all of these videos, fitting in with the suggestion in Virgin Records' press release for Original Sin that "in Steinman's songs, the dead come to life and the living are doomed to die". (Full article...)

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Credit: Sven-Sebastian Sajak

Mike Dirnt, singer and bassist of Green Day, stands on the Centerstage during Rock im Park ("Rock in the Park") Festival 2013.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that when rock musician Warren Zevon received a terminal diagnosis of lung cancer, he learned to "enjoy every sandwich"?
... that Skálmöld & Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands documents a symphony orchestra playing heavy metal music?
... that Canadian punk rock musician Talli Osborne had only briefly spoken to the frontman of NOFX before the band wrote a song about her?
... that heavy metal led Ossian D'Ambrosio to druidism?
... that the British rock musician Hannah Grae went viral online with an anti-sexual harassment parody of Aqua's "Barbie Girl"?
... that raw material waste from the West influenced a generation of rock music in China?

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Post-Britpop is an alternative rock subgenre and is the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, following Britpop, when the media were identifying a "new generation" or "second wave" of guitar bands influenced by acts like Oasis and Blur, but with less overt British concerns in their lyrics and making more use of American rock and indie influences, as well as experimental music. Bands in the post-Britpop era that had been established acts, but gained greater prominence after the decline of Britpop, such as Radiohead and the Verve, and new acts such as Travis, Keane, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Feeder, and particularly Coldplay, achieved much wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s. (Full article...)