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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...)

General images - load new batch

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

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

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Velvet Revolver was an American hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N' Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of punk band Wasted Youth, and Scott Weiland (lead vocalist) formerly of Stone Temple Pilots. The band formed in 2002 and was active until 2008, when Weiland was fired from the band and subsequently rejoined Stone Temple Pilots.

In 2004, the band achieved commercial success with their debut album, Contraband. Despite positive reviews, some critics initially described Velvet Revolver as a mere combination of Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N' Roses, and criticized them for a "disconnection" between Weiland and the rest of the band. With their single "Slither", they won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The band released Libertad in 2007, driven by the release of the single "She Builds Quick Machines", and embarked on a tour with Alice in Chains.

In April 2008, Weiland was fired from Velvet Revolver and reunited with Stone Temple Pilots. Velvet Revolver was put on indefinite hiatus and in November of that year, requested to be released by their record label RCA Records to allow themselves "complete freedom to go through whatever process it would take to accomplish" replacing Weiland.

Although Velvet Revolver worked on new material and auditioned new singers following Scott Weiland's departure, the band has not released any new material and only performed publicly once since 2008, when they reunited with Weiland for a one-off reunion show on January 12, 2012, at a benefit concert. This proved to be their last performance together before Weiland's death on December 3, 2015. Slash and McKagan rejoined Guns N' Roses in 2016. (Full article...)

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Philip David Ochs (/ˈoʊks/; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, and political commentary. He wrote approximately 200 songs throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and released eight albums.

Ochs performed at many political events throughout the course of his career—including the 1968 Democratic National Convention, multiple mass demonstrations sponsored by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events—and was known to perform at benefits for free. Politically, early in his career, Ochs described himself as a "left social democrat," but became an early revolutionary after the police riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which had a profound effect on his state of mind.

After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs' mental stability declined in the 1970s. He had a number of mental health problems, including depression, bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and died by suicide on April 9, 1976.

Ochs' influences included Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Bob Gibson, Faron Young, and Merle Haggard. His best-known songs include "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "When I'm Gone", "Changes", "Crucifixion", "Draft Dodger Rag", "Love Me, I'm a Liberal", "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", "Power and the Glory", "There but for Fortune", and "The War Is Over". (Full article...)

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Almost There is the first studio album by the American Christian rock band MercyMe. Produced by Pete Kipley, it was released on August 14, 2001, by INO Records. After releasing six albums as an unsigned band, they decided to pursue a record contract because it became too difficult to sell albums, book shows, and manage themselves. The band was assigned to work with Kipley, who had not produced a major project before. Four songs on the album had previously appeared on their self-released albums; the rest were newly recorded songs. Critics have characterized the music on the album as contemporary worship and pop rock, with a more radio-friendly sound than the band's self-released albums.

Almost There received critical acclaim from music critics, who praised the album's songwriting; "I Can Only Imagine" received particular compliments. Critics were more divided on the album's sound. Some felt the album was "innovative" or "fresh", while others felt it was middle-of-the-road or derivative. CCM Magazine listed it in their 25th anniversary edition as one of '100 Albums You Need to Own'.

"Bless Me Indeed (Jabez's Song)" was released as the album's lead single; however, it underperformed on the charts, leading initially to poorer than expected sales for the album. The second single, "I Can Only Imagine", peaked at number one on the Radio & Records Christian AC chart in 2002. Its success contributed to a sharp increase in sales, and the song stayed on the Christian charts so long that plans for a third single from the album were scrapped. After the song crossed over to mainstream radio in 2003, the album peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Billboard Christian Albums chart. Billboard ranked it as the fourth best-selling Christian album of the 2000s in the United States. Almost There has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over 3 million copies in the United States. (Full article...)

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"Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's third single in August 1987. The song's hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song's introduction and again at the end. Lead vocalist Bono wrote the lyrics in response to the notion that it is possible to identify a person's religion and income based on the street on which they lived, particularly in Belfast. During the band's difficulties recording the song, producer Brian Eno considered erasing the song's tapes to have them start from scratch.

"Where the Streets Have No Name" was praised by critics and became a commercial success, peaking at number thirteen in the US, number fourteen in Canada, number ten in the Netherlands, and number four in the United Kingdom. The song has remained a staple of their live act since the song debuted in 1987 on The Joshua Tree Tour. The song was performed on a Los Angeles rooftop for the filming of its music video, which won a Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video. (Full article...)

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Credit: Sven-Sebastian Sajak

Hayley Williams, lead vocalist of the American rock band Paramore, at Rock im Park ("Rock in the Park") 2013 in Nuremberg, Germany.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Rolling Stone listed Ácido Argentino as the most essential album of Argentine heavy metal?
... that heavy metal band Judas Priest took their name from Bob Dylan's song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"?
... that the British rock musician Hannah Grae went viral online with an anti-sexual harassment parody of Aqua's "Barbie Girl"?
... that heavy metal led Ossian D'Ambrosio to druidism?
... that Desulfovibrio vulgaris can remove toxic heavy metals from the environment?
... that Canadian punk rock musician Talli Osborne had only briefly spoken to the frontman of NOFX before the band wrote a song about her?

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Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock, hard rock, and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry. The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative rock. (Full article...)