The Anthems of Rebellion: Hard Rock in the 60s & 70s

The counterculture “hippie” movement greatly contributed to the growth and development of hard rock in the late 60s throughout the express of cultural change and youth rebellion within the music. Also, though white-male rock groups dominated the music scene in the late 60s and early 70s, many female and African-American rock and blues artists have also had a major impact on the development of hard rock.

The 60s is considered one of the most diverse decades in the 20th century due to the emergence of several types of popular music in the span of just 10 years. The teen idols, folk revival, and surf music of the early 60s soon gave way to Beatlemania and the British Invasion, beginning in 1964 and lasting through the rest of the decade. Soon, the Motown Sound and African-American soul and funk originated within the last few years. Finally, the anthems of the counterculture movement dominated the latter half of the decade from softer songs about peace and love, to the harder, progressive sound that eventually gave way to hard rock. In this article, the sound and development of hard rock in the 60s comes from both sides of the Atlantic, introducing the main hard rock groups from England AND America, as well as artists that are often disregarded as pioneering influences of 60s hard rock. Though white-male rock groups dominated the music scene in the late 60s and early 70s, many female and African-American artists rock and blues artists have had just as much an impact on the development of hard rock. Introducing the pioneers, artists, and the musical sound of 60s hard rock…

Conclusion: The sounds often associated with early hard rock and heavy metal includes loud, screaming vocals, a rich guitar sound filled with riffs and wild electric guitar solos, and supporting backbeat of loud drums fills and bass. The groups of the late 60s and early 70s that dominated the hard rock sounds were primarily white males that became the bands to popularize hard rock. Groups such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin greatly demonstrated these musical sounds both in the studio and on the stage. Whether it was the screeching, screaming lead vocals of Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne and the shredding guitar work by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, the hard rock sound developed in the 60s due to its popularization among white male groups. This, in turn, has caused many other artists to be forgotten or completely disregarded for helping to pioneer the hard rock sound, including African-American artists such as Jimi Hendrix whose electric guitar work and music in the late 60s contains the same musical elements found in hard rock, including wild solos on instruments (particularly Hendrix’s guitar), loud declamatory drum beats, and screaming vocals by Hendrix himself. In addition to Hendrix’s discredit, several blues musicians from the 50s have similar sounds in their own music taken in the hits of hard rock. Willie Dixon’s “You Need Love” shares the same musical structure as Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and, as a result, has been a subject of copyright infringement by Led Zeppelin. This proves how the white hard rock groups derive their hard rock musical sound from African-American blues artists and share the same musical traits as these 50s blues songs. Similarly, several female hard rock groups that developed in the 70s utilized the hard rock sound of loud vocals and instruments in their music; one example of a pioneering female hard rock group is the Runaways, who became one of the most popular female hard rock groups of the 70s. While it is obvious that white male bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath (a.k.a. “The Unholy Trinity of British Hard Rock”) are often credited with being the inspiration behind the hard rock movement in the late 60s and early 70s, the musical sounds of hard rock is universal and can be found in the African-American pioneers like Jimi Hendrix as well as the female groups of the 70s that helped to carry the musical sound of hard rock into a new decade.