Common questions about Heavy metal music

Short answers, pulled from the story.

When did heavy metal music emerge as a genre?

Heavy metal music emerged as a genre in 1968 when three bands emerged from the British and American underground to forge a sound that would redefine the limits of volume and distortion. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple formed that year, creating a thick, monumental sonic architecture built on the back of blues rock, psychedelic rock, and acid rock. The 1970 releases by Black Sabbath, including the album Paranoid, and Deep Purple's Deep Purple in Rock, were crucial in codifying the genre.

Who formed the band Black Sabbath and what accident influenced their sound?

Black Sabbath was formed in the industrial city of Birmingham by a group that included guitarist Tony Iommi. A work accident in which Tony Iommi lost the ends of two fingers influenced their sound because he had to tune his guitar down for easier fretting and rely on power chords with their relatively simple fingering. This created a bleak, chugging, metallic sound that mirrored the noisy factories of his hometown.

What year did Judas Priest help spur the genre's evolution by discarding blues influence?

Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution during the mid-1970s by discarding much of its blues influence and taking the music straight into metal as a distinct entity. They introduced a non-bluesy, more cleanly metallic sound with twin-guitar attacks and rapid tempos. This shift occurred after Black Sabbath started the movement and before Motörhead was founded in 1975.

When did the Parents Music Resource Center petition the U.S. Congress to regulate the music industry?

The Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry during the 1980s due to what the group asserted were objectionable lyrics. In 1985, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider was asked to defend his song Under the Blade at a U.S. Senate hearing. In 1986, Ozzy Osbourne was sued over the lyrics of his song Suicide Solution by the parents of John McCollum.

What is the origin of the term heavy metal in a musical context?

The origin of the term heavy metal in a musical context is uncertain, with the phrase having been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy. An early documented use of the phrase in rock criticism appears in Sandy Pearlman's February 1967 Crawdaddy review of the Rolling Stones' Got Live If You Want It. In the 11th of May 1968 issue of Rolling Stone, Barry Gifford wrote about the album A Long Time Comin' by U.S. band Electric Flag, describing it as the new soul music, the synthesis of white blues and heavy metal rock.

Which band released the first true heavy metal recording in 1968?

San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran's classic Summertime Blues as a part of their debut album, Vincebus Eruptum, in 1968. Many consider this to be the first true heavy metal recording. The same month, Steppenwolf released their self-titled debut album, on which the track Born to Be Wild refers to heavy metal thunder in describing a motorcycle.

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