2. It is difficult to decide who started the history of rock music . This is because rock and roll music
evolved from different genres and some songs that belonged to the blues, jazz and country genres
offered elements that could be considered rock and roll.
Bill Haley is considered to be the artist that created rock, with his song “Rock around the clock”
in 1951 which is believed to be the first rock song; it had become popular enough to top the
billboard music charts . Other early rock artists include Chuck Berry and Little Richard, these
artists led to the popularisation of rock music .
3. 1950’s
The fifties bring the birth of Rock and Roll with rhythm and blues, country and gospel music
fusing together in Rock 'n Roll, Doo Wop, Rockabilly and the beginnings of Soul. With early hits
first appearing on the R&B charts and then moving to the pop charts by the second half of the
decade. Pioneering rock music artists Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino,
Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles and many more take the rock music
sound and influence worldwide.
4. 1960’s
In the sixties rock music takes over the pop charts for the first time. A wide variety of new rock
genres emerge, including surf music, folk music, Motown, Stax, the British Invasion, psychedelic,
hard rock and heavy metal. Groups like the Supremes, The Temptations, The Beach Boys, The
Beatles, The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin and solo
artists Dick Dale, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix are successful. Album sales become as important
as hit singles late in the decade
5. 1970’s
By the seventies the album has become more important than the single. Concerts have moved
from clubs and halls, to stadiums. Heavy metal, folk rock, progressive rock, funk and glitter rock,
are followed by disco and punk rock. Major artists include Led Zeppelin, Yes, Deep Purple, Black
Sabbath, T.Rex, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Kiss, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen,
Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, Chic, Donna Summer, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Clash.
6. 1980’s
In the eighties CD's replace albums and tapes. MTV and music videos become influential.
Dominant artists include U2, Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Run DMC, The Beastie Boys,
The Go'Go's, Phil Collins, Human League, Flock of Seagulls, INXS, Journey, Dire Straits,
Foreigner, Billy Joel, Guns & Roses, and Motley Crue. New rock music styles such as synthpop,
new wave, hardcore, speed metal, hair metal, the new british invasion, and rap come to the
forefront.
7. 1990’s
In the nineties rock music continues to evolve with grunge, alternative, industrial, house, hip hop,
techno and trance music becoming popular rock music forms. Rock bands like Nirvana, Sonic
Youth, The Pixies, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Blues Traveler, Phish, and Beck sell side by side with the
more pop oriented sounds of Whitney Houston, En Vogue, NSYNC, TLC, Maria Carey and
Britney Spears and the rap / hip hop of Public Enemy, NWA, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Ice-T, Cypress
Hill, Nas, Tupac Shakur and many more.
8. Post-hardcore and Emo (early 2000s)
Hawthorne Heights, Sunny Day Real Estate, My Chemical Romance
Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and disparate groups such as Paramore and Panic at the
Disco
Emo rock music had far greater appeal amongst adolescents which furthered rock musics variety
and potential.
Post-hardcore : The Used, Hawthorne Heights, Senses Fail, From First to Last and Emery and
Canadian bands Silverstein and Alexisonfire. British bands like Funeral For A Friend, The
Blackout[289] and Enter Shikari also made headway.
9. Garage rock/post-punk revival (early
2000s)
There had been attempts to revive garage rock and elements of punk in the 1980s and 1990s and
by 2000 had grown up in several countries
The commercial breakthrough was led by four bands: The Strokes, who emerged from the New
York club scene with their début album Is This It (2001); The White Stripes, from Detroit, with
their third album White Blood Cells (2001); The Hives from Sweden after their compilation
album Your New Favourite Band (2001); and The Vines from Australia with Highly Evolved
(2002).
A second wave of bands that gained international recognition due to the movement included Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Killers, Interpol, Kings of Leon , The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys,
Bloc Party, Editors, Franz Ferdinand and Placebo.
10. Retro-metal (2006)
The term "retro-metal" has been applied to such bands as Texas-based The Sword, California's
High on Fire, Sweden's Witchcraft, and Australia's Wolfmother. The Sword's Age of Winters
(2006) drew heavily on the work of Black Sabbath and Pentagram, while Witchcraft added
elements of folk rock and psychedelic rock, and Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album
combined elements of the sounds of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.
11. Contemporary heavy metal, metalcore
(2008-2009)
Metalcore, originally an American hybrid of thrash metal and hardcore punk, emerged as a
commercial force in the mid-2000s.It was rooted in the crossover thrash style developed two
decades earlier by bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers
of Death and remained an underground phenomenon through the 1990s; early bands include Earth
Crisis, Converge, Hatebreedand Shai Hulud.
Killswitch Engage's, The End of Heartache and Shadows Fall's The War Within to debut at
number 21 and number 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart.Bullet for My Valentine,
from Wales, broke into the top 5 in both the U.S. and British charts with Scream Aim Fire (2008).
Metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest and the Download Festival. Lamb of
God, with a related blend of metal styles, reached number 2 on the Billboard charts in 2009 with
Wrath.
12. Digital electronic rock (2000-2006)
In the 2000s, as computer technology became more accessible and music software advanced, it
became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer. This
resulted in a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the
general public via the expanding internet, and new forms of performance such as laptronica and
live coding. These techniques also began to be used by existing bands, as with industrial rock act
Nine Inch Nails' album Year Zero (2007), and by developing genres that mixed rock with digital
techniques and sounds, including indie electronic, electroclash, dance-punk and new rave.
