Heavy Metal Music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed between 1968 and 1974.[1] With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterised by the use of highly-amplified distortion and fast guitar solos. Allmusic declares, “Of all rock & roll’s myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality.”

Throughout its history heavy metal has had a large world-wide following of fans known by terms such as “metalheads” and “headbangers”. Although early heavy metal bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were popular, they were critically reviled at the time, reflecting a trend that has been present throughout the history of the genre. As the original wave of heavy metal bands began to wane, the late 1970s brought the New Wave of British Heavy Metal which sought to strip away much of the music’s blues influence and fuse it with a punk rock sensibility.

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Heavy metal became popular during the 1980s, at which time many of the now widespread subgenres first evolved. Some subgenres, often those more aggressive and extreme than metal music of the past, were restricted to an underground audience, however others, including glam metal and to a lesser extent thrash metal, went on to mainstream commercial success. In recent years subgenres such as nu metal have broadened the scope of what can be considered heavy metal.

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