A2 Media Research

2. What is Rock Music
• Rock is one of the most popular
music genres around the world. It
originated in the USA as ‘’rock and
roll’’ in the 1950s. However different
styles and influences of music genres
have shaped the rock genre’s
development over the years. It later
developed into a range of sub-genres
over the 1960s, especially in the USA
and UK.
• Rock music is generally described as
hard-edged music performed with
guitars, electric guitars, bass, and
drums and mostly accompanied by
lyrics.

3. History of Rock Music
• In the 1940’s to the 1960’s, popular genre, country and blues,
developed into a new sound aided by electric guitars and drums.
• By the 1960’s a popular band, The Rolling Stones, developed into
musicians capable of producing cohesive albums of songs.
• Over the 1970’s Rock music became more popular and developed even
more.
• A band named Led Zeppelin gave rock a darker, heavier tone, and
became one of the 70s most popular bands, introducing new genres
such as ‘hard rock’ and ‘heavy metal’.
• Bands such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash decided to simplify rock
down to loud guitars, rude attitude and enraged singing. This genre
developed into what is now known as Punk music.
• In the 80s more mainstream rock music lost commercial steam and it’s
sound turned ‘stale’.
• Subgenres started to dominate the rock sound. By the end of the 80s, a
subgenre called ‘college rock’ became a more profitable alternative to
mainstream rock that it received a new moniker now known as
‘alternative rock’, Alternative rock cemented it’s cultural standing when
the music magazine billboard created a new chart in the 1988
specifically for alternative rock.

4. Subgenres
• In the late 60’s, Rock music was combined
with many other genres of music such as Folk,
Blues and Jazz. Rock music was then
influenced by Soul, Funk and Latin music in
the 70’s.
• This lead to Rock forming subgenres such as
Soft Rock, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock, Heavy
Metal, Punk Rock, Glam Metal, Thrash Metal,
Indie Rock and Alternative Rock.

5. Alternative Rock
• One of the most popular subgenres of rock music is Alternative rock.
• Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative)
is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music
underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s.
• 'Alternative' is a broad term used to describe something that differs greatly
in its sound and roots.
• At the end of the 80’s alternative rock became the new name of a subgenre
called ‘college rock’ as it became a more profitable alternative to
mainstream rock.
• Alternative rock became so popular and well-known that the music
magazine billboard created a new chart in the 1988 specifically for
alternative rock.
• Alternative was also related to or referred to as ‘indie rock’ because the
bands were often signed to small, independently-owned labels.
• Significantly, alternative rock cemented its cultural standing when the music
magazine Billboard created a new chart in 1988 specifically for alternative
rock, which the publication classified as modern rock. For most music fans,
terms such as modern rock, alternative and indie are synonymous ways of
describing this popular subgenre.

6. Artists associated with Rock music
Past:
• Jimi Hendrix (Hard
Rock/Psychedelic Rock)
• Elvis Presley (Rock and Roll)
• The Beatles (Rock/Pop)
• The Rolling Stones (Rock/Blues)
• Nirvana (Alternative Rock)
• Black Sabbath (Heavy Metal)
• Led Zeppelin (Hard Rock/Blues
Rock)
• Queen (Rock)
• AC/DC (Hard Rock/Blues Rock)
• Iron Maiden (Heavy Metal)
Modern:
• Fall Out Boy (Pop
Rock/Alternative Rock)
• Green Day (Punk
Rock/Alternative Rock)
• Royal Blood (Blues Rock/Hard
Rock)
• My Chemical Romance
(Alternative Rock/Emo)
• Coldplay (Alternative Rock/Pop
Rock)
• Evanescence (Rock/Christian
Rock)

7. Typical stereotypes in Rock
As rock has developed over the years, it has
been associated with certain styles and
stereotypes are mostly the same. Most people
think of rock as an aggressive genre of music
and normally associate it with the colour black.
Others may associate rock with:
•Drugs
•Rebellion
•Violence
•Gothic
•Death
•Rough
People often say rock artists wear dark clothes,
have numerous tattoos or piercings and are
often associated with drugs.

8. Typical stereotypes in Rock
Clothes that people associate with the rock genre are usually
dark or black clothes to match their dark style of music. For
example:
• black leather jackets
• black biker boots
• black skinny jeans
• Long un kept hair
• dark makeup.
Stereotypes also include artists mostly being white and either
English or American.
In Rock, men tend to dominate the genre and are the most
popular artists.

9. A Typical Rock Video
• A typical rock video mainly consists of the rock artist/s performing with high key lighting as if they were
actually on stage. Music videos would usually focus on the band with some narrative depending on the
song. Music videos are more performance based as the members of the bands play their own
instruments.
• The props that they use are mostly instruments and the band would wear what they would normally
wear as if they were actually performing on stage. This creates an stereotypical ‘rock’ atmosphere for the
music video and the audience. However if there is any narrative shots involved, the props would relate to
the story behind the song.
• Watching the actual band perform in the video also gives the audience an insight to who they are and
they are able to feel a connection with them instead of watching a story to do with the song.Alternative
rock videos are somewhat similar however they seem to contain more narrative music videos to show
the meaning behind the songs.
• Settings of Rock music videos are usually quite dark to fit in with the genre and to give the video a ‘rocky’
atmosphere. The darkness also allows the audience to focus on what is standing out– the band or
people during the narrative shots. Locations are based in normal performance settings such as concerts,
clubs or dark sets.