KAJANOVÁ, Yvetta. On The History of Rock Music

Kajanová
Yvetta Kajanová
Yvetta Kajanová
On the History of Rock Music
On the History
On the History of Rock Music follows the development of rock music from its origins up

to the present time. It focuses on the relationship between the sound, improvisations
and rhythms in particular styles, and gives specific attention to the development of
of Rock Music
rhythm. The beat-offbeat principle, polyrhythms and poly-metrics are fundamental to
rock rhythm patterns, which serve as archetypes for specific rhythms. An archetype is
a prototype, a model, or an innate experience of a species. Using more than 250 score
examples, the author identifies the characteristic rhythmic patterns in rock styles,
ranging from rock and roll, hard rock and punk rock to alternative rock, indie rock and
grind core.
The Author
Yvetta Kajanová is a Professor of Musicology at Comenius University in Bratislava
(Slovakia). She is the author of eight monographs on aesthetics and sociology of music,
jazz, rock, pop music and gospel music.
ISBN 978-3-631-65556-6 www.peterlang.com

Kajanová
Yvetta Kajanová
Yvetta Kajanová
On the History
On the History of Rock Music follows the development of rock music from its origins up

to the present time. It focuses on the relationship between the sound, improvisations
and rhythms in particular styles, and gives specific attention to the development of
of Rock Music
rhythm. The beat-offbeat principle, polyrhythms and poly-metrics are fundamental to
rock rhythm patterns, which serve as archetypes for specific rhythms. An archetype is
a prototype, a model, or an innate experience of a species. Using more than 250 score
examples, the author identifies the characteristic rhythmic patterns in rock styles,
ranging from rock and roll, hard rock and punk rock to alternative rock, indie rock and
grind core.
The Author
Yvetta Kajanová is a Professor of Musicology at Comenius University in Bratislava
(Slovakia). She is the author of eight monographs on aesthetics and sociology of music,
jazz, rock, pop music and gospel music.
www.peterlang.com
Yvetta Kajanová

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in
the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic
data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kajanová, Yvetta.
[K dejinám rocku. English]
On the history of rock music / Yvetta Kajanová ; translated by Lea & Geoffrey Duffell.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-3-631-65556-6
1. Rock music--History and criticism. 2. Rock music--Analysis, appreciation. I.
Duffell, Lea translator. II. Duffell, Geoffrey translator. III. Title.
ML3534.K28613 2014
781.6609--dc23 2014022564
Cover image: © Oliver Solga
Gratefully acknowledging the financial support of Vedecká grantová agentúra

in publishing this book (VEGA Research Agency grant 1/0728/11)
Translated from the Slovakian original: Yvetta Kajanová: K dejinám rocku,

Bratislava, CoolArt 2010
Translated by Lea & Geoffrey Duffell
ISBN 978-3-631-65556-6 (Print)

E-ISBN 978-3-653-04793-6 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-04793-6
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2014
All rights reserved.
PL Academic Research is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH.
Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙
Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to
prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in
electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
www.peterlang.com
Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................7
The Rhythm of Rock.............................................................................................13
Rock and Roll.......................................................................................................15
Hard Rock – the First Era 1960 – 1967................................................................29
Experimental Rock ...............................................................................................43
Hard Rock – the Second Era 1967 – 1979............................................................51
Art Rock ...............................................................................................................63
Electronic Rock.....................................................................................................71
Punk Rock ............................................................................................................77
New Wave.............................................................................................................87
Heavy Metal..........................................................................................................93
Hard Core............................................................................................................107
Speed Metal and Thrash Metal........................................................................... 111
Death Metal, Black Metal and Grind Core......................................................... 119
The 1980s Synthesis and Polystylistic Rock Music...........................................125
Conclusion..........................................................................................................141
Summary.............................................................................................................151
Discography........................................................................................................153
Bibliography.......................................................................................................155
Notes from the author.........................................................................................161
5
Introduction
Thorough research and analyses on the theory and history of rock music have not
been published until recently. The reason for this stems from the relatively short
history of rock music as a genre, which does not allow an adequate analytical
perspective on the historical and artistic values of rock. Furthermore, the existing
methodologies used in other areas of musicology cannot be directly applied to
rock music, since rock has its own specific characteristics that differentiate it from
other genres of music. The issue is further complicated because much previous
research has coupled its analysis with non-musical disciplines such as sociology
and other social sciences, business management, economics and aesthetics. With
those aspects being perhaps the most commonly researched, rock encyclopae-
dias and dictionaries have mainly focused on the most successful bands and their
songs, financial earnings, the songs’ highest rating in British and American charts
and how many weeks they stayed there. Aesthetic and sociological works on rock
music have tried to illuminate the importance of rock personalities, and their appeal
to the listener, by examining both the musical subcultures and the social milieu of
the listener. For example, Dieter Baacke, one of the first rock theoreticians, in
Beat – die sprachlose Opposition1 identifies “criminals, and counter-cultural and
rebellious group movements” as being associated with 1960s beat music. They
organised protests without a clear purpose. Amongst the “criminals”, Baacke saw
groups of “politically radical” students who based their ideas on theory and or-
ganized collective protests. The “beatniks” included bands, along with hippies,
drop-outs and other social non-conformists; some consciously adopting aesthetic
values which had previously been the preserve of the middle and upper classes.
There were also the instances of the beat as a medium of expression that was not
tied to a specific social class; and we certainly acknowledge that the beat move-
ment is classless.
Using Baacke’s analysis of rock’s social environment, we can make some
conclusions about late 1960s rock music:
1. Beat is an unconscious form of protest, an opposition without a clear purpose.

2. Although aggression is beyond the core of the beat itself, rock, however, is
not an amiable expression of art towards the wider society, as it has created
1 München: Juventa Verlag, 1968.
7
“narcissistic boundaries within the listener”. Beat began because of the power-
ful institutional influences, such as schools, teachers, and parents, who forced
individuals to socialise.
3. Beat is a culture with its own symbolic characteristics including clothing, hair-
styles, make-up, image and social context. All these components can result in
a synaesthetic effect.
4. It is also a subculture that reflects the conflict between generations. Rock pro-
jects new ideas onto life and society from its increasing adoption of socio-
political criticism.
Richard Meltzer, in his book The Aesthetics of Rock2, investigates the semantic
meanings in rock compositions though, at the same time, he is aware of the extent
to which their lyrics reflect the banality and triviality of the world. The lyrics of
rock songs are influenced by the social and environmental conditions in which
people live including sexuality, “ritualised chaos”, “games on convention”, reli-
gion and technology.
Meltzer confronts the aesthetics of rock with a comparison of symbolic mean-
ings across other forms of art including fine art (Marcel Duchamp), literature
and film. Meltzer was one of the first rock theoreticians as well as a critic. He
studied philosophy at Yale University, was a proponent of performance art and
a student of Allan Kaprow3. He later wrote lyrics for the heavy metal band Blue
Öyster Cult.
As punk or heavy metal4 are superficially manifested as juvenile delinquency,
the subsequent studies seek a deeper insight into rock’s subcultures and try to
2 New York: Da Capo Press, 1970, second edition 1987.

3 Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) was an American painter and one of the creators of per-
formance art. Performance art was followed by the expansion into the production
of intermedia compositions, conceptualism and happenings. Fujak, Július: Musical
Correla(c)tivity. Notes on Unconventional Music Aesthetic. Nitra: ILAC Faculty of
Arts, UCP, 2005; Podpera, Rastislav: Quo vadis musica: premeny sociálnych funkcií
hudby. Bratislava: Veda, 2006.
4 Epstein S. Jonathon & Pratto, J. David: “Juvenile Deliquency and Satanic Identifica-
tion”. In Popular Music and Society. Bowling Green University Popular Press, Winter
1990, pp. 67-75; Epstein, S. Jonathon, Pratto, J. David & Skipper, K.J.: “Teenagers,
Behavioral Problems and Preferences for Heavy Metal and Rap Music: A Case Study
of a Southern Middle School”. In Deviant Behavior, No.11, 1990, p. 381-394; Gross,
L. Robert: “Heavy Metal Music: A New Subculture in American Society”. In The
Journal of Popular Culture, 1990, No. 24, pp. 119-130.
8
d iscover their essence. Dieter Baacke’s original characterisation of rock subcul-
tures has not changed. What have changed are the symbols of the subcultures and
their related social issues, ideas and solutions.
One of the most comprehensive books on rock history is Rock of Ages, The
Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll5 by Ed Ward, Geoffrey Stokes and Ken
Tucker, who deal with the differing aesthetic, philosophical, managerial and eco-
nomic aspects of rock. The authors look at the development of the different styles
of rock music and focus on all the above aspects. The problematic issue is, how-
ever, the inability of theoreticians to agree on basic musical principles that would
give a definition to hard rock, art rock, progressive rock, industrial rock, alterna-
tive rock or indie rock. Consequently, there is still a myriad of definitions applied
to the different styles of rock. For example, it has not yet been resolved whether
Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) and Genesis belong to art rock,
progressive rock or classical rock. Which groups these terms actually refer to is
also contentious. Sometimes, these categories include King Crimson, Tangerine
Dream, David Bowie and Queen (some books classify the band King Crimson as
experimental rock, others define Tangerine Dream as electronic or industrial rock,
David Bowie as glam rock and Queen as pop rock).6 In Central Europe especially,
the term art rock is more common, whilst western cultures prefer the term “pro-
gressive rock”.
Arnold Shaw in his books Von den Anfangen des Blues zu den Hits aus Mem-
phis und Philadelphia7 and Rock’n’ Roll, Die Stars, die Musik und die Mythen der
50er Jahre8 uses recognised historical methods in rock music research and, at the
same time, he accepts non-musical analyses of rock. A similar approach has been
comprehensively used in the study of medieval, renaissance and classical music,
and the application of such methods to rock music has also been made by the
Czech musicologist Aleš Opekar.9
In rock music literature there is an absence of studies that explain its musi-
cal theory or analyse compositions and various parameters of music, such as
5 New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1986.

6 Blüml, Jan: “Art rock: Definition of the Term with Regard to the Development of
Czech Designating Practice”. In Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis. Mu-
sicologica Olomucensia XI. Olomouc: Facultas Philosophica-Aestthetica 24, 2010,
pp. 9-22.
7 Hamburg: 1980.
8 Hamburg: 1978.
9 Opekar, Aleš: “Towards the History of Czech Rock Music: Turtle – the First LP by a
Czech Rock Group”. In Central European Popular Music. Praha: 1994, pp. 66-72.
9
harmony, melody and rock musical structures. So far, historians have not pro-
vided a systematic and comprehensive view of the development of rock music,
not only in terms of the American and British scenes, but also in the emergent
European artists (Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk,
Apocalyptica, Him, or Ramstein) and the Australian rock scene (AC/DC, INXS).
All these groups have a significant place in global rock music history. Analyses
of the rock music of the former post-communist bloc and its contribution to the
history of rock are likewise to be made (Czech groups: Plastic People, ETC,
Blue Effect, Olympic, Pražský výber/Prague Selection; Slovak rock personali-
ties: Marián Varga and Collegium Musicum, Prúdy, Fermáta; Hungarian groups:
Locomotiv GT and Gábor Presser, Illés, Panta Rei, Omega, Hobo Blues Band;
Polish bands: Maanam, KSU and Turbo; East German bands: Puhdys, Panta
Rhei10, Electra, Kreis; and also the role of Russian underground performers in-
cluding Boris G rebenschikov11).
Rock music as a genre of non-classical music12 originated in the mid 1950s as
a synthesis of country and western with rhythm and blues. Its distinctive charac-
teristics include:
10 The East German progressive rock group Panta Rhei was established in 1971 and
consisted of H. Dreilich-voc., U. Swillms-keyb., H. Protmann-bassg. and voc.,
J. Smauch-sayes, fl., perc., R. Ulbricht-saxes., fl., R. Stolle-tb., B. Richter-tp.,
F. Hille-ds. They released the following albums: Aus und vorbei, 1971, Hier wie
nebenan, 1972, Nachts, 1972. The group broke up in 1975 when some of their mem-
bers formed a new band Karat. In: Matzner, Antonín & Poledňák, Ivan & Wasser-
berger, Igor et al.: Encyklopedie jazzu a moderní popularní hudby, Praha: Supraphon,
1987, alphabetical register L-Z, heslo Panta Rhei, pp. 177-178.
A progressive rock group called Panta Rei existed also in Hungary between
1974 – 1982. The group consisted of Kalman Matolcsy-keyb. and synthesizers, Alex
Szalay-guitar, Andras Szalay-bassg., Csaba Beke-drums. The group was reknowned
for constructing different types of synthetizers which they then used in their perfor-
mances.
11 Uvarov, Mikhail: Historical and aesthetic transformations of Soviet/Russian pop-
ular music in the 2nd half of 20th century. Eremeeva, Anna: Bards in the musical
space of the USSR and contemporary Russia. Orlova, Nadežda: Religious motifs
and motivations in Russian Rock Music. http://www2.muzykologia.uj.edu.pl/insty-
tut/2009-04-27_Panel.htm
12 The older generation of musicologists such as Jiří Fukač, Antonín Matzner, Ivan
Poledňák, Igor Wasserberger considered rock to be a part of modern popular music.
Matzner, Antonín & Poledňák, Ivan & Wasseberger, Igor et al.: Encyklopedie jazzu a
moderní populární hudby, část věcná. Praha: Supraphon, 1983, část jmenná – světová
scéna, 1986, 1987, name register – Československá scéna, 1990.
10
1. Audience segmentation by tying them to a specific social group or subculture
such as the beat generation, middle-of-the road, hippies, heavy metal, punk,
gothic rock or grunge.
2. Electrification of musical instruments and their contribution to creating the dis-
tinctive rock sounds, and also the perception of sound as noise.
3. The growth of the music industry, furthering strategies in the promotion, adver-
tising and production of music.
4. The creation of a complete show using non-musical elements for greater visual
effects. Synaesthetic elements pervade the development of rock music with a
wide range of non-musical means of expression (gestures, facial expressions,
dance, clothing, coloured lights, smoke screens and the use of film and video).
Synaesthesia is associated with a visual-spatial response to sound phenomena13,
and psychological research shows that music is associated with colour effects
in non-musical elements perceived by the human vision. The effects of the non-
musical elements in rock, and their connection with music and lyrics have not
yet been sufficiently researched.
5. Singers using tonal voice distortion, experimentations with sounds, and seeking
non-traditional musical interpretations.
6. Working with rhythmic patterns (in a rhythmic section, consisting of
bass guitar and drums, occasionally with an accompanying guitar), and riffs (a
rhythmic and melodic phrase in the melodic section, played by the lead guitar).
Using rhythmic patterns induces kinaesthesis – physical effects on the muscles
of the human body.
7. Featuring of cover versions and improvisation, a decreased importance of
“opus” (the musical composition), and the emphasis placed on interpretation.
13 Lexmann, Juraj: The Theory of Film Music. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2006.
11
The Rhythm of Rock
The rock genre spans more than fifty years of the twentieth century. The music and
its culture was a continuum from previous developments in jazz, blues and coun-
try and western. It takes on some of their elements and adapts them to the rock
musicians’ new modes of musical thinking. The question is to what extent did this
thinking differ from the previous directions of jazz. Let us consider the assump-
tion of jazz theoreticians such as Andre Asriel, Joachim Ernst Berendt, Leonard
Feather, Ira Gitler, Andre Hodeir, Marshall W.Stearns, Wynthrop Sargeant,
Gunther Schuller, Barry Ulanov and Hugues Panassie who, in their analyses, look
at the characteristics of jazz, and particularly the creation of tone, the use of im-
provisation, and the typical rhythm of jazz. We have attempted to examine these
elements in the history of rock music with the focus placed on their modified form
in different styles of rock. The most significant similarities between jazz, blues,
western and rock music are in the rhythmic patterns. Rock musicians – unlike jazz
musicians - are influenced by the essence of urban musical culture, and they stress
the beat very strongly.
Both jazz and rock, unlike classical European music (artificial music)14, have
the same rhythmic characteristics – they accentuate the second and fourth beats,
or the third one, whilst all the others are off beats. However, the main difference
between the rhythm of jazz and the rhythm of rock is the use of the shuffle rhythm
in jazz. This means that the same rhythmic values (for example 8 eighth notes in
4/4 metre) can be played in jazz music with subtle shifts and these digressions
enhance the relaxed feel of the music, its essence and easiness. Conversely, rock
musicians accentuate the beat precisely, with the pulse still being on the second
and fourth beat, or on the third.
The musical ideas of both jazz and rock were formed by the development of
rhythmical and polyrhythmical patterns. The essential factors in creating rock pat-
terns are dotted rhythm, the movement in triplets, and syncopation. These com-
ponents came from European folk and stylised dances, were transformed into
14 Musicologists in Central Europe commonly use the term “artificial music”, which
comes from the terminology of Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht and his distinction of
“Funktionale Musik” and “Artifizielle Musik”. Eggebrecht, Hans Heinrich: “Funktio-
nale Musik”. In Archiv für Musikwissenschaft (1973), vol. XXX, no.1, pp. 1-7, Fukač,
Jiří & Poledňák, Ivan: “K typologickým polarizacím hudby, zejména polarizaci hudby
artificiální a nonartificiální.” In Hudební věda (1977) vol. XIV, no. 4, pp. 316-336.
13
country music and domesticated American saloon music, and then into rhythm
and blues and jazz. From there, they were imported into rock. While the rhythm
of rock can easily be assimilated into the European perceptions of metre and its
values, especially in its early stage, the perception of jazz rhythm is outside the
European understanding of metre. In this sense, therefore, the traditional 2/4 and
4/4 metres are replaced by free interpretation of 2-beat or 4-beat metres. In rock,
rhythmic patterns of the different styles, created by musicians, are incorporated
into the traditional 2/4 and 4/4 meters. Thus, a metre that appears as 2/4 or 4/4
can be perceived ambiguously, either as a 3-beat metre or 6/8 metre, even though
the pattern still gives the impression of a 2-beat or 4-beat metre. This is a similar
phenomenon to a quarter-note triplet.
Example
Rock musicians specifically rework and restructure musical material into cover
versions, improvising as they practice. The cover version becomes the one pre-
pared for and played at concerts.
Most commonly, improvisation is used in guitar and keyboard solos as a para-
phrase of the motif. Rock typically includes tone distortion with musicians seeking
new sounds that range beyond the conventional aesthetic ideals of beauty. Whereas
jazz emphasises relaxation and ease, rock expresses tension and aggressiveness.
We can now examine the characteristic rhythm patterns of different styles as-
sociated with the development of rock music. There is an inconsistency in the
terminology used in the history and theory of rock. This problem is addressed here
using a theoretical approach. The research for this publication was conducted dur-
ing the period 1990 to 1998, when a substantial part of the rhythmical patterns in
original sound tracks were transcribed and then analysed. Four hundred and three
jazz rhythm patterns were examined in jazz music and 420 in rock. For illustrating
the history of rock music, only a selection of them will be discussed here.
14
Rock and Roll
Rock and roll is an adaptation of 12-bar blues. The typical feature of rock and roll
is the change from the relaxing rhythm of blues into a strong 4-beat pattern.
rhythm of blues
rhythm of rock and roll
Initially, this new genre was called rock and roll, beat, or rock. The term “rock”
conveyed new symbolism for sex, noisy entertainment, or preference for a certain
genre. The word appeared in the late 1940s in the songs “Rock Me All Night Long”
(The Ravens, 1952), “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (Roy Brown, 1947), “All She Wants
To Do Is Rock” (Wynonie Harris, 1949), and “Rockin’ with Red” (Piano Red, 1950).
Rock and roll was the first dance adaptation of rock, its elements being mu-
sically rendered by rhythm and blues groups and vocal ensembles in the USA.
They usually blended rhythm and blues with country and western and the popular
music of the time. Beat, or the beat generation, was the name applied to the Brit-
ish scene in the early 1960s. “Ye-ye groups” was a derisive French name for the
lighter polyphonic tunes in the Beatles songs and those of other British groups. In
Czechoslovakia, the term “guitar groups” was used. Later “bigbít” came into use
as a specific terminology in Central Europe. In the second half of the 1960s, the
term “rock” prevailed. Theoreticians originally assumed that the general direction
of rock music lead either to hard rock, or melodic, soft rock as its counterpart.
These views proved to be mistaken as they assumed pop music to be a part of the
rock genre. Although rock was seen as a new genre in Europe, in America it was
often considered only a new type of pop music and show business. In the biogra-
phies of personalities especially, these terms are often confused. So the music of
Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) and Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) is only “good rock
and roll”, whilst Madonna and Prince, on the other hand, “sing rock music”.15
15 Miles, Barry: Mick Jagger in His Own Words. London: Omnibus Press, 1982; Mick
Jagger, jeho vlastnými slovami (translation Rudolf Lesňák). Bratislava: Champagne
15
The origin of beat and rock as a new genre is explained by the decline of the old
patterns of popular music of that time, and the word “beat” was associated with
“living in the present”, “on the road” and “middle-of-the-road”. The term also
expressed the tensions and frustrations of the youth generation.
The American Tin Pan Alley songs (1950 – 1953) were mainly in three styles:
country, pop-sweet music, and rhythm and blues. All songs were written in a sim-
ple song form with the following structure: introduction; part A (motif – a phrase
of several bars); part Aʼ (part A repeated); part B (restructuring of the motif);
Aʼʼ(part A repeated); coda (the closing section). Besides the Tin Pan Alley songs
there were the so-called race records, recordings of black artists (such as Joe
Turner, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, Little Richard), whose songs were specifi-
cally addressed to the Afro-American audience. Along with race records, rock and
roll was also shaped by country music and the popular sweet music of the time.
Rock and roll was not only music for listening; it was also for dancing, so it was
advantageous for rock and roll singers to be capable dancers. Most of the first rock
and roll groups consisted of tenor saxophone, piano, acoustic guitar (later electri-
fied), double bass (later replaced by bass guitar), and drums.
In 1951, a disc jockey and presenter of various shows, Alan Freed, began or-
ganising a radio rock and roll competition, Alan Freed’s Top 15, which became
increasingly popular. The year 1953 marked the success of “Crazy Man Crazy”
sung by Bill Haley and the Comets and a year later, the song “Shake, Rattle and
Roll” became successful. It was originally sung by Joe Turner, with Bill Haley
and the Comets making a later version. “Rock Around the Clock” was written in
late 1952 but failed when launched on the market in 1953; however, following
the success of “Crazy Man Crazy” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll” the song was
successfully re-launched in 1954. In 1956, “Rock Around the Clock” was used in
the movie of the same title. This song is considered to be the historical beginning
of rock and roll.
The following instruments are used in the recording of “Rock Around the
Clock”: Bill Haley – vocals and accompanying guitar, with other musicians play-
ing saxophone, piano (in the movie replaced by accordion), steel guitar, electric
guitar, double bass (in later versions replaced by bass guitar), and drums. Whilst
Avantgarde, 1993. Thomas, Dave: Johnny Rotten in his own words. London: Omnibus
Press, 1988, Johnny Rotten, jeho vlastnými slovami (translation from Slovak Katarína
Steskálová). Bratislava: Champagne Avantgarde, 1993. Duffy, John. W.: Prince. The
First Illustrated Biography. London: Omnibus Press, 1992 Prince. Prvá ilustrovaná
biografia. Gold Music Quality. Bratislava: Champagne Avantgarde, 1993.
16
the usual country and western musical ensemble of this time consisted of guitar,
steel guitar, double bass, piano, accordion or violin, rhythm and blues ensembles
used guitar, piano, saxophone, double bass and drums. Bill Haley and the Comets
abandoned the instruments of the country ensemble and formed a modern type of
rock and roll band providing a dynamism that moved the genre forward.
Amongst the era’s major rock and roll personalities were Bill Haley (born as
William John Clifton) and the Comets, the “king” of rock and roll Elvis Presley
(1935 – 1977), Chuck Berry (1926), Jerry Lee Lewis (1935), Carl Perkins, Bo
Diddley, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and many
others.
In 1960, the Twist – a new dance – originated as a combination of rock and
roll and hula hoop (derived from the 1920s swing style of the “Lindy Hop”). The
Twist had an important place in rock and roll’s development being popularised by
the singer Chubby Checker whose hit, “The Twist”, was written by Hank Ballard.
It reached high ratings in the US charts, and was the first un-partnered dance to be
known internationally. The Twist was also made popular by Bill Haley between
1960 and 1962 when he released five twist albums.
The Rhythm of Rock and Roll

Rock and roll’s dance form16 existed from rock’s beginnings. It has several rhyth-
mic characteristics in common with traditional jazz, one being a complementary
rhythm amongst the rhythm section instruments. An interesting characteristic is
piano complementarity, where the right hand plays chords and the left hand strikes
the bass note of the chord. This complementarity was similarly used in the Harlem
Piano School of traditional jazz by Jelly Roll Morton, James Johnson and others.
This way, the piano can diminish the importance of the bass guitar, or even the
drums, so that only a snare drum might stand out.
16 Historically, it functioned as a dance and thus also had dance form characteristics.
For this reason, the term “form” rather than style is preferred. Form is used in a simi-
lar way by Lubomir Dorůžka: Panoráma populární hudby 1918/1978. Praha: Mladá
fronta, 1981. Ward, Ed, Stokes, Geoffrey & Tucker, Ken: Rock of Ages, The Roll-
ing Stone History of Rock and Roll. New York: Rolling Stones Press, 1986. Wicke,
Peter & Ziegenrücker, Wieland: Rock, Pop, Jazz, Folk, Handbuch der populären
Musik. Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1985. Gammond, Peter: The Oxford
Companion To Popular Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Roxon,
Lillian: Rock Encyclopedia. New York: Penguin, 1969.
17
Example a
D. Frazier: “Alley Oop” – The Hollywood Argyles, 1969; LP Rock and Roll, Opus, 1974.
D. Bartholomew, R. Hayes & F. Domino: “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday”,1959; LP

Rock and Roll, Opus, 1974.
Bass guitar, or left hand piano, took on the typical stylisation of boogie woogie
walking bass.17 The regularity of the walking bass pattern had already existed in
a modified form in blues, not only as a dance played exclusively on piano, but
also by guitar accompanied by other musical instruments and vocals. A further
modification of boogie woogie walking bass was swing bass with its tendency to
negate metre. Swing bass in its commercial stage of development also had a pres-
ence in 1950s’ rock and roll.
17 Walking bass had a very precise rhythmic and melodic phrase, which in rock and roll
rises by seconds or thirds in a harmonic scheme.
18
Example b
Carl Lee Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”, LP Bill Haley and the Comets, 1953 – 1954; Opus, 1985.
Walking bass in rock and roll has its own distinctive rhythmic and melodic scheme,
often based on a 12-bar-blues phrase. Occasionally, the 12-bar scheme is changed into
a 16-bar song which, in addition to the basic scale degrees (tonic, subdominant, domi-
nant), also uses chord substitutions (a supertonic and submediant triad instead of sub-
dominant; and a mediant and leading note triad instead of dominant). However, here
we are interested in the rhythm of walking bass. The typical blues rhythm no longer
emphasises the accent on the dotted eighth note but, instead, all the accents become
equal.18 Fragmentation of the beat into eighth notes can occur with faster tempos.
From there, in musical thought, it is only a small step to fragmentation into triplets.
Example 1
Lloyd Prince: “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, 1972, LP Bill Haley and the Comets, Opus, 1985.
Example 2
Dave Williams & Sunny David: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”, 1960; LP Bill Haley and
the Comets, Opus, 1985.
Example 3
Chuck Berry: “Rock and Roll Music”, 1972; LP Bill Haley and the Comets, Opus, 1985.
18 In the era of rock and roll the accents in the rhythm of blues were, in some instances,
almost identical. In the post-rock and roll and the first hard rock eras musicians tried
to get closer to the more expressive spirit of Afro-American music. Nevertheless,
there are apparent differences between these two interpretations.
19
Triplet division is most commonly left to the piano and does not occur in the part
of the bass guitar. When the rhythm is divided into eighth notes or even, in later rock,
into sixteenth notes (see Example 2), it exhibits the typical rhythm fragmentation of
the first and second hard rock eras, as well as other later rock styles. The Twist period
is characterised by the division of the beat into triplets with repetitions.
The occurrence of syncopes or dotted rhythm in the bass guitar was another
important step in rock and roll music’s development. In the early stages of rock
and roll, syncopes and dotted rhythm were only used occasionally as particular
features, mostly in the bass drum or the saxophone.
Example d1
Fats Domino & Dave Bartholomew: “I’m Walkin’”, 1972; LP Bill Haley and the Comets,
Opus, 1985.
Example d2
Malou Rene & Ritchie Adams: “Tossinʼ and Turninʼ”, 1972; LP Bill Haley and the
Comets, Opus, 1985.
At this point, some important facts must be mentioned. The jazz saxophone did
not become part of the rhythmic section until the era of soul, which is a combina-
tion of jazz and popular music. It can, therefore, be assumed that the saxophone
component in the rhythmic section borrowed soul jazz from black rhythm and
blues ensembles, but at the same time the saxophone was also a part of the rhyth-
mic section in rock and roll. The saxophone component thus contributed to the
gradual fusion of “white” and “black” popular music of the time.
Furthermore, the dotted rhythm, as shown in Example d2, already appeared in
traditional jazz music and later in bebop and hard bop. From there it was adopted
into rock music where it became one of its typical patterns.
In the later stages of rock music – hard rock, art rock and heavy metal – the
bass guitar takes the role not only of a harmonic instrument (as in rock and roll)
but also a rhythmic one. The process leading to this change is demonstrated in
Examples d1 and d2.
20
Country and western music, swing rhythm in the sweet music of the time, rhythm
and blues and blends of these, had an inspirational influence on rock and roll music.
Rock drew on these styles, and developed the following rhythm p atterns.
• Rock and roll rhythm accentuates the second and fourth beats, the rhythm pat-
tern being a result of complementarity; the bass guitar often plays walking bass.
D. Bartholomew, R. Hayes & F. Domino: “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday”, 1959; LP

Robert Higginbotham: “High Heel Sneakers”, 1966; LP Bill Haley and the Comets,
Opus, 1985.
Carl Lee Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”, LP Bill Haley and the Comets, 1953 – 1954,
Opus, 1985.
21
• The rhythm of Twist
a division of the beat into triplets occurs
Sam Cooke: “Bring It On Home To Me”, 1972; LP Bill Haley and the Comets, Opus, 1985.
This example is also interesting because of the fragmentation of beats in 4/4

meter as a result of using triplets. Thus, the metre can also be perceived as having
only three beats, especially in slow tempo. However, this effect is not only due to
the bass guitar and cymbal notation; a specific fragmentation of the rhythm also
occurs in the other variant of the cymbal.
This fragmentation also occurs in the post-bop era of jazz. The division of the
rhythm into triplets, eighth and sixteenth notes becomes typical of the later devel-
opment of rock music.
The tambourine and the snare drum in the following twist pattern have two
eighth notes on the second beat and a quarter note on the fourth:
D. Frazier: “Alley Oop”, The Hollywood Argyles, 1960; LP Rock and Roll, Opus, 1974.
22
• Rhythm of Blues, in which the characteristic of blues is either accentuated (see
the part of the cymbal), or it is a result of complementarity.
S. Darnell: “Corine, Corina”, Jerry Lee Lewis, 1963; LP Rock and Roll, Opus, 1974.
G. Vincent, Sheriff Tex Davis & G. Vesta: “Be-Bop-A-Lula” – Johny Hallyday, LP Rock
and Roll, Opus, 1974.
It is interesting that the title of this composition contains the word “bebop” (its
first recording was made in 1956 by Gene Vincent, its composer, lyrics writer,
singer and guitarist), thus producing an association of rock and roll with jazz (be-
bop being a style and also scat singing technique), Afro-American folk music,
country music, and also with the elements of early rockabilly blues.
• The rhythm of rock with the fragmentation of the beat into eighth notes, or the
occurrence of syncope or dotted rhythm in the pattern.
Chuck Berry: “Memphis”, 1959, LP Rockin’ With Chuck Berry, Philips 9279 540.
23
G. Vincent, Sheriff Tex Davis & G. Vesta: “Be-Bop-A-Lula” – Johny Hallyday, 1962; LP
Chuck Berry: “Sweet Little Sixteen”, 1958, LP Rockin’ With Chuck Berry,
Philips 9279 540.
Chuck Berry: “Oh Baby Doll” – Chuck Berry, 1957, LP Rockin’ With Chuck Berry,
Philips 9279 540.
The mutual influence between bebop and rhythm and blues is also apparent in
the cymbal part which, when stressed, was played as below:
24
Example e
Chuck Berry: “Rock and Roll Music”, 1972; LP Bill Haley and Comets, Opus, 1985.
The era of rock and roll provides a rich variety of rhythmic stimuli stemming
from different styles. These mainly appeared in the creation of new rhythmic
patterns in hybrid forms. The notable rhythmic characteristic is 3/4 meter oc-
curring during 4/4 meter, thus creating the poly-metric progression of lines
which later appeared, perhaps, only in hard rock, experimental rock and heavy
metal.
Example f1 The original pattern
Chuck Berry: “Roll over Beethoven”, 1956, LP Rockin’ With Chuck Berry, Philips 9279 540.
Example f2 Polyrhythmic pattern
Chuck Berry: “Roll over Beethoven”, 1956, LP Rockin ‘ With Chuck Berry, Philips 9279 540.
25
The rhythmic section in rock and roll consists of drums, bass guitar, piano,
guitar and saxophone, with the bass guitar mainly playing the harmony. In the
drums, the cymbal and the bass drum are often suppressed, whilst the snare drum
emphasises the second and the fourth beats. The other instruments of the rhyth-
mic section dominate: saxophone, guitar, piano and bass guitar. However, the
snare and bass drums can create a complementary rhythmic pattern, while the
bass guitar plays a different pattern. This, however, does not become typical until
the era of heavy metal music and its subcultures, speed metal, thrash metal and
hard core.
Malou Rene & Ritchie Adams: “Tossinʼand Turninʼ”, 1972; LP Bill Haley and the
Comets, Opus, 1985.
In the later developmental stages of rock, rhythmic patterns tended to be played

by the entire drum set together with the bass guitar. In order for the drums to be-
come the mainstay for rhythmic patterns in the post-rock and roll era, that is the
early stage of hard rock (1960 – 1967), the role of the other instruments, such as
bass, saxophone and steel guitar, had to be diminished.
In early hard rock, as in rock and roll (see “Be-bop-A-Lula” recorded in
1956 by Gene Vincent), two rhythmic patterns could follow each other in
a single composition. This is evidence of the mutual influence of both gen-
res, and also their co-existence. However, the occurrence of two subsequent
rhythmic patterns does not become typical until the emergence of hard rock.
In 1962, the French singer, Johnny Hallyday (b.1943), recorded a cover ver-
sion of “Be-Bop-A-Lula” (LP Johnny Hallyday Sings America’s Rockin’ Hits,
Philips, 1962).
26
Example g1 Country pattern
G. Vincent, Sheriff Tex Davis & G. Vesta: “Be-Bop-A-Lula” – Johnny Hallyday, 1962, LP
Example g2 Blues pattern
Stop time is a frequently used rhythmic fragmentation adopted from blues

music. The singer or a solo instrument, most often the piano, fill in the pause
(“break”) of the other instruments that play only chords (“kick”) and, in this way
they support the rhythmic gradation of the song.
The melodic and the rhythmic section in rock and roll are not strictly separated
and their roles are often used interchangeably. The only role that is firmly defined
is that of the singer. The singer sings a solo part throughout the whole song. In this,
there are syncopes, a blues style “mood”, triplets and dotted rhythm. A moderately
fast tempo was preferred to entice dancing to rock and roll music. Musicians also
chose fast tempos, thus differentiating the drive of rock and roll from the popular
music of the previous era. However, very fast tempos (speed tempo) were not used
until the later era of heavy metal.
27
Hard Rock – the First Era 1960 – 1967
Post-rock and roll compositions

We view the term post-rock and roll to include the music of The Beatles (1958),
The Animals (1962), The Rolling Stones (1962), The Who (1963), The Yardbirds
(1963 – 1968), The Kinks (1962), The Beach Boys (1961), The Byrds (1964),
John Mayall and others. They form a bridge between rock and roll, pop songs and
the upcoming era of hard rock between 1960 and 1967. The terminology associ-
ated with this music is fairly inconsistent. Theoreticians consider these groups to
be hard rock, although they oscillate between the terms “pop songs” and “hard
rock”. Also, the music of other emerging musicians in the second half of 1960s
(such as The Doors, 1965; Jimi Hendrix, 1966; Janis Joplin, 1966; Eric Clapton
and Cream, 1966-1969; Carlos Santana, 1966; Black Sabbath, 1967; Deep Purple,
1967; Led Zeppelin, 1968) is considered to be hard rock. The initial era starting
in 1960 was defined by the emergence of The Beatles (“The Silver Beatles”) and
the gradual development of the British scene which was to change the nature of
the “group phenomenon”. The singer was no longer considered to be a soloist
separated from the rest of the musicians as he had been with earlier swing and Tin
Pan Alley sweet music. The composer and lyricist were no longer external col-
laborators and the group had become a creative workshop for the author’s song,
music-making and lyrics, as well as his musical interpretation. At the same time,
there are obvious divergences between the groups – especially those of the early
1960s – and the music of The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin.
There were considerable differences in the rhythms and sounds, as well as in the
ways they worked with the musical material. In the post-rock and roll era, or the
first hard rock era (1960 – 1967), musicians based their compositions on a mutual
acceptance that improvisation could only be a minor deviation from the basic
motif. In the second hard rock era (1967 – 1979) improvisation begins as a para-
phrase of the theme. It was used considerably in the works of Led Zeppelin, Deep
Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
The beginning of the second hard rock era is defined by the Beatles’ 1967
LP, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.19 The era was characterised by a
19 McCaffery, Larry: “White Noise, White Heat! The Postmodern Turn in Punk Rock.”
In American Book Review, March-April, year 12, 1990, Nos. 3-4, pp. 4-27.
29
new sound quality and advances of the recording studio equipment. Amongst
the other technological advances were the invention of the Moog portable
synthesizer (Robert Moog, 1965)20, and the sequencer which was used in
Morton Subotnick’s composition “Silver Apples of the Moon” (1966). In ad-
dition, crossovers between electro-acoustic music, previously the domain of
the 20th Century classical music composers,21 with concrete music (musique
concrète)22 and rock were occurring (for example LP Pink Floyd: The Piper at
the Gates of Dawn, 1967).
Historical timeframes are used to differentiate between groups of post-rock
and roll era and hard rock musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Pur-
ple. In the mid-1960s some elements of hard rock appeared in the music of The
Beatles, The Animals, The Who and others. Theoreticians’ common definitions
of the Beatles music are as popular music or soft, melodic rock, and the music of
other groups as “hard or aggressive rock” are contestable. Between 1960 and 1967
The Beatles’s repertoire, as well as the compositions of The Rolling Stones, The
Kinks, The Yardbirds and the Who included songs with the characteristics of both
popular music and soft rock, but also some of hard rock. Despite the diversity and
heterogeneity of musical genres and styles (rock and roll, pop hits and hard rock)
between 1960 and 1967, it is, therefore, more appropriate to regard this era a ho-
mogenous one. For this reason, we call it the post-rock and roll era; the term hard
rock as an established style can only be correctly applied to the period between
1967 and 1979.
Hard rock of the second era is characterised by beyond-music visual elements
which were used to create psychedelic music with smoke screens, lights, flaming
torches, graphics and musical theatre (used by The Who, Deep Purple, Black Sab-
bath and others). These displays came into use at the first major mass festivals of
rock music, such as the open air festival in Monterey (south of San Francisco) in
1967 and Woodstock in 1969. Between 1965 and 1969 a large number of concerts
with light shows took place; many attending were “flower children” of the hippie
movement.
20 Holmes, Thom: Electronic and Experimental Music. New York, London: Taylor and
Francis Group, 2002, 2005; Kajanová, Yvetta: Postmoderna v hudbe. Minimal, rock,
pop, jazz. Bratislava: VUK, 2010.
21 The first electro-acoustic studio was founded by Edgar Varèse in Paris in 1934; in
1951 another such studio was established in Cologne.
22 In Paris in 1949 Pierre Schaeffer initiated the establishment of the Groupe de Re-
cherche de Musique Concrète.
30
The Rhythm of Post-rock and roll
The First Hard Rock Era, 1960 – 1967
During the post-rock and roll era there was a clear reallocation of instrumental
roles in the rhythmic and melodic sections. The saxophone, which in rock and
roll had been a rhythmic section instrument, was not used any more, and its previ-
ous rhythmic role was taken over by the bass guitar. At the same time the 12-bar
rock and roll scheme, and thus the walking bass figure, were phased out. Besides
using triads, musicians like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the Who tended
to enrich the harmony with tetrachords on the basic scale degrees and their sub-
stitutes, for example the dominant seventh and diminished seventh chords. In The
Beatles’ and The Yardbirds’ compositions modal sequences occasionally occur,
for example the Mixolydian scale in The Beatles’ songs “A Hard Day’s Night”
(1964) and “Norwegian Wood” (1965), and the Aeolian scale together with an ad-
aptation of the Gregorian chant in the song “Still I Am Sad” by P. Samwell-Smith
and J. McCarty (LP Yardbirds: Having a Rave up, Epic 1965).
Drums and the bass guitar assumed more significance as the basic instruments
in the rhythmic section.
Typical drumming patterns might be:
Example a1
Example a2
R. Davies: “Apeman”, from LP Kinks: Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part
One, PYE, 1970; G. Harrison: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, LP The Beatles (White
album No. 0217451), Apple Rec. 1968; P. McCartney: “Martha My Dear” and J. Lennon:
“I’m So Tired”, LP Beatles (White album No. 0217451); A. Alexander: “You Better Move
On”, Rolling Stones, LP Through the Past Darkly, Decca, 1969.
31
In Example a1, the second and the fourth beats are accentuated, a pattern used
most frequently in hard rock. In Example a2, the accents are on the first and the
third beats with the third beat emphasized, but this pattern is less frequent. As
hard rock developed, the pattern a1 was used most frequently and a2 rather less
commonly. During the passage from rock and roll to hard rock in the 1960s, the
patterns contained transitional elements, such as walking bass or Twist patterns,
preserved from rock and roll.
Example b
H.G. Demarais: “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, LP Yardbirds: For Your Love,

Epic, 1965.
Example c1 Tempo Moderato
G. Gouldman: “For Your Love”, LP Yardbirds: For Your Love, Epic, 1965.
32
“For Your Love” by The Yardbirds is interesting because, besides a Twist pat-
tern, it also contains a walking bass pattern played in double time.
Example c2
At the end of the song, the two patterns combine, with the tempo still remaining
in double time.
Example c3
G. Gouldman: “For Your Love”, LP Yardbirds: For Your Love, Epic, 1965.
In this song the harpsichord and the bass guitar exchange roles.
The bass guitar in the first hard rock era patterns took on the role of a
harmonic-rhythmic instrument, and quite often played in parallel with the

melodic guitar.
33
Example d1
M. Jagger & K. Richards: “She’s a Rainbow”, Rolling Stones, LP Through the Past
Darkly, Decca, 1969.
Example d2
Example d3
R. Davies: “You Really Got Me”, LP Kinks, PYE, 1964.
34
Example d3 shows how the rhythm is shifted early in the composition. The
original pattern is first played by the solo guitar before the pattern displacement.
An important moment in the development of hard rock happened when the
bass guitar’s part adopted syncopes and dotted rhythm. The bass line gradually
became not only the rhythmic and melodic pillar of songs but the harmonic one
as well.
Example e1
Example e2
M. Jagger & K. Richards: “Sittin’ On the Fence”, LP Rolling Stones: Through The Past
Darkly, Decca, 1969; M. Jagger & K. Richards: “2000 Light Years From Home”, LP
Rolling Stones: Through The Past Darkly, Decca, 1969.
Example f1
R. Davies: “All Day And All Of The Night”, LP Kinks, PYE, 1964.
35
Example f2 Example f3

R. Davies: “Apeman”, LP The Kinks: Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part
One, PYE, 1970.
The post-rock and roll era is characterised by the march and blues patterns
which were remnants of country and western music and rock and roll. March pat-
terns usually stress every beat and they are struck by all the instruments that take
part in the pattern.
Example g1 Example g2

R. Davies: “Autumn Almanac”, SP Kinks, PYE, 1967; P. Samwell-Smith, K. Relf &
J. McCarty: “Shapes of Things”, SP The Yardbirds, Columbia, 1966.
March patterns played a particularly important role in punk rock composi-

tions in the second half of the 1970s; they returned to rock music from rock
and roll as an aesthetic and program vision of punk musicians. It was, after all,
possible to move from a blues pattern into a march pattern as The Kinks had
done.
36
Example g3

R. Davies: “Dead End Street”, SP The Kinks, PYE, 1966.
Blues patterns had an important place in hard rock’s development and were
often used with a blues harmonic scheme.
Example h1
L. Hermann: “Night Time Is The Right Time”, LP Animals, MGM, 1964.
Example h2
Rasputin: “Got To Hurry”, LP The Yardbirds: For Your Love, Epic, 1965.
37
In Example h2, the accents do not follow the usual blues pattern, but instead,
they fall on the greatly accentuated second and fourth beats. Further into the song,
the guitar starts a solo whose rhythmic and melodic pattern shifts to another beat,
and a modification of the blues pattern also occurs.
Example h3
Example h4
Example h5 Modification of the pattern
The following musical compositions contain blues patterns so significantly

modified that the “traditional” blues sound cannot be even heard.
38
Example i1
John Mayall: “I’m Your Witch Doctor”, SP John Mayall, Decca, 1966.
The cymbals in Example i1 use a notation resembling swing and bebop pat-
terns, though somewhat modified.
The specific placement of the accents in “I’m Your Witch Doctor” has created
the typical rock pattern which was referred to previously.
In The Who’s “Happy Jack” there is an evident connection with jazz. In the
composition, three different patterns precede an established hard rock style.
Example i2A
39
Example i2B
Example i2C
P. Townshend: “Happy Jack”, The Who, Decca, 1966, LP The Who: The Best of the Last
Ten Years, Karussell, 1967.
The modified blues patterns in Examples i1 and i2 are similar to each other.
John Mayall: “I’m Your Witch Doctor”, SP John Mayall. Decca, 1966, P. Townshend:
“Happy Jack”, The Who, Decca, 1966, LP The Who: The Best of the Last Ten Years,
Karussell, 1967.
A similarly modified blues patterns occurs in The Yardbirds’ “Evil Hearted You”.
40
Example j1 Example j2
Example j3
G. Gouldman: “Evil Hearted You”, LP Yardbirds: Having a Rave Up, Epic, 1965, SP
Columbia, 1965.
Using three rhythmic patterns within a single composition is typical of the sec-
ond hard rock era.
Shifting accents, as shown in example i2, also became a particular feature of the
era. These rhythm patterns are interesting because accentuation of the second and
fourth beats breaks the regularity of the beat-offbeat pattern.
Example k
P. Townshend: “My Generation”, LP The Who: The Best of The Last Ten Years, Decca,
1966, SP Brunswick, Decca, 1965.
Due to the placement of the accents the first bar can also be perceived as two
bars in 2/4 meter.
41
The bass drum in examples c1, d1, d2, e2, f and i2 complements the other drum
kit instruments. In the previous rock and roll era this was not common, but in
heavy metal it is a regular practice. The rhythmic section of the post-rock and roll
era was enriched with more percussion instruments, such as tambourine, maracas,
claves and others.
Post-rock and roll groups used slow, moderate and fast tempos with no appar-
ent preference for any particular one. Musicians worked with double time and half
time. Some of the examples are: J. Lennon & P. McCartney: “Dear Prudence”,
J. Lennon: “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”, J. Lennon: “Happiness Is
a Warm Gun”, LP The Beatles (White album No. 0217451),23 G. Gouldman: For
Your Love,24 G. Gouldman: “Evil Hearted You”, LP Yardbirds: Having a Rave Up25.
23 Apple Records, 1968.

24 LP Yardbirds: For Your Love, Epic, 1965.
25 Epic, 1965.
42
Experimental Rock
Experimental rock is a term used for rock music from the second half of the 1960s,
especially for the compositions of the Velvet Underground (1965) and Frank
Zappa’s Mothers of Invention (1965). Both deviated from the established conven-
tions and practices in rhythm, sound, improvisation, harmony and musical forms
(for example in abandoning the simple song form and their experiments in rondo,
fantasy and suite forms). These constructions were most obvious in the second
era of hard rock (1967 – 1979) when elements such as irony, parody, recycling of
motifs and motif insertion into new contexts began to appear in rock music. Musi-
cal theatre was a distinctive part of the experimental rock groups’ compositions,
particularly those of Frank Zappa26.
Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground introduced a new element in their
compositions by disregarding the principle of contrast and replacing it with a flow
and expansion principle through which they approached the aesthetic of minimal
music. The principle of contrast had hitherto been a natural component of rock
music.27
In working with rhythm, rock musicians first introduce the principal pattern
whose structure can indicate a change of style in rock music. After the introduc-
tion the principal pattern is repeated and restructured in various combinations with
accent and structure shifts to create new musical features. The musicians and the
audiences focus their attention on those features rather than the form of the whole
composition. Such repetitions and combinations of rhythmic patterns together
with the accents and structure shifts are the principles used not only by jazz and
rock musicians, but also by composers of minimal music (La Monte Young, Terry
Reiley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass and many others). However, jazz and rock mu-
sicians applied these principles for much earlier than when the minimalists were
composing their first pieces.
Breaching the principle of contrast meant, at the same time, a shift away from
the aesthetic experience and the appreciation of structured music towards, instead,
orgiastic effects on the body and senses. These effects were provoked by newly
structured rhythms, patterns and repetitions, and by the dynamism of the music.
26 Dorůžka, Peter: Plný šuplík Zappu. Bratislava: Opus, 1990.

27 Kajanová, Yvetta: Postmoderna v hudbe. Minimal, rock, pop, jazz. Bratislava: VUK,
2010, pp. 98-106.
43
In European classical music, the experience is centred around contemplation28,
whilst in modern popular music and jazz the ecstasy is centered. European classi-
cal music has its origins in the Gregorian chant, drawing from a highly contempla-
tive culture. Jazz origins included some types of Afro-American folk music which,
associated with ecstatic experience, were in contrast with contemplation. Contem-
plation and ecstasy are two very different states of human cognisance. In some
compositions, musicians replaced the principle of contrast with changelessness,
meditation (expansion of consciousness) and listlessness; they had simply placed
models one after another with repetitions sustaining identical sound blocks and
applying only slow gradation. Composers thus violated a fundamental principle of
European classical music, that of contrast and dramatic tension.
Overturning theme development and musical forms, which are the building
blocks and evolutionary features of European classical music, meant the desecra-
tion of European classical musical culture.
Besides The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of Invention, the exper-
imental scene also included other musicians such as Patti Smith, the Ramones
and Talking Heads (1974). They emerged before the official arrival of punk rock,
when rock music was not as stylistically differentiated as in the 1980s with their
general tendency for the synthesis of heterogeneous styles and genres. The 1980s
experiments to find unconventional approaches took the name alternative music.
The term has a wide-reaching meaning but “alternative music” is not “alternative
rock” because the rock is not included in it. Rather, it embraces general trends not
associated with any other particular musical genre or style. From the 1980s, the
alternative music umbrella29 did include the later derivatives of rock; in the fol-
lowing two decades, it became more established and, after 2000, recognised main-
stream music. Since many alternative music groups, such as U2, R.E.M., and The
Cure, became commercially successful, alternative music has won the dominant
position on the rock scene. Thus, in the history of rock music the term is associated
with the experimental rock groups of Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground and
other musicians that pursued unconventional forms, including Patti Smith, The
28 Berger, Roman: Hudba a pravda. Bratislava: EKK, Orman, 1997.

29 Július Fujak in Slovenské hudobné alternatívy (Slovak Music Alternatives), Nitra:
UKFFF, 2006, uses this term in the same sense. By alternative music he understands
post-modern poly-genre tendencies that contain elements of parody, irony, collage
and the recycling of musical material, regardless of whether there is a connection to
rock, electronic music, improvised music etc. What is important is combining classi-
cal and non-classical music and its artistic and non-artistic tendencies with the transfer
of semantic messages to the listener.
44
Ramones, Talking Heads, The Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, The Clash and The
Cure, who have spanned punk rock through to new wave.
Even indie (independent) music is a part of alternative music as its basic char-
acteristics, in terms of artistic endeavors, are identical to alternative music; both
pursue unconventional ways of working with sounds, rhythms, musical material
and a musical form. Consequently the terms alternative rock and indie rock are
unclear, vague, and difficult to define. However, both alternative and indie rock,
with their violation of the contrast principle, evoke the three contrasting musical
reactions: contemplation through to ecstasy through to lassitude, regardless of the
musical means by which the reactions are achieved.
In the 1980s indie rock included such styles as gothic rock, grunge, Britpop
and indie pop. As indie rock musicians themselves said, an essential condition of
their music was promotion through small independent recording companies and
avoidance of the “big four” labels (later to become the “big three”). The major
recording companies were Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment,
Warner Music Group and EMI,30 which had controlled the music market and cre-
ated an imperfect oligopoly market environment. Indie rock musicians followed
a “do it yourself” principle in the creation and management of their artistic pro-
ductions. In consequence, especially after 2000, they focused on promoting their
work through Internet social networks, such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, as
well as seeking new ways of making their independent music publicly known. Be-
sides, another indie music convention is that musicians maintain their independent
status, remain a part of underground scene shun entry into the commercial area.
Independent musicians strive not to be a part of mainstream rock addressing the
type of listener for whom rock represents “music as entertainment”. Conversely,
for genuine indie musicians rock means an attitude, a philosophy and a lifestyle.
By establishing the terms “alternative music” and “indie music”, journalists
avoided the countless rock style terms that deluged journalism in the 1980s. Other
distinctions between alternative and indie music, were, in the 1980s, the elements
of irony and parody used in experimental rock and alternative music; indie music
was more oriented toward poly-genres. However, these characteristics became ir-
relevant in the 1990s and in the new era after 2000 as the styles have been difficult
to distinguish by their musical characteristics alone. The terms underground or
avant-garde rock can now be used instead of the previous experimental, alterna-
tive and indie rock labels.
30 In November 2011, the “big four” became the “big three” because EMI was divided
between Universal and Sony.
45
The Rhythm of Experimental Rock
Experimental rock groups focused on negating the meter and tempo characteris-
tics of the traditional rock songs, on breaching hard rock patterns and breaking
up the regularity of rhythm. If patterns were used, they were taken from already-
existing hard rock, or from rock and roll models. In experimental rock patterns the
second and the fourth beats were accentuated, although occasionally the first and
the third ones.
Example a
L. Reed, S. Morrison, J. Cale & M. Tucker: “Sister Ray”, LP Velvet Underground: White
Light/White Heat, Verve, 1968.
The experiments were related to complementary rhythms and meters other than
4/4, which has dominated in rock and roll and hard rock, and has been, in general,
preferred in all rock genres. However, experimental rock musicians began, more
often, to play in other meters (2/4, 3/4 or 6/4), and they even experimented with
using several meters in a single composition.
Example b
Frank Zappa: “You Didn’t Try To Call Me”, LP The Mothers of Invention: Freak out!
Verve, 1966.
46
Example b1
Frank Zappa: “Who Are The Brain Police?” LP The Mothers of Invention: Freak out!
Verve, 1966.
Example b2
Frank Zappa: “Nine Types of Industrial Pollution”, LP Mothers of Invention: Uncle Meat,
Bizarre/Reprise, 1969.
Another of Frank Zappa’s compositions, “The Return of The Son of Monster

Magnet”, demonstrates a 2/4 meter pattern in moderate tempo. At the end of the
piece the tempo becomes faster with the pattern was changing and the meter re-
placed by 4/4.
Example b3 Example b4
Frank Zappa: “The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet” (Unfinished Ballet in Two
Tableaux: I. Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer, II. Nullis Pretii (No commercial potential),
LP The Mothers of Invention: Freak out! Verve, 1966.
47
Later, the music slows down and the pattern returns to the original tempo in
2/4 meter. Gradual acceleration and deceleration of tempo became a means of
structuring compositions.
Frank Zappa’s commentaries on his LP The Mothers of Invention: Freak out!
Verve, 1966 demonstrate the provocativeness, desire for ecstatic reactions, and
the total unconventionality of the experimental rock musicians. On his LP’s cover
Zappa assigns classical music forms to two compositions: “Help, I’m a Rock”
(Suite in Three Movements) and “The Return of The Son of Monster Magnet”
(Unfinished Ballet in Two Tableaux, I. “The Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer”,
II. “Nullis Pretii” (Without Beauty, the song with “No commercial potential”).
Assigning classical music terms (suite, ballet, song) to rock compositions aimed to
differentiate them from mainstream rock, thus attracting attention and also stimu-
lating the interest of classical music fans.
In hard rock only rarely did a gradual acceleration of tempo occur. It was used
to achieve gradations within the composition, or else it served as a transition to an-
other pattern in a different tempo. The acceleration and gradations later appeared in
the art rock in the 1970s, then in speed metal and hard core in the 1980s. However,
the first art rock LP, Pink Floyd’s The Piper at The Gates of Dawn, 1967, Capitol/
EMI, was already released during the experimental rock era. The experimental rock
composers worked with metric blocks which may have had a different tempo and
where one of the models may have been metrically shifted. Such a shift is evident in
the composition “Lady Godiva’s Operations” (LP Velvet Underground), where the
snare drum in the second block starts on the second beat of the guitar and the bass
guitar in their first block. In this way the original accent on the second beat of the
guitar and the bass guitar’s shifts to the first beat in the part of snare drum.
Example c
“Lady Godiva’ s Operation”, LP Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat, Verve, 1968.
48
Experimental rock musicians, for the first time in the history of rock music,
used noise as a new kind of sound and a means of expression. Noise, however,
did not become a means of structuring compositions until punk rock, which, at
the time of its emergence, and unlike experimental rock, gained more publicity.
For example, in the Velvet Underground’s composition “White Light/White Heat”
(LP Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat, Verve, 1968) the bass guitarist
John Cale played notes of equal rhythmic values, thus tending to negate meter,
with the noise of the other instruments being heard over the bass guitar. A similar
principle of instrumental noise together with the regularity of beats is used in the
songs “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Sister Ray” (LP Velvet Underground:
White Light/White Heat, Verve, 1968). The instrumental noise suppresses the pat-
tern and, in the drums and the bass guitar, only two notes of equal rhythmic value
that stand out, they lead to a negation of metre.
This work with the musical material is reminiscent of primitive tribal music,
where the accentuation of beats and emphasis is on the basic beat without a metric
division, and where noise and a violation of the contrast principle in sound expan-
sion contain an unchanging motionlessness. At times, the flow of noise might be
interrupted and followed by a pause, or by sections of noise without regular beats.
49
Hard Rock – the Second Era 1967 – 1979
The second hard rock era was characterized by major changes in the use of rhythm,
improvisational approaches, and by a new perception of music bands’ compact
sound. This era is represented by such groups and musicians as The Doors (1965),
Jimi Hendrix (1966), Janis Joplin (1966), Eric Clapton and Cream (1966 – 1969),
Carlos Santana (1966), Led Zeppelin (1968), Deep Purple (1967) and Black Sab-
bath (1967) along with others.
The Rhythm of the Second Hard Rock Era

The rhythmic pattern in this hard rock era not only has the role of basic rhythmic
model in the rhythmic section, but it also serves as a melodic and rhythmic motif,
called a riff31, which is the basis for the musical and structural development of
the composition. Thus the rhythmic pattern and the riff are identical but, in hard
rock more advanced forms, the rhythmic pattern and the riff can be different, as
for example in “Sunshine of Your Love” by Jack Bruce, Peter Brown and Eric
Clapton, (Cream, LP Disraeli Gears, 1968). The motif/riff is played by the bass
guitar together with the guitar, while the rhythmic pattern is played by the drums
only, even resulting, in some instances, in poly-rhythms. In the post-rock and roll
era similar work with the bass guitar pattern was used but it was usually limited
to one bar. Sometimes, in the second hard rock era, this pattern could even extend
to four bars.
31 A rework of the motif is known in the European classical and romantic music where
the motif consists of two to four bars, occasionally more. The motif represents the
main musical idea, which is the basis from which other motifs are derived. The re-
working of the main idea forms a phrase or a theme, most commonly, with a symetri-
cal division of bars.
51
Example a
John Bonham, John Paul Jones & Jimmy Page: “Communication Breakdown”, CD Led
Zeppelin I., Atlantic, 1969.
Example a1
John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant: “Hey, Hey What Can I Do”,
CD Led Zeppelin IV., Atlantic, 1990; originally SP, Atlantic, 1970.
Where one-bar patterns were used, they might have utilized syncopes, blues
models and dotted rhythms.
Example b
“Space Truckin”, LP Deep Purple Made In Japan, EMI/Purple, 1972.
52

“Strange Kind of Woman”32 “Lazy”33
Both compositions feature on LP Deep Purple made in Japan, EMI/Purple,

1972.
Example b3
J. Page: “White Summer/Black Mountain Side”, CD Led Zeppelin IV., Atlantic, 1990;
originally “Black Mountain Side” recorded on LP Led Zeppelin I., Atlantic, 1969; J. Page:
“White Summer”, LP Yardbirds: Little Games, Epic, 1967.
The bass guitar and guitar are a part of the rhythmic pattern and, at the same
time, a melodic-rhythmic motif, or a riff on which the composition develops. The
pattern can vary during the piece, or even completely change to give the impres-
sion of several rhythmic patterns.
In Example c1A, the “Whole Lotta Love” (CD Led Zeppelin II., Atlantic, 1969),
the introductory pattern begins in its second half with the guitar and bass guitar.
Its syncopated pattern is a diminution of the model which had originated as a vari-
ation of a typical rock pattern.
32 The composition was released also as SP, Harvest Records, 1971.

33 The composition also featured on LP Machine Head, EMI, 1971.
53
A typical rock pattern
A variation of the rock pattern and its diminution
variation
diminution
Example c1A Introductory pattern in “Whole Lotta Love”
After the basic pattern theme is introduced, it is followed by individual drum

solos with special sound effects from an electric guitar.
The following example (c1B) demonstrates the drumming base pulse which has
connections with the model used in jazz (as already mentioned in the 1960 – 1967
section of Hard Rock, the First Era, Post-Rock and Roll Compositions).
Example c1B
The drumming pattern and electric guitar sound effects
The pattern is first played by hi-hat and, a little later, it changes during the solo
improvisation of the drums. However, in solo improvisation hi-hat also plays an
additional pattern, which was derived as follows.
54
The original hi-hat model consisted of an eighth note, two sixteenth notes and
another eighth note
which was preceded by a model consisting of a quarter note, a dotted eighth

with a sixteenth note, and a quarter note.
The new hi-hat pattern is

formed by the original pattern
being played in a fast tempo.
Similarly, a predecessor of the sixteenth note sequence
was a blues pattern.
All the drums participate in the improvisation of the basic pattern; the accents
are enriched and shifted to create polyrhythms. In addition, within this instrumen-
tal block the special sound effects of an electric guitar are included.
The drum pattern, together with the guitar and bass guitar introductory pattern,
create two parallel poly-rhythmic blocks. The musical material in Example c1A is
replicated in Example c1C.
Example c1C has the same pattern as Example c1A
J. Bonham, W. Dixon, J.P. Jones, J. Page & R. Plant: “Whole Lotta Love”, CD Led
Zeppelin II., Atlantic, 1969.
55
Five patterns are used in the following composition:
Example c2A
Example c2B
Example c2C
56
Example c2D
Example c2E
Example c 2F = c 2A’ Model A replicated

J. Bonham, J.P. Jones, J. Page & R. Plant: “Heartbreaker”, CD Led Zeppelin II., Atlantic,
1969.
There is a change of tempo in pattern c2D as it is played in double time, and

hence the values of all notes are halved; a quarter note becomes an eighth note
which in turn causes the shift of original accents from the first and third beats to
the second and the fourth. However, the note values in this example are still writ-
ten as if in the original pattern. The other patterns in this composition are different
since they have the accents on the first and the third beats with the third beat being
more heavily emphasized. It should be noted that accentuating the first and the
third beats contradicts the earlier claims of theoreticians that only the second and
fourth beats of rock music are emphasized. This fact was already mentioned in the
previous chapter on the first hard rock post-rock and roll era. Many more similar
examples are found in hard rock.
The next examples demonstrate the association between accent shifts and
changes in tempo. In Examples d1 and d2 two different tempos (double time and
half time) are used together, causing accent shifts.
57
Example d1 Example d2

P. Townshend: “The Seeker”, LP The Who: The Best of The Last Ten Years, Polydor 1974;
SP The Who: The Seeker, Track, Decca, 1970.34
In the composition “The Seeker” it is easy to the shift of tempos from half time
to double time (see Examples d1 and d2) because in the basic pattern (d1), the part
of guitar and bass guitar already have a double time (I) and half time (II) relation-
ship. In this way the composition has two different tempo structures. The tempo
differences are particularly obvious in dancing when a moderately fast tempo is
used but it is also perceived as tempo twice as fast. Thus dancers can choose
moderately fast or twice as fast movements. If the tempo slows to half pace, a bar
is broken into two 4/4 meter bars and accents move to the first and the third beats
(Example d2) with the third beat being more accentuated.
Examples c2A – c2E present five kinds of patterns which were used as building
blocks for this composition.
A linear sequencing of patterns anticipates the pattern ordering in art rock suites
and rondo forms. Unlike hard rock, where compositions’ parts were formed only by
different rhythmic patterns, art rock pieces are formed not only by distinct rhythmic
patterns but also by models dissimilar in their themes, musical ideas, tempos and
keys, and having different dynamics and instrumental tone colour. In the second hard
rock era, each new pattern is derived from the preceding one. This led solo musicians
to a more thorough thematic improvisation and longer compositions (7 to 8 minutes
instead of 3 to 4). The origins of adding music sections one after another, as in a suite
form, could already be found in The Beatles’ compositions. Songs on their album
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band have a common character, which makes
the album relatively unified and quasi-monothematic. However, critics of the time
regarded it as heterogeneous as only few songs were played continuously without a
34 In Example d2, the part of snare drum should be written using two half notes; the
drummer, however, plays quarter notes as it is technically difficult to play half notes
on drums.
58
break (attacca) in between. The same applies to the White Album where the songs
“Wild Honey Pie”, “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” and “While My Guitar
Gently Weeps” (LP The Beatles: White Album, no.0217451) have a similar style.
Adding patterns together – as in rondo – had already emerged in the advanced
forms of hard rock; the new features, however, were mistakenly considered in
musicological literature as exclusive characteristics of progressive rock.
Example eA Example eB
Example eC Example eD
“Smoke On The Water”, LP Deep Purple: Made In Japan, EMI/Purple, 1972; LP Deep
Purple: Machine Head, EMI/Purple, 1972.
Hard rock musicians had two ways of creating syncopal rhythmic patterns; it
was either as a grouping of an eighth and a quarter note; or a grouping of a six-
teenth and an eighth note.
59
Both options are an interesting source of polyrhythms if there are more patterns
played together.
Grouping of the eighth and sixteenth notes, as in the joining of a quarter note
with a blues characteristic in jazz, became typical of rock music.
A source of polyrhythms in hard rock can also be created by a pattern sequence

of two dotted quarter notes and another quarter note.
There is a connection between this pattern and the two types of syncopes which
suggests one possibility of how the pattern had originated. If the syncopes of the
eighth and quarter notes are placed on the second, third and fourth beats in a bar,
the accents fall, in both patterns, on the same beats.
Both patterns are especially interesting to the listener for their accentuated beats,
meaning that the first pattern is actually a modification of the second. Another
modification occurs if the first pattern is played in a tempo that is twice as fast.
As the second pattern is considered to be a typical rock pattern then the first and
third patterns, with their specific distributions of syncopes, must be modifications
of the typical rock pattern. The same patterns are also used in jazz, particularly in
fusion music (see the chapter Fusion Music, 1983-1991, in To the History of Jazz,
the sister publication of this book). The patterns also appeared earlier in traditional
jazz and hard bop. Rock musicians might have adopted this second pattern with its
modifications from jazz, or by a natural progression using syncopes in a particular
60
place and by adopting rhythm and blues patterns in the rock and roll era. In fact, the
blues was a great inspirational source for many hard rock musicians in the 1960s.
Example fA
Example fB
Example fC
J. P. Jones, J. Page & R. Plant: “Black Dog”, LP Led Zeppelin III., Atlantic, 1971.
Patterns with the harmonic scheme of 12-bar blues were often used in hard
rock.
Example g
61
The rhythmic section consists of the drums, the bass guitar and the guitar, the
latter is also a part of the melodic section and it develops the motif. The pattern of
the drums is more frequently formed by the bass drum with its models occasion-
ally containing acciaccaturas, such as in “Happy Jack” by The Who35 (Exam-
ple i 2C), “Lazy” by Deep Purple36 (Example b2) and “Smoke on the Water” by
Deep Purple37 (Example eC). Creating a pattern between the snare and bass drums
becomes crucial in the further development of the heavy metal rock style.
In the second hard rock era the stop time is a means for gradation just as it was
in the rock and roll and the first hard rock post-rock and roll eras. Later, in add-
ing patterns into suite forms, the stop time in the second hard rock era is, unlike
previously, used in a much more precise and sophisticated way; during a pause, a
solo from the guitar, vocals, the bass guitar or even the drums can be heard. In the
transitional sections from one pattern to another, a gradual acceleration and decel-
eration of tempo can occur. Typically, in the second hard rock era very slow blues
patterns were used. Moderate and fast tempos were the most common, although
very fast and super fast tempos could occasionally occur, as well.
35 LP The Who: The Best of the last 10 years, Decca 1966. Karussel, 1967.
36 LP Deep Purple: Made in Japan, EMI/Purple, 1972.
37 LP Deep Purple: Made in Japan, EMI/Purple, 1972.
62
Art Rock
Art rock is a music style that emerged in the second half of the 1960s. It is worth
mentioning that the terminology used for this style has not yet been unified. While
in Central Europe the term art rock is preferred, in Western countries the term
progressive rock is more common. Also, art rock productions are also frequently
called artistic, pompous or classical rock.
Art rock was popularised in the 1970s when work with non-musical compo-
nents in “light shows” reached its peak. The “light show” presentations, in combi-
nation with psychedelic music, were to simulate the effects of drug use and create
a visual impact. The mass public performances at the beginning of this era were
associated with the open-air festivals in Monterey in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969.
The non-musical means of visualisation were often based on poetic texts, litera-
ture and art. Musicians used lights, smoke screens, destruction of musical instru-
ments, visual scenes, film, and later, in the 1980s, laser shows were added. Since
art rock bands often needed several truckloads of technical equipment for their
concerts and performances, they came to be called “super groups” or “dinosaurs”.
The most notable art rock bands include such groups as King Crimson, Pink
Floyd (1966), Genesis (1967), Yes (1968), Queen (1972), Nice, Jethro Tull and
Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
As mentioned above, a strict line distinguishing between hard rock, art and
progressive rock has not yet been drawn, and the theoreticians have been incon-
sistent in classifying art rock musicians, as many of them shifted from one style to
another. For example, David Bowie, because of his association with sex drive and
glittering, sequinned costumes, is sometimes classified as a glam rock artist, and
other times as an art rock musician.
Art rock is characterised by changes in sound and rhythm, approaches to im-
provisation and by changes to the aesthetic ideal of the rock genre. As art rock
evolved, there was further enhancement of the psychedelic atmosphere, and the
discovery of new sound colours and sound blocks through synthesisers and key-
board instruments. A new instrumentation changed the nature of art groups in
comparison with hard rock. The acoustic piano and harpsichord were replaced by
keyboards and synthesisers, and musicians began to explore the new possibilities
and qualities of electronic sounds. The sound of electric guitar, which dominated
in hard rock, gave way to synthesised sound which, in the 1960s, resulted in a
new style termed electronic rock. In the 1990s, electronic dance music (EDM)
63
stemmed from electronic rock, although its source was not only in rock, but also
in hip-hop which had emerged in the Bronx, New York in the 1970s. Sounds in art
rock compositions were associated with an epic story told in the course of each
individual concept album, and with an artistic expression of abstract ideas. The
selection of sounds mirrored illustrative, imaginative ideas and associations with
sounds of nature (meadows, flowers, water, insects, e.g. LP Pink Floyd: Ummag-
umma, Harvest, EMI, 1969) and sounds of human life (steps, running, bells, alarm
clock, e.g. LP Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of The Moon, Harvest, Capitol, 1973).
In the hard rock aesthetic ideal, blues expressivity is essential but the way in
which it is achieved is not important; in art rock, the interpretation of a beautiful
tone and sound is more significant than the expression of emotions. The expres-
sion of emotions may be subordinate to a beautiful tone. In hard rock, as well as
in folk music, naturalism is often present in the expression and interpretation. Jimi
Hendrix’s and Janis Joplin’s naturalisms were inimitable. The aesthetic ideal of
art rock changed this; expression could be suppressed if the aim was to perceive
beauty, or to hear hedonistic and pleasant sounds. By preferring such an interpre-
tation and aesthetic ideal, art rock’s aesthetics were similar to those of European
classical music of the Romantic era. While using the bel canto operatic singing
technique was absolutely unacceptable in hard rock, art rock singers compromised
in this area. A good example was the singer Freddie Mercury of Queen, whose
creation of tone, voice range and technique were close to bel canto or to the rock
vocal technique called “belting”. If a hard rock singer used a vocal murmur, it was
considered to be a “raucous disorder” of the singer’s voice, but still expressing
well the tension and emotions. A murmur from the art rock singer was already
common and audiences became used to it; thus it came to be accepted as an aes-
thetic ideal. The singers Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins of Genesis and Ian Anderson of
Yes are to be given credit for this change in audiences’ acceptance. Probably due
to the fact that artists and listeners were familiar with various tone-creating tech-
niques (bel canto, belting, hoarseness) and the murmured voice having become the
accepted aesthetic ideal, art rock also attracted classical music fans.
A thematic paraphrase occurred in improvisation, when the soloist (singer,
guitarist or keyboard player) varied the principal theme. Most commonly, the
gradation of the theme was developed by restructuring the motif; however, im-
provisation also occurred and resulted in new passages which had a stable har-
monic scheme as in jazz improvisation (notably undertaken by the groups Yes and
Genesis). In the spirit of emphasising the new aesthetic ideal, more significance
was places on the melodic component. Art rock musicians worked with post-
modern techniques of quotes, collages and allusions. A characteristic feature of
64
the art rock genre was also the inspiration taken from classical music resulting in
adaptations of work by European masters from the Baroque, Classic and Romantic
eras (e.g. Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition, 1971, an adaptation
of M.P.Mussorgsky’s composition).
The Rhythm of Art Rock

Art rock music, in particular that of the group Pink Floyd, played a similar role in
the development of art rock rhythms to that which free style took with jazz. This
statement is based on the following historical and theoretical facts about art rock
compositions.
• A need to break free from the limitations of regular rhythmic patterns with a
specific pulsation in which a stereotyped pattern was repeated, was strongly
felt in art rock.
• Although some hard rock musicians opened the way to new possibilities in the
construction of a rock pattern by improvisation, they, nevertheless, maintained
the specific musical conventions determined by the model (e.g. repetitiveness
of patterns, drive, dominance of 4/4 metre).
• The first attempt to break up rhythmic patterns had already been undertaken in
the music of experimental rock artists in the 1960s (e.g. Frank Zappa, Lou Reed
and the Velvet Underground).
• Art rock musicians followed these footsteps (Pink Floyd: LP The Piper at The
Gates of Dawn, 1967, A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968, Ummagumma, 2 Vols,
1969) and this ran almost parallel with the development of the hard rock style
in the second period (1967 – 1979).
The basis for the violation of patterns, however, was prepared in hard rock by a
linear attachment of several parts of the composition to one another in the form of
rondo (alternating rhythmic patterns A, B, C, D A’), by improvisation, occasional
changes of tempo (double time, half time), and by using gradual acceleration and
deceleration of tempo, even tempo ad libitum or tempo rubato.
Art rock compositions lacked rhythmic patterns in places where musicians
worked freely with tempo and where the emphasis was on the acoustic compo-
nent of the music. Such sections use sounds of nature and everyday life (meadow,
birds, water, insects etc., e.g. LP Pink Floyd: Ummagumma, 2 Vols, 1969; steps,
running, bells, alarm clock and so on, e.g. LP Pink Floyd: Dark Side of The Moon,
1973). These associations with non-musical sounds have a counterpart also in
65
European concrete music (musique concrète). Pink Floyd’s conceptual projects
include rhythmically free and irregular sections played on synthesisers; these sec-
tions have connections with European electro-acoustic music38. Rhythmic patterns
could occur in sections of a song character, and could be broken up in different
ways but – as in free jazz – they were not played by the entire rhythmic section.
The following pattern is an example played only by the guitar.
Example a
R. Waters: “Grantchester Meadows”, LP Pink Floyd: Ummagumma II. Harvest, EMI, 1969:
The accent in art rock compositions can be moved to different notes, or the
beats can be prolonged by the use of dotted rhythm, or they might even be omitted
altogether. Polyrhythms (in the following example using 3/4 and 2/4 meters) can
also be used with accents moved, or with meter changes.
Example b
R. Waters: “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and
Grooving with a Pict”. LP Pink Floyd: Ummagumma II., Harvest, EMI, 1969.
In art rock, the rhythmical (declamatory) singing on different syllables is nota-

ble as this type of singing is used in tribal music.
Example c
D. Gilmour: “The Narrow Way”, LP Pink Floyd: Ummagumma II., Harvest, EMI, 1969.
38 The question to what extent the band Pink Floyd knew and followed the avant-garde
European electro-acoustic music has not been satisfactory answered. However, it is
possible to assume that some inspiration in this genre arose from its exposure on
radio, television or in movies.
66
In the singing repetition a gradual acceleration can occur, and is used to
reach a climax. A gradual acceleration and deceleration of tempo, as well as
abrupt changes, are very frequent, as they provide the base for the structural
development.
Patterns may occur in a very simple and reduced form and be played by a single
instrument.
Example d
R. Wright & Clare Torry: “Great Gig In The Sky”, LP Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The
Moon, Harvest, Capitol, 1973.
In this piece, the basic pattern of the synthesizer is gradually followed by the
other instruments – a guitar, bass guitar and drums – which begin to determine
and limit the pattern to 2/4 or 4/4 metre, unlike the previous non-meter notation
which is only in the form of the basic beat. The original model consisted of equally
long stressed and unstressed beats which were repeated and would be, therefore,
pointless to write in a precise meter. Later, the model changes into a traditional
rhythmic pattern played by the rhythmic section (Example d1).
Example d1
R. Wright & Clare Torry: “Great Gig In The Sky”, LP Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The
When art rock works with several complete rhythm patterns, they are attached
to each other, the meter may vary, and there may be an association amongst them.
Most patterns, however, have the structure of the previous hard rock era models,
and differ very little from them.
67
Example e
R. Waters, D. Gilmour, R. Wright: “Breathe”, LP Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The
Example fA
Example fB
R. Waters: “Money”, LP Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon, Harvest, Capitol, 1973.
The creators of art rock sometimes used patterns from other musical genres
such as jazz, salon music (waltz), or swing (swing rhythms).
68
Example g
S. Stills: “Everydays”, LP Yes, Atlantic, WEA, 1969, CD The Yes Album, Atlantic, 2003.
69
Electronic Rock
The term electronic rock refers to a rock genre in the 1970s and 1980s. Other terms
given to this genre are electronic music, industrial rock, krautrock, synthpop and
technopop. The advent of electronic rock originated from jazz, rock and pop music
of the mid-1970s and, especially, the early 1980s. At that time, as pop jazz and
funk styles arrived, art rock was at the zenith of its development and poly-stylistic
rock became more and more prevalent.
Electronic rock followed the art rock characteristics but in many features it
was close to the middle-of-the road style, i.e. hit music and, especially, the 1970s
disco sound of the Motown Publishing House in the USA. Some compositions
are, consequently, at the intersection between electronic music, art rock and the
middle-of-the road style.
The main electronic rock musicians and bands include Tangerine Dream, Klaus
Schulze, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, Jon Anderson, Vangelis Papathanassiou
and Depeche Mode (1981). Depeche Mode is, at the same time, associated with
the arrival of a pop music genre named electronic dance music (EDM). Electronic
rock musicians used synthesizers as the main sound source in the rhythmic section
and as substitutes for the bass guitar and the drums. Their pieces typically utilize
keyboard instruments, synthesizers and expansive sound, as in space music. Artists
discovered the sounds of new electronic musical instruments; for example, Jean
Michel Jarre uses a laser harp and laser organ; the band Kraftwerk uses an optical
organ39, an electronic flute, two synthesizers and two electronic drum instruments.
The art rock concept of program music continued, together with visual effects such
as laser projections, concerts in churches, displays amongst city skyscrapers40, use
39 They were the Vako Orchestron and the Mattel Optigan which, as predecessors of
electronic keyboard instruments, used electronic amplification of sound tracks that
had been pre-recorded on optical film disc. Kraftwerk used these instruments to
record the LPs Radioactivity (1975) and Trans-Europe Express (1977).
40 In 1986, for the 150th anniversaries of Texas and Houston, Jean Michel Jarre or-
ganised there a grand project called Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert. Jarre,
amidst the city skyscrapers, prepared grandiose scenery with integrated effects pro-
duced by in collaboration with NASA. In this way, Jarre celebrated NASA’s 25th an-
niversary the previous year, and also paid tribute to the astronauts who had tragically
died in the Challenger Space Shuttle crash some months earlier.
71
of a stage built on a river41 and fireworks. Outside of the USA and Britain other
artists realized the possibilities of space sound in rock music: Jean Michel Jarre in
France and the bands Tangerine Dream (Klaus Schulze joining the group in 1969)
and Kraftwerk (established in 1969 – 1970) on the German scene42. After the singer
Jon Anderson had left the band Yes in 1979, he continued in a duo with the Greek
musician Vangelis Papathanassiou.
The Rhythm of Electronic rock

Later in the 1980s, by emphasizing the sound itself, by the violation of established
patterns, and through a free approach to tempo, electronic rock musicians were ap-
proaching the same free attitude to rhythm as were art rock musicians. Electronic
rock patterns are complementary and have several counterpoint rhythmic lines to
form a complete pattern. The patterns can have a range of two bars and, one, two,
or more patterns can be heard in a composition. This is a new approach to rock
rhythm.
Example a1
41 In 1988, Jarre repeated elements of grandiosity in another project on the River Thames
in London.
42 The term krautrock also originated on the German scene.
72
Example a2
Kraftwerk: “Taschenrechner”, LP Kraftwerk: Computer World, Kling Klang, 1981.
Typical of electronic rock is the fragmentation of beats into fractional note val-
ues with one line of music progressing in sixteenth notes, another in eighth notes,
and yet another in quarter notes.
Example b
Jon and Vangelis: “He Is Sailing”, LP The Best of Jon and Vangelis, Polydor, 1979 – 1983.
In patterns, the second and the fourth beats are accentuated, or even the first and
the third with the third beat being stressed more than the first.
73
Example c
Kraftwerk: “Computerwelt”, LP Kraftwerk: Computer World, Kling Klang, 1981.
Example d
Jon and Vangelis: “I Hear You Now”, LP The Best of Jon and Vangelis, Polydor, 1979 – 83.
However, there are compositions written in a slow tempo with a regular rhythm
allowing free agogic variations like tempo rubato in classical music. Examples are
“One More Time” and “Outside Of This” by Jon and Vangelis (LP The Best of Jon
and Vangelis, Polydor, 1979 – 1983), and “Oxygene” by Jean Michel Jarre (LP
Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene, Disques Dreyfus, 1976).
In other patterns musicians use blues and hard rock rhythms.
74
Example dA Blues rhythm
Jean Michel Jarre: “Oxygene” - Part II, LP Oxygene, Disques Dreyfus, 1976.
Example dB Hard rock rhythm
Jean Michel Jarre: “Oxygene” - Part VI, LP Oxygene, Disques Dreyfus, 1976.
75
Punk Rock
Punk rock originated as a reaction to the increasing sophistication of art rock.

Punk rock musicians, in their musical thinking and expressions, emphasized sim-
plicity, whilst bringing anger, rebellion and provocation into rock music. The
style returned to the original ideals of the beat generation and the rockers of the
late 1950s and early 1960s. Punk rock musicians spoke about “stamping out”
hippy ideals. Punk rock was not only a music style, but also a strong alternative
movement of the “blank generation” which emphasized clutter, chaos and anar-
chy in society. Their social attitude was demonstrated in the 1976 Sex Pistols’
song “Anarchy in the U. K.” the lyrics of which start with: “I am an anti-Christ/I
am an anarchist/don’t know what I want/but I know how to get it/ I wanna de-
stroy the passer by/‘cos I wanna be anarchy…”43 Punk rock used new provocative
symbols such as short dyed hair, the safety pin, the razor blade, ragged jeans and
sneakers. Behind punk rock and its public face was Malcolm McLaren, The Sex
Pistols’ manager and boutique owner who, in order to attract young people and
teenagers, kept changing his boutique’s name from “King’s Road Boutique” to
“Let It Rock”, “Too Fast to Live” and “Too Young to Die”. Mc Laren was inter-
ested in Dada art, and he created the Sex Pistols’ image and costumes. In punk
rock bands, for the first time in the history of this genre, there was a place for fe-
male musicians; the singer Nico and the drummer Maureen Tucker of the Velvet
Underground are examples.
Punk rock musicians disparaged the conservatism of society, as well as mu-
sic industry practices which embraced commercial interests while outwardly ap-
pearing to support artistic innovation. It should be emphasized that punk rock
musicians have been able, up until the present time, to maintain a relatively inde-
pendent management of their music productions without ties to large commercial
corporations.
The seeds of punk rock had been implanted in the music of Frank Zappa’s
Mothers of Invention and Lou Reed’s Velvet Underground in the second half
of the 1960s; they were also evident in the music of Patti Smith. However,
punk rock actually arrived on the British scene in 1976 as a reaction of youth
to unemployment and boredom during the Margaret Thatcher political era.
In September 1976, a punk rock festival was organized in The 100 Club in
43 SP Sex Pistols: Anarchy in The U.K., EMI, 1976.
77
London with performances by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie and the
Banshees, Subway Sect, Damned, The Vibrators with guitarist Chris Sped-
ding, Buzzcocks and others. September 1976 is, therefore, considered to be the
commencement date of punk rock. Punk rock productions, concerts in clubs
and album releases were regularly associated with scandals, riots, and acts of
violence which ultimately led to an official ban of punk rock performances in
Britain in 1978. For example, during the 1976 festival at The 100 Club, musi-
cians threw a bottle into the audience resulting in a girl losing an eye.44 On the
cover of SP Sex Pistols: God Save the Queen (Virgin Records, 1977) the Queen
has her mouth pierced by a safety pin.45 When Virgin Records employees were
pressing the SP, they threatened to strike because of the offence to the Queen,
who presides over a system of government based on a constitutional monarchy
with a hereditary Crown. The lyrics of “God Save the Queen”, a paraphrase
of the British anthem, challenged the generally accepted views of the British
public: “God save the queen/She ain’t no human being/There is no future/In
England’s dreaming. God save the queen/’Cause tourists are money/ And our
figurehead/Is not what she seems/When there’s no future/How can there be
sin/We’re the flowers in the dustbin/We’re the poison in your human machine/
We’re the future, your future.“
Another scandal arose with the LP Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex
Pistols (Virgin, 1977) where, according to the police, the word “bollocks” violated
and 1889 law on morally inadmissible advertising. Because punk rock musicians
were untrained amateurs, the style, in terms of musical and expressive means,
returned to rock and roll by using simple patterns and abandoning improvisa-
tion and instrumental solos. When instrumental solos appeared, they were usually
fairly simple because the musicians were not technically outstanding. A shift oc-
curred in the use of impure intonation and vocal declamation with their new style
where anger, aggression, tension, resistance and a new aesthetic of “disgust and
ugliness” brought a different perspective on the world. The music left behind the
sophisticated sounds of synthesizers along with the aesthetic ideal of consonant
and beautiful sound colour and sound expansion. The dominant instruments in a
44 Murray, Charles Shaar: “I Fought The Biz and The Biz Won (How We Got Here From
There).” In New Musical Express, 1st February 1986; Thrills, Adrian: “1976 and All
That: The Rise and Fall of the Blank Generation.” In New Musical Express, 1st Febru-
ary 1986, pp. 26-27.
45 Guiness Book of Rock Stars, Rees, Dafydd & Crampton, Luke (Eds.), 2nd edition,
Enfield: Guiness Publishing, 1991.
78
punk rock band were vocals, guitar, bass guitar and drums (used, for example, by
The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Damned, The Clash and others). Keyboard
instruments were abandoned.
The Rhythm of Punk rock

Punk rock meant an overall simplification in the rhythm, melody, harmony and
musical form. It also brought new stimuli to rock’s sound and vocal articulation.
Punk rock deviated from the hard rock tendency to improvise using the harmonic
sequences in a song; it also diverged from the thematic development or sequence
of the rhythmic patterns in compositions. It simplified the hard rock “complex”
rondo attachment and art rock suite attachment of patterns which differed in their
style, motifs, melody, tempo and rhythm.
Punk rock returned to the simplicity of rock and roll music and its auster-
ity in the song rhythm and musical form. On the other hand, the simplification
of the building blocks in compositions allowed punk rock to develop musical
and expressive elements in its vocal articulation, which it used, for example, to
parody the common way of pop music singing. Punk rock musicians no only
consciously aligned themselves with the rock and roll era, but also adopted
some of the rock and roll’s rhythmic characteristics. Only one rhythmic pattern
is used in punk rock songs, which is much simpler than in hard rock where sev-
eral patterns were used (for example five patterns in the song “Heartbreaker”
by Led Zeppelin; see example c 2 in the chapter Hard Rock, the Second Era
1967 – 1979). A punk rock pattern is usually a one-bar pattern. This means a
reduction of musical elements in comparison with hard rock where its two to
four- bar patterns were mainly determined by the bass guitar. The simplification
also contrasts with rock and roll, where a pattern with walking bass ranged from
one to two bars. Punk rock patterns are created by the bass guitar and the drums.
The bass guitar plays the role of modified walking bass; in contrast with rock
and roll it does not stress the blues rhythm, but “tries to fill the sound space”; in
moderate and fast tempo it accentuates every single beat and thus emphasizes
the drive. In “Do You Wanna Dance” (written by Bobby Freeman) the version
by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, as well as the Beach Boys’ hard rock version,
still have remnants of walking bass. However, comparing these two with The
Ramones’ punk rock cover version, we can see that The Ramones substituted
walking bass with a repetitive chordal root quarter note which adds weight to
the drive. The drum pattern simplifies in a similar way, and there are no accents
79
to enrich the drum phrasing. The drums do not highlight the nuances of the
pattern, but reinforce its uniformity. The regularity and repetitiveness, the fast
tempo stereotype and the harmonic progression of triads in songs, as well as a
frequent repetition of songs’ parts, all create a periodicity in the rhythm. In punk
rock patterns, all this led to the disappearance of the blues rhythm and, partly, of
dotted rhythms and syncopes, as well.
Example a
The snare and the bass drums maintain stereotypical punk metres. The f ollowing
rhythmic models are typical of this music:
• rock and roll pattern with modified walking bass (without the blues rhythm)
The Ramones (Bobby Freeman): “Do You Wanna Dance”, LP Rocket to Russia,
1977; LP Punk-A World History, vol. 5., MBC Records.46
• the twist pattern used in the rock and roll and post-rock and roll eras; it di-
vides the second beat into two eighth notes, with a quarter note on the fourth
beat
46 The LP’s release date is unknown.
80
Buzzcocks: “Breakdown”; 1976, The Ramones: “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”, LP Punk-A
World History, vol. 5., MBC Records, originally SP Sire Records, 1977; Blondie: “Ring of
Fire”, 1980, LP Roadie, Warner Bros., 1980.
• the march pattern used in the post-rock and roll era; occasionally it also oc-
curred in hard rock
Slaughter and The Dogs: “Run Away”, 1978, LP Punk-A World History, vol. 5.,
MBC Records.
This does not mean that punk rock did not use other rhythmic patterns, for
example patterns with complementary rhythms. However, in punk rock patterns,
dotted or syncopated rhythms were obscured by the uniformity of the patterns.
The character of its patterns accentuated the division of beats into fractional
values.
81
Example b
Sex Pistols: “Anarchy In The UK”, CD Flogging a Dead Horse, Virgin,1980.
Example c
P. Anka, C. François, J. Revaux: “My Way”, Sex Pistols, CD Flogging a Dead Horse,
Virgin, 1980.
In Examples b and c a complementarity of the accents and the accentuation

of all four beats occurs. This complementarity between the snare drum, bass
drum and the bass guitar has significance for the development of heavy metal
patterns.
82
Example d
T. Boyce & B. Hart: “(I’ m Not Your) Stepping Stone”, CD Sex Pistols: Flogging a Dead
Horse, Virgin, 1980.
In pattern d, the fragmentation of the beat into eighth notes occurs, as well as
the complementarity between the drums and the bass guitar. The fragmentation
of the beat and complementarity are especially important for tempo acceleration
in hard core compositions and emerging speed metal. At times, two patterns ap-
pear in a single composition. For example, in “God Save The Queen” by The Sex
Pistols, there is a dotted rhythm pattern (Example e1) and also the pattern shown
in Example e2.
Example e1
83
Example e2
Sex Pistols: “God Save The Queen”, CD Sex Pistols: Flogging a Dead Horse,
Virgin, 1980.
Occasionally, a guitar also plays pattern e1 with the bass guitar and the drums
playing pattern e2; this creates a simultaneous progression of two rhythmic lines.
However, pattern e2 is dominant.
Some compositions have patterns which are richer and more structured. For
example, in “No One Is Innocent” by the Sex Pistols, partnering with a simple
cymbal and snare drum pattern (originally one bar long) is a bass guitar pattern
of eighth notes in double-speed tempo. In the second bar, in all instruments,
there is a new vertically-created syncopal structure between the first and sec-
ond beats; another syncope in this bar is in the horizontal progression of the
bass drum. In the second bar, the voice part contains a quarter-note triplet.
Example f
(S. Jones, P. Cook & R. Biggs): Sex Pistols: “No One Is Innocent”, CD Sex Pistols:
Flogging a Dead Horse, Virgin, 1980.
84
Here, the meaning of the text is expressed by singing and declamatory singing.
The demonstrated pattern (Example f) not only divides the beats into smaller
note values but, in speed metal, this type of rhythmic division contributes to
a parallel progression of two or more blocks of different tempos in a single
pattern. It has the same effect as double time and half time being used inside
the pattern.
Punk rock gradually ceased using the stop time, which had frequently pro-
vided gradation in rock and roll; in punk rock, however, it occurs only rarely.
Slow tempos were seldom used as punk rock preferred moderately fast or fast
tempos with a tendency to super fast tempos. Super fast tempos were new to
punk rock and led on to fast tempos in heavy metal and super fast tempos in
speed metal.
85
New Wave
New wave was a continuation of punk rock development at the turn of the 1970s
and 1980s. New wave musicians wanted to show pop music in a new perspective by
employing parody and irony; they quoted, imitated and ridiculed performers from
the earlier rock music eras. They also brought new sounds created by the guitar, key-
boards, bass guitar and drums which reflected some compromises to the disco sound
and the electronic music of the time. Talking Heads, Blondie, Elvis Costello and The
Attractions used keyboard instruments such as an organ, Hammond organ, piano,
synthesizers and clavinet, which they also complemented with other instruments not
traditionally used in this style, such as the steel guitar, saxophone, trumpet, trom-
bone, clarinet and violin. New wave music did not avoid sophistication in the har-
mony; besides punk rock triads on the basic scale degrees and their substitutions,
tetrachords and dissonant chords were also used. Tunes were based on the diatonic
system with occasional use of additional chromatic tones; however, the major-minor
harmonic system was generally preferred. New wave musicians retained the expres-
siveness and expressivity of punk rock in their guitar and drum sounds which they
inserted to parody disco or electronic rock. They imitated punk rockers’ unclear
singing intonations although they, unlike punk rockers, were cultivated artists and
not amateurs who were unable to sing properly. However, they achieved expres-
siveness in their singing by using a “fluctuating melodic intonation” with paradotic
glissandos in big interval moves which has become typical of new wave.
The key new wave artists include Blondie (1973, with lead singer Deborah
Harry), Talking Heads (1975, New York City, with principal songwriter David
Byrne), Television (1975, USA), Elvis Costello and The Attractions (1976, Great
Britain), Graham Parker (1976, Great Britain), The Police (1977, Great Brit-
ain, with lead singer and bassist Sting), INXS (1977, Australia), The Pretenders
(1978), The Motels, The Cars, and The Knack.
The Rhythm of New Wave

As with punk rock, new wave was retrospective in adopting some of the rock and
roll patterns. As far as deviation from the typical Afro-American rhythmic feeling is
concerned, new wave is not as strict as punk rock because it occasionally uses blues
rhythms, syncopes and dotted rhythms. From the rock and roll and post-rock and roll
first hard rock eras, new wave adopted march, twist and, occasionally, blues patterns.
87
Example a March pattern
Elvis Costello: “Girls Talk”, LP Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Taking Liberties,
Columbia, 1980, LP Ten Bloody Marys & Ten Howʼs Your Fathers, F Beat, IMP Records,
1980, CD Rykodisc, 1994.
In this example, the accentuated eighth note in the part of the bass guitar
is tied to the dotted quarter note which is consequently not heard, and creates
a polyrhythmic progression of music lines between the bass guitar and the
drums.
Example b Twist pattern
Elvis Costello: “Talking In The Dark”, LP Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Taking
Liberties, Columbia, 1980, 1978, LP Ten Bloody Marys & Ten Howʼs Your Fathers,
F Beat, IMP Records, 1980, CD Rhino, 2002.
88
Example c Blues pattern
In order to make the musical expression interesting, new and unique, new wave
musicians strive for exotic rhythms, for example reggae.
Example d Reggae pattern
Elvis Costello: “Watching The Detectives”, SP Stiff, Columbia, 1977; LP Elvis Costello
and The Attractions: Ten Bloody Marys & Ten Howʼs Your Fathers, F Beat,
IMP Records, 1980.
89
Example e Polymetric pattern
Hugo Ball, D. Byrne & B. Eno: “I Zimbra”, LP Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is
Talking Heads, 1980 – 1981, Sire Records, 1982.
Example e shows only the basic course of the pattern structure; the pattern is
progressively enriched, and an atypical use of congas gives musicians the opportu-
nity to work with the pattern and improvise to create 2/4, 6/4 and 3/8 meters within
the 4/4 meter. In comparison with punk rock, this is a much more sophisticated ap-
proach to working with rhythms and musical expression. At times, a dotted rhythm
is used; in the following example the dotted rhythm also creates a syncope in the
second bar of the bass guitar and snare drum.
Example f
Talking Heads: “Drugs”, LP Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads,
1980 – 1981, Sire Records, 1982.
90
In patterns d, e and f the music is based on complementary rhythms which
are created by distributing the accents between individual instruments with frag-
mented beats. As in rock and roll, several instruments may create the pattern; the
instruments include a guitar, an organ, a bass guitar, drums, percussion-congas,
and even singers with using semi-declamatory interpretations. This type of singing
had already been introduced by punk rock musicians, but a voice part was not used
in the rhythmic section until the new wave era. A richer rhythmic section is a new
feature of new wave music just as the punk rock rhythmic section was dominated
by the bass guitar and drums. However, there was a tendency in punk rock towards
simplicity, even towards primitivism in their music whilst new wave rhythmic pat-
terns are richer, and they can have a range of one to four bars. Fragmentation of
the rhythm into sixteenth notes may occur in new wave, and several patterns can
be present in a single composition.
Example g1
91
3
D. Byrne & W. Zieve: “Artists Only”, LP Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is
Talking Heads, 1980 – 1981, Sire Records, 1982.
New wave musicians focused on the rhythmic patterns, sound, articulation, and
a new form of expression.
Despite its enriched qualities, new wave music used the traditional tempo with
the prevailing 4/4 metre. Exceptionally, a gradual acceleration of tempo occurred
(for example from slow to moderately fast tempo in the composition “Psycho
Killer” by D. Byrne, Ch. Frantz & T. Weymouth: LP Talking Heads: The Name of
This Band Is Talking Heads, 1977, 1980 – 1981, Sire Records, 1982).
Musicians still used slow, moderate and fast tempos. The preference for very
fast and super fast tempos was yet to come.
92
Heavy Metal
The band Led Zeppelin was originally regarded as the founder of heavy metal.
Critics reviewing the band’s albums considered the fourth, Led Zeppelin IV (1971),
as an influential heavy metal album. However, rock historians, questioned this be-
lief and came to the conclusion that elements of the heavy metal style had already
emerged in the late 1980s when listeners’ interests were still centred around hard
rock. In the early stages, heavy metal expressed a paranoid nihilism which was, at
that time, in contrast with the hippies’ tenacious message of “peace and love”. In
the song “Paranoid” (Vertigo, 1970), Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath47 sings:
“Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal …” Heavy metal bands dif-
fered from others mainly by their morbid “poetic” texts with “satanic” symbols
including heaven, hell, the devil, death, candles, mass, ritual, good, evil, depres-
sion, self-destruction (“kill yourself”), violence, alcohol, drugs and sex. Strangely
enough, heavy metal critics sometimes describe these occult elements as “heavy
metal poetry” or, in slow compositions, as “lyrical”.
Further historical facts have led to a re-evaluation of heavy metal music develop-
ment. In 1967, the band Steppenwolf recorded the song “Born to Be Wild” (by Mars
Bonfire) with the lyrics including the phrase “heavy metal thunder”. Up until the
present day, the song has been an anthem of heavy metal and of motorcycle clubs.
In 1968, the band Blue Cheer recorded a heavy metal version of Eddie Cochran’s hit
“Summertime Blues” (1958) with the contemporary pop ditty structure being changed
into vigorous dynamics and aggressive rhythmic patterns. The history of heavy metal
was also shaped by the singer and guitarist Alice Cooper in the USA (1968). In his
first albums, heavy metal non-musical symbols appeared but the albums remained
unnoticed by the public. Alice Cooper’s band was not successful until the release of
their first LP albums Love It to Death (1971) and School’s Out (1972). Heavy metal
developed more in the 1970s and derived its listening base from universities and radio
productions; however, the main focus of rock music at the time was still hard rock.
In 1979, the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” was used when the disk jockey
Neal Kay organized the Heavy Metal Crusade concert in the Music Machine Club in
London. The term itself was introduced by the British magazine Sounds in a review
of the performances of the increasingly popular band Iron Maiden. Heavy metal was
ignored by other magazines such as New Musical Express and Melody Maker.
47 Black Sabbath has been active since 1968.
93
Heavy metal of the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s differed in sound, melody and
their use of rhythmic patterns. In the early stages, heavy metal was characterized
by the development of rhythmic patterns, rather than sounds, which corresponded
more with hard rock. The 1970s and 1980s heavy metal sounds largely relied on
the use of solo guitar, accompanying guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Initially,
heavy metal musicians strictly avoided using keyboard instruments as these were
associated with the typical sounds of art rock. Heavy metal bands centred on the
power and tension their instruments could create. The aim was to achieve aggres-
sion and tension with maximum sound intensity. The dynamics changed only with
the change of arrangements; when the solo guitar stopped playing, the intensity of
sound decreased, as well. Gradually, the work with rhythmic patterns also expanded
to the melodic component and patterns, in a simple model structure, appeared in both
vertical and horizontal dimensions. Patterns in the horizontal line led to the creation
of a guitar riff. Compositions were written in a simple song form; occasional rock
guitar solos, especially in the 1980s used either a thematic paraphrase or a short
deviation from the theme when improvising. The melodies ranged in the diatonic
and the major-minor systems. However, tunes in the minor system prevailed as they
sounded more dramatic to the listener and were more expressive of sadness, anger,
tension and the apocalypse.
Since the second half of the 1980s, heavy metal has been more recognisable
by more developed patterns and tonal context, for example using modes with the
preference for the Aeolian and the Phrygian scales; there has also been a new im-
petus in the sound, extending clearly beyond the heavy metal style. The first 1967
– 1979 heavy metal era included musicians such as Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf,
Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult (1967, USA), Judas Priest (1969), Kiss (1972),
Iron Maiden (1976), Whitesnake (1976) and AC/DC (1977).
The second period of 1979 – 1990 included the bands Hüsker Dü (1979), Me-
tallica (1981), Anthrax (1981), Guns N’ Roses (1985), Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe and
Van Halen (1978). Some of the bands went beyond the boundaries of heavy metal,
for example, Hüsker Dü shifted towards hard core and alternative rock.
In 1991, Metallica made a compromise between a heavy metal and an orchestral
sound when recording the composition “Nothing Else Matters” (by J. Hetfield &
L. Ulrich)48 with a symphony orchestra. Bon Jovi was more inclined towards pop
music. Anthrax and Metallica, along with the bands Megadeth (1983) and Slayer
(1986), shaped a new thrash metal sound. Female heavy metal musicians including
48 LP Metallica: The Black Album, Elektra, Vertigo, Universal, 1991, arrangement by

Michael Kamen.
94
guitarist Lita Ford and singer Doro Pesch appeared in the 1980s. Heavy metal
was also played by Afro-Americans from a New York quartet, Living Colour, and
by the bands Brains and Fishbone, which countered the existing expectations of
heavy metal fans that it was a “white men only culture”. After 1990, the develop-
ment of heavy metal also included musicians from non-English speaking back-
grounds. Lars Ulrich, a Danish drummer, joined the band Metallica; the bands
Rammstein from Germany and Apocalyptica from Finland also became success-
ful. Heavy metal incorporated characteristic features of other rock styles and gen-
res, and mixing of styles in a poly-stylistic manner began transforming the heavy
metal sound into thrash metal. In the 1990s, the heavy metal bands that incorpo-
rated other styles included HIM (1991, Finland), Apocalyptica (1993, comprised
of three classically trained cellists, vocalists, guitar and drums) and Rammstein
(1994 – heavy metal, industrial rock and electronic music).
The Rhythm of Heavy Metal

The abandonment of African-American blues rhythms and jazz, already pro-
nounced in punk rock, became even more complete in heavy metal. This is re-
flected not only in the rhythm but also, unlike hard rock, there was a decline in
improvisation as a way of building compositions. The restoration of repetitiveness
in the rhythmic patterns meant a strong beat, with tension and dynamism in a high
intensity sound. Patterns lost nuances they had borrowed from Afro-American
folk music, such as blues characteristics and partly dotted rhythm and syncope.
An extreme example is “Down Payment Blues” by AC/DC where perhaps only
the harmonic scheme is similar to the blues model. In this composition, the blues
rhythm, widely used in hard rock, does not appear at all.
Example a
“Down Payment Blues”: LP AC/DC: Powerage, Atlantic, 1978.
95
The principal musical material is a melodic and rhythmic motif of the guitar in
its horizontal progression. The vertical rhythmic pattern is left exclusively to the
drums. Syncopes and dotted rhythm may appear in songs’ transitional sections,
between two different parts of the composition, or in the guitar’s melodic and
rhythmic model.
Example b1 Dotted rhythm
S. Harris: “No Prayer For The Dying”, LP Iron Maiden: No Prayer For The Dying, EMI,
1990.
An essential feature of drum patterns is the complementarity of rhythms be-

tween cymbals, small drum and bass drum.
96
Example b6
B. Dickinson & S. Harris: “Holy Smoke”, LP Iron Maiden: No Prayer For The Dying,
EMI, 1990.
In heavy metal, the bass guitar’s role has been reconfigured, and through its power
chords it becomes more of a harmonic support; it is no longer the rhythmic and me-
lodic backbone, as in hard rock, where, together with the guitar, it had a rhythmic
and melodic function. The rhythmic and melodic motif, which becomes the basis for
the composition’s development, is left to the solo and accompanying guitars. In the
heavy metal vernacular, the terms “riff”, “guitar riff” and “basic heavy metal riff”
are used in this context. As the bass guitar played the root note in power chords,
the rhythm tension was increased by omitting the thirds in chords; consequently, in
chords, only the root bass note, the fifth and the octave were played. Nuances that
originally characterized the pattern, such as syncopes and dotted rhythms, occur
more frequently in the guitar riffs. The basic pattern in the rhythmic section re-
tains its simplicity and complementarity. In any song, one rhythmic pattern and one
guitar riff can occur although some bands’ music was characterized by more than
one pattern. Heavy metal musicians thus created the two basics for the structural
development of compositions: pattern and riff. Hard core, speed metal, thrash metal
and other heavy metal modifications worked further with pattern and riff.
97
Example c1
“Girls Got Rhythm”, LP AC/DC: Highway To Hell, Albert, Atlantic, 1979.
Example c2
Example c3
“Gone Shootinʼ”, LP AC/DC: Powerage, Atlantic, 1978.
98
Example c3 demonstrates a transitional section in a short part of the composition;
after the transition the musical material reverts to the previous pattern (Example c2).
In all three patterns, the guitar works with a single riff (melodic and rhythmic motif),
but the riffs have different variants. In Example c3 the riff and the drumming pattern
are rhythmically identical, while the bass guitar emphasizes the power chord.
Example d1
Example d2
Example d3
99
Example d4
B. Dickinson & S. Harris: “Holy Smoke”, LP Iron Maiden: No Prayer For The Dying,
EMI, 1990.
Compositions may have other than 4/4 meter, and may also have a polymetric
or polyrhythmic progression of lines. In this context, it is important to point out
that rock musicians did not necessarily follow the sheet music and the polyrhythms
were created by spontaneous, natural musical feeling, not as a rational structure.
In the parts of the guitar and the bass guitar (models d1 and d2) there are syncopes
transitioning between the first and the second bars which permit the models to con-
tinually flow between the two bars. The same rhythmic phenomenon also occurs in
the bass drum in model 2. The correct notation of these patterns should, therefore,
be in 8/4 metre, which is marked with a broken bar line. In model d2, when written
in the 8/4 metre, the snare drum, besides the second and the fourth beat accents,
also emphasizes the sixth and the eighth beats. However, both models are written in
4/4 metre as this metre is far more common in rock music. It is important to point
out the distinctions between heavy metal and hard rock, as well as the contribution
of heavy metal to rock meter, especially because heavy metal had been regarded as
a similitude of hard rock or even a decay in rock music. In older literature, heavy
metal is even considered identical with hard rock.49 The following examples show
other options of working with the metre; at the very beginning of the composition
“Creeping Death” by Metallica, both the riff and the pattern begin in a 3/4 metre.
Example e2 shows the same metric phenomenon as Examples d1 and d2; its
guitar model can also be notated in 8/4 meter which is marked by a broken bar line.
49 Kneif, Tibor: Sachlexikon Rockmusik. Instrumente, Stile, Techniken, Industrie und

Geschichte. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1978.
100
Example e
1a
1b
101
4
Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton & Hammet: “Creeping Death”, 1984, Metallica, LP Jump In The
Fire, Popron, 1991.
In the riffs and patterns of the composition “Tailgunner” by Iron Maiden,

2-beat, 3-beat and 4-beat rhythmic feelings are intertwined. Such types of poly-
metres are an important innovative step beyond hard rock or even experimental
rock.
Example f1
102
3
(the singer sings the chorus: “Climb into the Sky…”), B. Dikinson & S. Harris: “Tailgunner”
B. Dikinson & S. Harris: “Tailgunner”, LP Iron Maiden: No Prayer For The Dying, EMI,
1990.
Unlike the previous three patterns, pattern f4 only consists of one which can be
repeated several times.50
Transitions from one tempo to another using double time or half time are very
frequent although this already occurred in the post-rock and roll era and especially
in the second (mature) hard rock era. Never before had double time, half time and
50 The pattern’s notation shows the possibility of its repetitiveness.
103
metric changes been collectively used; they emphasize a new drive, dynamism,
tension and the powerful impact in heavy metal music. In the following examples,
we can see how the effect of double time and half time creates tension within the
pattern. In Example g1, the cymbal and the bass guitar proceed with eighth notes;
in Example g2, the cymbal advances in quarter notes and the bass guitar plays a
half note. The second pattern is repeated two to four times, and it is immediately
followed by the first pattern (Example g1) in a fast tempo.
Example g1
Example g2 Half time – twice as slow
“Walk All Over You”, LP AC/DC: Highway To Hell, Albert, Atlantic, 1979.
104
Most usually in heavy metal the second and the fourth beats are accentuated,
although accents on the first or the third beats can also occur. This is demonstrated
in pattern g2 where, in the parts of the snare drum and bass drums, the original
accents (Example g1) are shifted from the fourth to the third beat.
A moderately fast tempo was typically used in heavy metal and was particularly
preferred until the end of the 1970s. Fast and very fast tempos did not appear until
heavy metal’s second (more advanced) era in the 1980s. If a slow tempo was used,
there was a tendency to transition into a fast tempo using half time or double time.
Examples h1 to h4 from the composition “No Prayer for the Dying” by Iron Maiden
demonstrate different accent shifts, double time, half time and their use in the crea-
tion of various models. For example, model h4 is a variant of a typical rock pattern
and, in this composition, was created by using half time and other rhythm changes.
Example h1
Example h2
105
Example h3 Accelerated tempo and accent shifts in comparison with Example h2
Example h4
S. Harris: “No Prayer For The Dying”, LP Iron Maiden: No Prayer For The Dying, EMI,
1990.
Heavy metal generally tended towards a tempo acceleration with polymetric

patterns which then led to further modifications, such as speed metal. The prefer-
ence for very fast and super fast tempos may also appear in other rock styles, for
example in hard core.
106
Hard Core
Hard core is not a clearly defined rock style and the term does not consistently
mean the same type of music. Amongst the journalists and musicians interviewed
by Melody Maker and New Musical Express magazines, hard core was regarded
as a fusion of heavy metal and punk rock music. The merging of the two styles
began after the first wave of punk rock and the punk concert bans at the turn of
the 1970s and 1980s, and was evident in the music of those bands originally
regarded as strictly punk rock. Hard core was a reaction to the commercialisa-
tion of heavy metal and punk rock at the end of the 1970s when heavy metal and
punk rock bands tied themselves to the large corporate labels and turned away
from their original ideals. The hard core style originated in northern USA and
laid the grounds for future speed metal and thrash metal. Most hard core bands
never achieved true commercial success and remained in the underground; how-
ever some managed to enter into mainstream rock music and featured in rock
magazines51.
Hard core bands include Black Flag52 (California, 1976); Dead Kennedys (who
started as a punk rock band in 1978 but shifted to hard core in the 1980s); Fear
(1977, Los Angeles, considered to be a typical model of the hard core style; this
band appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1981 and recorded an LP The Record in
1982); Circle Jerks; and Hüsker Dü (1978, USA, originally a hard core band that
switched to alternative rock and scored commercial success in 1986 when, as the
first American hard core and alternative style band, they signed a contract with
Warner Bros.)
In the 1990s, however, hard core sounds, patterns and texts already had charac-
teristics which differentiated them from being merely a fusion of heavy metal and
punk rock music. As with others, hard core musicians were also able to move from
one style to another; for example Body Count (1990, Los Angeles) is considered to
be both a heavy metal and a hard core band, but has capably recorded some com-
positions in speed metal, thrash metal and rap core (which combines hard core with
rap). The Beastie Boys (1979, New York) began as a hard core band but in the
mid-1980s they moved to hip-hop and rap, and began various combinations with
heavy metal.
51 For example, The Rolling Stone magazine.

52 A black flag was a symbol of anarchists.
107
The Rhythm of Hard Core
As with heavy metal, hard core characteristics included a linear attachment of
several rhythmic patterns. Compared with punk rock, which used only one pattern,
this was a clear change in musical thinking. Hard core patterns can also exceed
one bar, and the bass guitar’s phrasing can extend the pattern from one to two bars
(Example a3). In punk rock, such patterns were not used.
Example a
1
4 Gradual acceleration into the tempo used in pattern one and two
Jello Biafra & John Greenway: “California über Alles”, LP Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit
For Rotting Vegetables, Faulty Products, Alternative Tentacles, 1980.
108
There are even four different patterns existing together in California über Al-
les (Examples a1 to a4) and each has different tempos. A gradual acceleration and
deceleration of tempo, which occurs in the fourth pattern, becomes a principle for
a structural development of the composition. The tempo’s gradual deceleration or
acceleration used in a rhythmic pattern can result in a song’s ecstatic gradation.
This phenomenon is typical of tribal music where ecstasy is a definite musical
experience. The fourth pattern uses a march rhythm which is characteristic of punk
rock. Although syncopes and dotted rhythm can occasionally occur, these are only
used in the typical rock pattern demonstrated in Example a1. In California über
Alles, the bass guitar pattern (Example a1) continues in Example a2, and thus it
is played simultaneously with the cymbal and the snare drum, which accentuate
the second and fourth beats. In pattern a3, an offbeat can occasionally occur (not
marked in the example) as a result of an inaccurate or relaxed interpretation by mu-
sicians. Hard core, similar to heavy metal and punk rock, diverges from the use of
a blues rhythm and, also partly from dotted rhythm and syncopes. This divergence
has been a general tendency in punk rock and heavy metal development and is,
therefore, quite understandable. Hard core, however, mixes heavy metal and punk
rock rhythmic patterns and, in addition, adopts other rhythmic features beyond
heavy metal and punk rock.
Hard core musicians occasionally experiment with the meter, and use other than
4/4 metre.
Dead Kennedys: “Chemical Warfare”, LP Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting
Vegetables, Faulty Products, Alternative Tentacles 1980; quotation and parody of the
waltz “Sobre las Olas” (Over the Waves) by Juventino Rosas.
109
Heavy metal bands use a long chain of patterns, or even poly-metric sequences;
however, not all hard core bands work with the rhythm as heavy metal bands do.
Hard core may use only one simple pattern, as punk rock or other rock styles
did. The punk rock penetration into hard core is evident in the horizontal guitar
riffs, tuneless “grainy” singing intonations, and in the use of noise as musical
sounds. The following example from “The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hills” dem-
onstrates a simple hard core pattern with an accent on the second and the fourth
beats and the bass progressing as in punk rock.
Example c
Grant Hart: “The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill”, LP Hüsker Dü: New Day Rising. SST
Records. 1985; “Black Flag: Depression”, LP Damaged. SST, 1981.
Hard core uses moderately fast tempo together with very fast and super fast
tempos which lead to crossovers of styles within a single song. It also means
that songs with hard core characteristics can also have speed metal features; this
is evident, to a certain extent, in the composition “Depression (3)” by Black Flag.
Slow tempos are rare in hard core.
110
Speed Metal and Thrash Metal
The further development of rock music from the 1980s until the present time has
led to various heavy metal modifications, such as hard core, speed metal, thrash
metal, death metal, black metal and grind core. The characterizations of these
styles are inconsistent in different literature sources. New terms are often intro-
duced for music with the same characteristics but with different places of origins
(for example the USA, the United Kingdom or the Scandinavian countries), with
journalists and fans categorizing them differently. The whole problem is further
complicated by the fact that groups switch from one style to another even on a
single album, where they present as a poly-stylistic band with one song recorded
in speed metal and another in the black metal style. As with the subtle nuances
between the heavy metal modifications, so also are there minor differences in both
musical and non-musical expressions: in image, costumes, scene and lighting. In
order to accurately characterise the heavy metal subcategories it is essential to an-
alyse not only the melody, rhythm, riffs, interpretative technique and heavy metal
lyrics, but also the accompanying ideas and views - for example, presence of the
occult, animal primitivism or medieval conquest - and any scenic renderings and
symbolism.
Research in this field cannot yet claim to be deep and thorough. The reason
stems from the fact that only a short time span has passed since the emergence of
heavy metal subcultures and modifications. This is also the reason why the distinc-
tion and definitions of each heavy metal subculture have so far failed to precisely
characterise its musical, lyrical, visual and philosophical dimensions. The unsuc-
cessful attempts to define the heavy metal subcategories have helped to reinforce
the view that the heavy metal modifications are a regression in rock music devel-
opment, or even a decadency in the art of music.
To journalists, speed metal denotes a rock style whose main characteristic is its
very fast tempo. However, it is inaccurate to use this term for the modifications in
very fast tempo which require – especially in the guitar – a virtuoso instrumental
and interpretive technique. Speed metal is often characterized as a combination of
heavy metal (New Wave of British Heavy Metal Music, NWOBHM) with hard
core elements; it is, therefore, a further modification of the early 1980s heavy
metal. Some theoreticians, publicists and speed metal fans do not date the begin-
ning of speed metal until the period between 1982 and 1987. The British band
Motörhead (1975) is regarded as the creator of this style. Speed metal bands’ lyrics
111
include war and nuclear weapon themes, desecration of values, and themes on the
dominance of corporations in the national economy.53 Speed metal often includes
elements of thrash metal, both deriving in parallel from heavy metal. Thrash metal
emerged in the mid-1980s when heavy metal and hard core groups began to stag-
nate. The original inspiration for thrash metal was the band Judas Priest and its
composition “Rapid Fire” from the album British Steel (Columbia, 1980). The
bands Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer followed. Thrash metal is typical
of massive sound and the dynamism of rhythm in the music flow. This massive
sound attack is achieved by using the “double bass drumming technique” (using a
bass drum with a double pedal with each being differently tuned). Originally two
bass drums were used to produce this sound. This effect was mainly used by Lars
Ulrich of Metallica, Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Charlie Benante of Anthrax.54
A “pedal point” (organ point or pedal note) is also used to achieve thrash sound; it
is a bass guitar tone which does not belong to a chord and is sustained over several
octaves. Thrash metal compositions are in fast tempos; the feelings stimulated by
thrash patterns have parallels with energetic human movements such as fast walk-
ing or running. Thrash metal song lyrics emphasize human isolation, estrange-
ment, corruption, injustice, suicide, murder, riots, drug abuse and violence.
In the overall development of 1980s’ rock music, the fast tempo (in this chapter
referred to as “super fast”) is used not only in heavy metal, but it was one of the
characteristics of rock genres, together with such presentational elements as ag-
gression, ruthlessness and roughness, as opposed to subtlety, lyricism, and conso-
nant sound. They particularly apply to heavy metal, the hard core fusion of punk
rock with heavy metal, to thrash metal and its black metal and death metal deriva-
tives, and the poly-stylistic guitar synthesis of the time (e.g.Yngwie Malmsteen,
Steve Vai and Joe Satriani).
The Rhythm of Speed Metal and Thrash Metal

A simple rhythmic pattern from the drums gives the basic beat in speed metal. In
the following two examples from the composition “Jump in the Fire”, the rhythmic
53 http://www.anus.com/metal/about/genre.html
54 Double kick was used for the first time by jazz drummers Ray McKinley and Ed
Shaughnessy in swing and bebop. From them, these effects were adopted and up-
graded by other rock musicians such as Ginger Baker from the Cream, Mitch Mitchell
from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Keith Moon from the Who, and Nick Mason from
Pink Floyed.
112
pattern is formed by the drums in conjunction with the bass guitar; the quarter note
rhythmic values from these instruments represent the basic tempo. With heavy
metal use of rhythm, the guitar plays an eight-bar riff (a rhythmic and melodic
motif) which serves as the base for the composition’s structural development.
The guitars’ parts, however, are in faster tempos than the rhythmic pattern. In
Example a1 the guitar riff tempo is twice as fast (eighth notes). In Example a2, the
solo guitar plays four times faster (sixteenth notes). The principle of double time
is thus applied within the pattern’s structure.
Example a1
Example a2
Hetfield, Ulrich & Mustain: “Jump In The Fire”, LP Kill ʼEm All, Megaforce, Elektra,
1983, LP Jump In The Fire, Popron, 1991.
Since heavy metal may use several rhythmic patterns in a single composition,
speed metal features can appear as an inserted pattern in an accelerated part of the
composition.
113
Example b1
Sean Harris & Brian Tatler: “Am I Evil”55, LP Metallica: Jump In The Fire, Popron, 1991;
EP Metallica: Am I Evil/Creeping Death, Sweet Silence Studios Copenhagen, 1984.
55 A cover version by Metallica; originally the song was in the repertoire of the heavy
metal band Diamond Head.
114
Example b2 is a march pattern, which is modified into speed metal tempo in
pattern b4. The composition then slows slightly to the somewhat fast pattern b3.
Fast “speed tempo” may also be used together with metric changes and, similarly
to heavy metal, meters other than 4/4 can be used. This creates a poly-metric pro-
gression of lines.
Example c1 Speed metal tempo
2 The guitar and the bass guitar advance twice as fast (in eighth notes) compared
to the drums and voice.
Jones, Smith & Sirotto: “Blitzkrieg”56 LP Metallica: Jump In The Fire, Popron, 1991; EP
Metallica: Am I Evil/Creeping Death, Sweet Silence Studios Copenhagen, 1984.
In hard core compositions, speed metal elements can be shown by two lines
that progress in parallel, but have different tempos. Unlike heavy metal, the drums
56 The composition was originally written by the heavy metal band Blitzkrieg and
adopted by Metallica for their cover version.
115
in hard core play the basic rhythmic pattern in a very fast speed metal tempo; the
guitar plays a riff in a tempo twice or even four times slower than the drums, or
twice as fast. Other times, the guitars join the drums’ rhythmic pattern. For exam-
ple, The Exploited began as a hard core-style band and later adopted several thrash
and speed metal elements (see Example d1 and d2). Example d3 demonstrates
The Ramones, a punk rock band with evident speed metal features, but generally
considered as a punk rock band.
Example d
1
The Exploited: “Massacre”, CD The Exploited: Massacre, Rough Justice, 1990.
Dee Dee Ramone, Daniel Rey: “Zero Zero UFO”, LP Ramones: Brain Drain, Sire, 1989.
116
At other times, all instruments may play in the same speed metal tempo (see the
first bar in Example e), while the snare drum, on the second and the third beats in
bar two, plays twice as fast (sixteenth notes).
Example e
The Exploited: “Don’t Pay the Poll Tax”, CD The Exploited: Massacre, Rough Justice, 1990.
A typical hard core pattern in speed metal tempo is characterized by its comple-
mentary division of the beat into eighth notes between the bass and snare drums.
This division also occurs in other heavy metal modifications, such as thrash, death
and black metal where the rhythm is fragmented between the drum instruments
in a fast tempo. In practice, this technique is called a “blast beat”, a phenomenon
which, by the explosion of rhythms and sounds, expresses best the fast pace and
social tensions of the time.
When using speed metal elements, heavy metal and hard core deviate from us-
ing syncopes, the blues rhythm and the characteristic dotted rhythm pattern.
If these elements appear, they are obscured by the dominance of fragmented-

beat patterns and patterns with double time and half time used within the pattern’s
internal structure.
117
Death Metal, Black Metal and Grind Core
This chapter summarizes the principal features of the mid-1980s’ heavy metal
modifications: the death metal, black metal and grind core subcultures or “styles”.
At the same time, the chapter refers to journalists’ frequent use of different terms
for the same music style where a single common term would facilitate a better
appreciation of new styles. The terminological inconsistency stems from the fact
that heavy metal subcultures are distinguished by their associations with particu-
lar communities and community behaviour, and by musicians having a particular
world outlook and attitudes towards society.
The social and cultural backgrounds of heavy metal subcultures’ fans are most
evident in the lyrics, musicians’ behaviour, stage visualizations and in music vid-
eos. Hence, in heavy metal subcultures musical and societal aspects are inter-
twined. Research into heavy metal variations, therefore, gains from sociological
analysis as an extension of the studies of the musical phenomena and its stylistic
features.
Death Metal originated in the USA in the mid-1980s as a continuum of thrash
metal’s development. The emergence of death metal was a consequence of the
world socio-political situation with conflicting moral values between East and
West. Death metal is tied to satanism, occultism, nihilism, and the idea of “death
as the only justice in the world”. Death metal music characteristics are: dark-toned
metal guitar riffs in the melodic line; work with tone reverberation and colour
using tone and sound distortion (e.g. through electric sound, by using a booster,
sound modifier, or echoing in precise frequencies); tremolo picking; blast beat
drumming (the “ripping blow”); the palm mute technique (a guitar technique exe-
cuted by placing the palm of the picking hand or the finger tips across the strings to
be plucked, very close to the bridge, to produce a muted sound effect); and the use
of a bass drum double pedal or, alternatively, two bass drums. Death metal is also
characterized by “death growls”, vocals resulting from a tone deformation where
the singer utters deep dark bass tones to imitate a demonic presence. Frequent
tempo changes (which is also a speed metal and thrash metal feature), the preva-
lence of minor scales (a heavy metal element) and the negating of the aesthetics
of consonant sounds are also typical of death metal. The bands Death, Possessed,
Obituary, Morbid Angel, and Demigod are exponents of the style.
Black Metal emerged in Europe during the mid-1980s with its main devel-
opment in the early 1990s in Scandinavian countries. Its emergence during the
119
Cold War reflected the conflicts between social norms and between moral values
and the reality of human behaviour. Black metal points out the intellectual elitism
in society and the long-forgotten honest character of medieval warriors. Black
metal derived from thrash metal, but it took this genre’s attitudes to such extremes
as misanthropy (morbid annoyance, bias against people), anti-Christian attitudes
(e.g. group vandalism and desecration of Christian symbols), support for National
Socialism (Nazism), satanism, polytheism and murder. Black metal musicians use
tremolo picking (strumming one or two tones with a plectrum at a high speed), fre-
quent alterations of the basic beat with new patterns and its fragmentation between
different drum set instruments to produce blast beating (also known as the “ripping
blow”), horizontal guitar riffs (motifs) with high-pitched coloured tones that may
form a broken melodic line in the motif. The last is the sole feature differentiating
black metal from death metal and grind core. Guitars and bass guitars use a sound
distortion (sound reverberation effect) and sound colour modifications through
boosters, fuzzboxes and pedals. Since repetitions of patterns prevail, guitar solos
with improvisations on motifs are used rarely. The impression of dynamism and
aggression in death metal is reinforced by the sound of double bass drums (or by
a bass drum with a double pedal). Black metal features high-shrieking vocals, but
- unlike death metal – it does not employ dark, demonic bass vocals. Black metal
bands include Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost.
Grind Core originated in England in the mid-1980s as the continuation of death
metal and hardcore developments. Themes in grind core lyrics include anarchy (a
remnant from punk), feminism, anti-racism, anti-militarism and anti-capitalism.
The hallmark of this heavy metal modification is the dark sound of guitar riffs
with boosted guitars producing reverberation (“distortion”). The grind core sound
is deliberately created so that sheer noise is the first impression this style makes on
its listeners (as with punk rock). For such characteristics, journalists use the term
“extremely heavy riffs”. Singers use growls and screeches, mainly in deep bass
positions, to imitate demonic vocals. This feature is called “extremely deep low
vocals”. Their diabolical vocal sounds are similar to those in death metal and black
metal. Grind core songs fuse hard core with black metal.
Napalm Death, Carcass, Brutal Truth and Nasum are examples of grind core
bands.
The Rhythm of Grind Core

The style uses a double bass drum (the “double kick”) and speed tempo with a
blast beat effect (the “ripping blow”) in double speed or even faster tempos.
120
The example below demonstrates a blast beat effect and the beginning of a new
pattern.
Grind core pieces may use several patterns and the main building block is
tempo change.
Compositions with speed metal features that music critics have termed as “hard
core” can also have other characteristics. For instance, in the composition “If the Truth
Be Known” by Napalm Death (Example f) the speed metal and death metal elements
are combined as the musicians use speed metal tempos, work with tempo changes, add
guitar riffs in the melodic line, and use low base vocals to imitate “diabolical singing”.
Example f
1 Super fast tempo
2 Super fast tempo
3 More slowly
121
4
6 Even slower
Embury & Greenway: “If the Truth Be Known”, CD Napalm Death: Harmony
Corruption, Earache, 1990.
In Example f the third pattern is played more slowly than the first and sec-
ond ones. Subtle, yet audible changes of tempo occur at the start of each new
122
p attern. The tempo stops during the stop time after which a new pattern begins.
The changes of tempo are caused by the difficulty in sustaining the same high-pace
tempo throughout the composition. In the sixth pattern, the tempo sharply slows
down for the contrast in tempo between the snare and bass drums, and for the
cymbals, guitar I and guitar II to stand out. Guitar I can play several times faster
than the bass and the snare drums.
In speed tempo, instruments may not play in exactly the same tempo which cre-
ates the impression of noise and uncoordinated movement.
The following example demonstrates a small shift in the guitar part which gives
the noise effect.
Example g
Embury: “Vision Conquest”, CD Napalm Death: Harmony Corruption, Earache, 1990.
Another grind core feature is the so-called micro-song, a piece that only lasts a
few seconds, since, in speed metal, longer and difficult technical passages cannot
be maintained in fast-pace tempos. For example “You Suffer”, a “composition” by
Napalm Death, written in 1987, lasts only 1.316 seconds. The piece consists of a
single chord as noise and a demonic screech, the symbolic features of grind core.
123
The 1980s Synthesis and Polystylistic
Rock Music
The research on rock rhythm patterns has lead to the conclusion that the different
terms used by journalists for the same rock music style are unnecessary because,
owing to musical characteristics such as rhythm, musical forms, types of improvi-
sation and cover versions, the new genres do not always introduce new elements.
This particularly applies to black metal, death metal and grind core. However,
despite not always having new musical structures, these styles differ from one
another by their place of origin, and by the attitudes of the subculture, which are
largely being expressed in the lyrics. The issue is also complicated by the fact
that particular bands (for example the Cure, and Siouxsie and the Banshees) may,
in their development, go through diverse style changes (from punk, neopunk,
through to gothic rock and on to alternative rock); or the same projects (such as
Peter Gabriel’s and Sting’s) may be termed soft rock, pop rock or adult pop. In
addition, terms such as art rock or progressive rock, alternative rock or indie rock,
electronic rock or industrial rock are used for an album with pieces composed in
the same style.
The 1980s, in particular, seemed to bring only a reappearance of the previous
hard rock, art rock (progressive rock), punk rock and heavy metal rhythm patterns.
A similar revision had already occurred in the early 1980s with the emergence of
new wave and other styles like hard core, speed metal, thrash metal, and alterna-
tive rock (which encompasses independent music, grunge, britpop, gothic, indie
pop, glam rock, psychedelic rock, ambient, industrial rock, electronic rock and
new age music). With the coming back of earlier rhythm patterns, it is possible to
speak of a postmodernist return to historic rock music. Even the simplest catego-
risation and differentiation of various rock styles and “offshoots” makes necessary
consider two criteria:
1. Historical authenticity, i.e. the genres’ ties to a particular period and prove-
nance; however, in the present millennium the association of a group or artist
with a country and continent has lost its relevance as the majority of rock styles
have become a part of global culture.
2. The criterion of “hardness”, i.e. the accentuation of intensity, sound and rhythm
tensions as essential manifestations of rock as opposed to its “softness”, i.e.
melodiousness and soft sound.
125
Therefore, following the traditional theory, the history of rock music can be di-
vided into “hard rock” (hard rock, heavy metal) and “melodic rock” (found in mel-
low rock, light rock, easy rock, art rock, industrial rock and the ambient genre).57
This differentiation is also associated with musical expression and the aesthet-
ics of “consonance and dissonance”. Consonant and dissonant sounds symbolise
and respectively express positive and negative emotions58 for which artists seek
appropriate musical elements (for example tones and chords which are built on
thirds sound harmonious; whilst secundal chords, disharmonic tones, chromati-
cism and tritones sound disonant).
The 1980s have also shown a tendency towards the synthesis of various genres
and styles. One line of development ran through combinations of heavy metal
and punk rock into speed metal, hard core, and thrash metal. A similar tendency
to combine various styles was seen in other lines, such as in electronic rock, new
age (e.g. Enya, Enigma and Andreas Vollenweider), alternative rock, and soft rock
(e.g. Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins). In the same era, some groups brought poly-
stylistic presentations into a single album or project. For instance, the music of
Dream Theater (formed in 1985) extends to both heavy metal and progressive
rock; the solo guitarists Yngwee Malmsteen, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai dwell
across punk, experimental and progressive rock, and into heavy metal. The singer
Sade Adu’s interpretations, for example, have been labelled as a mixture of rhythm
and blues, soul, funky and soft rock; but owing to her “undefinable style” Adu’s
performances were, initially, especially attractive to jazz concert fans and jazz
writers, even though her music has had little in common with jazz.
Since all polystylistic tendencies are syntheses of previous rock styles, they are
characterised, to a great extent, by unoriginal rhythms. Musicians are not focused on
introducing new rhythm patterns and structures, but rather on a combination of ex-
isting patterns, expressions and compositional techniques with new sound technolo-
gies in order to progress to a new developmental stage. As a new feature, the rock
syntheses also step outside of their own genres by incorporating folk music from
57 Kajanová, Yvetta: Postmoderna v hudbe. Minimal, rock, pop, jazz. Bratislava: VUK,
2010, p. 114.
58 Admiration, beauty, harmoniousness and pleasure are considered to be positive emo-
tions. Anger, ugliness, hatred and painful feeling are regarded as negative emotions.
See the chapter “Afekt ako psychologicko – estetická kategória a jeho rozličné pre-
javy v jazze a rocku” In Kajanová, Yvetta: Kapitoly o jazze a rocku, Bratislava –
Ružomberok: Epos, 2003. pp. 14-17; Kajanová, Yvetta: “Struktur und Artikulation als
Baumaterial der modernen Populärmusik und des Jazz”. In Musicologica Istropoli-
tana 2, Bratislava: Stimul, 2003, pp. 189-204.
126
European and non-European cultures. For instance, for Adu it is Latin American
music59, for Enya it is Celtic and Irish folk music, and guitarist Yngwee Malmsteen
fuses rock with European baroque music. Gothic rock groups mix industrial rock,
punk rock and synth pop. All these styles use syncopation, the blues rhythms of
Afro-American folk music, and dotted rhythms to express dance character. In poly-
stylistic rock compositions the rhythms of reggae, electronic dance music, hip-hop
and rap may also occur (and similarly there are fragments of hard core in the bands
Body Count and Beastie Boys). Gothic rock bands in the second half of the 1980s,
for example, besides their punk rock and alternative rock elements, also adopted the
characteristics of electronic dance music, popular music and hit productions.
Commensurate with its heavy metal modifications rock music continued to-
wards a more promising developmental stage with progress in its philosophical
and cultural outlook. Alternative genres, indie rock, instrumental rock, or polysty-
listic approaches within a single composition or album are clear examples of this
progress. Within these works rock musicians, employing the typical rock music
instruments (such as electric guitars, bass guitars and keyboards), demonstrate a
technical virtuosity and mastership that show an expert knowledge of rock history
and of audio and interpretational advancements. Many musicians are profession-
ally trained (for instance, the guitarist Steve Vai graduated from the Berklee Col-
lege of Music in Boston and the members of the Apocalyptica band are graduates
from the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki), and they seek not only new in-
terpretational possibilities but also innovative compositional techniques. Review-
ers associate trained musicians’ pieces with hard rock, art rock, punk rock, heavy
metal and even neo-classical inspiration. Among such artists are the guitarists Joe
Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen. Malmsteen, for example, combines
rock with European baroque and classic music.
The polystylistic rock syntheses are also called progressive metal (e.g. the band
Dream Theater worked with art rock sounds and heavy metal riffs over a wide
compositional area), and glam metal (e.g. the band Van Halen with the singer David
Lee Roth emerged in 1972) and combined heavy metal with glam rock - also called
sequined rock or shiny rock. Glam rock artists60 followed the 19th century “classical
59 The first to pioneer a fusion of samba, bossa nova and salsa dance rhythms with rock
was the Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana. He emerged in the second half of the 1960s
when he came into contact with the hippie movement.
60 Glam or glamorous rock emerged in the 1970s and its exponent was David Bowie.
However, many art rock soloists also wore glittered costumes (e.g. Rick Wakeman,
the keyboard player from the band Yes, and Keith Emerson from the instrumental trio
Emerson, Lake and Palmer).
127
beauty” ideals; long-haired and hair-banded musicians, idolised as sex symbols,
represented a new view of male gender roles combining sex appeal and fashion
with that of the father figure. The syntheses of rock music are found in the various
fusions of heavy metal and punk which create speed metal, hardcore, thrash metal,
death metal, black metal and grind core. A similar combination of different styles
occurred in the second line - which focuses on the expression of “positive” emo-
tions - in art rock, soft rock and electronic rock; in the 1980s this line developed
into new styles such as new age (to a certain extent in the music of Adu, Enya and
Andreas Vollenweider) and in pop rock, gothic rock and neo-classicism. The basis
for soft rock (also called music for “easy listening”) is folk rock, middle-of-the-road
and pop rock. The soft rock category also includes rock styles with pleasant melo-
dies and consonant harmonies. The instrumentation employs saxophones, acoustic
and electric guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, piano, bass guitars and drums. Some
of the songs by Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, hits by Paul Simon and Art Garfun-
kel, and the hits of the bands Chicago, America, and U2 are examples of soft rock.
Besides the styles already mentioned, other polystylistic rock genres include
gothic rock, grunge, instrumental rock61 and rock neo-classicism (also called neo-
classical metal). One problem in defining them as styles is their association with
subcultures. Gothic rock and grunge clearly have a characteristic style of their
own, along with distinctive subcultural features (including such visual compo-
nents as clothing, hair style and image). In instrumental rock and rock neoclassi-
cism, polystylistic music features predominate as the genres are content to adopt
characteristics from other subcultures.
Gothic rock originated in Great Britain at the turn of the 1970s as a result of
a search for other developmental possibilities within punk rock. The style has its
own distinctive musical features, but it can be also identified as a subculture. The
gothic rock culture drew inspiration from late 18th-century horror novels featur-
ing medieval gothic settings with mysterious ghost-evoking seances; they also
borrowed from the anti-Catholic criticism of the Inquisition. The genre was sup-
ported by horror movies with haunting visions, allusions and symbols of vampires,
bats, ghosts and death; and musicians wear face masks or heavy makeup. The first
gothic rock piece is considered to be “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, a hit composed in
1979 by the band Bauhaus, telling the story of Bela Lugosi, the actor who, in 1931,
played the main character in the Dracula film. In their costuming gothic rock mu-
sicians imitate the dress of European royalty in the Middle Ages and other histori-
cal times (e.g. black silk and velvet boots of bizarre shaping, and black-coloured
61 Until the early 1980s rock was dominated by vocal-instrumental genres.
128
and eccentric hair-styles). Gothic rock employs punk vocal articulations, includ-
ing the semi-declamatory technique, which is combined with various other tone
deformations (like screeches, demonic vocals and raspy tone). Keyboards and
synthesizers evoke an eerie and haunting atmosphere through various electronic
sound effects such as “flanging” (the mixing of two identical signals of the same
tone with one minutely delayed) to create a spacious sound effect with the impres-
sion of instrument parts being duplicated or multiplied (as used by the singer Enya
to simulate choral singing, and by the ABBA group). An expansive sound is also
achieved by electronic drums that are programmed to alternately emphasize, with
the same intensity, the strong and weak beats (beat and offbeat) to create a com-
plementary rhythm. The complementary rhythm then forms layers similar to those
used in electronic rock (see the patterns in the chapter Electronic Rock); rhythm
patterns typical of earlier rock styles (such as hard rock, art rock and punk rock)
are also used in gothic rock. The bands Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the
Cure, Mission, and The Sisters of Mercy are exponents of gothic rock.
Grunge is a mid-1980s rock style, also known as the Seattle sound for its as-
sociation with the Seattle area in Washington. However, it was only in the early
1990s that the style became well known through the commercial success of the
group Nirvana. The grunge songs’ lyrics express absurdity, apathy, anger, cyni-
cism and depression. Many such emotions are also found in Frank Zappa’s and the
Velvet Underground’s experimental rock, and in the early 1980s’ new wave genre.
Grunge includes bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.
In order to avoid the major publishing corporations, a fundamental principle
was to “do it yourself” which is also an element of indie rock, the independent rock
movement. Consequently, grunge records were released by Sub Pop, an independ-
ent label in Seattle. Grunge musicians detested theatrical music visualisations, and
glam rock in particular. They preferred naturalism and simplicity in sound (“dirty
sound”) and casual clothing (meaning old clothes, flannel checkered shirts, torn
jeans and sneakers). Grunge music derived from the heavy metal and hard core
styles. Musicians used guitar riffs with added sound effects such as “distortion”,
dirty “grunge” sound and murmured vocals. They worked with patterns similarly
to punk, heavy metal or hard core bands. Their principal contribution to rock mu-
sic is mainly in a new sound (muted/softer, fuzzy, but dynamically intense and
powerful in combination with the rhythm). Even though the rhythmic and sound
attack of heavy metal, speed metal and thrash metal still dominate in this genre,
grunge songs bring back a melody, stanzas and a chorus. The melody contains an
introduction, an interlude and a coda with - as a new element - unfinished melodic
phrases or fragments from well-known songs given new lyrics and inserted into
129
the chorus. However, the popular melodies only appear as hints and even listeners
familiar with the original tune will often have difficulty in identifying the original
source because of similarities across many rock and pop hits. Short guitar solos
also appear in grunge songs, but improvisational passages are only brief devia-
tions from the principal melody, as they were in the rock and roll era.
Instrumental rock and the need for the term arose again in the 1980s as a result
of bass guitarists’ continuing development of their instrumental techniques and
solo improvisations. The pure instrumental form of rock had existed, alongside
the vocal-instrumental genre, ever since the days of rock and roll. Several pro-
jects labelled as instrumental rock also contain vocal parts, but feature instrumen-
tal mastership and improvisations using a song form. From the stylistic point of
view, instrumental rock is a polystylistic genre with a prevalence of heavy metal,
hard rock, punk rock, and progressive rock characteristics. The guitarists Yngwie
Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, and Jason Becker are expo-
nents of the style.
The predecessor of rock neo-classicism or neo-classical metal is considered
to be the band Deep Purple with their 1969 project Concerto for Group and
Orchestra. The descriptive terms came into use mainly from the early 1980s in as-
sociation with the music of the Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. Malmsteen
enriched heavy metal elements with compositional techniques and quotations of
classical music from the baroque and classic eras. His ideas were followed by
other artists and bands, although many of them were also exponents of the instru-
mental rock genre, as was Malmsteem himself. The tendency to merge classical
music with rock had already appeared earlier in art rock or progressive rock, so
the 1980s’ trend represents a modernised implementation of the original idea. The
fusion of classical music components with rock was further developed by another
guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, and his band Rainbow. Other neo-classical artists
include Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and also Yngwee Malmsteen.
The Rhythm of Polystylistic Rock

With the exception of speed metal, death metal and black metal, rock genres do
not disregard jazz and blues music, nor do they negate other musical influences
or Euro-American cultural values. Therefore, in polystylistic rock genres, syn-
copation, dotted rhythms (Examples a2, f and g3) and blues characteristics may
occur, as they also did in early rock and roll, hard rock and art rock. Alternative
rock derives from the rhythms of various rock genres and uses tempo changes and
130
breaches of metre. For example, from the beginning of the second pattern in the
composition “Trilogy” by the alternative rock group Sonic Youth, the tempo grad-
ually slows down until the music stops and only a noise without regular rhythm
pattern is heard. The music then gradually accelerates in the third pattern.
Example a
1
131
4 The drums’ pattern is identical with Pattern a2
Sonic Youth: “Trilogy” (1. “The Wonder”, 2. “Hyperstation”, 3. “Eliminator”), CD

Daydream Nation, 1989.
In the first movement, “The Wonder”, there is a breach of 4/4 metre which
sometimes leads to a separation of the instruments and creates separate metric
layers. Their tempo may decelerate or accelerate, or each metric zone may
have a different tempo. Therefore in the following pattern the metre is not
marked.
Example b
Pattern 1
Pattern 2
Rhythmically identical to pattern 1, but with a different instrumentation and ar-
rangement.
(Layer I/Tempo I: snare drum, bass drum and guitar; Layer II/Tempo II:
vocals.)
132
Pattern 3
Pattern 4
Sonic Youth: “Trilogy” (1. “The Wonder”): LP Daydream Nation, Enigma, 1988.
The examples from “Trilogy” demonstrate different approaches to rhythm pat-

terns in alternative rock, such as using several patterns in a single composition (as
in hard rock), or the use of rhythm layers and tempo rubato (like art rock), and
metre negation or even employing other than 4/4 metre (as in experimental rock).
The following example shows heavy metal and hard rock elements. The basic
pattern is formed by a complementary rhythm between the cymbal, snare and bass
drums. The rhythmic section can sometimes include a guitar, and on some other
occasions the beat is fragmented into the sixteenth notes.
Example c1
U2: “A Sort Of Homecoming”, LP The Unforgettable Fire, Island, 1984.
133
Example c2
U2: “Sort Of Homecoming”, LP The Unforgettable Fire, Island, 1984.
The band U2 also uses a typical rock pattern that had occurred frequently in
hard rock and generated polyrhythms.
Example d1
U2: “Promenade”, LP The Unforgettable Fire, Island, 1984.
Typical rock pattern
Occasionally free rubato tempo with agogic changes occur (e.g. in “4th of July”
by U2 on the LP The Unforgettable Fire, Island 1984), as do sections without any
pattern or regular rhythm hence emphasising the sound as in art rock.
Gothic rock has tried to combine punk vocal articulation with the sound of pop
music and the use of synthesizers. Thus, it has come closer to pop music in terms
of the hit production and techno and synth-pop styles. In the rhythm the particular
lines are layered, which may be found also in electronic rock and techno style.
Diminution of rhythm in gothic rock utilizes more abundantly the complementa-
rity of patterns in quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes and breaks than in
electronic rock. The alternation of eighth notes with sixteenth notes evokes ethnic
rhythms. The pattern structure accentuates the first and third beat, whilst the frag-
mentation of the rhythm into sixteenth notes marks the commencement of a new
structure.
134
The group Siouxsie and the Banshees was founded in 1976 as a punk rock
group; they then undertook various stylistic changes running from postpunk
through to gothic and alternative rock.
Example e1
Siouxsie and the Banshees (The Sherman Brothers): “Trust In Me”, CD Through
the Looking Glass, Polydor, 1987. (The album also includes cover versions by other
authors.)
Example e2
Siouxsie and The Banshees: “Drifter”, LP Superstition, Polydor, 1991.
Example e2 illustrates the new pattern for timpani part.

In alternative rock composition reggae rhythm may occur; this can be seen
between the guitar and snare drum in the following example.
135
Example f
Siouxsie and The Banshees (Iggy Pop/Ricky Gardiner): “The Passenger”, CD Through
The Looking Glass, Polydor, 1987.
Although in the second half of the 1980s some gothic rock groups had moved
to alternative rock (e.g. The Cure, Example g3) and often used already existing
patterns, new variants of typical rock patterns could occur. Example g1 demon-
strates a typical rock pattern, Example g2 is a variant together with a diminution,
and Example g3 is another variant of the pattern g1. The last variation can be seen
in the second bar of the bass drum and the timpani and shows that the typical rock
pattern returns to alternative rock with a modified structure.
Example g1
Example g2 Rock pattern variant and its diminution
136
Example g3
The Cure: “Icing Sugar”, LP Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Fiction, 1987.
Solo guitarists usually adopt hard core, speed metal and heavy metal rhythm
patterns; they also employ the complementarity which occurs between the bass
drum, snare drum, guitar or even other instruments. The guitar either plays the
riff when it has an accompanying role and complements the pattern (the basic
melodic-rhythmic motif which is, as in heavy metal, the composition’s building
block) or it can play a solo. When the guitar plays a solo it is supported by the
drums and the bass guitar; their patterns and improvisational re-workings are close
to the 1970s and 1980s jazz-rock syntheses. An example of this is the slap bass
guitar technique which is demonstrated in Example h. In the cymbal part, there are
remnants of the original bop rhythm from jazz.
Example h
Steve Vai: “Erotic Nightmares”, CD Passion and Warfare, Relativity/Epic, 1990.
In Example h groove is used in the bass guitar, the cymbal plays a ‘bop’ jazz
style pattern, and the bass and snare drums accentuate either the third beat or the
second and fourth ones, as in many hard rock compositions.
137
Example i
Sade (Sade Adu/Ray St. John): “Smooth Operator”, LP Diamond Life, Epic, 1984.
In the previous example the Latin-American bossa nova rhythm is used. The
pattern created by layered rhythm lines in the rhythm section, and the imitation of
drums by synthesizers are similar to electronic rock.
In the song “Caribbean Blue” (on the LP Shepherd Moons) by the new age
singer Enya, the synthesizers play the waltz rhythm (which was originally nine-
teenth-century salon music). In “Book of Days”, from the same album (Example k),
the vocal part contains various metrical changes adopted from Irish folk music
whilst the regular rhythm of the synthesizers is reminiscent of industrial rock styli-
sation. The remaining compositions on the album hold regular rhythms however,
the pieces are performed in tempo rubato with various pauses and agogic changes.
In “How Can I Keep From Singing” the lyrics determine the regularity and irregu-
larity of rhythm which then lead to various metrical changes. Vocal interepretation
resembles a medieval Gregorian chant.
Example j
Enya: “Caribbean Blue”, LP Shepherd Moons, WEA, Warner Music, 1991.
138
Example k
Enya: “Book Of Days”, LP Shepherd Moons, WEA, Warner Music, 1991.
Alternative rock, indie rock and instrumental rock, as poly-stylistic genres,

have returned to the typical rock patterns. The accents are on the first and third
beats, or the second and fourth ones. All the following examples are the typical
rock patterns that became established in the late 1960s hard rock era.
Examples 1 – 9 Typical Rock Patterns
Rock musicians, apparently, are experts in rock music history, especially from
the 1980s to the present time. They have created new rhythm patterns by combin-
ing the models used in earlier rock styles. Thus they opened new possibilities in
poly-stylistic rock while moving rock music forward to new stages of develop-
ment. The derivative process, rather than leading into a musical cul de sac or
causing developmental stagnation, means re-combinations of past rock forms, the
infusion of new ideas and the development of new structures.
139
Conclusion
This chapter summarizes the findings of the rock pattern research with particular
reference to The Rhythm of Rock chapter. Theoreticians agree on the basic prem-
ise that rhythm is a specific element in jazz music, and by extension must also be
a specific element in rock music.
When researching rhythm as a driving movement with its own inner organisa-
tion62, in jazz and rock music particular aspects need to be considered when ana-
lysing their rhythm patterns.
Firstly, rhythm is associated with various musical and non-musical attributes,
which explains its differing roles in musical cultures around the world.63 It also
means that research into rhythm needs to combine an analysis of specific musical
characteristics (such as musical thinking, and specific perceptions of time in music
and its organisation) with a study of the psychological (emotionality in rhythm),
acoustic (physical measurability of time) and sociological factors (including the
close relationship of the rhythm with geographically definied societies64). How-
ever, comprehensive rhythm analysis, when using specialised computer or statisti-
cal methods, requires a distancing from the larger aspects to allow focusing on the
measurable specifics.
62 “According to Plato, rhythm means a movement. A movement needs time and space…
Not every movement in time and space is rhythm. Plato defined rhythm as an organ-
ised movement. Bielawski, Ludwik: “Grundlagen des musikalischen Rhythmus.” In
Musicologica Slovaca, Rhythmik und Metrik in traditionellen Musikkulturen, SAV
Bratislava 1990, p. 13.
63 Sachs, Curt: Rhythm and Tempo. New York: Columbia University Press, 1953;
Seashore, Carl Emil: Psychology of Music. New York: McGraw Hill Book Comp.,
1967.
64 In analysing rhythm, several authors (e.g. Gabrielsson, 1984; De la Motte–Haber,
1968; Stockman, 1981) emphasise its specific motional characteristics, and sensory
and psychological aspects. These components together with regional and geographi-
cal influences create various deviations and nuances in rhythm perception. This ex-
plains the differences between, for example, the rhythms in African music, European
music, Indian music etc.
141
A complementarity of rhythm65, polyrhythm66 and polymetrical part settings67
in either rock or jazz will also contribute to a perception of a complex rhythm.
The beat-off beat principle, complementarity, polyrhythm, and polymetrics are
at the origin of rhythm patterns. However, the question remains as to whether
such patterns are rhythm archetypes specific to rock or jazz. According to Ivan
Poledňák, who follows Carl Gustav Jung’s archetypal theory, an archetype is a
prototype or protomodel and “the innate experience of a species, corresponding
to typical extreme life situations”… “formulas of people’s ritual behaviour”…
and “the existence of archetypes is merely potential and they undergo an al-
teration after each execution, they are ambivalent and constantly call for new
interpretations …”68
The second issue arises when making a notated record of the rhythm69. Our
research into jazz and rock rhythm patterns is based on empirical methods and
consists of listening to recorded music and subsequently transcribing it using the
traditional European notational system70. For transcribing jazz and rock music this
type of notation is less than perfect, and there are several different options for
transcribing the same rhythm section. While the nature of a particular model is
not always adequately expressed by the musical notation, repeated comparative
checks help to identify deviations, nuances or errors.
65 A complementary rhythm pattern is created by a mutual complementary correlation

amongst the accents of the different lines in a composition. Traditional jazz is a typical
example of a complementary rhythm.
66 In complementary rhythm only one pattern is used. In polyrhythm two or more simul-
taneous patterns are used within the same metre.
67 Polymetrical part setting is a simultaneous progression of two or more meters. Poly-
meter can also be combined with tempo changes (as in double time where the main
tempo is twice as fast).
68 Poledňák, Ivan: ABC Stručný slovník hudební psychologie. Praha: Supraphon, 1984,
p. 35.
69 Tagg, Philip: “Analysing Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice”. In Popular
Music 1982, No. 2, pp. 37-67. Dorůžka, Lubomír: “Anmerkungen zur musikalischen
Analyse von Jazz und Rock”. In Jazzforschung 1977//VII, No. 8, Graz, pp. 67-82.
70 “The transcriptional and notational issues are the primary starting point… A
century-long debate over notational processes has resulted in two analytical meth-
ods: electronic diagrams including several quantitative methods of measurement, and
an ongoing critical analysis of primary music sources with a specific focus on the
rhythmical and metrical interpretation of the music.” Elschek, Oskár: “Zeitliche und
räumliche Prinzipen der Musikgestaltung.” In Musicologica Slovaca, Rhythmik und
Metrik in traditionellen Musikkulturen. Bratislava: SAV, 1990, p. 28.
142
Research Methods and Research Findings
This monograph follows the publication On the History of Jazz Music, it has the
same approach and its findings are based on analyses of 420 samples that are
associated with the chronological development of various rock styles, as com-
monly defined by professionals and critics. The samples in both publications were
selected at random.71
When analysing the repetition of rhythm models it is essential to determine the
length of each single pattern72. A rhythm pattern is a section of the composition
that is characterised by a specific structure73. In our research rhythm pattern sam-
ples were studied for the changes in their structures throughout the composition.
Since jazz and rock genres have evolved into complex, highly developed forms,
different rhythm patterns specific to particular styles can be found in them. It is
also likely that these patterns represent typical jazz and rock archetypal rhythmic
models.
Therefore, at the beginning of our research we hypothesised as to whether jazz
and rock rhythm patterns exist in these genres as primary archetypal forms. The
hypothesis was verified by empirical research methods, that is by listening to and
transcribing rhythm patterns using a traditional notation. This was followed by an
analysis of the transcribed patterns together with records of their frequency in the
different jazz and rock styles in relation to their chronological sequence.
Another research objective was to identify the frequency of rhythm archetypes
in particular songs, to ascertain whether the occurrence of rock archetypes is any
different from that in jazz, what the probability of archetype occurrences is and
how it can be numerically demonstrated. The difficulty in examining rhythm ar-
chetypes is increased by their tendency to constantly spur new variations in the
styles’development and even during a composition’s performance.74
71 Using 823 various musical examples, the research into jazz and rock rhythm patterns
was carried out between 1990 and 1998. The preliminary results were published in the
monograph Kapitoly o jazze a rocku by Yvetta Kajanová (Bratislava: Epos, 2003).
72 Zaminer, Friedrich: Rhythmus und Zeitdauern – Organisation. Zweites Colloquium
der Walcker – Stiftung zur Terminologie der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. 1972,
pp. 60-69.
73 In earlier jazz genres, rhythm pattern durations were approximately 3 to 5 minutes.
In more modern jazz styles (from bebop to present) and most rock compositions, the
rhythm patterns are longer.
74 Previous studies on jazz styles characterised their rhythm patterns as an unmutable
element. Asriel, André: Jazz. Aspekte und Analysen. Berlin: VEB, 1985, p. 314-26,
143
The reworking of patterns in jazz music differs from that in rock. Whilst in jazz
the principle of improvisation, constant pattern changes, redeveloping or reinvent-
ing the model, and recreating new forms within a single song are used, in rock
music pattern repetitions are rather preferred. However, repetitions are not always
identical and nuances can occur as well. Hence a pattern repetition may become
a new variation as it flows into a new contextual relationship with the melodic
section as well as real time. Unlike in jazz, where pattern changes occur within
a single piece, in rock music, the variations occur across several compositions in
which the same rhythm archetypes are found.
Jazz and rock patterns are closely associated with particular styles during
their developmental stages. Unlike European classical music, jazz and rock gen-
res do not span centuries, but only cover twenty-years, a decade (e.g. traditional
jazz, swing, rock and roll, hard rock, and art rock), or an even shorter period
(e.g. punk rock and gothic rock). In principle, when a certain rhythm pattern is
established in a particular style, it becomes and remains typical of the style, even
after the style itself ceases to be a progressive trend in jazz or rock development.
Research into jazz and rock patterns can illuminate any issues about the styles
which have remained obscure and chaotic as far as the mainly modern genres
are concerned. Furthermore, such research could also contribute to resolving the
question as to whether the latest developments in rock (gothic rock, hard core,
trash metal, speed metal, grind core and grunge) really are thoroughbred styles
or whether they are simply descriptive tools used by critics, or even mere inven-
tions by rock fans.75
By means of a structural rhythm analysis it is possible to not only identify the
characteristic rhythm patterns employed in particular jazz and rock style eras, but
also to identify the basic rhythm pattern - the archetype or proto-pattern which
characterises jazz and rock in general - that had already existed in common con-
sciousness at the origin of a particular genre. We refer to rhythm patterns in Afro-
American folk music, ragtime, and traditional jazz, to those used in rock and roll,
and also the patterns used by the first rock bands such as The Beatles and The
Rolling Stones. The early rhythm models should appear in all subsequent jazz and
Berendt, Joachim Ernst: Kniha o jazze. Bratislava: Supraphon, 1968. Das Jazzbuch.
Entwicklung und Bedeutung des Jazzmusik. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1953; Das Jazzbuch.
Von Rag bis Rock. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1973.
75 Gammond, Peter: The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. Oxford, New York 1991,
Panek, Wacław: Mały słownik muzyki rozrywkowej. ZAKR, Warszava 1986, Ward,
Edward & Stokes, Geoffrey & Tucker, Ken: Rock of Ages. The Rolling Stone History
of Rock and Roll. New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1986.
144
rock styles as the basic primary patterns: they are the archetypes that jazz or rock
music built upon and to which they keep returning in each era.
Another focus of our research was tempo. We gave it attention when it was one
of the specific characteristics of a particular style, or used as one of the stylistic
elements. We tried to verify the hypothesis that jazz music prefers moderately fast
tempos, since they are best suited for improvisations. This “ideal” tempo, which
varies according to the piece’s character, is referred to as the bounce. Moderately
fast tempos prevail in mainstream jazz.76
We hypothesised that rhythm in jazz and rock is manifested through patterns
that represent rhythm archetypes. We aimed to identify the different archetypal
modifications and forms being followed throughout jazz and rock history. The
research objective was to prove our hypothesis that there are specific rhythm ar-
chetypes and forms that are only found in jazz and rock music. Throughout the
development of rock and jazz genres musicians have kept returning to the typical
archetypal patterns for their sources of inspiration. The history of jazz and rock
has many shared influences and cross-overs of rhythm patterns and archetypes.
Despite that, the frequency of pattern occurrence and the pattern characteristics
themselves make it possible to identify typical jazz and rock archetypes.
Example a - jazz
76 Kneif, Tibor: Sachlexikon Rockmusik. Instrumente, Stile, Techniken, Industrie und

Geschichte. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt 1978; Panek, Wacław: Mały słownik
muzyki rozrywkowej. Warszava: ZAKR 1986; Wicke, Peter & Ziegenrücker, Wieland:
Rock, Pop, Jazz, Folk. Handbuch der populären Musik. Leipzig: VEB, 1985.
145
Example b - rock
The Examples a and b are the basic jazz and rock rhythm archetypes which,
when modified, can create new patterns.
After the 1980s’ trend to fuse jazz with rock, pop and folk music - which re-
sulted in patterns having a stock of unoriginal rhythms - the impulse to re-introduce
typical jazz patterns was inevitable. The post-bop era jazz synthesis is found, for
example in Wynton Marsalis’s and Rendy Becker’s music. Similarly in the 1970s,
rock music adopted rhythm patterns from other genres, for example jazz or waltz
rhythms, and some rhythmic principles from European classical music. Art rock
and experimental rock (Frank Zappa, Velvet Underground) use other than 4/4
metre, which is generally typical of modern popular music, but they also absorb
rhythm patterns from wider sources (e.g. classical music or jazz). This, in turn,
explains the emergence of punk rock with its rejection of any jazz or non-rock
features in its rhythms.
146
Some pure rock styles that did not adopt any jazz patterns are heavy metal, hard
core, speed metal and thrash metal. Their rhythm models are practically identical;
hence it is not possible to differentiate between them solely by rhythm pattern
analysis. All derive from the same musical base - heavy metal elements – and their
differentiation is through cultural and attitudinal characteristics.
Rock Pattern Findings

In the sampled rock music, of 420 patterns the rhythm archetypes were found in
293 examples, which represents 70% of cases. Thus the probability of rock rhythm
archetype occurence is 0.70 calculated using the following formula:
m
P(A)= n
where m=293, n=420, and hence P(A)=0.70.

This means that 7 out of 10 randomly chosen examples may contain rhythm
archetypes and 3 may feature different patterns. An archetype occurrence rate of
approximately 90% was found in post-rock and roll music, punk rock and heavy
metal; 80% in hard rock, new wave and thrash metal; 70% for rock and roll (here
rhythm patterns are developed, but also jazz patterns appear); and 60% in gothic
rock, electronic rock and soft rock. The rate was approximately 50% in art rock,
hard core, speed metal and experimental rock. As little as 30% were found in the
new age style and, considering its philosophical background, the genre does not fit
well within rock music’s ambit.
Jazz Pattern Findings

Jazz rhythm archetypes were found in 178 instances of the 403 examples, which rep-
resents 44.1% of cases. The rest were different, variable, or products of spontaneous
creativity rather than repetition of archetypal models. Thus, the probability of a jazz
rhythm archetype occurrence is 0.44, which means that of ten randomly selected
examples, four may feature the jazz archetypes, and the remaining six might not.
It is also possible to calculate the probability of archetype occurrence in those
styles which adopt non-jazz elements, or where patterns are innovatively and crea-
tively re-worked.
We estimated a rhythm archetype repetition of less than 40% in free jazz, a style
which overturns conventional models, and a repetition of less than 30 % in the tra-
ditional jazz, where the typical jazz rhythm was only just emerging. We expected a
similar occurrence rate - less than 30% - in jazzrock, since rock rhythm archetypes
147
prevail in this particular jazz style. Approximately a 50% pattern occurrence was
found in bebop, cool jazz and west coast jazz styles, where jazz musicians have
tried to abandon jazz rhythm stereotypes and sought new means of expression. We
expect a pattern occurrence rate of about 60% in hard bop, 70% in soul jazz and
about 60% in swing. In ragtime music, no archetypes could be found.
In conclusion, the pattern repetition in rock music is 70% compared to 44 in
jazz; this shows that jazz music generally employs a far more creative approach
to pattern building.
The following tables show the probabilities of rhythm archetype occurrence in
particular jazz and rock styles. A further and extended quantitative study would
assist to verify or refine the research results.
Table 1
The Total number of Occurrrence of
No. of researched styles
researched patterns archetypes
Jazz 403 178 11
Rock 420 293 16
Table 2
Probability of the archetype Probability of the archetype
occurrence (coefficient) occurrence (percentage)
Jazz 0.441 44 %
Rock 0.697 70 %
Table 3
Jazz Genre Occurrence Rate
Ragtime 0%
Traditional jazz 30 %
Swing 60 %
Be bop 50 %
Cool jazz 50 %
West coast jazz 50 %
Hard bop 60 %
Soul jazz 70 %
Free jazz 40 %
Mainstream 50 %
Jazz-rock and Fusion music 30 %
148
Table 4
Rock Genre Occurrence Rate
Rock and roll 70 %
Post-rock and roll 90 %
Punk rock, heavy metal 90 %
Hard rock, new wave, thrash metal, groove 80 %
Gothic rock, electronic rock, soft rock 60 %
Art ock, hard core, speed metal, experimental rock 50 %
New age 30 %
The world-wide adoption of jazz and rock music, irregardless of nationality,

implies a universal acceptance of the basic jazz and rock norms, including rhythm
archetypes. In so accepting, musicians will employ rhythm archetypes with their
repetitions as the characteristic element. High proportions of jazz and rock ar-
chetypes are associated with greater uniformity in these genres and lesser use of
national rhythms. In this respect, jazz and rock music are tending to become a
certain universal model; hence jazzmen often say that jazz is cosmopolitan and
supranational music which has developed from syntheses of many cultures. The
process is ongoing even despite distances between countries.
Along with the typical rhythm archetypes, which are the essence of jazz and
rock music, other rhythms (e.g. Latin-American, Jamaican reggae and those pro-
duced electronically) may also occur in jazz and rock. However, the commercial
marketing of rock, and partially also of jazz music carries a risk that the more
non-archetypal rhythm models are used in the compositions, the less successful
their sales will be.
149
Summary
This book follows the work that commenced in its counterpart, On the History of
Jazz Music. Both books are the result of a major resarch study in which 403 jazz
rhythm patterns and 420 rock patterns were analysed in order to identify rhythm
archetypes in both music genres.
Using musical and theoretical analyses, On the History of Rock Music follows
the development of rock music from its origins up to the present time. It focuses
on the relationships between the sound, improvisations and rhythms in particular
styles, and gives specific attention to the development of rhythm as one of the
characteristic elements of rock music. The beat-offbeat principle, polyrhythms
and poly-metrics are fundamental to rock rhythm patterns. Patterns behave as ar-
chetypes for specific rhythms. An archetype is a prototype, a model, or an innate
experience of a species.
When a particular music style establishes specific rhythm patterns, they be-
come its typical features and appear in new forms in the style’s subsequent devel-
opment. In comparison with jazz, rock music more frequently uses the principle
of pattern repetitions.
By the means of rhythm analyses, it is possible to not only identify the charac-
teristic rhythm patterns used in particular rock style eras, but also to determine the
basic rhythm pattern – the archetype – which characterises rock music in general.
However, the complexity of archetype analysis is compounded by the patterns’
tendency to engender new variations.
The research findings show that of a total of 420 analysed rock samples rhythm
archetypes were found in 293. That means a 70% archetype occurrence rate or
pattern repetition, and a probability of 0.70. In conclusion, out of every ten re-
searched rock patterns, seven possess rhythm archetypes, and the remaining three
use different rhythm structures.
151
Discography
1. Animals: Ark, IRS Rec., 1983.

2. Beatles: SGT. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, EMI, 1967.
3. Beatles: Abbey Road, EMI, 1969.
4. The Best of John Vangelis, Polydor, 1983.
5. Bill Haley and The Comets, Muza, 1985.
6. Cure: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Fiction, 1987.
7. Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, Faulty Products, Alterna-
tive Tentacles, 1980.
8. Deep Purple: Perfect Strangers, Supraphon, 1984.
9. Deep Purple: Fireball, EMI, 1971.
10. Deep Purple in Rock, Jugoton, 1970.
11. Deep Purple: The House of Blue Light, Supraphon, 1988.
12. Deep Purple: Made in Japan, Electrola, 1972.
13. Bob Dylan at the Budokan, CBS, 1978.
14. Elvis Costello and The Attractions: Ten Bloody Marys and Ten How’s Your
Fathers, TMP Rec., 1980.
15. Elvis Costello and The Attractions: Punch The Clock, 1983, Beat Rec.
16. Elvis, Balkanton, 1979.
17. Elvis Promised Land, Opus, 1980.
18. Enya: Shepherds Moons, EMI, 1991.
19. Frank Zappa: Uncle Meat, Bizzare, Reprise, 1969.
20. Frank Zappa: Thing Fish,Barking Pumpkin Rec., Capitol, 1984.
21. Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers of Prevention (European Version), Barking
Pumpkin Rec., Capitol, 1985.
22. Frank Zappa - Freak Out! The Mothers Of Invention, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer,
1966.
23. Frank Zappa: Sleep Dirt, DiscReet Rec., 1979.
24. Frank Zappa: Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Strangers, Angel Rec.
EMI, 1984.
25. Iron Maiden, EMI, 1990.
26. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Polydor, 1967.
27. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland, Polydor, 1968.
28. Joe Satriani: The Extremist, Relativity, 1992.
29. John and Vangelis, Opus, 1981.
30. The Kinks, 1964 – 1968, PE Rec., 1969.
153
31. Kraftwerk, Kling Klang Produkt, 1981.
32. 50 X The King: Elvis Presley Greatest Songs, Electrorecord, 1984.
33. Led Zeppelin I., II., III., IV. Atlantic Rec., 1990.
34. Legendary (J. Mayall, Yardbirds, Animals…), Bellaphon, 198?.
35. Metallica: Jump in The Fire, Popron, 1991.
36. Metallica, Vertigo, 1991.
37. Mission: Masque, Phonogram Ltd., 1992.
38. Napalm Death: Harmony Corruption, Earache Rec., 1980.
39. Patti Smith: Radio Ethiopia, Arista, 1976.
40. Patti Smith: Horses, Arista, 1975.
41. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of The Moon, Harvest, Capitol, 1973.
42. Pink Floyd: A Momentary Lapse of Reason, EMI, 1987.
43. Pink Floyd: Ummagumma I., II. vol., Harvest, EMI, 1969.
44. Police: Zenyatta Mandatta, RTB Rec., 1980.
45. Police: Ghost in The Machine, Supraphon, 1983.
46. Roadie, Warner Bros. Rec., 1980.
47. Rock and Roll, Opus, 1974.
48. Rock Rotation (Beatles, Cream, Velvet Underground…), Polydor, 1971.
49. Rockin’ With Chuck Berry, Philips, 198?.
50. Sade: Diamond Life, Epic, 1984.
51. Sade: Promise, Epic, 1985.
52. Sex Pistols: Flogging a Dead Horse, EMI, 1979.
53. Siouxsie and The Banshees: Superstition, Polydor, 1991.
54. Siouxsie and The Banshees: Through The Looking Glass, Polydor, 1987.
55. Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation, Enigma, 1988.
56. Steve Vai: Passion and Warfare, Relativity, 1990.
57. Talking Heads: Little Creatures, Supraphon, 1985.
58. Talking Heads: Speaking In Tongues, Sire, 1983.
59. Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, 1971 – 1981, Sire
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60. 24 Top Oldies, vol.3., RCA, 1981.
61. U2: The Unforgettable Fire, Yugoton, 1985.
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65. The Who: My Generation, Brunswick Ltd., 1965.
66. The Who Collection, Polydor, 1981.
67. The Yardbirds, Bellaphon, 1965.
68. Yes, Atlantic, 1991.
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Notes from the author
Music transcriptions: Yvetta Kajanová

Software transcriptions: Oskar Lehotský
Reviewers: prof. PhDr. Jiří Fukač, CSc., prof. PhDr. Oskár Elschek, DrSc.,
PhDr. Vladimír Brožík
This book is primarily intended to be a history of rock music although it is also
designed as a textbook for students of music, aesthetics, culture and art. To gain
a better understanding of the theory of rock music it is recommended that readers
study the music analyses in this book and look more deeply into the pieces. Most
of them are accessible on the Internet or available in libraries.
161

KAJANOVÁ, Yvetta. On The History of Rock Music

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Kajanová

On the History of Rock Music

ISBN 978-3-631-65556-6 www.peterlang.com

On the History of Rock Music

On the History of Rock Music

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cover image: © Oliver Solga

Gratefully acknowledging the financial support of Vedecká grantová agentúra

Translated from the Slovakian original: Yvetta Kajanová: K dejinám rocku,

ISBN 978-3-631-65556-6 (Print)

1. Beat is an unconscious form of protest, an opposition without a clear purpose.

1 München: Juventa Verlag, 1968.

2 New York: Da Capo Press, 1970, second edition 1987.

5 New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1986.

rhythm of rock and roll

The Rhythm of Rock and Roll

D. Bartholomew, R. Hayes & F. Domino: “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday”,1959; LP

D. Bartholomew, R. Hayes & F. Domino: “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday”, 1959; LP

a division of the beat into triplets occurs

This example is also interesting because of the fragmentation of beats in 4/4

Example f1 The original pattern

Example f2 Polyrhythmic pattern

In the later developmental stages of rock, rhythmic patterns tended to be played

Example g2 Blues pattern

Stop time is a frequently used rhythmic fragmentation adopted from blues

Post-rock and roll compositions

H.G. Demarais: “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, LP Yardbirds: For Your Love,

Example c1 Tempo Moderato

R. Davies: “You Really Got Me”, LP Kinks, PYE, 1964.

March patterns played a particularly important role in punk rock composi-

L. Hermann: “Night Time Is The Right Time”, LP Animals, MGM, 1964.

Example h5 Modification of the pattern

The following musical compositions contain blues patterns so significantly

23 Apple Records, 1968.

26 Dorůžka, Peter: Plný šuplík Zappu. Bratislava: Opus, 1990.

28 Berger, Roman: Hudba a pravda. Bratislava: EKK, Orman, 1997.

Another of Frank Zappa’s compositions, “The Return of The Son of Monster

The Rhythm of the Second Hard Rock Era

“Space Truckin”, LP Deep Purple Made In Japan, EMI/Purple, 1972.

Both compositions feature on LP Deep Purple made in Japan, EMI/Purple,

32 The composition was released also as SP, Harvest Records, 1971.

A variation of the rock pattern and its diminution

Example c1A Introductory pattern in “Whole Lotta Love”

After the basic pattern theme is introduced, it is followed by individual drum

which was preceded by a model consisting of a quarter note, a dotted eighth

The new hi-hat pattern is

Similarly, a predecessor of the sixteenth note sequence

was a blues pattern.

Example c1C has the same pattern as Example c1A

Example c 2F = c 2A’ Model A replicated

There is a change of tempo in pattern c2D as it is played in double time, and

A source of polyrhythms in hard rock can also be created by a pattern sequence

The Rhythm of Art Rock

In art rock, the rhythmical (declamatory) singing on different syllables is nota-

The Rhythm of Electronic rock

Kraftwerk: “Taschenrechner”, LP Kraftwerk: Computer World, Kling Klang, 1981.

Kraftwerk: “Computerwelt”, LP Kraftwerk: Computer World, Kling Klang, 1981.

Example dB Hard rock rhythm

Punk rock originated as a reaction to the increasing sophistication of art rock.

43 SP Sex Pistols: Anarchy in The U.K., EMI, 1976.

The Rhythm of Punk rock

46 The LP’s release date is unknown.

Sex Pistols: “Anarchy In The UK”, CD Flogging a Dead Horse, Virgin,1980.

The new hi-hat pattern is