Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index In the 1970s, music from the United Kingdom further diversified. Heavy metal music grew into hair metal in the United States, and other American metal bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith and KISS helped move the UK from the forefront of the metal world. A late-1970s influx of British metal bands, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, helped change this, especially bands like Judas Priest. At the same time, disco grew to prominence world-wide and a brief fad for Jamaican lovers rock also sold well in the UK. The mid- to late 1970s saw the rise of punk rock in the UK and US. Bands like The Clash and the Sex Pistols became very controversial, attacking institutions and authorities and using a quick, simple rhythm alongside humorous, immature, nihilist or thought-provoking lyrics. This article is part of the Music of the United Kingdom series. English folk Irish folk Scottish folk Welsh folk Cornish and Manx folk Early British popular music 1950s and 60s 1970s: Punk, progressive and folk-rock, heavy metal 1980s 1990s Table of contents 1 Heavy metal 2 Progressive rock 3 Punk rock 4 Jamaican music 5 Indian music 6 Folk music 7 Pub rock Heavy metal Heavy metal is a highly-evolved form of blues rock played with intense emotions and a stronger focus on the bass guitar than other genres. It is sometimes characterized as needlessly loud, aggressive and bombastic, but it also typically passionate and intense. The genre is generally considered a British development, with the bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath the primary innovators. However, these bands drew on earlier proto-metal ranging from British blues rock bands like The Yardbirds to American proto-punks The Stooges and Velvet Underground, and the dark psychedelic rock of The Doors and Blue Cheer. Heavy metal lyrics are often cryptic, sometimes with references to literature (especially science fiction or fantasy) and the occult. Black Sabbath's debut, Black Sabbath, was released in 1970 and caused an immediate stir. The name of the band (and album) conjured up images of evil, rebellion and vulgarity, and the recording confirmed these suspicions for some people. The band found a devoted fanbase, however, who easily related to the alienation expressed in the lyrics, and found an affinity with the loud and aggressive nature of the songs. There was little mainstream success for Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin or the other heavy metal bands in the early 70s, but the genre left lasting influences on glam, punk rock and progressive rock. In the latter half of the 70s, underground rock was associated primarily with punk music in the UK, but a New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) began seeing some success in the States. These bands included Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Into the 80s, many of the most innovative heavy metal bands were formed by Americans raised on NWOBHM, and subgenres like thrash metal were created, while American pop-heavy metal bands, especially hair metal groups like Motley Crue and Ratt, saw massive mainstream success in the UK and elsewhere. Progressive rock Progressive rock had seen some mainstream success prior to 1970, from the Moody Blues (Days of Future Passed) and Procol Harum ("A Whiter Shade of Pale"). However, there was no band to be able to consistently lead the genre until Keith Emerson broke up The Nice and joined with King Crimson's Greg Lake and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's Carl Palmer; the trio were Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and their 1970 debut Emerson, Lake & Palmer was an American and British hit that borrowed, originally without giving credit, from classical composers Bela Bartok and Janacek. At the same time, Rick Wakeman joined folk-rock band The Strawbs, who were incorporating extended piano rolls, and Pink Floyd entered the pure progressive rock field with Atom Heart Mother, and groups like Yes (The Yes Album, 1971) and Deep Purple began entering progressive territory. Wakeman soon switched from The Strawbs to Yes, making that band one of the most popular progressive bands, while The Strawbs added a mellotron and brought British folk bands like Magna Carta, Gryphon and Amazing Blondel towards progressive sounds. Jethro Tull was the most influential folk-progressive fusion, and their albums, like Aqualung and Thick As a Brick, were popular. Genesis began recording long, complex albums like Selling England By the Pound, bringing progressive rock even more experimental and classical elements. 1971 was the year progressive rock entered the mainstream, with the release of Yes' The Yes Album, Pink Floyd's Meddle and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus. These were fantastically popular among the British youth, though critical reception was mixed. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973) remains perhaps the most popular progressive album of all time, and is one of the best-selling albums of any kind worldwide. By the mid-70s, however, progressive albums were growing so experimental that fans became alienated, and many bands found themselves recording repetitive and derivative albums following the same formula as previous hits. Yes, for example, released a double album consisting of four side-long tracks, and Jethro Tull's single-track LP A Passion Play was scorned by the same critics who lavished praise upon the single-track predecessor, Thick As a Brick. Roxy Music arose during this period, and managed to maintain critical acclaim and launch the careers of both Bray Ferry and Brian Eno. Progressive rock died quickly, beginning in about 1976 with the release of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Welcome Back My Friends and the dissolution of the Moody Blues. By the time progressive rock had begun losing its mainstream acceptance, a new wave of continental bands were continued the genre, including Germany's Kraftwerk and Magma and Italy's Premiata Forneria Marconi, while England's own Barclay James Harvest maintained a huge fanbase in Germany, as did the English-Germans Nektar. Meanwhile, English bands like Soft Machine and Gong added strong jazz influences, Van Fer Graaf Generator was a heavy metal fusion and Caravan was a folk-rock-progressive group. Punk rock During the 1970s, punk rock developed among the urban youth of the United Kingdom. Many had grown up listening to early skiffle and merseybeat, or psychedelic rock, and found that they hated the new generation of bombastic bands. Social and economic pressure created a contradictory scene, in which both idealism and nihilism were valued, multicultural influences like Jamaican ska were incorporated, and a wave of angry rebels openly defied every social norm they could. The middle of the 1970s saw legendary rock stars from the 60s like the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney creating imitations of their own previous work with little of the originality that made the 60s musically interesting. British teens were listening to these records amidst a floundering economy and a rapidly changing world power structure that seemed to be leaving the UK behind. Behind the pop acts, though were cult phenomena like pub rock bands, including Brinsley Schwarz and Eggs Over Easy, and artsy American bands like Velvet Underground, alongside wild and energetic American performers like New York Dolls and Iggy Pop. In 1975, the most well-known punk band, Sex Pistols, began performing with Malcolm McLaren as manager. Their first single came out the following year; "Anarchy in the U.K." was dirty and fast, full of energy, bitterness and venom, and it inspired more punk groups, including The Damned, reggae-fusionists The Clash, poppy The Buzzcocks and mod-revivalists The Jam. Punk rock began to explode in popularity, leading to increased pressure on these bands, especially as a legion of less famous groups popped up. Australians The Saints, Generation X (featuring future pop star Billy Idol), X-Ray Spex, Johnny Moped, Slaughter & the Dogs, The Adverts, The Vibrators, Eater and Chelsea saw temporary fame, but remain well-known among devoted punk fans today. The pressures of fame proved too much for punk rock, and Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols during an American tour, The Clash broke into pop American audiences amid cries of "selling out" and many of the lesser-known bands fell prey to infighting and the steady adoption of a competitive atmosphere to punk shows, in which audience members attempted to out-punk others by being more rebellious, more crazy and more wild. The result was a splintering of genres, all sometimes referred to with the collective term post-punk. Hardcore punk arose primarily in the States, while the UK saw Elvis Costello-inspired New Wave/proto-Gothic rock acts like Siouxsie & the Banshees, minimalist punk sounds from The Fall and Wire, alternative rock like The Soft Boys and the marriage of pop and punk from The Undertones. Of these, Siouxsie & the Banshees' brand of Gothic, dark-edged New Wave proved the most influential, leading the way for the The Cure and Joy Division to define what was known as Gothic rock in the 80s. Jamaican music Jamaican immigrants to the UK has resulted in a large community and its attendant cultural institutions. Island Records and Trojan Records, for example, introduced Jamaican music to the British during the 1970s. Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop" was the beginning of the popularization of reggae, which influenced everything from pop and reggae to the mod and punk sounds of two-tone in the 1980s. Radio attention has always been scarce, with little outlet until the 1981 founding of the Dread Broadcasting Corporation, a pirate radio station. The 1970s saw the first major flowering of British reggae with bands like The Cimarons, Aswad and Matumbi. Many of these bands adopted pop forms to appeal to mainstream audiences, a practice which peaked in the 1980s, when Aswad's "Don't Turn Around" (1988) became the first chart-topper from a British reggae band and the emergence of UB40's pure pop reggae.. At the same time, other groups, including Steel Pulse, kept the distinctively Jamaican confrontational lyrics. The later part of the decade saw the rise of the two-tone groups, often interracial, who included The Selecter, The Specials and The Beat. 1970s saw the rise of dub poetry, exemplified by Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sister Netifa and Benjamin Zephaniah. Louisa Marks' "Caught You in a Lie" began a major craze for lovers' rock music at the end of the decade, and the genre soon became popular across the United Kingdom. Indian music Indians migrated to the UK in great numbers following World War 2, settling in urban areas like Bradford, London, Manchester and Birmingham. These migrants brought with them several varieties of Indian music, and a widespread Indian-British music scene had arisen by the mid-1970s, when dance bands like Alaap and Bhujungy began performing at weddings and other celebrations. Bhangra is an Indian folk dance from Punjab that has become the most popular form of Indian music in the UK. It is led by the dhol drum with romantic or humorous lyrics. More recently electric guitars, keyboards and other instruments were added to the ensemble. The biggest early band was Alaap, who formed in 1977 and were discovered by Pran Gohill of Polygram Records. Gohill's Multitone label had previously had success with Indian disco, and artists like [Mussarrat Nazir]] and Salma Agha, and found bhangra to be an easily dance-able and potential mainstream success. Folk music Fairport Convention had set the stage for British folk-rock. The early 70s saw groups like The Strawbs and Lindisfarne see mainstream success in the UK, while old-time performers from the scene like Shirley Collins and Martin Carthy joined revolutionary groups that tried to make folk music more accessible for modern audiences. Other performers, like Richard Thompson and Nick Drake, emerged inspired by the American singer-songwriter tradition and found considerable fame. Mainstream success, however, was short-lived, and by the end of the 70s, folk-rock had lost its edge among British youth. Pub rock Pub rock was a short-lived trend that left a lasting influence on the British music scene, especially in punk rock. It was a back-to-basics movement that reacted against the glittery glam rock of David Bowie and Gary Glitter, and peaked in the mid 1970s. Pub rock developed around London's Tally Ho, a jazz club, and is said to have begun in 1972 with Eggs Over Easy, an American band, playing in Tally Ho. A group of musicians who had been playing in blues and R&B bands during the 60s and early 70s soon formed influential bands like Kippington Lodge, Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe, The Actions and Bees Make Honey. Brinsley Schwarz was probably the most influential group, achieving some mainstream success both in the UK and in the States. The second wave of pub rock included High Roads, Ace and Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers; these were followed by the third and final wave of pub rock, including Dr. Feelgood, The Winkies and Sniff & the Tears. Many pub rock musicians soon found themselves in Graham Parker's backing band, The Rumours, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, The Residents and even The Clash. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.