Hard Rock or Heavy Metal

[Tom Sawyer]

I've read about these two definitions, some makes sense (sort of) and others don't --

 

If it's Positive lyrics it's considered HARD ROCK?

Negative is Heavy Metal?

 

So it's possible, I guess, for a band to play both?

 

So it would refer to the music rather than the band?

 

Born to be wild -

 

"I like smoke and lightning

Heavy metal thunder

Racin' with the wind

And the feelin' that I'm under"

 

discuss please

[Ernest Scribbler]

You see, I've always considered Born To Be Wild as hard rock, not metal.

 

So where does that leave us?

[Tom Sawyer]

QUOTE (Ernest Scribbler @ May 26 2006, 02:38 PM)

You see, I've always considered Born To Be Wild as hard rock, not metal. So where does that leave us?

I KNOW --- so you see where it's confusing me?

[GeddyRulz]

QUOTE

If it's Positive lyrics it's considered HARD ROCK? Negative is Heavy Metal?

 

That's oversimplifying it too much. There's a lot of grey area. Let me make some examples:

 

I wouldn't call anything by the band Styx "heavy metal" and yet they sometimes have negative lyrics.

 

Dio's entire catalog is "heavy metal," and yet some of his lyrics are positive, and some of his songs are ballads.

 

Metallica - in my mind - is both "heavy metal" and "hard rock," while Rush is just hard rock.

 

Wow. I'm just making the issue more confusing.

Aw, hell... Heavy Metal and Hard Rock are whatever you think they are.

Just don't ever call Journey, Styx, and Asia "heavy metal."

 

 

[PuppetKing2112]

Bands that are heavier and have less of a sense of humor are more likely considered heavy metal. A band like Van Halen would be hard rock, while Metallica or Guns N Roses would be heavy metal. Just my undterstanding of it.

[Tom Sawyer]

Is The Beatles Helter Skelter hard rock or heavy metal?

[Lerxstforever]

I've kind of seen it as hard rock is the general term, while heavy metal is a more specific category within hard rock.

[kazzman]

give me some time to do a little more research on this subject and I'll post later...

[Kudzu]

I would consider bands like Iron Maiden, Guns 'N' Roses, Judas Priest, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and that ilk (music which I personally dislike, actually, by and large) to be heavy metal.

 

Rush, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, etc. would be what I'd classify as hard rock.

 

It's actually mostly era-based for me. In the late '70s and '80s, a lot of hard-rocking bands found it fashionable to crank up their amps to a bone-shattering level and start slamming and jamming away on their electric guitars, bass guitars, crash cymbals, and drum sets. I think the difference musically is that hard rock has tension and release, while most heavy metal is just pure tension (jamming and playing the guts out of their instruments, making them more of virtuoso showcases and loudness machines than anything else), which I am not overly fond of myself.

 

For what it's worth, though, I do like Whitesnake well enough.

[Bastille Night]

 

 

I've always disliked the distinctions between various "brands" of music....one of my mom's friends referred to Led Zeppelin as "acid rock", and that made me cringe.

 

As far as heavy metal.....I would consider any band to fall into this category if they ever wore leather in a serious fashion (no irony involved), and.......well that's pretty much it.

 

Hard rock is anyone else that doesn't fall into the above category but plays music in a similar vein.

 

 

 

[Kudzu]

If any classic rock band can be called "acid rock", it'd be Pink Floyd...or The Beatles, for that matter...or Cream...

[floydfanatic111]

QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ May 26 2006, 04:53 PM)

QUOTE If it's Positive lyrics it's considered HARD ROCK? Negative is Heavy Metal?   That's oversimplifying it too much. There's a lot of grey area. Let me make some examples:   I wouldn't call anything by the band Styx "heavy metal" and yet they sometimes have negative lyrics.   Dio's entire catalog is "heavy metal," and yet some of his lyrics are positive, and some of his songs are ballads.   Metallica - in my mind - is both "heavy metal" and "hard rock," while Rush is just hard rock.   Wow. I'm just making the issue more confusing. Aw, hell... Heavy Metal and Hard Rock are whatever you think they are. Just don't ever call Journey, Styx, and Asia "heavy metal." VHf*ckin1 said Pink Floyd were HARD ROCK! PF are art rock!

[Ernest Scribbler]

QUOTE (Kudzu @ May 27 2006, 05:43 AM)

For what it's worth, though, I do like Whitesnake well enough.

I had the misfortune to see Whitesnake once. They were neither hard rock or heavy metal, they were simply awful.

[Tom Sawyer]

Some bands like Quiet Riot, Judas Priest, Deep Purple and others might be concidered Heavy Metal bands, but like Kiss, Poison and Led Zeppelin who might be considered Heavy Metal Bands did mellow songs like Beth, Every Rose Has A Thorn, and Going To California which are definately NOT Heavy Metal songs, so I stand by my theory that it's the music not the band that defines the term.

 

Unless it's defined on a curve based on the percetage of the music the band produces.

[Ernest Scribbler]

In a weird coincidence I've just been reading an interview with Tool where the exact same argument crops up. They don't see themselves as heavy metal as they think they have more in common with Pink Floyd than they do with Metallica. But by the same token, Maynard Keenan doesn't regard Black Sabbath as a metal band. I've always been of the belief that Sabbath set the blueprint for every metal band thereafter as Zeppelin were more heavy rock/blues and Deep Purple had prog rock tendencies. Sabbath set the template, IMO, as they combined extremely heavy riffs with extremely miserable lyrics.

 

Look at Soundgarden, for example, Sabbath riffs with wailing vocals. Archetypal metal you might think, but you never hear them described a s metal.

 

The debate rumbles on.............................

[Kudzu]

QUOTE (Ernest Scribbler @ May 27 2006, 01:37 AM)

QUOTE (Kudzu @ May 27 2006, 05:43 AM) For what it's worth, though, I do like Whitesnake well enough. I had the misfortune to see Whitesnake once. They were neither hard rock or heavy metal, they were simply awful. Every band has bad concerts, I should think.

[Wandering Hermit]

QUOTE (Ernest Scribbler @ May 27 2006, 09:57 AM)

In a weird coincidence I've just been reading an interview with Tool where the exact same argument crops up. They don't see themselves as heavy metal as they think they have more in common with Pink Floyd than they do with Metallica. But by the same token, Maynard Keenan doesn't regard Black Sabbath as a metal band. I've always been of the belief that Sabbath set the blueprint for every metal band thereafter as Zeppelin were more heavy rock/blues and Deep Purple had prog rock tendencies. Sabbath set the template, IMO, as they combined extremely heavy riffs with extremely miserable lyrics. Look at Soundgarden, for example, Sabbath riffs with wailing vocals. Archetypal metal you might think, but you never hear them described a s metal. The debate rumbles on.............................

That is interesting - I think of Tool as a metal version of Floyd. A harder, harsher Floyd.

[Cygnalschick]

QUOTE (Ernest Scribbler @ May 27 2006, 02:37 AM)

QUOTE (Kudzu @ May 27 2006, 05:43 AM) For what it's worth, though, I do like Whitesnake well enough. I had the misfortune to see Whitesnake once. They were neither hard rock or heavy metal, they were simply awful. I like Whitesnake! Come on, they're not that bad

[daveyt]

rock is dead

[Kudzu]

QUOTE (daveyt @ May 27 2006, 12:54 PM)

rock is dead

No, it will remain endlessly rocking.

 

Now, big band rock ala the '50s...that's pretty close to dead. Post-Beatles rock? Nowhere near. Not yet.

[Ernest Scribbler]

QUOTE (Cygnalschick @ May 27 2006, 08:50 PM)

QUOTE (Ernest Scribbler @ May 27 2006, 02:37 AM) QUOTE (Kudzu @ May 27 2006, 05:43 AM) For what it's worth, though, I do like Whitesnake well enough. I had the misfortune to see Whitesnake once. They were neither hard rock or heavy metal, they were simply awful. I like Whitesnake! Come on, they're not that bad If you were at the Monsters of Rock Festival, Donington Park, England in August 1990 then perhaps you'd change your opinion. The only two things that stick out in my mind is Steve Vai's flying guitar and Coverdale goading the audience into shouting 'f**k' because the concert was being broadcast live on BBC radio. Look at the band's name, it should tell you all you need to know.

[Kudzu]

See, they stopped being good after about 1989. Bad timing.

[Ernest Scribbler]

QUOTE (Kudzu @ May 28 2006, 09:11 AM)

See, they stopped being good after about 1989. Bad timing.

Yeah, right

[Fridge]

QUOTE (Ernest Scribbler @ May 28 2006, 11:52 AM)

QUOTE (Kudzu @ May 28 2006, 09:11 AM) See, they stopped being good after about 1989. Bad timing. Yeah, right Ready An' Willing is a cracking album though...   Mind you they were still Deep purple MK2 then

[Stormtron]

When I think of metal I think of the British bands like Priest and Maiden, and thrash bands like Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth. Bands like AC/DC, GNR, and Zeppelin are "hard rock" to me.