The best foreign hard rock. Hard rock music

American music channel VH1 has identified the 100 best hard rock artists of all time - from the dawn of rock in the 60s (Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, Hendrix), stadium concerts (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith) to the representatives of the furious "new wave" (Sex Pistols, The Clash) and our contemporaries (Nirvana, Metallica, Soundgarden).
We bring to your attention top ten these performers.

British rock band, formed in September 1968 in London, England, and recognized as one of the most successful, innovative and influential in the world. modern history. Having created their own sound (which was characterized by a heavy guitar drive, a deafening rhythm section and piercing vocals), Led Zeppelin became one of the leading bands of hard rock, played a fundamental role in the development of heavy metal, freely interpreting folk and blues classics and enriching the style with elements of other musical genres (rockabilly, reggae, soul, funk, country). It was Led Zeppelin (according to Allmusic) who, by refusing to release singles, laid the foundation for the concept of "album rock".
Led Zeppelin remains one of the most successful bands in rock music, with over 300 million albums sold worldwide, with 112 million sold in the US (fourth place). Seven Led Zeppelin albums have climbed to the top of the Billboard 200.

British rock band, formed in Birmingham, England, in 1968 and had a significant impact on the development of rock music, primarily heavy metal. The debut album by Black Sabbath is considered one of the first heavy metal albums, and laid the foundation for the subsequent development of doom metal. Ten of the band's albums have been in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart. By 2000, the total circulation of Black Sabbath albums approached 70 million.

American virtuoso guitarist, singer and composer. In 2009, Time magazine named Hendrix greatest guitarist of all times. Widely recognized as one of the most daring and inventive virtuosos in the history of rock music.

4.AC/DC

An Australian rock band formed in Sydney in November 1973 by Scottish brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. With bands like Led Zeppelin, deep purple, Queen, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Judas Priest and Motorhead AC/DC are often regarded as the pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal. The band has sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 68 million in the US. The most successful album, Back in Black, sold over 22 million in the US and over 42 million overseas. Overall, AC/DC is the most successful and famous rock band from Australia and one of the most popular in the world.

American metal band formed in 1981. Performs music in the style of thrash metal and heavy metal.
Metallica has been a major influence on the development of metal and is (along with bands such as Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) one of the "big four" of thrash metal. Metallica's albums have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, making them one of the most commercially successful metal bands. In 2011, one of the largest metal music magazines, Kerrang! in the June issue recognized Metallica as the best metal band of the last 30 years.

American rock band formed by vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana acquired unexpected success with the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from his second album, Nevermind, released in 1991. Subsequently, Nirvana entered the musical mainstream by popularizing the alternative rock subgenre called grunge. Kurt Cobain became in the eyes of the media not just a musician, but the "voice of a generation", and Nirvana became the flagship of "Generation X".

This one of the most famous American hard rock bands was born in 1973 in Pasadena, California.
Every new album Van Halen climbed higher in the charts than the previous one. In 1983, the band earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the most expensive performance: they received $ 1.5 million for a 90-minute concert at the US Festival.

British rock band formed in 1964. Initial line-up consisted of Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon. The band gained huge success through extraordinary live performances and is considered both one of the most influential bands of the 60s and 70s and one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

9. Guns n' Roses

American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985.
The band gained worldwide popularity after the release by Geffen Records in 1987 of their first full-length album Appetite for Destruction (according to the RIAA, it is the most commercially successful debut album in the history of rock and roll). Success was cemented by a world tour and two albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. This is one of the most successful rock bands, with a total circulation of 100 million records sold.

10. KISS

An American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973, playing glam rock, shock rock and hard rock and is known for its members' stage make-up, as well as concert shows accompanied by various pyrotechnic effects.
As of 2010, they have over forty-five gold and platinum albums and over 100 million records sold.

Behind long years the existence of hard rock, many bands have appeared that can be considered the best of the best. The main creators of the style who created the modern look of the hard rock style can be considered the following. It is advisable to divide them into two groups, founders and heirs.

Classic hard rock bands

The first include Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, recognized as the three pillars of hard rock. They are the ones.

Led Zeppelin. The group is recognized as the best hard rock band and is the founder and pioneer of heavy metal. It was the "zeppelins" that laid the foundation and developed the basic principles of sound for future generations. Also, it was the zeppelins who first began to write, which became hallmark hard rock in the 80s.

Black Sabbath. The musicians are considered the founders of heavy metal and many other styles of heavy music. They also had an influence on the formation of punk rock. Early albums Black Sabbath, and especially Tony Iommi's riffs, had a great influence on the way guitarists played in the late 70s.

deep purple. Another significant group Albums of the third composition (Mark III) are considered classics of the genre, which is still recognized among best rock songs. This is especially true for Machine Head and In Rock albums, which take 2nd and 3rd places in the list of the best hard rock albums in the Classic Rock edition list.

Uriah Heep. This group is often forgotten, because even in Britain they are considered only the 4th hard rock group. However, the work of the "hips" of the early 70s brought a lot to the development of music. David Byron's high vocals soon became the benchmark for some heavy styles, and the songs seem to be considered no less classic by connoisseurs than Child in Time or Stairway to Heaven.

Def Leppard. The British team is prominent representative new wave era of heavy metal. However, they soon moved away from heavy music towards a more commercial sound, which subsequently developed in the Americas in special genre Glammetal.

Post-classic hard rock bands

The teams that continued to popularize and develop the genre, which is symbolic, are not the British. Raised in the mists of London, the genre has evolved under the hot American sun. It is advisable to include all of the following among the leading teams of American hard rock.

Kiss. The main merit of the collective is the formation of the atmosphere of the show at concerts, which is now characteristic of all groups of heavy genres. Incendiary in every sense Kiss concerts and bright make-up contributed to the popularization of the group, and their work in the 70s is recognized as one of the best to this day.

Aerosmith. The team, which for the United States became a counterbalance to the British hard rock invasion. Their work went through a decline in the 80s, but in the 90s they returned to the top along with the famous ballads - Crazy and Cryin".

Bon Jovi is one of cult groups era of hard and heavy. It was Jon Bon Jovi who became the progenitor of the direction of melodic hard rock. The main achievement of the hard rock group is the album Slippery When Wet, which sold more than 25 million copies and is considered the best-selling record among American hard rock bands of the 80s.

By the way, John often plays poker and likes to visit American casinos, preferring Atlantic City.

Van Halen. It was Eddie van Halen who happened to make a revolution in the sound of the guitar in heavy music. His two-handed tapping technique, invented early in his career, became especially popular in the eighties, changing the sound of all the bands of the new generation. The first attempts to light up Van Halen made back in 1976 with the help of Gene Simmons, but bassist Kiss turned out to be a poor assistant.

Guns n "Roses. In fact, they became the last significant group in the history of hard rock. Their song Welcome to the Jungle was even recognized as the most popular by VH1, and their debut album Appetite for Destruction is considered the most successful debut, as evidenced by its sales, which almost reached record Bon Jovi.It is symbolic that the same Jon Bon Jovi gave them a start in life.

Simply the best hard rock bands

But there are two more bands that every music fan knows about. They did a lot for the formation of the genre - some gave it enthusiasm, while others gave it soul. It's about about with Australian and German roots, which successfully took root first in England and then in the USA.

Incendiary Australians presented the world with a completely different kind of hard rock. Instead of long compositions with an abundance of solo parts and high vocals, they offered perky three chords and Bon Scott's husky voice, which became a trademark early work team. It is AC / DC, together with Led Zeppelin, that is considered the most commercially successful hard rock group, and their album Back in Black is the best-selling hard rock record, second only to the works of Michael Jackson.

The German pioneers continued the work of the Zeppelins. It is their love lyrics that are considered the reference on the world stage. They were the first to open the curtain commercial success for groups from continental Europe.

Hard rock in the USSR

In the USSR, hard rock began to develop only in the late 80s and the most prominent representative is Gorky Park, who also took custody of the ubiquitous Bon Jovi. The group released two groovy albums Bang and Moscow Calling (which is remarkable with different vocalists - Nikolai Noskov and Alexander Marshal, who now perform not rock at all), but then changed direction and soon disbanded.

In addition to these groups, there are many other groups that have not achieved such popularity. They can be distinguished into a special:

• Grand Funk Railroad - the first USA;
• Motorhead is an influential but commercially unsuccessful band that plays a wondrous mixture of hard, heavy and speed metal;
• Rainbow - in fact, is a continuation of the traditions of Deep Purple in the version of Ritchie Blackmore;
• Whitesnake - similar, but applied to ;
• Dio is a solo project of an ex-Rainbow and Black Sabbath member;
• Alice Cooper is best known for his shock rock affiliation, being the first to put on a real show on stage.

Hard rock (the first word translates as "heavy") - musical style, which appeared in the 60s and gained the greatest popularity in the 70s of the last century. What are his distinguishing qualities? Firstly, heavy and secondly, a fairly calm pace, which cannot be said about heavy metal, which appeared a little later.

The origin of style

It is believed that given style was founded by The Kinks, who released a simple song "You Really Got Me" in 1964. She, however, was interesting in that the musicians played overblown guitars. Just imagine: we would probably not know anything about this style if it were not for the contribution of this group. Hard rock appeared precisely thanks to this team. Around the same time, there was an activity that performed music in the same style. But there was a touch of psychedelia in it. Also, blues teams began to come to the newly minted style, for example, "Yardbirds", as well as "Cream".

early 70s

It should be noted that this direction was most actively developed in the UK, and "Black Sabbath", "Deep Purple" and "Led Zeppelin" soon formed. All-time hits like "Paranoid" and "In Rock" soon followed.

The most successful hard rock album was "Machine Head", which included a song that everyone knows now, it was called "Smoke On The Water". At the same time, a rather gloomy band from Birmingham, calling themselves "Black Sabbath", worked on a par with their illustrious colleagues. Also, this team laid the foundation for a style called doom, which began to develop only ten years later. As soon as the 70s began, new hard rock bands appeared - Uriah Heep, Free, Nazareth, Atomic Rooster, UFO, Budgie, Thin Lizzy, Black Widow ", "Status Quo", "Foghat". And this is not all the bands founded at that time. There were also bands among them that flirted with other styles (for example, "Atomic Rooster" and "Uriah Heep" did not shy away from progressive, "Foghat" and "Status Quo" played boogie, and "Free" gravitated towards blues-rock) .

But be that as it may, they all played exactly hard. In the US, too, many drew attention to this style. The bands "Bloodrock", "Blue Cheer", and "Grand Funk Railroad" appeared there. The teams were not bad at all, but they did not achieve wide popularity. But many still fell in love with these groups. The hard rock they played ignited the hearts of their fans.

Mid and late 70s

In the mid-70s, such wonderful bands as "Montrose", "Kiss" and "Aerosmith" were founded. In addition, Alice Cooper, who performed shock rock, and Ted Nugent began to gain popularity. Followers of the style from other countries also began to appear: Australia put forward the kings of hard rock and roll under the name "AC / DC", Canada gave us "April Wine", a rather melodic group "Scorpions" was born in Germany, formed in Switzerland " Krokus.

But for "Deep Purple" everything was not going very well - they were going through a difficult period in their lives. Soon the group ceased to exist, but after that two wonderful bands were formed - "Rainbow", founded by R. Blackmore (later he gave birth to "Dio"), and "Whitesnake" - the brainchild of D. Coverdale. However, the end of the 70s could not be called a prosperous time for hard rock, since then popularity began to gain new wave and punk. It is also important that the kings of style began to lose ground - "Deep Purple" no longer existed, "Black Sabbath" lost their leader and unsuccessfully searched for a new one, nothing was heard about "Led Zeppelin" after he died

90s

The 90s were marked by a widespread interest in the alternative, including grunge, and hard rock was relegated to the background at that time, although good bands occasionally met. The group "Guns N" Roses, which shocked the world with their song "Use Your Illusion", was of the greatest interest, followed by the European bands "Gotthard" (Switzerland) and "Axel Rudi Pell" (Germany).

A little bit later…

Music in this style was performed later, however, some bands, for example, "Velvet Revolver" and "White Stripes", sounded a little different, there was an admixture of alternative, it was not pure hard rock. The bands are foreign for the most part and did not try to adhere to any standards.

But the most devoted followers of the style, who have not forgotten about the classical traditions, can be called "Answer", "Darkness", and also "Roadstar", however, the last two of them soon ceased to exist.

"Gorky Park"

Of a number of Russian representatives of hard rock, this group stands out most clearly. It was popular back in the USSR, the guys sang songs in English. In the 80s, the team was also known in America, and soon it became the first domestic team to be shown on MTV. Many people remember such “chips” of this group as Soviet symbols and folk clothes.

Performance with Scorpions, new album, video shooting, popularity in America

The Gorky Park team appeared in 1987. 12 months later, the team sang on the same stage with the Scorpions when they were in St. Petersburg.

Soon after that, the guys began to call themselves in English - “Gorky Park”, and in 1989 the eponymous name was recorded. It had an interesting design - the letters G and P were drawn on it, resembling a hammer and sickle in shape. The group then flew to New York to make videos there called "Bang!" and My Generation. IN Western countries at that time, many were interested in the USSR, and the team fell in love a wide range Americans. And no wonder, because it was the best Russian hard rock. The bands that play this style in our homeland could be counted on the fingers, and Gorky Park undoubtedly surpassed them all. Their success has been tremendous.

"Music Festival of the World"

"Gorky Park" began to ride like home country, as well as by states. In 1989, the team performed their songs at the famous metropolitan " Music festival of the world,” then one hundred and fifty thousand music lovers heard them.

Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Cinderella and Scorpions performed on the same stage. Of course, this was a great event for the band, the guys were happy that they were able to sing along with such legendary musicians. They later recalled this festival as one of the best events in the band's history, and they were right.

Touring Europe

Two years later, the group received the status of the most successful new international team. At the dawn of the 90s, the team successfully toured Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. For a long time these countries have not seen such a wonderful group. Hard rock in their performance was just great. At every performance there was a full house, crowds of people went to listen good music. And no one was left disappointed, everyone was delighted with the performance of this group. But could one expect anything else from a team, each member of which was really talented? Therefore, it is not surprising that the group has been successful.

"Moscow Calling", the departure of Alexander Minkov, the collapse of the group

However, after a while, Russia stopped captivating the minds of people in the West, and Gorky Park in America began to be forgotten. Soon the team released the album "Moscow Calling", and began touring our country.

1998 was marked by the departure of Alexander Minkov from the team, who came up with the name "Alexander Marshal" for himself and began to sing separately from the group. After that, "Gorky Park" began to experience not better times, and soon the team actually ceased to exist. However, Yan Yanenkov, together with Alexei Belov, continued to perform old compositions. They began to call themselves "Belov Park".

But former members once famous band did not forget about each other and sometimes gathered together for performances. Well, not a bad idea. Their fans were happy to see the newly assembled team and listen to their favorite songs. Each time they sang along with their idols, wondering if this was the last performance or if they would have another opportunity to hear the legendary band.

Hard rock bands: list

Summing up, it is necessary to list the bands playing in this style. Just for ease of understanding.

Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Nazareth, Atomic Rooster, Uriah Heep, Free, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Black Widow, Status Quo, Foghat, Budgie, Bloodrock, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad, Montrose, Kiss, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, April Wine, Krokus, Rainbow, Dio, Whitesnake, Guns N' Roses, Gotthard, Axel Rudi Pell, Velvet Revolver, White Stripes, Answer, Darkness, Roadstar.

Russian groups: Gorky Park, Bes Illusions, Moby Dick, Voice of the Prophet.

In front of you the most successful groups. Hard rock is performed by completely different and at the same time somewhat similar bands.