Hard rock
A heavier, amplified form of rock built on distorted guitar riffs, a strong backbeat and a driving rhythm section.
Hard rock took the blues-based rock of the sixties and turned up the gain, moving the guitar from an accompanying instrument to the lead voice of the arrangement. Its characteristic devices are the power chord, the riff that carries the whole song and a solo built on pentatonic shapes with heavy sustain. The sound depends on the interaction between a distorted valve amplifier and a closed-back cabinet, and the vocabulary of riffs written for that sound has barely changed since.
Example: A song built on a repeated distorted low-string riff, with a chord progression and a pentatonic solo, is hard rock.
See also
Related
- PageDistortion
- PagePower chord
- PageRiff
- PageAmericana
- PageBebop
- PageBluegrass
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley