Rock music has a long and illustrious history. From its early roots in the music of black America in the form of blues, it began to be transformed as bands of the fifties and sixties took guitar riffs and grooves from this era and transformed them. A key driver of rock music was the invention of the electric guitar. Two key players in the guitar industry, Gibson and Fender, started making electric guitars in the 1950s that would come to define the sound of rock music.
The Fender
Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul are widely recognized as being timeless
instruments of rock music, and their popularity amongst modern musicians
continues to grow. Modern rock music was defined by literally hundreds of bands
around the world. This article focuses on two of those that are widely
considered to have been instrumental in shaping the sounds of modern rock.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was
one of the first true rock and roll supergroups, and they enjoyed a jet-set
lifestyle of excess that symbolizes the height of rock and roll culture. All
true rock fans will instantly be able to recognize the intro riff to the
classic “Stairway to Heaven” with Jimmy Page and his Les Paul guitar
mapping out a timeless classic that is one of the all-time great rock
standards.
It is a
fascinating and amusing fact that many guitar stores actively stop people from playing
this song when trying out new guitars. This is because the song has been played
(at a wide range of skill levels) hundreds of times in guitar shops all over
the world, and store owners simply do not wish to hear it every day for the
rest of their working careers! Today, the legacy of Led Zeppelin lives on, with
millions of gig and festival goers wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts and hoodies
from stores such as backstageoriginals.com to show their appreciation of this truly
timeless band.
Jimi Hendrix
No artist from
the history of rock music can claim to have had the same impact on the genre as
Jimi Hendrix. From an early age, Jimi was fascinated by the guitar after a
family relative gave him a battered and broken acoustic with several strings
missing. Jimi was widely recognized to be a shy and retiring individual until
he had a guitar in his hands and could jam out an intoxicating infusion of both
lead and rhythm guitar simultaneously. This raw, almost animalistic style of
playing, combined with heavy use of fuzz and Wah pedals, gave a signature sound
that no band could truly emulate. His performance at the 1967 Monterey Music Festival remains one of the key moments in rock
history where he set fire to his guitar on stage during an incendiary set. This
truly was a moment in rock and roll history and is one that has become a part
of rock folklore.
Perhaps the
saddest fact for Jimi Hendrix is that the world never got a chance to see how
he would shape the future of rock music. On September 18th 1970,
Jimi sadly passed away in a hotel in London; his life was cut short at the age
of just 27. Having created just a handful of albums, all of which pushed the
boundaries of rock music, fans are left to wonder just how modern rock music
would have developed had he lived.
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