In one of those umpteenth tea breaks at QSS, MG coffee-teria, sipping my favorite green tea, I felt this weird sense of hollowness surrounding the distinctness of Rock music and Heavy metal. A sort of curiosity to know what athrey and agraw actually knew about this difference made me break the PJ conversation we were having. All I had was 2 basic questions.
1. What is Rock/Pop/Heavy Metal music?
2. How do you differentiate them?
Over the last few days, I shot the same 2 questions at every other person I met. And the feedback was pretty interesting 
“No one can define music. It’s just a preference, a choice u make. Very subjective. Music is abstract.”
“Its good.. refreshing.. mad. Heavy metal is a form of rock.. but pop is different. Pop ladkiyan sunti hain..”
“Rock music is something which rocks ur mind.”
“Rock music is songs abt moral things, no funny thing.”
“Ok, rock is somthing which is not for normal guys. Its not so soft. Somthing which can go as loud as possible…and which is rocky!!!!!!!!!!!”
“smthing with guitars n lots of musical instruments n fast foot tapping kinda music”
“Well, rock is a genre tht uses a lot of electric guitar and drums and generally the lyrics is melancholic…heavy metal and pop music are different genres in itself”
“Rock is more of beats with heavy work on bass and stuff… pop is more vocal….where the vocalist is more prominent than the other things”
“Metal is more guitar, heavy guitaring, more solos, and less of lyrics, hard rock is also similar. The revving of the guitar is lesser in hard rock.”
Well, all of them were pretty close, but not exactly there. It made me do some serious re-”search” only to find out how deep the rabbit hole went. So, here we go…
Rock is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by guitar, drums, synthesizers and often bass. Rock music usually has a strong back beat. Some bands such as Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and Golden Earring have gone beyond this clichéd combination and experimented with new instruments including wind sections, string sections and full orchestras. With the current technologies, many artists use more instruments and music programmers. For example in the song “Clocks” the British band Colplay played in conjunction with the New York symphony.
Rock (aka Rock ‘n’ Roll) music originated in the 1950s in the United States. In the late 1960s, rock music was blended with folk music to create folk rock, and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, blues rock, heavy metal-style rock, progressive rock, art rock, techno-rock, syth-rock and punk rock. Rock subgenres from the 1980s included hard rock and alternative rock. And in the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge-style rock.
Rock music has become closely associated with freedom of expression, symbolized especially by the rebellious rock star. As such, rock music and musicians have helped to establish new fashions, forms of language, attitudes, and political views.
Even though Rock and Heavy metal sprung from the same genre (Rock & roll) their differences are notable. They came from the same root, but they emerged at different times. In addition, they also differ in musical sound (instruments), lyrics and audiences.
Here’s a simple diagram which shows the differences between Rock ‘n’ Roll, Heavy Metal, Pop and Hard Rock Music.
Rock Music can be considered as a universal set and other genres (Metal, Hard rock and Pop) belong to it.
Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed between 1969 and 1974. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock. The bands, such as Cream, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Queen and Black Sabbath, which created heavy metal, developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterized by the use of highly-amplified, distorted, fast guitar solos.
German heavy metal group Rammstein uses 2 electric guitars, bass, keyboards and drums. It is rare that a metal group use keyboards, but Rammstein only used it on intro’s and outro’s as you can notice in the song “Du hast”.
Heavy metal lyrics are almost always about anger, violence, sex, darkness. The German song “Du hast” can be categorized as Heavy metal because the lyrics clearly convey hatred. The first part of the lyrics has “Du hast Du Du hast Du hast mich” meaning “You hate, you, you hate, you hate me” although “Du hast” has an alternative meaning of “You have”.
The themes of darkness, evil, power and apocalypse have been the language components for addressing the reality of life’s problems according to rock bands. In reaction to the “peace and love” hippie culture of the 1960s, heavy metal developed as a counterculture, where light is supplanted by darkness and the happy ending of pop is replaced by the naked reality that things do not always work out in this world. This dark thematic content is a target of critics, who accuse the genre of glorifying negative aspects of reality.
Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, pioneering heavy metal bands often included outlandish and fantasy-inspired lyrics, giving them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden frequently based songs on mythology, fiction and poetry.
The emergence of Heavy metal has led to confusion between hard rock and heavy metal bands, as the distinctions between the two are very subtle. Bands such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Nazareth, Status Quo, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, Kiss and Jethro Tull, are normally referred to as hard rock. These bands created driving anthems using dueling leads, tight production and catchy riffs.
Until recently, heavy metal/hard rock attracted only youth audience, especially college students. They were mainly disaffected college goers. You could notice them doping and head banging in college rock shows. The sound of loud blaring music that resonated from 9-10, thundering 10000+ watt speakers altered and intensified their moods, furnishing much to their slang and dominating their conversations.
In one study, a heavy metal devotee reported that he loved the music because it put him in a ‘good mood,’ by which he meant a mood conducive to smashing mailboxes with bricks. Another said hardcore metal put him in the mood to ‘go beat the crap out of someone.’
A dangerous trend of adolescent rock fans who withdraw from socializing is already in place. All they want is a Walkman or an iPod as a barrier. I recently saw this Sony Ericsson ad for their Walkman-phone, where a few individuals are shown wearing Sony Walkmans detached from the crowd around them. Is this the price what the next generation has to pay to listen to rock?
Anyways, as one of my friends said, Music is abstract. Your definitions to the preference of music you hear might be completely different from others. Music is just a catalyst that helps you reach the epitome of your emotion comfortably.
[...] ska, reggae, metal and pop music. There’s too much good music in Oxford to lump it all …Rocking Fundas ?smthing with guitars n lots of musical instruments n fast foot tapping kinda music?. ?Well, rock [...]
I like Pussycat Dolls
They’re Pop. But then, they have long legs, so they ROCK!
@ Mr. “Pop Star News » Pop Music March 23, 2007 6:21 am”: Did you say something??
@ Prasil: hehhehe. i like some of their songs too