Tying it all Together

With the inception of bands like the Yard Birds and Cream, many British youth flocked to the growing scene of garage rock. Bands because more raw, the production value decreased, and the distortion dials started getting cranked all the way up. The scene eventually started going over seas, and a band called Blue Cheer started playing more droning and distorted rock and roll -- one that topped even the heaviest that Mother England had to offer. The blues influence soon turned to jazz, one of its close cousins, and rock and roll went in a direction where technicality and progressive song writing became the standard. King Crimson, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Uriah Heep took the torch from psych rock of the 60's, and heralded a new era of rock and roll into the 70's. The course of musical evolution took almost 20 years to lay out the groundwork of heavy metal, but the newly born genre would soon flourish in a country filled with double decker buses and tea parties.
The heaviness of 70s rock and roll took a catalyst before it would solidify into the mold of heavy metal.  The cast that would eventually turn the molten metal into heavy metal were the bands Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Judas Priest.  The correlation between the Midlands in England and their outburst of bands is uncanny: the metal bands came out of a time and place where the industrial explosion affected much of the cultural atmosphere of England.  The Midlands weere filled with factories and poor blue collar families striving to live on inhumane work hours, but through their upbringing, these bands would embrace their hometowns and bring about a new cultural revolution.  And the influence of these bands are undeniable: Iron Maiden and Judas priest brought neoclassical theory into the world of songwriting and Motorhead brought simple punk aggression and attitude to the waning era of progressive rock.  Their role in making Britain the hotspot of Heavy Metal can be seen in the explosion of bands in the 1980s.  Using the search on the Metal-Archives website, there were 166 releases for NWOBHM just in the year 1980.  Although the explosion affected most of England, only a few ever maintained commercial success, like Angel Witch and Venom.
Heavy Metal made its way to Japan through Japan's prolonged exposure to the West.  Even before Heavy Metal became a trend, many European and American bands toured Japan extensively as their hotspot in the East.  One of the most famous acts in Japan was Deep Purple and T. Rex, in which they took  the Japanese youth by storm. The growing wave of Heavy Metal soon reached in the form of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest albums, as well as some American bands like Van Halen.  Although the output of bands quickly waned as soon as the 90s started rolling by, their legacy of interpreting western rock into their own art form remained a legacy for many fans for years to come.
Reference:

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)