The Triumph (60's)

What is rock? Well that is one difficult question to answer if you go and look at the rock today and the rock from the past. That is why I have decided to take a look into where this genre originated and see how it has developed into what it is today.

The Triumph
(60’s)

The magazine out of Britain called Mersey-beat changed the story of rock music forever, and it came out of nowhere. Britain’s music scene wasn’t that great in the early Sixties. Most British rockers were mimicking Presley. Britain’s mainstream didn’t connect very well with rock, but the seeds had been planted. Britain had an underground before America in their blues clubs. In the fifties these clubs where all over and the musicians in there were true innovators. Through the Sixties they altered blues and they emphasized the epic refrains of the call and response, sped up Chicago’s rhythm guitars, smoothed down the vocal delivery to make it sound more operatic, flexed the choruses, enhanced the organ arrangements, and added vocal harmony. After a few years British blues musicians were playing something that was as deep as the American blues and they had the driving power that no other music had.
In the early Sixties disciples and veterans of that scene led to the formation of many of today’s most influential bands; The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Animals. The Rolling Stones became the most successful of the three listed and went on to cut albums where The Yardbirds were experimental and ended up being the training ground for three of the best guitarists to grace the earth; Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Page. When The Yardbirds fell two revolutionary bands were born, Cream and Led Zeppelin.
Liverpool’s producer, George Martin, gave birth to one of bands of this second generation that would sweep the world, The Beatles. With their Pop like rock, The Beatles were completely different from the blues underground and stole their momentum as well, but The Beatles also knew how to turn music into a mass-media frenzy. Rock music as a major business was born.
Two other bands that proved to be influential were The Kinks and The Who. Both bands made concepts albums and rock operas that took from the British operetta. The Kinks still continued on the aspects of melodic rock, but The Who however had loud amplified guitars that were already pointing to a noisier and less gentle future.
Cream and Led Zeppelin started to play really loud blues. Where Cream had long solos Led Zeppelin had fast riffs which had helped in the birth of Hard Rock.