Info about Rock Music
All about folk rock - learn more
Folk rock is a musical genre that is a combination (as its name say), between folk music and rock music. It is believed that this musical genre appeared in the 1960’s. That’s when an American group, called “The Byrds” decided to play with Bob Dylan. But the band was singing folk music, and Bob Dylan brought in his playing some rock accents. When they released the cover “Mr. Tambourine Man” the press was the one that said the played genre is folk rock. “Mr. Tambourine Man” had a great success,
being number one on two big American charts, including the Billboard Hot 100. This single has all the credits for developing the folk rock music. It was written by Bob but it was recorded with “The Byrds” so it had both folk and rock. Another great hit played by “The Byrds” was “Turn! Turn! Turn!”. This group was original a folk group, formed by 3 members, McGuinn, Clark and Crosby that were before that folk singers. But they loved the Beatles sound much better, so they started playing in the studio with their folk and some instrumentals sound. When they achieved to get a copy of Dylan’s song, they tried to modify it (they even changed the time to 4/4) and they called Dylan to hear it. He liked it very much, because it was a song that could be danced, so he accepted to play with them. The Byrds were the ones that brought into the folk music sound the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar and some other influences from the Beatles music. They managed to create this genre called folk rock. The group was the only one at those times to combine beautiful lyrics with rock instrumental sounds.
Bob Dylan was the one that developed this type of music genre in his own way. At a concert in Newport in 1965, he played some folk music and brought with him to play another band, with an electric sound. That single’s name was “Like a Rolling Stone” and it was a great folk rock song, even if Bob Dylan saw himself now as a rock singer. Because the song was too long the radio edit included only a half of it.
A british band called the Beach Boys started soon to play folk rock too. Other singers are: Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen or Cat Stevens.
New sub-genres of folk rock were created, including celtic rock, medieval folk rock or electric folk.
All about progressive rock learn more
Progressive rock developed in the 1960’s as a part of rock music. The sound of a song played in progressive rock is different because it doesn’t have only instruments like guitar and bass, but it has also instruments that are typically used in other genres, like flute or the classic violin. This genre doesn’t have a certain time beat, it can vary from the well known 4/4 to the progressive rock beat of 5/8. So in fact the progressive rock is the rock sound with some classic influences. But for example the sound of a clock is often heard in progressive rock songs. The analog synthesizer is very often used also in this genre and by some artists like Yes or Styx. Progressive rock albums must have a central theme, a point that resembles all songs, but the albums must look good also (but it may be a marketing thing only).
Some of the bands that played during the 60’ chose this genre, including: Pink Floyd, Barclay James Harvest or King Crimson. There were some international bands too, like the French Gong, the Italian Il Balletto di Bronzo or the band called Tangerine Dream that came from Germany.
It is also true that this genre was most popular during the 70’. The band called “Kansas” was one of the most prestigious band of those times, having great singles like “Carry On Wayward Son” or “"Dust in the Wind”. But they eventually started to play hard rock. Electric Light Orchestra had also a great success, even if they were declared fans of the Beatles. They liked to try different music genres, but the “Welcome Back My Friends” album was a great progressive rock album, recorded live. The progressive rock was very loved at that times so there were artist that tried to sing it. For example Todd Rundgren used to play pop music, but he decided to sing progressive rock instead, so he created a band (called Utopia). Their first album was more than one hour long but it had only 4 songs, so you only can imagine how long where they. One of the songs was in fact recorded live in one at the band’s concert. For that times, their album “Todd Rundgren's Utopia” was very well worked, with complex progressive rock instrumentals.
In the 1990 the genre had its rebirth, when bands like Proto-Kaw or Glass Hammer started to produce albums.