The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40 ) chart is published weekly by Billboard magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems ."
173-402: It is a format in which the genre is geared more towards an adult audience who are not into hard rock , hip hop , or adult contemporary fare. The main genres within this format are alternative rock and mainstream pop that is more adult-oriented. It is not to be confused with adult contemporary where rather lesser-known and more ballad-driven songs are played. The current number-one song on
346-584: A Rolling Stone review as "discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitised speedfreaks all over each other's musical perimeters, yet never quite finding synch". It sold in substantial numbers despite being panned, giving the band their first mainstream exposure. It has since been certified Platinum in both U.S. by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and in the UK by British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and
519-535: A backbeat on snare, sometimes using cymbals for emphasis. The bass guitar works in conjunction with the drums, occasionally playing riffs, but usually providing a backing for the rhythm and lead guitars. Vocals are often growling, raspy, or involve screaming or wailing, sometimes in a high range, or even falsetto voice. In the late-1960s, the term heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock, but gradually began to be used to describe music played with even more volume and intensity. While hard rock maintained
692-511: A Grip (1993), which produced four hit singles and became the band's best-selling album worldwide (going on to sell over 10 million copies), and Nine Lives (1997). In 1998, Aerosmith released the hit " I Don't Want to Miss a Thing ". AC/DC produced the double platinum Ballbreaker (1995). Bon Jovi appealed to their hard rock audience with songs such as " Keep the Faith " (1992), but also achieved success in adult contemporary radio, with
865-594: A UK wide audience. Their eponymous debut album Black Sabbath was released on Friday the 13th , February 1970, and reached number eight in the UK Albums Chart . Following its U.S. and Canadian release in May 1970 by Warner Bros. Records , the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200 , where it remained for over a year. The album was given negative reviews by many critics. Lester Bangs dismissed it in
1038-402: A bluesy rock and roll identity, including some swing in the back beat and riffs that tended to outline chord progressions in their hooks, heavy metal's riffs often functioned as stand-alone melodies and had no swing in them. In the 1980s, heavy metal developed a number of subgenres, often termed extreme metal , some of which were influenced by hardcore punk , and which further differentiated
1211-659: A cover of the Crow song " Evil Woman ", in January 1970, and their debut album, Black Sabbath , was released the following month. Though it received a negative critical response, the album was a commercial success, leading to a follow-up record, Paranoid , later that year. The band's popularity grew, and by 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath , critics were starting to respond favourably. This album, along with its predecessor Vol. 4 (1972) and its successors Sabotage (1975), Technical Ecstasy (1976) and Never Say Die! (1978), saw
1384-476: A day, my alcoholism accelerated". Butler stated that after Ward's final show, the drummer came in drunk, stating that "he might as well be a Martian". Ward then got angry, packed his things and got on a bus to leave. Following Ward's sudden departure, the group hired drummer Vinny Appice . Further trouble for the band came during their 9 October 1980 concert at the Milwaukee Arena , which degenerated into
1557-490: A decisive vision to differ the sound from Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath . "We could've continued and gone on and on, getting more technical, using orchestras and everything else which we didn't particularly want to. We took a look at ourselves, and we wanted to do a rock album – Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath wasn't a rock album, really". Produced by Black Sabbath and Mike Butcher, Sabotage was released in July 1975. As with its precursor,
1730-567: A demo with producer Bob Ezrin in October. Unhappy with the results, the band parted ways with Donato shortly after. Disillusioned with the band's revolving line-up, Ward left shortly after stating "This isn't Black Sabbath". Butler would quit Sabbath next in November 1984 to form a solo band. "When Ian Gillan took over that was the end of it for me," he said. "I thought it was just a joke and I just totally left. When we got together with Gillan it
1903-504: A guitar-playing technique of two-handed hammer-ons and pull-offs called tapping , showcased on the song " Eruption " from the album Van Halen , which was highly influential in re-establishing hard rock as a popular genre after the punk and disco explosion, while also redefining and elevating the role of electric guitar. In the 1970s and 80s, several European bands, including the German Michael Schenker Group ,
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#17327910313912076-527: A head, Iommi made the decision to fire Osbourne in 1979. Iommi believed the only options available were to fire Osbourne or break the band up completely. "At that time, Ozzy had come to an end", Iommi said. "We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time. We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like, 'Rehearse today? No, we'll do it tomorrow.' It really got so bad that we didn't do anything. It just fizzled out". Ward, who
2249-480: A house in Bel Air, where they spent nearly a year working on new material for the next album. The entire band were abusing both alcohol and other drugs, but Iommi says Osbourne "was on a totally different level altogether". The band would come up with new song ideas, but Osbourne showed little interest and would refuse to sing them. Pressure from the record label and frustrations with Osbourne's lack of input coming to
2422-458: A live album culled from a seven-year-old performance, titled Live at Last without any input from the band. The album reached number five on the UK chart and saw the re-release of "Paranoid" as a single, which reached the top 20. On 18 August 1980, after a show in Bloomington, Minnesota , Ward quit the band. "It was intolerable for me to get on the stage without Ozzy. And I drank 24 hours
2595-489: A local music shop: "OZZY ZIG Needs Gig – has own PA". The new group was initially named the Polka Tulk Blues Band, the name taken either from a brand of talcum powder or an Indian/Pakistani clothing shop; the exact origin is confused. The Polka Tulk Blues Band included slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips, a childhood friend of Osbourne's, and saxophonist Alan "Aker" Clarke. After shortening the name to Polka Tulk,
2768-643: A lot of dope. We'd go down to the sessions, and have to pack up because we were too stoned, we'd have to stop. Nobody could get anything right, we were all over the place, everybody's playing a different thing. We'd go back and sleep it off, and try again the next day". The album was released in September 1978, reaching number 12 in the United Kingdom and number 69 in the U.S. Press response was unfavourable and did not improve over time, with Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic stating two decades after its release that
2941-590: A major form of popular music in the 1970s, with the Who, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple being joined by Black Sabbath , Aerosmith , Kiss , Queen , AC/DC , Thin Lizzy and Van Halen . During the 1980s, some hard rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock . Established bands made a comeback in the mid-1980s and hard rock reached a commercial peak in the 1980s with glam metal bands such as Mötley Crüe , Bon Jovi and Def Leppard as well as
3114-463: A more diverse group of people and punk seemed to take over the rebellious role that hard rock once held. Early punk bands like the Ramones explicitly rebelled against the drum solos and extended guitar solos that characterised stadium rock, with almost all of their songs clocking in under three minutes with no guitar solos. However, new rock acts continued to emerge and record sales remained high into
3287-538: A motorcycle accident in which Osbourne ruptured a muscle in his back. In December 1975, the band's record companies released a greatest hits album without input from the band, titled We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll . The album charted throughout 1976, eventually selling two million copies in the U.S. Black Sabbath began work for their next album at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, in June 1976. To expand their sound,
3460-657: A new version of the band the following year. For the next twelve years, the band endured many personnel changes that included vocalists Glenn Hughes (who appeared on 1986's Seventh Star ), Ray Gillen and Tony Martin , as well as several drummers and bassists; of the vocalists during these years, Martin's tenure was the longest, joining the band in 1987 and recording three studio albums before his initial departure in 1991: The Eternal Idol (1987), Headless Cross (1989), and Tyr (1990). That same year, Iommi reunited with Butler, Dio and Appice to record Dehumanizer (1992), though Dio and Appice had both departed again by
3633-713: A one-off performance at the Myponga Pop Festival in Australia, Black Sabbath returned to the studio to begin work on their third album. Following the chart success of Paranoid , the band were afforded more studio time, along with a "briefcase full of cash" to buy drugs. "We were getting into coke, big time", Ward explained. "Uppers, downers, Quaaludes, whatever you like. It got to the stage where you come up with ideas and forget them, because you were just so out of it." Production completed in April 1971, and in July
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#17327910313913806-497: A pop sensitivity selling 15 million copies in the US while becoming the first hard rock album to spawn three hit singles. The album has been credited with widening the audiences for the genre, particularly by appealing to women as well as the traditional male dominated audience, and opening the door to MTV and commercial success for other bands at the end of the decade. The anthemic The Final Countdown (1986) by Swedish group Europe
3979-437: A pretty stupid title, really". Vol. 4 was released in September 1972, and while critics were dismissive, it achieved Gold status in less than a month, and was the band's fourth consecutive release to sell a million in the U.S. "Tomorrow's Dream" was released as a single – the band's first since "Paranoid" – but failed to chart. Following an extensive tour of the U.S., in 1973 the band travelled again to Australia, followed by
4152-462: A record out." Walker has said that he wrote a lot of lyrics during his brief time in the band, but none of them were ever used. If any recordings of this version of the band other than the Look! Hear! footage still exist, Walker says that he is not aware of them. Osbourne initially set out to form a solo project featuring former Dirty Tricks members John Frazer-Binnie, Terry Horbury and Andy Bierne. As
4325-492: A return to their hard rock sound. The term "retro-metal" has been applied to such bands as Texas based the Sword , California's High on Fire , Sweden's Witchcraft and Australia's Wolfmother . Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album combined elements of the sounds of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Fellow Australians Airbourne 's début album Runnin' Wild (2007) followed in the hard riffing tradition of AC/DC. England's
4498-593: A riot that caused $ 10,000 in damages to the arena and resulted in 160 arrests. According to the Associated Press: "The crowd of mostly adolescent males first became rowdy in a performance by the Blue Oyster Cult" and then grew restless while waiting an hour for Black Sabbath to begin playing. A member of the audience threw a beer bottle that struck Butler and effectively ended the show. "The band then abruptly halted its performance and began leaving" as
4671-418: A series of hit singles. In the last years of the decade, the most notable successes were New Jersey (1988) by Bon Jovi, OU812 (1988) by Van Halen , Open Up and Say... Ahh! (1988) by Poison , Pump (1989) by Aerosmith, and Mötley Crüe's most commercially successful album Dr. Feelgood (1989). New Jersey spawned five hit singles. In 1988 from 25 June to 5 November, the number one spot on
4844-938: A solo album with long-time Sabbath keyboardist Geoff Nicholls . While working on new material, the original Sabbath line-up agreed to a spot at Bob Geldof 's Live Aid , performing at the Philadelphia show on 13 July 1985. This event – which also featured reunions of The Who and Led Zeppelin – marked the first time the original line-up had appeared on stage since 1978. "We were all drunk when we did Live Aid," recalled Geezer Butler , "but we'd all got drunk separately." Returning to his solo work, Iommi enlisted bassist Dave Spitz (ex- Great White ), drummer Eric Singer and initially intended to use multiple singers, including Rob Halford of Judas Priest , former Deep Purple and Trapeze vocalist Glenn Hughes , and former Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio. This plan didn't work as he forecasted. "We were going to use different vocalists on
5017-525: A solo career that resulted in four successive multi-platinum albums between Ted Nugent (1975) and his best selling Double Live Gonzo! (1978). " Goodbye to Love " by the Carpenters , a duo whose music was otherwise almost exclusively soft rock, drew hate mail for its incorporation of a hard rock fuzz guitar solo by Tony Peluso . From outside the United Kingdom and the United States,
5190-512: A solo career with Blizzard of Ozz (1980), featuring American guitarist Randy Rhoads . Some bands, such as Queen , moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock , while others, including Rush with Moving Pictures (1981), began to return to a hard rock sound. The creation of thrash metal , which mixed heavy metal with elements of hardcore punk from about 1982, particularly by Metallica , Anthrax , Megadeth and Slayer , helped to create extreme metal and further remove
5363-470: A song by the band Crow ), at Trident Studios . "Evil Woman" was released on 9 January 1970 through Philips subsidiary Fontana Records . Later releases were handled by Philips' newly formed progressive rock label, Vertigo Records . "Evil Woman" failed to chart. The band were afforded two days of studio time in November 1969 to record their debut album with producer Rodger Bain . Iommi recalls recording live: "We thought, 'We have two days to do it, and one of
Adult Pop Airplay - Misplaced Pages Continue
5536-483: A sound that sharply contrasted mainstream hard rock, several, including Pearl Jam , Alice in Chains , Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden , were more strongly influenced by 1970s and 1980s rock and metal, while Stone Temple Pilots managed to turn alternative rock into a form of stadium rock. However, all grunge bands shunned the macho, anthemic and fashion-focused aesthetics particularly associated with glam metal. In
5709-581: A stark contrast to the "youthful" performance of Van Halen, who were touring the world for the first time. The band filmed a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1978, which was later released on DVD as Never Say Die . The final show of the tour – and Osbourne's last appearance with the band until later reunions – was in Albuquerque, New Mexico , on 11 December. Following the tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles and again rented
5882-655: A supergroup that brought together Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones attracted attention as a live act and released a self-titled debut album that was a hit the US and UK. Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi , drummer Bill Ward , bassist Geezer Butler , and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne . They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music . The band helped define
6055-452: A tour for the first time to New Zealand, before moving onto mainland Europe. "The band were definitely in their heyday", recalled Ward, "in the sense that nobody had burnt out quite yet". Following the Vol. 4 world tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles to begin work on their next release. Pleased with the Vol. 4 album, the band sought to recreate the recording atmosphere, and returned to
6228-404: A wider variety of artists and saw a faster turnover of songs compared to traditional adult contemporary radio. Songs by modern rock, dance, and R&B artists were mixed in with acts more closely associated with adult contemporary. According to Billboard , splitting the chart "better reflect[s] the music being played on adult contemporary and adult/top 40 stations." The first number-one song on
6401-540: Is Christian evangelist and former Joshua frontman Jeff Fenholt . Fenholt insists he was a singer in Sabbath between January and May 1985. Iommi has never confirmed this. Fenholt gives a detailed account in Garry Sharpe-Young's book Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: The Battle for Black Sabbath . Following both Ward's and Butler's exits, sole remaining original member Iommi put Sabbath on hiatus, and began work on
6574-461: Is now generally accepted as the first heavy metal album. The band returned to the studio in June 1970, just four months after Black Sabbath was released. The new album was initially set to be named War Pigs after the song " War Pigs ", which was critical of the Vietnam War ; however, Warner changed the title of the album to Paranoid . The album's lead single, " Paranoid ", was written in
6747-520: Is the last 1:10 of " I Feel Much Better " by the Small Faces , recorded in May of 1967. The first 2:46 is typical psychedelic fare of the time, but then the song suddenly changes into a hard bass-and-guitar power chord with Steve Marriott 's rhythm guitar and gut bucket singing, equal to the heaviest rock to be heard later. The Beatles began producing songs in the new hard rock style beginning with their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as
6920-627: The Allied Forces album in 1981. The Irish band Thin Lizzy , which had formed in the late 1960s, made their most substantial commercial breakthrough in 1976 with the hard rock album Jailbreak and their worldwide hit " The Boys Are Back in Town ". Their style, consisting of two duelling guitarists often playing leads in harmony, proved itself to be a large influence on later bands. They reached their commercial, and arguably their artistic peak with Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979). The arrival of
7093-677: The Mob Rules line-up reunited as Heaven & Hell , touring during the late 2000s and releasing its sole studio album, The Devil You Know , in 2009 before disbanding after Dio's death in the following year. The original line-up of Black Sabbath reunited once again in 2011, though Ward departed prior to the recording of their final studio album and 19th overall, 13 (2013). During their farewell tour , Black Sabbath played its final concert in their home city of Birmingham on 4 February 2017. Occasional partial reunions have occurred since, most recently when Osbourne and Iommi performed together at
Adult Pop Airplay - Misplaced Pages Continue
7266-529: The Scorpions from Germany marked the geographical expansion of the subgenre. Australian-formed AC/DC , with a stripped back, riff heavy and abrasive style that also appealed to the punk generation, began to gain international attention from 1976, culminating in the release of their multi-platinum albums Let There Be Rock (1977) and Highway to Hell (1979). Also influenced by a punk ethos were heavy metal bands like Motörhead , while Judas Priest abandoned
7439-701: The garage , psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard rock music was produced by the Kinks , the Who , the Rolling Stones , Cream , Vanilla Fudge , and the Jimi Hendrix Experience . In the late 1960s, bands such as Blue Cheer , the Jeff Beck Group , Iron Butterfly , Led Zeppelin , Golden Earring , Steppenwolf , Grand Funk , Free , and Deep Purple also produced hard rock. The genre developed into
7612-649: The "Black and Blue" tour, with a show at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York , filmed for Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and later released theatrically in 1981 as Black and Blue . On 26 July 1980, the band played to 75,000 fans at a sold-out Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with Journey , Cheap Trick and Molly Hatchet . The next day, the band appeared at the 1980 Day on the Green at Oakland Coliseum . While on tour, Black Sabbath's former label in England issued
7785-514: The "Greatest Metal Band of All Time" and placed second on VH1 's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number 85 on its "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list. Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. They have also won two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance , and in 2019,
7958-486: The "White Album") and, with the track " Helter Skelter ", attempted to create a greater level of noise than the Who. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic has referred to the "proto-metal roar" of "Helter Skelter", while Ian MacDonald called it "ridiculous, with McCartney shrieking weedily against a massively tape-echoed backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing". Groups that emerged from the American psychedelic scene about
8131-410: The "greatest gainer" award is given to song with the largest increase in detections. A song with six or more spins in its first week is awarded an "airplay add". If two songs are tied in spins in the same week, the one with the biggest increase that week ranks higher. In 2016, for the 20th anniversary of the chart, Billboard compiled a ranking of the 50 best-performing songs and artists on the chart over
8304-466: The 1950s, evident in the work of Memphis blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis , Willie Johnson , and particularly Pat Hare , who captured a "grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as James Cotton 's " Cotton Crop Blues " (1954). Other antecedents include Link Wray 's instrumental " Rumble " in 1958, and the surf rock instrumentals of Dick Dale , such as " Let's Go Trippin' " (1961) and " Misirlou " (1962). In
8477-480: The 1960s, American and British blues and rock bands began to modify rock and roll by adding harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming, and louder vocals, from electric blues . Early forms of hard rock can be heard in the work of Chicago blues musicians Elmore James , Muddy Waters , and Howlin' Wolf , the Kingsmen 's version of " Louie Louie " (1963) which made it a garage rock standard, and
8650-399: The 1980s Sunset Strip hard rock scene. It was panned by the critics of the era, although later reviewers such as AllMusic gave album verdicts, calling the album "often misunderstood and underrated". The new line-up rehearsed for six weeks preparing for a full world tour, although the band were eventually forced to use the Sabbath name. "I was into the 'Tony Iommi project', but I wasn't into
8823-544: The 1980s. 1977 saw the début and rise to stardom of Foreigner , who went on to release several platinum albums through to the mid-1980s. Midwestern groups like Kansas , REO Speedwagon and Styx helped further cement heavy rock in the Midwest as a form of stadium rock. In 1978, Van Halen emerged from the Los Angeles music scene with a sound based around the skills of lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen . He popularised
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#17327910313918996-404: The 20 years. " Smooth " by Santana featuring Rob Thomas was ranked as the #1 song, while Maroon 5 was ranked as the #1 artist. Listed below are the top 10 songs and the top 10 artists. Source: Source: Hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars . Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with
9169-431: The 2000s with considerable commercial success, abandoning most of the angst and anger of the original movement for more conventional anthems, narratives and romantic songs. They were followed in this vein by new acts including Shinedown and Seether . Acts with more conventional hard rock sounds included Andrew W.K. , Beautiful Creatures and Buckcherry , whose breakthrough album 15 (2006) went platinum and spawned
9342-454: The 2000s, only a few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers. Hard rock is a form of loud, aggressive rock music. The electric guitar is often emphasised, used with distortion and other effects, both as a rhythm instrument using repetitive riffs with a varying degree of complexity, and as a solo lead instrument. Drumming characteristically focuses on driving rhythms, strong bass drum and
9515-485: The Adult Top 40, from the test chart of October 7, 1995, was " Kiss from a Rose " by Seal . The first number-one song on the Adult Top 40, from the published chart of March 16, 1996, was " One Sweet Day " by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men . There are 40 positions on this chart. Songs are ranked based on its total number of spins per week. This is calculated by electronically monitoring Adult Top 40 radio stations across
9688-547: The Billboard 200 album chart was held by a hard rock album for 18 out of 20 consecutive weeks; the albums were OU812 , Hysteria , Appetite for Destruction , and New Jersey . A final wave of glam rock bands arrived in the late 1980s, and experienced success with multi-platinum albums and hit singles from 1989 until the early 1990s, among them Extreme , Warrant Slaughter and FireHouse . Skid Row also released their eponymous début (1989), but they were to be one of
9861-492: The Black Crowes released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker (1990), which contained a bluesy classic rock sound and sold five million copies. In 1992, Def Leppard followed up 1987's Hysteria with Adrenalize , which went multi-platinum, spawned four Top 40 singles and held the number one spot on the US album chart for five weeks. While these few hard rock bands managed to maintain success and popularity in
10034-561: The Black Sabbath moniker," Hughes said. "The idea of being in Black Sabbath didn't appeal to me whatsoever . Glenn Hughes singing in Black Sabbath is like James Brown singing in Metallica . It wasn't gonna work." Just four days before the start of the tour, Hughes got into a bar fight with the band's production manager John Downing which splintered the singer's orbital bone . The injury interfered with Hughes' ability to sing, and
10207-517: The Canadian trio Rush released three distinctively hard rock albums in 1974–75 ( Rush , Fly by Night and Caress of Steel ) before moving toward a more progressive sound with the 1976 album 2112 . Also from Canada, Triumph released their debut album in 1976 before their breakthrough came in the form of the Just a Game album in 1979. Later, the band's streak of popularity continued with
10380-488: The Darkness ' Permission to Land (2003), described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s glam", went quintuple platinum in the UK. The follow-up, One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back (2005) was also a hit, but the band broke up in 2006, becoming active again in 2011. Los Angeles band Steel Panther managed to gain a following by sending up 80s glam metal. A more serious attempt to revive glam metal
10553-596: The Earth moniker, they recorded several demos written by Norman Haines such as "The Rebel", "When I Came Down" and "Song for Jim", the latter of which being a reference to Jim Simpson , who was a manager for the bands Bakerloo Blues Line and Tea & Symphony, as well as the trumpet player for the group Locomotive. Simpson had recently started a new club named Henry's Blueshouse at The Crown Hotel in Birmingham and offered to let Earth play there after they agreed to waive
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#173279103139110726-546: The Grave " and " Sweet Leaf ". Critical response of the era was generally unfavourable, with Lester Bangs delivering an ambivalent review of Master of Reality in Rolling Stone , describing the closing "Children of the Grave" as "naïve, simplistic, repetitive, absolute doggerel – but in the tradition [of rock 'n' roll] ... The only criterion is excitement, and Black Sabbath's got it". (In 2003, Rolling Stone would place
10899-538: The Jeff Beck Group. Dave Davies of the Kinks, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of the Who, Hendrix, Clapton and Beck all pioneered the use of new guitar effects like phasing , feedback and distortion . The Doors ' debut album , released in 1967, included songs like " Soul Kitchen ", "Twentieth Century Fox", and a cover version of " Back Door Man ", which were what music journalist Stephen Davis characterized as "enough hard rock tracks". One track that stands out as especially heavy for its time
11072-522: The Record Plant studio in Los Angeles. With new musical innovations of the era, the band were surprised to find that the room they had used previously at the Record Plant was replaced by a "giant synthesiser". The band rented a house in Bel Air and began writing in the summer of 1973, but in part because of substance issues and fatigue, they were unable to complete any songs. "Ideas weren't coming out
11245-680: The Rolling Stones further developed their hard rock sound with Exile on Main St. (1972). Initially receiving mixed reviews, according to critic Steve Erlewine it is now "generally regarded as the Rolling Stones' finest album". They continued to pursue the riff-heavy sound on albums including It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (1974) and Black and Blue (1976). Led Zeppelin began to mix elements of world and folk music into their hard rock from Led Zeppelin III (1970) and Led Zeppelin IV (1971). The latter included
11418-625: The Runaways débuted with their self-titled album . While Heart had a more folk-oriented hard rock sound, the Runaways leaned more towards a mix of punk-influenced music and hard rock. The Amboy Dukes , having emerged from the Detroit garage rock scene and most famous for their psychedelic hit "Journey to the Center of the Mind" (1968), were dissolved by their guitarist Ted Nugent , who embarked on
11591-558: The Swedish band Europe , and Dutch bands Golden Earring , Vandenberg and Vengeance experienced success in Europe and internationally. The opening years of the 1980s saw a number of changes in personnel and direction of established hard rock acts, including the deaths of Bon Scott , the lead singer of AC/DC, and John Bonham , drummer with Led Zeppelin. Whereas Zeppelin broke up almost immediately afterwards, AC/DC pressed on, recording
11764-406: The U.S. 24 hours a day, seven days a week by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. Songs receiving the greatest growth receive a "bullet", although there are tracks that also get bullets if the loss in detections doesn't exceed the percentage of downtime from a monitored station. "Airpower" awards are issued to songs that appear on the top 20 of both the airplay and audience chart for the first time, while
11937-580: The U.S. with Quiet Riot and Night Ranger . The band headlined the 1983 Reading Festival in England, adding Deep Purple's " Smoke on the Water " to their encore. The tour in support of Born Again included a giant set of the Stonehenge monument. In a move later parodied in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap , the band made a mistake in ordering the set piece. Butler explained: We had Sharon Osbourne's dad, Don Arden , managing us. He came up with
12110-610: The UK, Oasis were unusual among the Britpop bands of the mid-1990s in incorporating a hard rock sound. Welsh band Manic Street Preachers emerged in 1991 with a sound Stephen Thomas Erlewine proclaimed to be "crunching hard-rock". By 1996, the band enjoyed remarkable vogue throughout much of the world, but were commercially unsuccessful in the U.S. In the new commercial climate glam metal bands like Europe, Ratt, White Lion and Cinderella broke up, Whitesnake went on hiatus in 1991, and while many of these bands would re-unite again in
12283-576: The United States, shock-rock pioneer Alice Cooper achieved mainstream success with School's Out (1972), and followed up with Billion Dollar Babies , which reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 1973. Also in 1973, blues rockers ZZ Top released their classic album Tres Hombres and Aerosmith produced their eponymous début , as did Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd and proto-punk outfit New York Dolls , demonstrating
12456-558: The United States. Established acts benefited from the new commercial climate, with Whitesnake 's self-titled album (1987) selling over 17 million copies, outperforming anything in Coverdale's or Deep Purple's catalogue before or since. It featured the rock anthem " Here I Go Again '87" as one of 4 UK top 20 singles. The follow-up Slip of the Tongue (1989) went platinum, but according to critics Steve Erlwine and Greg Prato, "it
12629-728: The Who (delayed in 2002 by the death of bassist John Entwistle until 2006) and Black Sabbath (with Osbourne 1997–2006 and Dio 2006–2010) and even a one-off performance by Led Zeppelin (2007), renewing the interest in previous eras. Additionally, hard rock supergroups, such as Audioslave (with former members of Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden) and Velvet Revolver (with former members of Guns N' Roses, punk band Wasted Youth and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland ), emerged and experienced some success. However, these bands were short-lived, ending in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The long-awaited Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy
12802-513: The album Back in Black (1980) with their new lead singer, Brian Johnson . It became the fifth-highest-selling album of all time in the US and the second-highest-selling album in the world. Black Sabbath had split with original singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio , formerly of Rainbow, giving the band a new sound and a period of creativity and popularity beginning with Heaven and Hell (1980). Osbourne embarked on
12975-862: The album as a "masterpiece, essential to any heavy metal collection", while also displaying "a newfound sense of finesse and maturity". The album marked the band's fifth consecutive Platinum-selling album in the U.S., reaching number four on the UK Albums Chart and number 11 in the U.S. The band began a world tour in January 1974, which culminated at the California Jam festival in Ontario, California , on 6 April 1974. Attracting over 200,000 fans, Black Sabbath appeared alongside popular 1970s rock and pop bands Deep Purple , Eagles , Emerson, Lake & Palmer , Rare Earth , Seals & Crofts , Black Oak Arkansas and Earth, Wind & Fire . Portions of
13148-457: The album at number 300 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. ) Following the Master of Reality world tour in 1972, the band took their first break in three years. As Ward explained: "The band started to become very fatigued and very tired. We'd been on the road non-stop, year in and year out, constantly touring and recording. I think Master of Reality was kind of like the end of an era,
13321-421: The album initially saw favourable reviews, with Rolling Stone stating " Sabotage is not only Black Sabbath's best record since Paranoid , it might be their best ever", although later reviewers such as AllMusic noted that "the magical chemistry that made such albums as Paranoid and Volume 4 so special was beginning to disintegrate". Sabotage reached the top 20 in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, but
13494-409: The album one star, claiming " Mob Rules finds the band as dull-witted and flatulent as ever". Like most of the band's earlier work, time helped to improve the opinions of the music press. A decade after its release, AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia called Mob Rules "a magnificent record". The album was certified Gold and reached the top 20 on the UK chart. The album's title track, "The Mob Rules", which
13667-447: The album was panned by rock critics of the era, but modern-day reviewers such as AllMusic's Steve Huey cite Paranoid as "one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time", which "defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history". The album was ranked at number 131 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . Paranoid ' s chart success allowed
13840-657: The album's "unfocused songs perfectly reflected the band's tense personnel problems and drug abuse". The album featured the singles " Never Say Die " and " Hard Road ", both of which cracked the top 40 in the United Kingdom. The band also made their second appearance on the BBC's Top of the Pops , performing "Never Say Die". It took nearly 20 years for the album to be certified Gold in the U.S. Touring in support of Never Say Die! began in May 1978 with openers Van Halen . Reviewers called Black Sabbath's performance "tired and uninspired",
14013-424: The album, guest vocalists, but it was so difficult getting it together and getting releases from their record companies. Glenn Hughes came along to sing on one track and we decided to use him on the whole album." The band spent the remainder of the year in the studio, recording what would become Seventh Star (1986). Warner Bros. refused to release the album as a Tony Iommi solo release, instead insisting on using
14186-492: The band added keyboard player Gerald Woodroffe , who also had appeared to a lesser extent on Sabotage . During the recording of Technical Ecstasy , Osbourne admits that he began losing interest in Black Sabbath and began to consider the possibility of working with other musicians. Recording of Technical Ecstasy was difficult; by the time the album was completed, Osbourne was admitted to Stafford County Asylum in Britain. It
14359-403: The band again changed their name to Earth (which Osbourne hated) and continued as a four-piece without Phillips and Clarke. Iommi became concerned that Phillips and Clarke lacked the necessary dedication and were not taking the band seriously. Rather than asking them to leave, they instead decided to break up and then quietly reformed the band as a four-piece. While the band was performing under
14532-514: The band explore more experimental and progressive styles. Black Sabbath's first line-up change occurred in late 1977, when Osbourne left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Dave Walker ; however, he rejoined just prior to the recording of Never Say Die! . Osbourne was dismissed from the band a second time in 1979 due to substance abuse, and was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio . Sabbath recorded three albums with Dio: Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981) and
14705-453: The band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . Following the break-up of their previous band, Mythology , in 1968, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward sought to form a heavy blues rock band in Aston , Birmingham. They enlisted bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne , who had played together in a band called Rare Breed, Osbourne having placed an advertisement in
14878-407: The band released Master of Reality , just six months after the U.S. release of Paranoid . The album reached the top 10 in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and was certified Gold in less than two months, eventually receiving Platinum certification in the 1980s and Double Platinum in the early 21st century. It contained Sabbath's first acoustic songs, alongside fan favourites such as " Children of
15051-502: The band sounds reborn and re-energised throughout". Heaven and Hell peaked at number nine in the United Kingdom and number 28 in the U.S., the band's highest-charting album since Sabotage . The album eventually sold a million copies in the U.S., and the band embarked on an extensive world tour, making their first live appearance with Dio in Germany on 17 April 1980. Black Sabbath toured the U.S. throughout 1980 with Blue Öyster Cult on
15224-438: The band the next year, vocalist David Coverdale formed Whitesnake . 1970 saw the Who release Live at Leeds , often seen as the archetypal hard rock live album, and the following year they released their highly acclaimed album Who's Next , which mixed heavy rock with extensive use of synthesizers. Subsequent albums, including Quadrophenia (1973), built on this sound before Who Are You (1978), their last album before
15397-482: The band to tour the U.S. for the first time – their first U.S. show was at a club called Ungano's at 210 West 70th Street in New York City – and spawned the release of the album's second single, " Iron Man ". Although the single failed to reach the top 40, it remains one of Black Sabbath's most popular songs, as well as the band's highest-charting U.S. single until 1998's " Psycho Man ". In February 1971, after
15570-547: The band was set to enter the studio, Osbourne abruptly quit the band. Iommi called vocalist Dave Walker , a longtime friend of the band who had previously been a member of Fleetwood Mac and Savoy Brown , and informed him that Osbourne had left the band. Walker, who was at that time fronting a band called Mistress, flew to Birmingham from California in late 1977 to write material and rehearse with Black Sabbath. On 8 January 1978, Walker made his only live performance with Black Sabbath, on vocals, when they played an early version of
15743-521: The band. "I fell apart with the idea of touring," he later explained. "I got so much fear behind touring, I didn't talk about the fear, I drank behind the fear instead and that was a big mistake." He was replaced by former Move and Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan for the Born Again '83–'84 world tour , (often unofficially referred to as the 'Feighn Death Sabbath '83–'84' World Tour) which began in Europe with Diamond Head , and later in
15916-472: The chart is " Birds of a Feather " by Billie Eilish . The chart was first published in the March 16, 1996, issue of Billboard ; however, historically, the chart's introduction was in October 1995, when it began as a test chart. The Adult Top 40 chart was formed following a split of the "Hot Adult Contemporary" chart due to the growing emergence of Adult Top 40 radio stations in the 1990s. These stations played
16089-417: The closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Black Sabbath have sold over 70 million records worldwide as of 2013, making them one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands. Black Sabbath, together with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin , have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". They were ranked by MTV as
16262-526: The completion of the Born Again tour in March 1984, vocalist Ian Gillan left Black Sabbath to re-join Deep Purple, which was reforming after a long hiatus. Bevan left at the same time, and Gillan remarked that he and Bevan were made to feel like "hired help" by Iommi. The band then recruited an unknown Los Angeles vocalist named David Donato and Ward once again rejoined the band. The new line-up wrote and rehearsed throughout 1984, and eventually recorded
16435-572: The crowd rioted. The band completed the Heaven and Hell world tour in February 1981 and returned to the studio to begin work on their next album. Black Sabbath's second studio album that was produced by Martin Birch and featured Ronnie James Dio as vocalist, Mob Rules , was released in October 1981 and was well received by fans, but less so by critics. Rolling Stone reviewer J. D. Considine gave
16608-471: The culmination of the British adaptation of blues into rock and a direct precursor of Led Zeppelin's style of hard rock and heavy metal. Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz , blues and rock and roll. From 1967, Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
16781-590: The day, we just said, 'That's it, the band is over'". "When it comes time for the vocal, nobody tells me what to do. Nobody! Because they're not as good as me, so I do what I want to do", Dio later said. "I refuse to listen to Live Evil , because there are too many problems. If you look at the credits, the vocals and drums are listed off to the side. Open up the album and see how many pictures there are of Tony, and how many there are of me and Vinny". Ronnie James Dio left Black Sabbath in November 1982 to start his own band and took drummer Vinny Appice with him. Live Evil
16954-504: The days is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time; we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff". On 11 November 1969 Black Sabbath recorded a 4-song session for John Peel 's Top Gear radio show. The four songs were " Black Sabbath ", " N.I.B. ", "Behind the Wall of Sleep" and "Sleeping Village". Broadcast on 29 November 1969, this gave them their first exposure to
17127-444: The death of pioneering rock drummer Keith Moon later that year. Emerging British acts included Free , who released their signature song " All Right Now " (1970), which has received extensive radio airplay in both the UK and US. After the breakup of the band in 1973, vocalist Paul Rodgers joined supergroup Bad Company , whose eponymous first album (1974) was an international hit. UK band Foghat also found success throughout
17300-448: The decade with their boogie and blues style. The mixture of hard rock and progressive rock, evident in the works of Deep Purple, was pursued more directly by bands like Uriah Heep and Argent . Scottish band Nazareth released their self-titled début album in 1971, producing a blend of hard rock and pop that would culminate in their best selling, Hair of the Dog (1975), which contained
17473-454: The diverse directions being pursued in the genre. Montrose , including the instrumental talent of Ronnie Montrose and vocals of Sammy Hagar released their first album in 1973. Former bubblegum-pop family act the Osmonds recorded two hard rock albums in 1972 and had their breakthrough in the UK with the hard rock hit " Crazy Horses ." Kiss built on the theatrics of Alice Cooper and
17646-536: The dungeons and it was really creepy, but it had some atmosphere, it conjured up things and stuff started coming out again". While working in the dungeon, Iommi stumbled onto the main riff of " Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ", which set the tone for the new material. Recorded at Morgan Studios in London by Mike Butcher and building off the stylistic changes introduced on Vol. 4 , new songs incorporated synthesisers, strings and complex arrangements. Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman
17819-479: The early part of the decade, alternative forms of hard rock achieved mainstream success in the form of grunge in the US and Britpop in the UK. This was particularly evident after the success of Nirvana 's Nevermind (1991), which combined elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a "dirty" sound that made use of heavy guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback, along with darker lyrical themes than their "hair band" predecessors. Although most grunge bands had
17992-493: The elements introduced by Black Sabbath with their breakthrough live gold album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), followed by their first platinum album, Agents of Fortune (1976), containing the hit single " (Don't Fear) The Reaper ". Journey released their eponymous debut in 1975 and the next year Boston released their highly successful début album . In the same year, hard rock bands featuring women saw commercial success as Heart released Dreamboat Annie and
18165-514: The end of 1992. Martin returned as vocalist for two more studio albums, Cross Purposes (1994) and Forbidden (1995), and one live album before the band went on a one-year hiatus during 1996. The original line-up of Iommi, Osbourne, Butler and Ward reunited in 1997, releasing a live album, Reunion , in the following year, and continuing to tour sporadically until 2005, most of which saw Black Sabbath headline Osbourne's annual festival tour Ozzfest . The band went on another hiatus in 2006 when
18338-526: The end of the month. "It just wasn't right, so I left", Iommi said. "At first I thought Tull were great, but I didn't much go for having a leader in the band, which was Ian Anderson 's way. When I came back from Tull, I came back with a new attitude altogether. They taught me that to get on, you got to work for it." While playing shows in England in 1969, the band discovered they were being mistaken for another English group named Earth, so they decided to change their name again (this name change would give rise to
18511-400: The end product "was very badly produced, as far as I was concerned. Our then-manager insisted on producing it, so he could claim production costs". The album was originally titled Snowblind after the song of the same name, which deals with cocaine abuse. The record company changed the title at the last minute to Black Sabbath Vol. 4 . Ward observed, "There was no Volume 1, 2 or 3, so it's
18684-415: The first lyrical reference to heavy metal and helped popularise the style when it was used in the film Easy Rider (1969). Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), with its 17-minute-long title track , using organs and with a lengthy drum solo, also prefigured later elements of the sound. By the end of the decade a distinct genre of hard rock was emerging with bands like Led Zeppelin , who mixed
18857-495: The first three albums, and we decided to take our time with the next album." In June 1972, the band reconvened in Los Angeles to begin work on their next album at the Record Plant . With more time in the studio, the album saw the band experimenting with new textures, such as strings, piano, orchestration and multi-part songs. Recording was plagued with problems, many as a result of substance abuse issues. Struggling to record
19030-590: The genre with their first three albums Black Sabbath , Paranoid (both 1970), and Master of Reality (1971). Following Osbourne's departure in 1979, the band underwent multiple line-up changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout its history. After previous iterations of the group – the Polka Tulk Blues Band, and Earth – the band settled on the name Black Sabbath in 1969. They distinguished themselves through occult themes with horror-inspired lyrics and down-tuned guitars . Signing to Philips Records in November 1969, they released their first single,
19203-419: The hit ballads " Bed of Roses " (1993) and " Always " (1994). Bon Jovi's 1995 album These Days was a bigger hit in Europe than it was in the United States, spawning four hit singles in the UK. Metallica's Load (1996) and ReLoad (1997) each sold in excess of 4 million copies in the US and saw the band develop a more melodic and blues rock sound. As the initial impetus of grunge bands faltered in
19376-456: The idea of having the stage set be Stonehenge. He wrote the dimensions down and gave it to our tour manager. He wrote it down in metres but he meant to write it down in feet. The people who made it saw fifteen metres instead of fifteen feet. It was 45 feet high and it wouldn't fit on any stage anywhere so we just had to leave it in the storage area. It cost a fortune to make but there was not a building on earth that you could fit it into. Following
19549-430: The last major bands that emerged in the glam rock era. Hard rock entered the 1990s as one of the dominant forms of commercial music. The multi-platinum releases of AC/DC's The Razors Edge (1990), Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (both in 1991), Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears (1991), and Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) showcased this popularity. Additionally,
19722-471: The late 1990s or early 2000s, they never reached the commercial success they saw in the 1980s or early 1990s. Other bands such as Mötley Crüe and Poison saw personnel changes which impacted those bands' commercial viability during the decade. In 1995 Van Halen released Balance , a multi-platinum seller that would be the band's last with Sammy Hagar on vocals. In 1996 David Lee Roth returned briefly and his replacement, former Extreme singer Gary Cherone ,
19895-548: The latter producing six hit singles (a record for a hard rock act). Guns N' Roses released the best-selling début of all time, Appetite for Destruction (1987). With a "grittier" and "rawer" sound than most glam metal, it produced three hits, including " Sweet Child O' Mine ". Some of the glam rock bands that formed in the mid-1980s, such as White Lion and Cinderella experienced their biggest success during this period with their respective albums Pride (1987) and Long Cold Winter (1988) both going multi-platinum and launching
20068-427: The live album Live Evil (1982), the last two featuring drummer Vinny Appice replacing Ward. Following Dio and Appice's departures, Iommi and Butler recorded Born Again (1983) with then-former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan and Ward returning on drums, while the latter was replaced by then- Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan on the subsequent tour. Black Sabbath split in 1984, with Iommi assembling
20241-530: The look of the New York Dolls to produce a unique band persona, achieving their commercial breakthrough with the double live album Alive! in 1975 and helping to take hard rock into the stadium rock era. In the mid-1970s Aerosmith achieved their commercial and artistic breakthrough with Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976), Blue Öyster Cult , formed in the late 1960s, picked up on some of
20414-466: The lyrics for a song called " Black Sabbath ", which was inspired by the work of horror and adventure-story writer Dennis Wheatley , along with a vision that Butler had of a black silhouetted figure standing at the foot of his bed. Making use of the musical tritone , also known as "the Devil's Interval", the song's ominous sound and dark lyrics pushed the band in a darker direction, a stark contrast to
20587-501: The middle years of the decade, post-grunge bands emerged. They emulated the attitudes and music of grunge, particularly thick, distorted guitars, but with a more radio-friendly commercially oriented sound that drew more directly on traditional hard rock. Among the most successful acts were the Foo Fighters , Candlebox , Live , Collective Soul , Australia's Silverchair and England's Bush , who all cemented post-grunge as one of
20760-412: The mixing process for the album, Iommi and Butler had a falling-out with Dio. Misinformed by their then-current mixing engineer, Iommi and Butler accused Dio of sneaking into the studio at night to raise the volume of his vocals. In addition, Dio was not satisfied with the pictures of him in the artwork. Butler also accused Dio and Appice of working on a solo album during the album's mixing without telling
20933-476: The most commercially viable subgenres by the late 1990s. Similarly, some post-Britpop bands that followed in the wake of Oasis, including Feeder and Stereophonics , adopted a hard rock or "pop-metal" sound. A few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers. Bon Jovi were still able to achieve a commercial hit with " It's My Life " from their double platinum-certified album Crush (2000). and AC/DC released
21106-593: The music of early rock bands with a more hard-edged form of blues rock and acid rock on their first two albums Led Zeppelin (1969) and Led Zeppelin II (1969), and Deep Purple , who began as a progressive rock group in 1968 but achieved their commercial breakthrough with their fourth and distinctively heavier album, Deep Purple in Rock (1970). Also significant was Black Sabbath's Paranoid (1970), which combined guitar riffs with dissonance and more explicit references to
21279-408: The name Black Sabbath. Pressured by the band's manager, Don Arden , the two compromised and released the album as "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi" in January 1986. "It opened up a whole can of worms," Iommi explained. "If we could have done it as a solo album, it would have been accepted a lot more." Seventh Star sounded little like a Sabbath album, incorporating instead elements popularised by
21452-436: The new album. Gruber was soon replaced by Geoff Nicholls of Quartz . The new line-up returned to Criteria Studios in November to begin recording work, with Butler returning to the band in January 1980 and Nicholls moving to keyboards. Produced by Martin Birch , Heaven and Hell was released on 25 April 1980, to critical acclaim. Over a decade after its release, AllMusic said the album was "one of Sabbath's finest records,
21625-444: The new band were in rehearsals in January 1978, Osbourne had a change of heart and rejoined Black Sabbath. "Three days before we were due to go into the studio, Ozzy wanted to come back to the band", Iommi explained. "He wouldn't sing any of the stuff we'd written with the other guy (Walker), so it made it very difficult. We went into the studio with basically no songs. We'd write in the morning so we could rehearse and record at night. It
21798-406: The occult and elements of Gothic horror . All three of these bands have been seen as pivotal in the development of heavy metal, but where metal further accentuated the intensity of the music, with bands like Judas Priest following Sabbath's lead into territory that was often "darker and more menacing", hard rock tended to continue to remain the more exuberant, good-time music. In the early 1970s
21971-406: The other members of Black Sabbath. "Ronnie wanted more say in things", Iommi said. "And Geezer would get upset with him and that is where the rot set in. Live Evil is when it all fell apart. Ronnie wanted to do more of his own thing, and the engineer we were using at the time in the studio didn't know what to do, because Ronnie was telling him one thing and we were telling him another. At the end of
22144-511: The platinum-certified Stiff Upper Lip (2000) Aerosmith released a platinum album, Just Push Play (2001), which saw the band foray further into pop with the hit " Jaded ", and a blues cover album, Honkin' on Bobo . Heart achieved their first hit album since the early 90s with Red Velvet Car in 2010, becoming the first female-led hard rock band to earn Top 10 albums spanning five decades. There were reunions and subsequent tours from Van Halen (with Hagar in 2004 and then Roth in 2007),
22317-752: The popular music of the late 1960s, which was dominated by flower power , folk music and hippie culture . Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has called the track "probably the most evil song ever written". Inspired by the new sound, the band changed their name to Black Sabbath in August 1969, and made the decision to focus on writing similar material in an attempt to create the musical equivalent of horror films. The band's first show as Black Sabbath took place on 30 August 1969 in Workington , England. They were signed to Philips Records in November 1969. They recorded their first single, " Evil Woman " (a cover of
22490-469: The proto- power ballad " Love Hurts ". Having enjoyed some national success in the early 1970s, Queen , after the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975), gained international recognition with a sound that used layered vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with heavy metal, progressive rock, and even opera . The latter featured the hit single " Bohemian Rhapsody ". In
22663-419: The rawer sounds of Guns N' Roses which followed with great success in the later part of that decade. Hard rock began losing popularity with the commercial success of R&B, hip-hop , urban pop, grunge and later Britpop in the 1990s. Despite this, many post-grunge bands adopted a hard rock sound and the 2000s saw a renewed interest in established bands, attempts at a revival, and new hard rock bands. In
22836-583: The release of the 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident? Guitarist Slash left in 1996, followed by bassist Duff McKagan in 1997. Axl Rose, the only original member, worked with a constantly changing lineup in recording an album that would take over fifteen years to complete. Slash and McKagan eventually rejoined the band in 2016 and went on the Not in this Lifetime... Tour with them. Some established acts continued to enjoy commercial success, such as Aerosmith, with their number one multi-platinum albums: Get
23009-408: The remaining elements of the blues in their music, further differentiating the hard rock and heavy metal styles and helping to create the new wave of British heavy metal which was pursued by bands like Iron Maiden , Saxon , and Venom . With the rise of disco in the US and punk rock in the UK, hard rock's mainstream dominance was rivalled toward the later part of the decade. Disco appealed to
23182-433: The same time included Iron Butterfly , MC5 , Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge . San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a crude and distorted cover of Eddie Cochran 's classic " Summertime Blues ", from their 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum , that outlined much of the later hard rock and heavy metal sound. The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album , including " Born to Be Wild ", which contained
23355-569: The show were telecast on ABC Television in the U.S., exposing the band to a wider American audience. In the same year, the band shifted management, signing with notorious English manager Don Arden . The move caused a contractual dispute with Black Sabbath's former management, and while on stage in the U.S., Osbourne was handed a subpoena that led to two years of litigation. Black Sabbath began work on their sixth album in February 1975, again in England at Morgan Studios in Willesden , this time with
23528-406: The single " Sorry " (2007). These were joined by bands with hard rock leanings that emerged in the mid-2000s from the garage rock , Southern Rock , or post punk revival , including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Kings of Leon , and Queens of the Stone Age from the US, Three Days Grace from Canada, Jet from Australia and The Datsuns from New Zealand. In 2009 Them Crooked Vultures ,
23701-500: The singles charts with power ballads, including REO Speedwagon with " Keep on Loving You " (1980) and " Can't Fight This Feeling " (1984), Journey with " Don't Stop Believin' " (1981) and " Open Arms " (1982), Foreigner 's " Waiting for a Girl Like You " (1981) and " I Want to Know What Love Is " (1984), Scorpions ' " Still Loving You " (1984), Heart's " What About Love " (1985) and Boston 's " Amanda " (1986). Bon Jovi 's third album, Slippery When Wet (1986), mixed hard rock with
23874-432: The song "Cornucopia" after "sitting in the middle of the room, just doing drugs", Ward was nearly fired. "I hated the song, there were some patterns that were just ... horrible," the drummer said. "I nailed it in the end, but the reaction I got was the cold shoulder from everybody. It was like, 'Well, just go home; you're not being of any use right now.' I felt like I'd blown it, I was about to get fired". Butler thought that
24047-497: The song "Junior's Eyes" on the BBC Television programme Look! Hear! Walker later recalled that, while in Birmingham, he had bumped into Osbourne in a pub and came to the conclusion that Osbourne was not fully committed to leaving Black Sabbath. "The last Sabbath albums were just very depressing for me", Osbourne said. "I was doing it for the sake of what we could get out of the record company, just to get fat on beer and put
24220-429: The songs of rhythm and blues influenced British Invasion acts, including " You Really Got Me " by the Kinks (1964), " My Generation " by the Who (1965) and " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction " (1965) by the Rolling Stones . Soft rock was often derived from folk rock , using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies. In contrast, hard rock was most often derived from blues rock and
24393-571: The story as "a joke" and Bolton insisting it was "only a rumour". The band settled on former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan to replace Dio in December 1982. The project was initially not to be called Black Sabbath, but pressure from the record label forced the group to retain the name. The band entered The Manor Studios in Shipton-on-Cherwell , Oxfordshire, in June 1983 with a returned and newly sober Bill Ward on drums. "That
24566-478: The studio at the last minute. Ward explains: "We didn't have enough songs for the album, and Tony just played the [Paranoid] guitar lick and that was it. It took twenty, twenty-five minutes from top to bottom." The single was released in September 1970 and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart , remaining Black Sabbath's only top 10 hit. The album followed in the UK in October 1970, where, pushed by
24739-435: The style from hard rock, although a number of these bands or their members would continue to record some songs closer to a hard rock sound. Kiss moved away from their hard rock roots toward pop metal: firstly removing their makeup in 1983 for their Lick It Up album, and then adopting the visual and sound of glam metal for their 1984 release, Animalize , both of which marked a return to commercial success. Pat Benatar
24912-463: The success of the "Paranoid" single, it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart . The U.S. release was held off until January 1971, as the Black Sabbath album was still on the chart at the time of Paranoid ' s UK release. The album reached No. 12 in the U.S. in March 1971, and would go on to sell four million copies in the U.S. with virtually no radio airplay. Like Black Sabbath ,
25085-524: The top 50 in the U.S. and was the band's second consecutive release not to achieve Platinum status, although it was later certified Gold in 1997. The album included " Dirty Women ", which remains a live staple, as well as Ward's first lead vocal on the song "It's Alright". Touring in support of Technical Ecstasy began in November 1976, with openers Boston and Ted Nugent in the U.S., and completed in Europe with AC/DC in April 1977. In late 1977, while in rehearsal for their next album and just days before
25258-404: The track " Stairway to Heaven ", which would become the most played song in the history of album-oriented radio. Deep Purple continued to define their unique brand of hard rock, particularly with their album Machine Head (1972), which included the tracks " Highway Star " and " Smoke on the Water ". In 1975 guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left, going on to form Rainbow and after the break-up of
25431-659: The two styles. Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have coexisted with one another, with bands frequently flirting with the boundaries of, or hybridizing the genres. The roots of hard rock can be traced back to the mid-to-late 1950s, particularly electric blues , which laid the foundations for key elements such as a rough declamatory vocal style, heavy guitar riffs , string-bending blues-scale guitar solos , strong beat , thick riff-laden texture , and posturing performances. Electric blues guitarists began experimenting with hard rock elements such as driving rhythms, distorted guitar solos and power chords in
25604-485: The usual support band fee in return for free T-shirts. The audience response was positive and Simpson agreed to manage Earth. In December 1968, Iommi abruptly left Earth to join Jethro Tull . Although his stint with the band would be short-lived, Iommi made an appearance with Jethro Tull on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV show. Unsatisfied with the direction of Jethro Tull, Iommi returned to Earth by
25777-462: The way they were on Vol. 4 , and we really got discontent", Iommi said. "Everybody was sitting there waiting for me to come up with something. I just couldn't think of anything. And if I didn't come up with anything, nobody would do anything". After a month in Los Angeles with no results, the band opted to return to England. They rented Clearwell Castle in The Forest of Dean . "We rehearsed in
25950-463: The well-known debate about the alleged aesthetic influence of Coven , which the British band always denied ). A cinema across the street from the band's rehearsal room was showing the 1963 Italian horror film Black Sabbath , starring Boris Karloff and directed by Mario Bava . While watching people line up to see the film, Butler noted that it was "strange that people spend so much money to see scary movies". Following that, Osbourne and Butler wrote
26123-502: Was a big hit and the singles " Photograph ", " Rock of Ages " and " Foolin' ", helped by the emergence of MTV , were successful. It was widely emulated, particularly by the emerging Californian glam metal scene. This was followed by US acts like Mötley Crüe , with their albums Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983) and, as the style grew, the arrival of bands such as Ratt , White Lion , Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot . Quiet Riot's album Metal Health (1983)
26296-472: Was a considerable disappointment after the across-the-board success of Whitesnake ". Aerosmith's comeback album Permanent Vacation (1987) would begin a decade long revival of their popularity. Crazy Nights (1987) by Kiss was the band's biggest hit album since 1979 and the highest of their career in the UK. Mötley Crüe with Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) continued their commercial success and Def Leppard with Hysteria (1987) hit their commercial peak,
26469-572: Was a great showman, but when Dio came in, it was a different attitude, a different voice and a different musical approach, as far as vocals. Dio would sing across the riff, whereas Ozzy would follow the riff, like in "Iron Man". Ronnie came in and gave us another angle on writing." Geezer Butler temporarily left the band in September 1979 for personal reasons. According to Dio, the band initially hired Craig Gruber , with whom Dio had previously played while in Elf and Rainbow , on bass to assist with writing
26642-441: Was a platinum-seller in the US and reached the top ten in nine other countries. After somewhat slower sales of its fourth album, Fair Warning , Van Halen rebounded with Diver Down in 1982, then reached their commercial pinnacle with 1984 . Heart , after floundering during the first half of the decade, made a comeback with their eponymous ninth studio album which contained four hit singles. The new medium of video channels
26815-439: Was an international hit. This era also saw more glam-infused American hard rock bands come to the forefront, with both Poison and Cinderella releasing their multi-platinum début albums in 1986. Van Halen released 5150 (1986), their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, which sold over 6 million copies. By the second half of the decade, hard rock had become the most reliable form of commercial popular music in
26988-433: Was at this point still trying to convince Osbourne to rejoin the band, as he viewed the original line-up as the most profitable. Dio officially joined in June, and the band began writing their next album. With a notably different vocal style from Osbourne's, Dio's addition to the band marked a change in Black Sabbath's sound. "They were totally different altogether", Iommi explains. "Not only voice-wise, but attitude-wise. Ozzy
27161-410: Was brought in as a session player, appearing on " Sabbra Cadabra ". In November 1973, Black Sabbath began to receive positive reviews in the mainstream press after the release of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath , with Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone calling the album "an extraordinarily gripping affair" and "nothing less than a complete success". Later reviewers such as AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia cite
27334-549: Was close with Osbourne, was chosen by Iommi to break the news to the singer on 27 April 1979. "I hope I was professional, I might not have been, actually. When I'm drunk I am horrible, I am horrid", Ward said. "Alcohol was definitely one of the most damaging things to Black Sabbath. We were destined to destroy each other. The band were toxic, very toxic". Sharon Arden (later Sharon Osbourne ), daughter of Black Sabbath manager Don Arden , suggested former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio to replace Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 . Don Arden
27507-444: Was finally released in 2008, but only went platinum and failed to come close to the success of the band's late 1980s and early 1990s material. More successfully, AC/DC released the double platinum-certified Black Ice (2008). Bon Jovi continued to enjoy success, branching into country music with " Who Says You Can't Go Home ", and the rock/country album Lost Highway (2007). In 2009, Bon Jovi released The Circle , which marked
27680-453: Was fired soon after the release of the commercially unsuccessful 1998 album Van Halen III and Van Halen would not tour or record again until 2004. Guns N' Roses' original lineup was whittled away throughout the decade. Drummer Steven Adler was fired in 1990, guitarist Izzy Stradlin left in late 1991 after recording Use Your Illusion I and II with the band. Tensions between the other band members and lead singer Axl Rose continued after
27853-456: Was made by bands of the sleaze metal movement in Sweden, including Vains of Jenna , Hardcore Superstar and Crashdïet . Although Foo Fighters continued to be one of the most successful rock acts, with albums like In Your Honor (2005), many of the first wave of post-grunge bands began to fade in popularity. Acts like Creed , Staind , Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback took the genre into
28026-420: Was not supposed to be a Black Sabbath album. After we had done the album we gave it to Warner Bros. and they said they were going to put it out as a Black Sabbath album and we didn't have a leg to stand on. I got really disillusioned with it and Gillan was really pissed off about it. That lasted one album and one tour and then that was it." One vocalist whose status is disputed, both inside and outside Sabbath,
28199-402: Was one of the first women to achieve commercial success in hard rock, releasing four consecutive US Top Five albums between 1980 and 1983. Often categorised with the new wave of British heavy metal, in 1981 Def Leppard released their second album High 'n' Dry , mixing glam-rock with heavy metal, and helping to define the sound of hard rock for the decade. The follow-up Pyromania (1983)
28372-408: Was panned on release by critics. Despite this negative reception, it reached number four in the UK, and number 39 in the U.S. Even three decades after its release, AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia called the album "dreadful", noting that "Gillan's bluesy style and humorous lyrics were completely incompatible with the lords of doom and gloom". Unable to tour because of the pressures of the road, Ward quit
28545-406: Was played louder and with more intensity. Blues rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream , the Jimi Hendrix Experience , and the Jeff Beck Group . Cream, in songs like " I Feel Free " (1966), combined blues rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton . Cream's best known-song, " Sunshine of Your Love " (1967), is sometimes considered to be
28718-487: Was recorded at John Lennon 's old house in England, was also featured in the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal , although the film version is an alternate take and differs from the album version. Unhappy with the quality of 1980's Live at Last , the band recorded another live album – titled Live Evil – during the Mob Rules world tour, across the United States in Dallas , San Antonio and Seattle , in 1982. During
28891-509: Was released in January 1983, but was overshadowed by Ozzy Osbourne's Platinum-selling album Speak of the Devil . The remaining original members, Iommi and Butler, began auditioning singers for the band's next release. Deep Purple and Whitesnake 's David Coverdale , Samson 's Nicky Moore and Lone Star 's John Sloman were all considered, and Iommi states in his autobiography that Michael Bolton auditioned, though this claim has been disputed, with Butler suggesting that Iommi concocted
29064-450: Was released on 25 September 1976 to mixed reviews, and – for the first time – later music critics gave the album less favourable retrospective reviews; two decades after its release, AllMusic gave the album two stars, and noted that the band was "unravelling at an alarming rate". The album featured less of the doomy, ominous sound of previous efforts, and incorporated more synthesisers and uptempo rock songs. Technical Ecstasy failed to reach
29237-516: Was so difficult, like a conveyor belt, because you couldn't get time to reflect on stuff. 'Is this right? Is this working properly?' It was very difficult for me to come up with the ideas and putting them together that quick". The band spent five months at Sounds Interchange Studios in Toronto , Ontario, Canada, writing and recording what would become Never Say Die! . "It took quite a long time", Iommi said. "We were getting really drugged out, doing
29410-523: Was the band's first release not to achieve Platinum status in the U.S., only achieving Gold certification. Although the album's only single " Am I Going Insane (Radio) " failed to chart, Sabotage features fan favourites such as " Hole in the Sky " and " Symptom of the Universe ". Black Sabbath toured in support of Sabotage with openers Kiss , but were forced to cut the tour short in November 1975, following
29583-410: Was the first glam metal album, and arguably the first heavy metal album of any kind, to reach number one in the Billboard music charts and helped open the doors for mainstream success by subsequent bands. Established bands made something of a comeback in the mid-1980s. After an 8-year separation, Deep Purple returned with the classic Machine Head line-up to produce Perfect Strangers (1984) which
29756-423: Was the very first album that I ever did clean and sober," Ward recalled. "I only got drunk after I finished all my work on the album – which wasn't a very good idea... Sixty to seventy per cent of my energy was taken up on learning how to get through the day without taking a drink and learning how to do things without drinking, and thirty per cent of me was involved in the album." Born Again (9 September 1983)
29929-417: Was used with considerable success by bands formed in previous decades. Among the first were ZZ Top, who mixed hard-edged blues rock with new wave music to produce a series of highly successful singles, beginning with " Gimme All Your Lovin' " (1983), which helped their albums Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985) achieve diamond and multi-platinum status respectively. Others found renewed success in
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