191-485: Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 1976. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), and Vivian Campbell (guitar, backing vocals). They established themselves as part of the new wave of British heavy metal of the early 1980s. Their greatest commercial success came between
382-464: A 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance
573-471: A US tour with Journey. That October, Hysteria was re-released in a two-disc deluxe edition format, which combined the original remastered album with B-sides, remixes, and bonus tracks from single releases. Def Leppard began their Downstage Thrust Tour, on 27 June, which took them across the US and into Canada. On 25 April 2008, Def Leppard released their first album of new studio material in six years, Songs from
764-428: A biopic that included Anthony Michael Hall as Mutt Lange and Amber Valletta as Lorelei Shellist (Steve Clark's girlfriend). The docudrama covered the band's history between 1977 through 1986, recounting the trials and triumphs of Rick Allen and Steve Clark. Def Leppard's eighth album, X , saw the band's musical direction moving more towards pop and further away from the band's hard rock roots. X ultimately became
955-514: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1146-856: A custom electronic drum kit . The other members of the band supported Allen's recovery and never sought a replacement. Allen was placed in a separate studio to practice his new drums. After a few months, Allen gathered the band together and performed the intro to the Led Zeppelin version of " When the Levee Breaks " to showcase his progress to the band. Joe Elliott reports this as being a "very emotional moment". During this period, Mutt Lange returned as producer. Def Leppard brought in Jeff Rich in August 1986 to play alongside Allen during Def Leppard's warm-up mini tour of Ireland. When Rich turned up late for
1337-519: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
1528-481: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
1719-539: A four-piece. The album reached No. 1 on the UK, US and Australian charts in 1992. It contained several hits, including the Billboard chart-topper " Let's Get Rocked ", which became their biggest hit in several countries, including No. 2 in the UK. The third single, " Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad ", was a Top 10 song in the US, UK and Canada. Adrenalize went on to sell over eight million copies worldwide. Campbell joined
1910-628: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
2101-475: A gig, he and the band realised Allen could drum alone. Allen's comeback was sealed at the 1986 Monsters of Rock festival in England, with an emotionally charged ovation after his introduction by Joe Elliott. After over three years of recording, Def Leppard's fourth album, Hysteria , was released on 3 August 1987. One of the first singles from the album, " Animal ", became the band's first Top 10 hit in
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#17327869682332292-482: A high speed, he lost control of his Corvette C4 , which hit a dry stone wall and entered a field; his left arm was severed. Doctors initially reattached the arm, but it was later amputated due to an infection. Despite the severity of the accident, Rick Allen was committed to continuing his role as Def Leppard's drummer. Soon after, Allen realized that he could use his legs to do some of the drumming work previously done with his arms. He then worked with Simmons to design
2483-630: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
2674-461: A local duo consisting of Pete Martin and Frank Stuart-Brown, were fired after Martin and Joe Elliott got into a fistfight over an incident on the road. The band approached Peter Mensch of Leber-Krebs management, who had booked them on a tour of the UK supporting AC/DC . Mensch, who admitted that he had had his eye on the band, became their manager. Def Leppard's debut album, On Through the Night ,
2865-573: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
3056-587: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
3247-495: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
3438-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
3629-503: A million fans in North America in just three months, marking the tour out as one of the most successful in 2018. In addition, the group's discography was made available for streaming and digital download after a deal was reached between the band and Universal Music Group . On 30 November 2018, the band released a new two-disc best of compilation, The Story So Far – The Best Of . In addition to 34 of Def Leppard's greatest hits,
3820-472: A month he might do permanent damage." By July 2016, the band were performing regularly again and intended to complete 48 dates. When the tour stopped at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan , on 15 July, the show was recorded for future release. On 10 February 2017, the band released And There Will be a Next Time ... Live from Detroit , a double live album and concert video. In August 2017,
4011-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
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#17327869682334202-486: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
4393-589: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
4584-551: A period between late-1991 and early 1992, auditions for another guitarist commenced. Among the guitarists who auditioned included Adrian Smith , John Sykes , and Gary Hoey . Ultimately, the band chose Vivian Campbell in 1992, formerly of Dio and Whitesnake . In April 1992, Def Leppard appeared at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium , London, performing a three-song set of "Animal", "Let's Get Rocked" and Queen 's " Now I'm Here " with guitarist Brian May . Joe Elliott later performed " Tie Your Mother Down " with
4775-411: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
4966-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
5157-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
5348-721: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
5539-599: A sell-out tour of the UK and Ireland titled Hysteria & More Tour. They embarked on a world tour in 2019 beginning with the Sweden Rock Festival on 6 June. In March 2019, it was announced that the band would undertake a second Las Vegas residency titled Def Leppard Hits Vegas—The Sin City Residency. The box set The Early Years 79-81 was released in March 2020, featuring remastered versions of
5730-481: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
5921-737: A staple of MTV Rolling Stone named them among the artists of the Second British Invasion . The Pyromania tour began in England at the Marquee Club on Wardour Street, Soho, London in February 1983. Def Leppard's US tour in support of the album began in March opening for Billy Squier and ended with a headlining performance before an audience of 55,000 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California in September. As
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6112-486: A teaser video was uploaded to the official Def Leppard YouTube channel, announcing an album titled Drastic Symphonies . The album was released on 19 May and featured 16 tracks from previous albums reworked, stripped, or re-recorded. All tracks feature newly composed orchestra combined with most of the original vocals, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra . The album reached number 4 on
6303-442: A testament to the band's popularity at the time, a US Gallup poll in 1984 saw Def Leppard voted as favourite rock band over the Rolling Stones , AC/DC, and Journey . Pyromania was not as successful in their native UK where it reached number 18 on the album chart. Following their breakthrough, the band moved to Dublin in February 1984 for tax purposes to begin writing the follow-up to Pyromania . Mutt Lange initially joined in on
6494-470: A three-song release known as The Def Leppard E.P. , Kenning abruptly left the band; he later formed the band Cairo. He was replaced for those sessions by Frank Noon . By the end of the month, Rick Allen , then only 15 years old, had joined the band as its full-time drummer. Sales of the EP soared after the track "Getcha Rocks Off" was given extensive airtime by renowned BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel , considered at
6685-464: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
6876-529: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
7067-556: A wide range of musical artists, including Matt Nathanson and Taylor Swift . Rock music Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from
7258-416: A year off from touring in 2010, the band announced on 22 February 2011 that they would be releasing their first live album in the summer. Mirror Ball – Live & More , a two-disc live album, with three new studio tracks. It was released in parts of Europe on 3 June, the rest of Europe on 6 June, and on 7 June in the US; it was announced at the same time that Def Leppard would perform at
7449-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
7640-469: Is Rihanna's single " We Found Love ", which is certified at nine times Platinum by the RIAA, yet during the time of the certification, it had sold 5.4 million downloads. The certified units for some artists/bands who have multi-disc albums can be higher than their listed claimed figures due to the RIAA counting each unit within a set as one unit toward certification. The certified units also can be inflated by
7831-407: Is a mixture of hard rock, AOR , pop and heavy metal elements, with its multi-layered, harmonic vocals and its melodic guitar riffs . In addition, making a concession to popular tastes of its time, Slang featured a sparser sound and alternative rock feel. Though they were often considered one of the top bands of the new wave of British heavy metal movement of the late 1970s, the band disliked
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8022-540: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
8213-472: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
8404-555: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
8595-601: Is named after a lyric in the Marc Bolan -penned T. Rex song " Get It On ". On 17 March, the band released the lead single, "Kick". The album released on 27 May, receiving moderate to positive reviews, reaching Number 10 on the US Billboard 200 . 'Diamond Star Halos' is the band's highest charting album since 1992's Adrenalize . In January 2023, Joe Elliot was featured on a new version of Ghost 's single Spillways released as Ghost and Def Leppard. On 16 March 2023,
8786-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
8977-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
9168-498: Is the Band." List of best-selling music artists The following list of best-selling music artists includes musical artists from the 20th century to the present with claims of 75 million or more record sales worldwide. The sales figures are calculated based on the formula detailed below. The tables are listed with each artist's claimed sales figure(s) and their total independently certified units and are ranked in descending order by claimed sales. If two or more artists have
9359-535: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
9550-635: The 1989 MTV Video Music Awards . Hysteria is one of only a handful of albums that has charted seven singles or more on the US Hot 100: "Women" (#80), "Animal" (#19), "Hysteria" (#10), "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (#2), "Love Bites (#1), "Armageddon It" (#3), and "Rocket" (#12). Aside from "Women", these same songs all made the Top 25 on the UK Singles chart. It remained on the charts for three years and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. Equally successful
9741-524: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
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#17327869682339932-524: The Download Festival at Donington Park , England to a sell-out crowd of 83,000 with Whitesnake and ZZ Top . In October 2008, Def Leppard played with country star Taylor Swift in a taped show in Nashville, Tennessee , in a show called CMT Crossroads : Taylor Swift and Def Leppard. This was released as a DVD on 16 June 2009 exclusively at Wal-Mart. The release was the best-selling DVD of
10123-882: The Download Festival on 10 June 2011. Of the three new studio tracks, two were released as singles, the first single being " Undefeated " released in April 2011. Def Leppard embarked on a two-month US tour in the summer of 2011 with Heart , as well as another seven shows in Australia in October with The Choirboys and Heart, two shows in Japan in November, and six shows in the United Kingdom in December with Steel Panther and Mötley Crüe . The next year, they toured with Poison and Lita Ford from 20 June through 15 September, dubbed
10314-586: The Paul McCartney tribute album The Art of McCartney released on 18 November 2014. Joe Elliott also contributed another track, " Hi, Hi, Hi ". At certain recent points in time the band had projects, such as a cartoon and a documentary, in development. However, these projects seem to have been shelved indefinitely. The band had originally planned to do another residency in Las Vegas, this time in honour of Pyromania (called Viva! Pyromania ), but due to
10505-524: The best-selling albums of all time, and the highest selling glam rock album to date. It spawned six Top 20 US singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 " Love Bites ". Singles also included " Pour Some Sugar on Me " (US No. 2), " Hysteria ", " Armageddon It ", " Animal " (at No. 6, the biggest UK hit), and " Rocket " (a Top 15 hit in many countries). Clark died in 1991, with the band recording their next studio album, Adrenalize , as
10696-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
10887-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
11078-419: The "Heroes 2014" tour with Kiss, and the recording of their new studio album, the project had been pushed back indefinitely. The new album was originally planned to be an EP, but the set-list increased to 15 songs by June 2014. The album was released on 30 October 2015 with a tour following. In December 2014, the band announced a 13-date Canadian tour in April and May 2015. This was followed in February 2015 with
11269-472: The "Rock Of Ages 2012 Tour". The year after, Def Leppard played an 11-show residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from 22 March through to 13 April 2013. The residency, referred to as Viva! Hysteria , featured a two-part show, with the first half featuring Def Leppard opening for themselves, under the alias "Ded Flatbird", (jokingly called the best Def Leppard cover band in
11460-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
11651-797: The 1999 album Euphoria . The first single, " Promises ", reunited the band with Mutt Lange and hit the US Mainstream Rock Track charts at No. 1 for three weeks although it did not receive much play on Top 40 radio; it was also a moderate hit in the UK and Canada. Euphoria peaked at No. 11 in both the UK and US, and at No 14 in Germany, although it was less successful in Canada and Australia. On 5 September 2000, Def Leppard were inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk on Sunset Boulevard by their friend Brian May of Queen . In 2001, VH1 produced and aired Hysteria – The Def Leppard Story ,
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#173278696823311842-467: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
12033-477: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
12224-628: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
12415-617: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
12606-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
12797-594: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
12988-507: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
13179-644: The Heartbreak " became one of the first rock videos played on MTV in 1982, but the album reached only the Top 30 and 40 in the UK and US. Willis was replaced by Collen in 1982. Their next studio album, Pyromania , was released in January 1983, with " Photograph " and " Rock of Ages " both topping the US Rock Tracks chart and reaching the top 20 of the Hot 100. Reaching No. 2 on the US album chart, Pyromania
13370-471: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
13561-506: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
13752-503: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
13943-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
14134-588: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
14325-672: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
14516-551: The Sparkle Lounge . The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in the US. The first single was entitled "Nine Lives" and featured country singer Tim McGraw , who co-wrote the song with Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, and Rick Savage. A tour in support of the album began on 27 March 2008 in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Styx and REO Speedwagon . They also played several European rock festivals. An arena tour of
14707-733: The Top 15 in several countries, including the UK, US and Canada. Their self-titled album , released in 2015, reached the Top 10 in several countries. Their newest studio album, Diamond Star Halos , was released in May 2022 and reached the Top 10 in the US, UK and Australia, and soon became the band's highest rated and best selling album since Adrenalize in 1992. As one of the world's best-selling music artists , Def Leppard have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and have two albums with RIAA diamond certification : Pyromania and Hysteria , making them one of only five rock bands with two original studio albums selling more than 10 million copies in
14898-422: The Top 15 in the UK, with "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" being the most successful track in Canada (No. 7) and on the US Hot 100 (No. 12) . Another single, the mid-tempo " Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion) ", was a hit in Canada, peaking at No. 11, and also reached No. 1 on the US Rock Tracks chart, edging out "Make Love Like a Man" (No. 3) as the second most successful track off the album on US rock radio. In
15089-400: The UK album chart, making this their highest chart position for many years. On 13 June 2024, Def Leppard released its first song in two years, "Just Like 73", featuring a guest guitar solo by Tom Morello . When asked that same month on Sirius XM 's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk if it is a one-off single or the seed of the band's next album, guitarist Phil Collen said, "Oh, it's absolutely
15280-425: The UK and US album charts, staying number one on the latter for five weeks, while also reaching the summit on the Canadian and Australian charts and hitting No. 8 in Germany. The first single, the anthemic " Let's Get Rocked ", was an instant hit and remains the band's highest-charting song ever in several countries, including the UK (No. 2), Canada (No. 3), Australia (No. 6) and Germany (No. 22), while reaching No. 1 on
15471-536: The UK took place in June in which the band co-headlined with Whitesnake and were supported by Black Stone Cherry . The band then returned to Europe before coming back for a second leg of the UK tour in June. The first of these dates was at the Glasgow SECC on 17 June. Again they were joined by Whitesnake; however, hard rock band Thunder supported at some of these shows. Black Stone Cherry continued to support most of
15662-542: The UK, Top 10 in several other countries, and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the US. Alternate track listings of the album were issued for North America, the UK, and Japan. The compilation included a new track, the power ballad " When Love & Hate Collide ", which became their biggest ever hit in the UK, hitting No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart , while also hitting No. 6 in Canada., their last major hit single in both countries, but barely charted in
15853-492: The UK, reaching No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart . "Animal" also started their run of ten consecutive US Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles. The next single off Hysteria , its mid-tempo title track, became the band's first Top 10 single in the US, and, peaking at number 13, their highest-charting song in Canada to that date. Hysteria topped the UK Album Charts in its first week of release, and spent 105 weeks on
16044-514: The US Rock Tracks chart and No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band performed the song at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards where it was nominated for Best Video of the Year . Like with Hysteria , several singles were released off Adrenalize , including the rocker " Make Love Like a Man ", the ballad " Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad " and the mid-tempo " Heaven Is ", each of which made
16235-497: The US Rock Tracks chart, neither it or any of the other singles released off the album charted on the Hot 100. For the first time, a Def Leppard studio album peaked higher in the UK than in the US as it hit No. 5 there, with two singles, the album's title track (No. 17), and "Work It Out" (No. 22) performing well on the UK singles chart. In Canada, "Work It Out" was a Top 10 single and while the album only peaked at No. 12, it eventually still went double platinum in sales. VH1 revived
16426-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
16617-476: The US, their tenth consecutive Top 20 album. The band toured to promote the album with Journey from June through November 2006 in Europe, the UK, and the US. The band, along with Queen , Kiss , and Judas Priest , were the inaugural inductees of VH1 Rock Honors on 31 May 2006. During the show, The All-American Rejects paid homage to the band with a cover of "Photograph". Soon afterwards, they embarked on
16808-499: The US, where it was their last significant hit song. Another single from Retro Active , " Miss You in a Heartbeat ", was also successful in Canada (No. 19) while a cover of Sweet's " Action " was popular in the UK, reaching No. 14. Retro Active made the Top 10 in the UK, US, and Canada and has sold 3 million copies worldwide to date. In 1995, Def Leppard issued their first greatest hits collection, Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980–1995) , which reached number 3 in
16999-473: The US. On 23 October 1995, the band entered the Guinness Book of World Records by performing three concerts on three continents in one day (Tangiers, Morocco; Sheffield, England; and Vancouver, Canada). Slang , released in May 1996, marked a drastic musical departure for the band by featuring darker lyrics and a stripped-down alternative rock edge. The band rehearsed and played the songs together in
17190-909: The US. The band were ranked No. 31 in VH1 's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" and No. 70 in "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Rick Savage , Tony Kenning, and Pete Doubleday, all students at Tapton School in Sheffield , South Yorkshire, formed a band called Atomic Mass in 1976. Pete Willis joined in 1977, departing briefly but returning full time. The band originally consisted of Doubleday (and later Willis) on guitar, Savage on bass guitar after briefly playing guitar, Kenning on drums, Andy Nicholas on bass and Nick Mackley on lead vocals. Other members to come and go were Paul Holland (vocals), Melanie Davis (guitars, keyboards, violin, bass), Paul Hampshire (lead guitar) and Nick Hawnt (vocals). Only 18 at
17381-619: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
17572-751: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
17763-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
17954-549: The album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to
18145-465: The announcement of a 2015 US summer tour with Styx and Tesla from June to October 2015. The tour was then extended to include dates in Japan and Australia throughout November, and a tour of the UK and Ireland with Whitesnake in December. Def Leppard then returned to North America with REO Speedwagon and Tesla in early-2016. The eleventh studio album, titled Def Leppard , was recorded in 2014 and 2015, and released on 30 October 2015. The band released
18336-439: The artists would have played a significant part in a song. For example, " This Is What You Came For " and " Where Them Girls At " include Rihanna and Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj as featured artists respectively, so the certifications issued for these songs are added to the total amount of certified units for all involved artists. However, the certifications issued for songs that have been recorded by four or more artists are not included as
18527-425: The band celebrated the 30th anniversary of Hysteria by releasing a collector's edition box. The singles were also re-released on vinyl. In January 2018, Def Leppard announced they would embark on a 58-date North American tour with Journey . The tour included ten dates in baseball stadiums, a first for the band, with special guests Cheap Trick. The tour was highly successful, as the bands played in front of more than
18718-447: The band released a remastered deluxe edition of their 1996 album Slang after much delay. The album, still coveted by many loyal fans of the band, now features 30 tracks including demos, B-sides, and unreleased material. From 23 June 2014 to 31 August 2014, Def Leppard and Kiss toured 42 cities, with one dollar per ticket donated to such military charities as Wounded Warrior Project . Def Leppard contributed one song, " Helen Wheels ", to
18909-405: The band scored another US Top five hit with " Armageddon It ", and by spring of 1989 the final single " Rocket " was in the Top 15 in the US and several other countries. Wanting to give fans something new after the massive radio and video airplay for not only the seven singles but also the album tracks that radio DJs were playing off the album, the band performed "Tear It Down", a Hysteria B-side at
19100-485: The band soon after the album's completion. Their 1993 album, Retro Active , contained the acoustic Top 5 hit " Two Steps Behind ". Their greatest-hits album Vault , released in 1995, featured the UK No. 2 hit " When Love & Hate Collide " and reached the Top 10 in several countries, going 5× platinum in the US. Beginning with Slang , Def Leppard released five albums between 1996 and 2008, with most usually reaching
19291-564: The band with beer cans and bottles filled with urine. This incident was partially blamed on a cover story in Sounds music newspaper by the journalist Geoff Barton titled, "Has the Leppard changed its spots?", accusing the band of selling out to the American market. In a documentary on the band recorded for BBC 2 , Barton recalls feelings of guilt over the story and having a "stand-up row" with
19482-441: The band's signature song , and was ranked No. 2 on VH1 's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" in 2006. Hysteria also topped the album charts in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, at No. 10, was their first album to chart in Germany, and was eventually certified Diamond in sales in the US and 13× Platinum in Canada. The band's UK success saw them nominated for the 1988 Brit Award for Best British Group. In October 1988,
19673-513: The band's first two albums plus a variety of live recordings, B-sides, and studio outtakes from the 1979 to 1981 period. On 4 December 2019, the band announced they would be touring with Mötley Crüe , Poison , and Joan Jett on The Stadium Tour in summer 2020, which was later rescheduled to 2021, and then to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . On 15 March 2022, Def Leppard announced their twelfth studio album, Diamond Star Halos . The album
19864-507: The band's fortunes in the US in 1998 by featuring them on one of the first episodes of Behind the Music . Re-runs of the episode yielded some of the series' highest ratings and brought the band's music back into the public consciousness (following years of burial by the alternative rock climate). The episode was even parodied on Saturday Night Live . In an effort to capitalise on this new momentum, Def Leppard returned to its classic sound with
20055-629: The band's least successful release, peaking at No. 11 on the US Billboard 200. No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart, No. 12 in Canada, and No. 19 in Germany. Its first single, " Now ", reached the Top 30 in the UK and Canada but missed the US Hot 100, only reaching No. 26 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. An expanded and updated best-of collection, Best Of , was released internationally in October 2004. The North America-only version, Rock of Ages—The Definitive Collection ,
20246-433: The band's manager, Mensch, backstage at the show. In the documentary series Metal Evolution , Joe Elliott says that the media had exaggerated the event and all bands on the day had experienced 'abuse' from the crowd. The band had by then caught the attention of AC/DC producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange , who agreed to work on their second album, High 'n' Dry , released on 6 July 1981. Lange's meticulous approach in
20437-585: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
20628-471: The branding, stating: "We didn't agree that our music was anything like Iron Maiden 's." In the mid-1980s, the band were associated with the growing glam metal scene, mainly due to their mainstream success and glossy production. Pyromania has been cited as the catalyst for the 1980s pop-metal movement. Def Leppard, however, expressed their dislike of the "glam metal" label as well, as they thought it did not accurately describe their look or musical style. By
20819-458: The ceremony. At the 1989 American Music Awards , Def Leppard won Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist, as well as Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album (for Hysteria ). Following Hysteria , the band quickly set out to work on their fifth album, hoping to avoid another lengthy gap. Steve Clark 's alcoholism worsened to the point that he was constantly in and out of rehab . Recording sessions suffered from this distraction, and in mid-1990, Clark
21010-775: The certified units column. Gold/Platinum certifications issued after 2016, especially on singles, are in some cases more than 50% streaming generated. Some of the 20th century artists can also have significant amount of streaming based certifications. The certified units of the newer artists may sometimes be higher than their listed claimed figures. This is because Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and almost all other certifying bodies count streaming towards Gold and Platinum thresholds required for Digital Single Award certification. For this reason, some singles and even albums get over certified by hundreds of thousands of units. The over certified figures, however, are often in millions of units for RIAA certifications, one such example
21201-405: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
21392-618: The chart. Initial US album sales were relatively slow (compared to Pyromania ) until the release of the fourth single, " Pour Some Sugar on Me ". The song hit No. 2, on the Hot 100 and Hysteria finally reached the top of the US Billboard 200 in July 1988. Although "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was not initially a big hit in other countries (number 18 in the UK, number 22 in Canada, and number 26 in Australia), it has come to be regarded as
21583-522: The collection featured the band's new cover of the Depeche Mode hit " Personal Jesus " (which was originally released in July 2018 for Spotify Singles ), the new Christmas track "We All Need Christmas", and the new remix of "Rock On". On the same day, a new limited edition, 10-disc vinyl box set featuring all of the 7" singles from the Hysteria album was released. The band finished the year off with
21774-675: The dates, including some of the Thunder ones. Six shows which were cancelled during the USA/Canada leg of their world tour due to illnesses affecting Joe Elliott and Phil Collen were rescheduled and played in August of that year. On 11 June, Def Leppard announced further dates for their 2008 World Tour. The extension saw them visit Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Whitesnake continued to support Def Leppard for their Indian and Japanese dates. Def Leppard toured 41 US cities plus Toronto during mid-2009 with Poison and Cheap Trick and also headlined
21965-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
22156-443: The development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk
22347-455: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
22538-460: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
22729-423: The early 1980s and mid–1990s. With a line-up of Savage, Elliott, Allen and guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis , the band's first album, 1980's On Through the Night , reached the Top 15 in the UK but received little notice elsewhere. Their second album, 1981's High 'n' Dry , was produced by Mutt Lange , who helped them to define their melodic hard rock style. The album's most popular track " Bringin' On
22920-462: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
23111-519: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
23302-518: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
23493-618: The first ever rock concert at the Don Valley Stadium in their home city of Sheffield before an audience of over 50,000. A collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks recorded between 1984 and 1993, called Retro Active , was released in October 1993, preceded by the success of the acoustic ballad " Two Steps Behind " (from the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero ). The song charted in many countries, reaching Top 5 in Canada and peaking at No. 12 in
23684-498: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
23875-455: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
24066-513: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
24257-400: The genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with
24448-490: The guys and see what the reaction is.' And we keep pushing the boat out even further." He also mentioned a possible 2025 or 2026 release date for the new album, "You know how these things go. We have these tours and everything, but we've got a new song. So that's really exciting. So that'll be on the go pretty soon." Def Leppard's musical style has been described as glam metal (hair metal, pop metal ), hard rock , heavy metal , arena rock , and power pop . Def Leppard's music
24639-458: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
24830-467: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
25021-517: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
25212-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
25403-585: The lead single from their self-titled album on 15 September 2015, titled "Let's Go", with a music video for the song being released on 30 October. The 14-track album debuted at number 10 in the US and number 11 in the UK. During the break following their 2015 tour, Def Leppard led the Hysteria on the High Seas concert cruise aboard the MSC Divina in January 2016. Joe Elliott became ill with laryngitis on
25594-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
25785-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
25976-674: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
26167-609: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
26358-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
26549-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
26740-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
26931-460: The name " Deaf Leopard " which was originally a band name he thought of while designing band posters in art class. At Kenning's suggestion, the spelling was slightly modified in order to make the name seem less like that of a punk band. In January 1978, Steve Clark joined the band. According to Elliott, he successfully auditioned for the band by playing Lynyrd Skynyrd 's " Free Bird " in its entirety. In November, just prior to recording sessions for
27122-465: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
27313-608: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
27504-508: The night of their cruise performance. This led to the band performing without Elliott for the first time in their history. Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen sang lead vocals on two songs of the shortened seven song set in addition to two songs with vocals by Andrew Freeman and two more with Eric Martin and Kip Winger . in addition to this, Campbell and Freeman's Last in Line bandmate Jimmy Bain , former bassist of Dio died of lung cancer aboard
27695-660: The number 1 position on the US Album Rock Track Chart for six weeks), and sparked a headline tour across the US. The second single, ' Rock of Ages , also reached number 1 on the Rock Tracks chart, with both singles reaching the Top 20 of the Hot 100 ("Photograph" number 12 and "Rock of Ages" number 16), unusual for hard rock songs. Fuelled by "Photograph", "Rock of Ages", and the third single " Foolin' ", Pyromania went on to sell six million copies in 1983 (more than 100,000 copies every week in that year) and
27886-462: The power ballad " Love Bites " reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 . About reaching No. 1 with "Love Bites", Elliot reflected: "It's strange because we’d been to No. 1 with the album. So now we wanted a No. 1 single because we'd never had one. So it was like, 'come on! come on!' When we got there, it was, as you can imagine, a 'yes!' moment." It was a Top 10 hit in several other countries, including reaching number six in Canada. In January 1989,
28077-471: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
28268-427: The redundancy of certifications, because each of tracks downloads and streams contributed to the certifications of both of the single and the respective album. The RIAA counts 10 downloads of individual track as well as 1,500 audio/video streams as an equivalent to one unit of album, including those from singles released prior to the album release. Theoretically, if one song were streamed 1.5 billion times on YouTube ,
28459-653: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
28650-510: The release of the Hysteria album, the band had developed a distinctive sound featuring electronic drums and effects-laden guitar sounds overlaid with a multi-layered wall of husky, harmonised vocals. According to Joe Elliott, Def Leppard are influenced by "everything from pure pop to downright hardcore rock". He has cited Ian Hunter and Mott The Hoople among the band's early influences. Def Leppard themselves have been cited as an influence by
28841-482: The remaining members of Queen and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash . Another world tour followed but the band's fortunes began to be affected by the rise of alternative rock , including grunge . Amidst the increasing popularity of alternative rock, the band decided to balance their original image as rebellious rock stars with a slightly friendlier energy, combining heavy metal with melodies and hooks more reminiscent of pop music. On 6 June 1993, Def Leppard performed
29032-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
29223-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
29414-422: The same claimed sales, they are then ranked by certified units. The claimed sales figure and the total of certified units (for each country) within the provided sources include sales of albums, singles, compilation-albums, music videos as well as downloads of singles and full-length albums. Sales figures, such as those from SoundScan , which are sometimes published by Billboard magazine, have not been included in
29605-522: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
29796-531: The seed of another Def Leppard record. I mean, it was a leftover from the album before, but it was also the start of a new album. So, without a doubt. [Joe and I] write all the time. We send each other things. Sav gets in on there. Just between the three of us, there's just a lot of stuff floating around already. So we've, yeah, got a bunch of stuff. It's really exciting. And it's a great place to be. It's never that thing where, 'Well, we've got to sit down and write an album.' It's, like, 'Wow, I can't wait to play this to
29987-466: The ship the same night, causing Last in Line to cancel their show the following day. Back on land, Elliott struggled through the first concert of the 2016 tour, resulting in Tesla 's Jeff Keith joining Elliott on lead vocals. The following day's concert was also postponed "due to illness", with Rick Allen stating on Twitter "The Doctor basically said that if Joe continues to sing without resting his throat for
30178-467: The single would receive Diamond and the whole album could be certified Platinum, thus creating a combined total of 11 million certified units without any sales. Kanye West 's album The Life of Pablo achieved Platinum without selling a single copy and was only available for streaming. Issued certifications for songs which have been recorded by multiple artists including featured artists are added to each artist's total amount of certified units, as all
30369-546: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
30560-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
30751-500: The songwriting sessions but then suddenly declined to return as producer due to exhaustion. Jim Steinman of Meat Loaf 's Bat Out of Hell was brought in. However, Steinman worked only briefly with the band, and the recording work was not released. On the afternoon of 31 December 1984, drummer Rick Allen was involved in a car accident on the A57 road in the countryside a few miles west of Sheffield. While trying to pass another car at
30942-455: The studio helped them begin to define their sound. Despite the album's unimpressive sales figures (it only peaked at number 26 in the UK and 38 in the US), the band's video for " Bringin' On the Heartbreak " became one of the first metal videos played on MTV in 1982, bringing the band increased visibility in the US. The band continued to use the up-and-coming music television industry to reach fans over
31133-404: The studio instead of recording parts separately, resulting in a much more live-sounding album. The US audience reception for Slang and its subsequent tour was a major drop-off from a decade earlier, although Q Magazine nonetheless listed Slang as one of their Top Ten Albums of 1996. The album only reached No. 14 on the US album chart, and although the track " Work It Out " reached No. 6 on
31324-615: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
31515-410: The time to be a champion of punk rock and new wave music . Throughout 1979, the band developed a loyal following among British hard rock and heavy metal fans and were considered among the leaders of the new wave of British heavy metal movement. Their growing popularity led to a record deal with the major label Phonogram/Vertigo (Mercury Records in the US). Def Leppard's original management, MSB,
31706-531: The time, Joe Elliott tried out for the band as a guitarist following a chance meeting with Willis after missing a bus in November 1977. During his audition it was decided that he was better suited to be the lead singer. The band's initial rehearsals took place at Portland Works , and their first gig was in the dining hall in A Block in Westfield School in Mosborough , Sheffield. Elliott proposed
31897-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
32088-471: The week, and the 10th best-selling Wal-Mart music release. In October 2009, the band announced that they would be cancelling the last leg of the 2009 North American tour, a total of 23 shows. The band cited, "unforeseen personal matters", as the reason for the cancellations. At the time, the band denied rumours about a break-up, saying, "We're not splitting. Not at all. We often joke, what else would we do? You just can't imagine doing anything else." After taking
32279-480: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
32470-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
32661-423: The world), when they played songs they very rarely play live, going back to "Good Morning Freedom", a B-side from the single "Hello America" released in February 1980, an era usually left untouched by the band. The opening set varied each night, from playing the best hits from albums like On Through the Night , Slang , and Euphoria , to being the entire first half of High 'n' Dry . The second half, and "main event"
32852-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
33043-436: The years with their unique videos and the extravagance of their concerts. After the album's release, European and American tours followed. The band opened for Ozzy Osbourne and Blackfoot . On 11 July 1982, Pete Willis was fired due to excessive alcohol consumption on the job and was replaced by Phil Collen of Girl the next day. This personnel change took place during the recording of their third album, Pyromania , which
33234-582: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
33425-628: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " and " Kon-Tiki ", while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
33616-541: Was Def Leppard, as themselves playing their best-selling album, Hysteria , from start to finish. A live album, also titled Viva! Hysteria was released on 22 October 2013. This was the first time the band had played an album live from start to finish. The band has re-recorded several hits and even the entire album Hysteria in an effort to circumvent their record label from future royalties, though of these re-recordings, only " Rock of Ages ", " Pour Some Sugar on Me ", and " Hysteria " have been released. On 11 February 2014,
33807-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
33998-430: Was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
34189-407: Was certified Diamond in the US. It reached the top 20 in the UK but did not sell much elsewhere. The band's fourth album, the more pop-oriented Hysteria (1987), topped the UK, US, Canadian and Australian charts, and remained on the charts for over two years, from 1987 to 1989. It has been certified 12× platinum for sales in the US, selling over 30 million copies worldwide to date, making it one of
34380-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
34571-575: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
34762-449: Was granted a six-month leave of absence from the band. Clark died from a mix of prescription drugs and alcohol on 8 January 1991, in his London home. The remaining band members decided to carry on and recorded the album as a four-piece, with Collen mimicking Clark's style on his intended guitar parts. Def Leppard's fifth album, Adrenalize , was finally released on 31 March 1992. The album simultaneously entered at number one on both
34953-411: Was held from the top of the US charts only by Michael Jackson's Thriller . With the album's massive success, Pyromania was the catalyst for the 1980s pop-metal movement. In 2004, Pyromania was certified Diamond having sold over 10 million copies in the US; it was also certified 7× platinum in Canada, where it had peaked at number 4, its second highest certification. With their music videos becoming
35144-504: Was released on 14 March 1980. Although the album hit the Top 15 in the UK, many early fans were turned off by the perception that the band was trying too hard to appeal to American audiences by recording songs such as "Hello America" and touring more in the US (supporting Pat Travers , AC/DC , and Ted Nugent ); a performance at the Reading Festival in August was marred when audience members expressed their displeasure by pelting
35335-402: Was released on 20 January 1983 and also produced by Lange. The cover artwork depicted a cartoon image of a huge flame emerging from the top floor of a skyscraper, with a bullseye aimed at the flame. The lead single, " Photograph ", turned Def Leppard into a household name, supplanting Michael Jackson 's " Beat It " as the most requested video on MTV and becoming a staple of rock radio (holding
35526-609: Was released the following May. Def Leppard participated at the Live 8 show in Philadelphia and toured in the summer with Bryan Adams . In 2005, the band left their long-time management team, Q-Prime, and signed with HK Management. On 23 May 2006, Def Leppard released an all-covers album titled Yeah! . The disc pays homage to classic rock songs of their childhood, originally recorded by Blondie , The Kinks , Sweet , ELO , and Badfinger among others. It debuted at No. 16 in
35717-526: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
35908-548: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
36099-435: Was the accompanying 16-month Hysteria tour, in which the band performed in the round . This concept proved wildly popular with fans (as seen in the videos for "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Armageddon It") and was used again for the Adrenalize tour. At the 1989 Brit Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Def Leppard were again a nominee for Best British Group, and the band performed "Pour Some Sugar on Me" at
36290-439: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
36481-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
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