Rock music
hideRock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz, and classical music.
The sound of rock often revolves around the electric guitar or acoustic guitar, and it uses a strong back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, synthesizers. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are sometimes used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form", it "has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody."
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music developed different subgenres. When it was blended with folk music it created folk rock, with blues to create blues-rock and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock incorporated influences from soul, funk, and latin music. Also in the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, glam rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, and punk rock. Rock subgenres that emerged in the 1980s included New Wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge, Britpop, indie rock, and nu metal.
A group of musicians specializing in rock music is called a rock band or rock group. Many rock groups consist of an electric guitarist, lead singer, bass guitarist, and a drummer, forming a quartet. Some groups omit one or more of these roles and/or utilize a lead singer who plays an instrument while singing, sometimes forming a trio or duo; others include additional musicians such as one or two rhythm guitarists and/or a keyboardist. More rarely, groups also utilize stringed instruments such as violins or cellos, woodwind instruments such as saxophones, and brass instruments such as trumpets or trombones.
For more information about Rock music, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with rock
Shrinking Bylot Island glaciers tell story of climate change
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 31, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (59) |
8
The U.S. Geological Survey has released the results of a long-term study of key glaciers in western North America, reporting this month that glacial shrinkage is rapid and accelerating and a result of climate ...
Yellowstone's plumbing exposed
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (48) |
18
(PhysOrg.com) -- The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth ...
Reversals of Earth's Magnetic Field Explained by Small Core Fluctuations
Apr 23, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (42) |
25
(PhysOrg.com) -- Based on studies of old volcanic basalt, scientists know that the Earth’s magnetic field reverses at irregular intervals, ranging from tens of thousands to millions of years. Volcanic basalt ...
Life on Mars theory boosted by new methane study
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 08, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
11
Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in research published tomorrow in Earth an ...
Space voyaging rock reveals insight into detecting life on other planets
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 02, 2008 |
4.4 / 5 (32) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Intelligent life from other planets would be able to tell that Earth is inhabited if they had come into contact with a space voyaging piece of Orkney rock, scientists have revealed.
Scientists Make Oxygen Out of Moon Rock
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 11, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (28) |
21
(PhysOrg.com) -- If humans ever create a lunar base, one of the biggest challenges will be figuring out how to breathe. Transporting oxygen to the moon is extremely expensive, so for the past several years ...
Brian May, guitarist for rock band Queen, completes Ph.D. thesis following 30-year hiatus
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 31, 2008 |
4.5 / 5 (24) |
0
Brian May, the guitarist and founding member of the legendary rock band Queen, earned his PhD in astronomy last year from Imperial College London. His PhD thesis A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud has ju ...
Scientists' Drill Hits Magma: Only Third Time on Record
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 29, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (23) |
24
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists drilling a borehole deep into Iceland’s rocky crust to explore new methods of using geothermal energy hit a major roadblock on Thursday: Their drill ran into molten rock at a depth ...
Supercritical CO2 boosts super optimism in sequestering greenhouse gas
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 17, 2008 |
3.9 / 5 (25) |
14
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists appear to have the rock-solid evidence that suggests carbon dioxide can be safely and permanently sequestered in deep, underground basalt rock formations, without risk of it eventually ...
Geoscientist offers new evidence that meteorite did not wipe out dinosaurs
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 04, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (21) |
28
A Princeton University geoscientist who has stirred controversy with her studies challenging a popular theory that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs has compiled powerful new evidence asserting her position.
Ancient volcano may have caused mass extinction
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 28, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (18) |
0
A previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260million years ago has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds.
Geologic Findings Undermine Theories of Permian Mass Extinction Timing
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 02, 2009 |
4 / 5 (19) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- New scientific findings by geologist Robert Gastaldo of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and colleagues call into question popular theories about the largest mass extinction in Earth's ...
Chilean eruption highlights risk from 'rhyolitic' volcanoes
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 07, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
0
Magma from a Chilean volcano shot through Earth's crust at around a metre (3.25 feet) per second, a speed highlighting the perils from so-called rhyolitic volcanoes, scientists reported on Wednesday.
Phoenix Lander Might Peek Under a Rock
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 22, 2008 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
4
(PhysOrg.com) -- If the robotic arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander can nudge a rock aside today, scientists on the Phoenix team would like to see what's underneath.
New clues in Easter Island hat mystery
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 07, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (14) |
5
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of archaeologists has come one step closer to unravelling the mystery of how the famous statues dotting the landscape of a tiny Pacific island acquired their distinctive red hats.
