Hyokon's Best rock band
Created by hyokon 341 days ago | Updated 338 days ago
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When I was in high school, I was a guitar player in an amateur rock band which lasted until my college days. I thought I would not listen to rock music when I grew up. I was wrong (or I did not grow up
). The truth is I rarely listen to rock music now. However, legendary rock bands are still my heroes. Yesterday, I had to watch a few Led Zeppelin videos at YouTube, having read about their concert in London.
I truly believe that the best time in rock music was from 1970s to 1990s. Though I admit they had a huge impact on music and culture, alternative rock bands killed, at least for a while, rock music. That is my bias. Best rock bands in my mind have the following in common.
- They have good music.
- They play well, especially as a band. There are good musicians who never had a great band.
- They have a unique style. After listening to first few seconds, you can tell the music of Deep Purple, Metallica, Queen, Led Zeppelin, or Guns'n Roses.
- They have multiple songs that people remember. Stars come and go, but great songs last. A great band has great musics enough to fill a 2-hour concert.
Here I confess that the reason why rankrz does not display ranking number in personal rankings is that it is painful for me to order the bands all of which I love. Yes, it is still painful to decide who to put at the top... So, here is my list.
Queen
I was really knocked out when I first listened to Bohemian Rhapsody. It trully is a rock classic (not in the sense of 'old' rock). Queen broadened the possibility of rock music. They often brought melodies and chords from classical music, but they combined them with heavy rock sound beatifully.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was a revolutionary. They opened the era of heavy metal. More recently, people tend to say Led Zeppelin is hard rock but not heavy metal. I think the distinction is not very meaningful. For those people, I would ask who then is the first heavy metal band? As rock music got louder and louder, it is true that Led Zeppelin does not sound as heavy as it used to be. However, like other evolution, there was a threshold in heavy metal. And I believe that was Led Zeppelin.
Beatles
Of course they are great. Not because they say they are great, but they really made great music. Let it be, Something, Michelle, Hey Jude... All great songs.
Deep Purple
Probably undervalued compared to Led Zeppelin, but equally important band. In fact, in terms of influence to heavy metal bands from late 1970s and 80s, I think Deep Purple had even bigger influence. Why? I think Deep Purple, for the first time, showed rock music that did not have much blues feeling. They sounded more like classical, where every note was clear. Also, their HIghway Star was my highschool band's flagship song.
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