Classic Rock
 

Classic Rock, what is it? Who defines it? How?

When the baby boomers were 20. That was classic rock.

It's all about your demographics baby. Here I've put that graph over the number of births graph. Once the boomers were old enough, their numbers were overwhelming, and youth culture became important and young people's music became important. That's why classic rock is considered a genre.

http://cellar.org/2014/boomerrock.png

Anything between Beatlemania and MTV.

I would have a hard time counting Mötley Crüex or Pearl Jam as classic rock, more like hair metal and grunge.

So, people, what one band defines classic rock for you?

For me it's Led Zeppelin. Because duh.

But they were labeled heavy metal, right? In reality, their repertoire started with blues, then folk rock, ballad rock, anthems, and psychedelic rock. Along the way there were dalliances into reggae, country, (lol, auto complete gave me 'cunty' there) disco, Electronica, grunge, funk, glam and pop.

All of it was undeniably unique and recognizable as their sound though. So many bands came up out of one of their sounds or another, that they ARE the root of it all. Even as they had very clear influences of their own. To the point that they get scolded for 'stealing' songs. From the black blues men, elvis, and unknowns...

But to me, they are the standard by which other music is judged.

Yeah, for me Led Zeppelin is of course the classic classic rock definition, and I'd agree with the Allman Brothers for sure. Billy Joel and Motley Crue are borderline--but definitely not Pearl Jam. If my father's never heard of them, they're not classic rock.

Zep and Floyd

Bowie and Yes

Yes, except I would say it's golden age ended with the sex pistols. But I totally ignore disco

Have fun with this. I love zep, but I don't know song names as well as I could.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/MrChewy...ounts-zeppelin

Led Zep was one of those lucky bands who were so big they had creative license to do anything they wanted. Nobody could dictate to them, and like the Beatles, the record moguls just waited to see what direction the next album would take so they could round up a bunch of bands that had a similar sound.

COOL.

it took me a good two minutes to figure out how to work the quiz, but once i got it, i got them quickly. but then, i got to the last song, and it just went red. I knew it... it was the only pair left... fool in the rain... but it said i got it wrong. bullshit. i know my zeppelin cold.

Actually, what made the difference was that they fired Atlantic Records after the 3rd album and created their own label, Swan Song. they had complete artistic control, no one forcing them to release sub par albums.

They didn't fire Atlantic...LZ's contract expired and they formed Swan Song with Atlantic in 1974. The first Swan Song album for LZ was Physical Graffiti.

Sirius XM does a cool division with what they consider Classic Rock: Classic Vinyl covers late 60s-mid 70s. Classic Rewind covers mid-70s to mid-80s. Then you have Ozzy's Boneyard, which covers a lot of heavy metal from the 70s to now.

As much as it pains me to say it, bands from my formative years are considered classic rock now, including grunge and hair metal. And that's alright, because the shit IS classic.

Classic Rock is:

James Taylor
The Eagles
Ziggy Stardust
Simon & Garfunkel
Beatles
Stevie Ray Vaughan
J. Geils Band
Peter Paul & Mary
Cream
Rick Derringer
Led Zep
Aerosmith
Lynyrd Skynyrd
AC/DC
George Thorogood
Iron Butterfly

Calssic Rock is simply what's old and still popular, and not country. It's rock, hard rock, doo-wop, southern rock, early metal. It's the really popular stuff from several different generations' and decades' worth of "pop" (meaning popular) music.

If I have to hear anything off Who's Next one more time I am going to cut my ears off.

Yeah, it's been played to death, but it was a great album. It shocked a lot of people who thought after Tommy they'd blown their load. Oh well, there's always the Doors.

:haha: