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[Helmaroc]

Well, I know many of us are confused by the many terms of metal and rock. So could someone define the following? I understand the basic terms, and can relate loosely, but what are the differences?

Metal
Rock n'/and Roll
Thrash (Metal)
Speed Metal (kind of obvious, I suppose)
Death Metal
Headbanger
Punk
Alt(ernative)Punk
Alt(ernative)Rock
Glam Rock
...oh, and what the hell is Easy Listening? Why does it exist, and who on earth dares listen to it?

[Tahin]

Easy listening is.. easy listening. Old people that think that the Beatles encourage Satan-worshiping listen to it.

[Sappho]

Glam rock refers to the (now mostly extinct) movement where men wore a lot of makeup and glitter, which at the time (mostly early 80s) was considered both sexy and manly.

Death Metal, I believe, refers to the type of heavy metal where a lot of positive reference is made to subjects such as death, blood, gore, hell, and the devil.

[Cthulhu]

From Wikipedia:

Death metal is an extreme heavy metal subgenre. The genre is typically characterized by the use of heavily distorted guitars, harsh vocals that are low-pitched and/or growled, morbid lyrics, exceptionally fast-paced rhythms and melodies, frequent blast beats on drums, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.

Thrash metal (sometimes referred to simply as thrash) is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by high speed riffing and aggression. Thrash metal songs typically use fast, percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work.[1] Thrash song lyrics sometimes express views which prefers to attempt an objective critique of society. Thrash metal lyrics also often deal with social issues using visceral and blunt language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre. The so-called "Big Four" of thrash metal are Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, and Anthrax, who essentially simultaneously created and popularized the genre in the early 1980s.

[Melloth]

Like already said before: Wikipedia describes it quite well, including most known bands for every genre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_music
Not on your list but hilarious: Doom metal. Not to listen to, but live. "Now, it's time for a fast song."
Priceless. Should call it Snail Metal or something though. Or snooze metal.. or I-only-had-1-minute-of-material-and-smeared-it-over-a-whole-concert-metal.

Speedmetal: Can't be accused for being slow. Running Wild describe themselves as speedmetal. (they sing about pirates! how neat is that!) Not sure if Peter Pan Speedrock falls into that category. it has 'speedrock' in the name, close enough. Can't name other speedmetal bands at the top of my head.

Rock 'n roll's definition has been evolved quite alot overtime. See wiki. Even the Osmond siblings used the words rock 'n roll!

Headbanger. Someone who headbangs, headbanging is the fine art of tossing your head with long manes around. either up and down (I once joked 'metalheads aren't rebel at all, they always nod yes' and noone laughed.. I think it's funny!), or completely around. you can shake your head. Or if you're weird like me, make triangles. See wiki on Headbanging. Don't take everything serious though. Not every metalhead wears shitty green jackets, though a huge patch of your favourite band on the back is quite common. It's fun to examine all the patches of an avid metalhead's jacket and see how many bands you know. Best place: metal festivals. You can even hear some nice stories of the older guys.

Punk. No idea, actually, it only just reminds me of Vyvyan of The Young Ones and Sexpistols (God save the Queeeeeen!). that's all I know. Also, that Gothic is originally branched off from punk and is very electronic, lessay Sisters of Mercy. I'll pass this question.

I am guessing alternative music is also nicely described in the wiki. Everything small, independant and undergroundy. Though when I was 15-18 though, it would probally be a pleonasm because punk=alternative. rock/metal=alternative. and scary.. Then again, everyone with a bit too many black accessoiries was swiftly called an 'alto' (a Dutch term) at my school.

If you plan on writing a paper for school, I suggest looking in your local library for books about music. I'd be viciously murdered if I tried to write a paper using only wikipedia for example..

[Fualkner]

Rock and Roll is a rather ambiguous term, it is applied to almost anything that has a guitar and and a singer as the main focus of a song. Almost all have a drum set also. There are many sub genres, such as Psychadelic Rock (See early Pink Floyd) and Progressive Rock (See later Pink Floyd) Classic Rock is basically general Rock and Roll that's old.

Alternative Rock is rock that often uses different techniques then the tried and true. They use brass instruments, organs, vocal pyramids, or something completely different.

[Cthulhu]

When I think of Rock, I think of bleeding heart pseudo-country singers with acoustic guitars and raspy voices, who look like the Skinny Aryan Jesus of Catholic Art.  I then get a bucket, in case I throw up from the sheer suck of that style of music.

As for Running Wild, Alestorm is better.

[Fishersalwaysdie]

Well, I know many of us are confused by the many terms of metal and rock. So could someone define the following? I understand the basic terms, and can relate loosely, but what are the differences?

Metal

Like rock, but with more bass and take themselves way more serious than rock and punk.

Rock n'/and Roll

The ancient link between metal and punk.

Thrash (Metal)

A style of metal that uses special timing to sound like it's faster then it really is. Aggressive drums, often psycho sounding guitar and vocals that are growled, but understandable. All of it together conjures an image of violence and sounds really heavy in it's way.

 
Speed Metal (kind of obvious, I suppose)

Early metal influenced by punk, it sounds pretty dynamic and guitarwork sounds pretty complicated sometimes. Power metal has a similar sound.

Death Metal

Metal similar to thrash, relaying more on rhythm than melody, lot of blastbeats and tremolo picking(black metal palm mutes in contrast), and vocals are intelligible and high pitched(sound lizardish).

 
Headbanger

People who headbang to metal...if you listen to metal you are probably already doing it.

Punk

Like rock, but with offensive people who do not know how to play and play faster.

Alt(ernative)Punk
Alt(ernative)Rock

I don't really know, but it's probably punk and rock that changes some of it's traits, so it's probably not easily defined.

Glam Rock

Rock by people who are in it for the chicks(I can't listen to that stuff, but it is indeed an honorable cause) doesn't sound as good as the real thing.

...oh, and what the hell is Easy Listening? Why does it exist, and who on earth dares listen to it?

No idea...



The best way to learn of all this stuff is to try listening to it, Youtube is your friend.


Also, doom metal is great.

[Kagus]

AC/DC is referred to as heavy metal (at least by my current guitar teacher), but they don't seem to be taking themselves too seriously.  The same could be said for KISS.

According to Wikipedia, there's also a "Viking Metal".  At the time I last checked, there was only one band that fell under that genre.


Also, what genre(s) do you think the Norwegian band of Hurra Torpedo would fall under?

[Torak]

Also, what genre(s) do you think the Norwegian band of Hurra Torpedo would fall under?

100% Progressive rock.

[Kagus]

Progressive rock?  You sure?  You're certain it's not just four Norwegian guys taking a popular song, giving it homosexual undertones, and then playing it on large kitchen appliances?

[Cthulhu]

That's pretty progressive.

Viking Metal:  Slechtvalk could be considered Viking Metal.  It's got a nice warlike feel with combative lyrics(Although the earlier albums have Christian lyrics instead), and all of the members have cool viking names.

[Kagus]

Well, here's some of the other stuff they've done.

And apparently I can't count.  It's three guys, not four.

EDIT:  And I can't post proper URL tags either.

[Torak]

I'll provide an example of each of these, to make it a bit more clear:

Metal

Basically, as a genre, it's not much different from rock, but usually deals with more harsh things like death, war, etc. It is also faster and uses much less acoustic elements.

Rock n'/and Roll

I'm pretty sure Elvis defines it perfectly.

Thrash (Metal)

If people want to throw shit around while listening to your music, you're thrash.

Speed Metal (kind of obvious, I suppose)

Speed metal usually (if not always) has a synthesizer as their main musical element. Other than that, it has a faster feel.

Death Metal

ALWAYS has harsh vocals, and a slower melody.

Headbanger

Easily described as hair metal, due to the headbanging part of the music.

Punk

Pretty much every band a teenage girl likes that includes a guitar falls under this.

Alt(ernative)Punk

See Punk

Alt(ernative)Rock

I don't know exactly how to describe it. But it's hard to be a bad alternative rock band, unless you have zero talent.

Glam Rock

Every rock band in the 70s and 80s are pretty much the same as far as this sub-genre is concerned.






Also, Viking metal is a very small genre, since very few bands are just Viking, but when they do use Viking lore and things, it's called Epic Folk Metal. An example of Folk metal is Ensiferum.(Which, in my opinion, is the best Metal band out there. Atleast Pre-Jari-Breakoff Ensiferum is.)

[umiman]

Where would bands like A Perfect Circle and Tool fall into that list?