An A to Z Of Rock Sub-genres, For The Rock-curious | Part One
“I know when to go out, I know when to stay in”
Hey listeners,
Very few things can bring people together in the world: homemade family dinners, stopping your commute to watch the sun, seeing someone do something kind for a stranger – and now, an alphabetised list of rock subgenres. Many thought it wasn’t possible, but welcome to our both comprehensively listed and alphabetically organised journey through rock’s subgenres from the 70s and beyond.
This curated list is your go-to map for expanding your music taste and learning a bit more about the genre most people love but can never define. On that note, let’s begin!
A – Alternative / Acid / Afro
When we have three to begin with, why would we start with limiting ourselves per letter? Alternative is edgy and discomforting yet relatable, whereas acid is fuelled by psychedelics and made in small-town garages and afro fuses more traits we’d recognise in afrobeat, funk and jazz records in the charts today.
See: Lou Reed, Blondie, Talking Heads / Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Pink Floyd / Jingo, The Funkees, WITCH
B – British Invasion / Blues
The Beatles? In a list about 70s rock music? How surprising. Their success on the Ed Sullivan Show marked a new wave of British acts rocking the U.S., hence the name ‘British invasion’. Blues-rock is the godfather of music, producing deep and intense tracks that act as odes to life itself, where a bass guitar is compulsory for a record to be made.
See: The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones / Eric Clapton, Free, ZZ Top
C – Christian
Don’t knock it before you try it. Christian rock isn’t as evangelical as it may sound (though it definitely has been known to preach among some artists), and can often sound a bit more familiar than we might realise.
See: Skillet, Fireflight, Red
D – Death
A wee bit different to the goth movement, death-rock is the older, more erratic sibling of alternative rocking and leans towards a high-tempo, high-energy way of expressing its horror-inspired view of the world.
See: Kommunity FX, Theatre of Ice, Sex Gang Children
E – Emo
Without emo-rock, we’d never have Tumblr, and if we never had Tumblr, we’d never have the iconic look of black skinny jeans, red stripy ties and bleached-black quiffs defining a generation of teenagers in the 00s. Emo is the post-punk, early internet creation of bands trying to celebrate rebellion in a newly technological world.
See: My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, blink-182
F – Folk
A softer take to the genre, this is a subgenre you’d play on the radio with your grandad, or most likely hear someone singing acoustically on a guitar on the TV. It’s warming, recharges you, and is the music equivalent of drinking a coffee whilst watching the sunrise.
See: America, Simon & Garfunkel, Steely Dan
G – Glam / Garage
Glam rock! The invention of stylish glitter and platform heels, but now for all genders who want to rock out and let their heavily aerosol-styled hair down. Garage rock on the other hand stripped the genre of its flair and performance by creating music in people’s garages, intended to be listened to by fellow nerds in garages
See: David Bowie, Iggy Pop, T. Rex / The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Daughters of Eve
H – Hard / Heavy / Hair
Hard rock is violent, aggressive and explicit in its ear-drum-shattering guitar solos and gut-wrenching screams. Heavy rock is hostile and shouty yet introspective and often vulnerable in its lyrics. Hair rock is a choreographed image of rock music that leads with its sex appeal, plastered in the centrefold posters of music mags that you stick onto your bedroom wall. All different, yet somehow all beautifully linked and poignantly articulated.
See: Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Deep Purple / Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden / Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Guns N’ Roses
I – Industrial
Describing a genre as experimental is often an overused cliche writers fall to use when they don’t know how to describe something, but on this rare occasion, it may actually be true. This genre dabbles from electronic to heavy and loves to freak its listeners out by giving them the unexpected.
See: Nine Inch Nails, Nova Twins, Garbage
J – Jangle/jazz
What genre connects long drum solos and nihilistic lyrics about adolescence? No, not The Cure’s discography, but jangle! If you outlived Britpop, there’s a high likelihood that Jangle was a key part of your 80s experience. Jazz-rock has a similar tendency to lean into the music and rhythm of a song rather than its lyrics. What more could you expect from a fusion of two genres that are determined to let their instruments do the talking?
See: R.E.M., The Smiths, The Sundays / Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell
K – Kindie
If Kids Bop existed in the 70s, you’d find its roots in Kindie. In fact, some may even argue that Kids Bop wouldn’t be the teenybopper phenomenon it is today without kindie, a genre that’s all about making family-friendly music for parents and children (a genre my Mum was unaware of during our looped listening of her Robbie Williams CDs growing up).
See: Whoever invented ‘if you’re happy and you know it’
That brings an end to part one of our whistlestop tour of rock subgenres of the 70s, sprinkled with a few which came about later but certainly hold their genealogy in the trailblazing of OG rockers of the 70s. Stay tuned for part two of our journey next week.
-Alanya x
P.S. This newsletter has been written to you as I’ve been watching clips of Live Aid 1985 on YouTube. It’s a completely hedonistic ritual I reserve for Sunday nights, and I highly encourage you to add it to your routine.
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