What Makes Up This Genre?: A New Series (#1 Rock)

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Hello everyone, Thunder Dash here with a brand new music series called "What makes up this genre?" This series is designed for beginner composers and producers to get an in depth look at genres they want to produce, from what instruments are used, to the effects and mixing styles. 

 

Now, let's dive into the first genre of the series, a huge favorite of mine:

 

Rock

 

Summary/Subgenres

 

Rock is a genre that has been around since the late 1950s. It comprises of straight rhythms and steady repeating chord progressions. Some notable Rock groups are Sweet, Rolling Stones, Guns 'n' Roses and Black Sabboth. 

 

Rock has several other groups below the main genre called subgenres. These subgenres take the elements of rock and vary them in many ways. 

 

Light Rock is a subgenre that takes the elements of rock, but is softer and more soothing to the ears. Some people even call it Soft Rock. Light/Soft Rock was quite popular in the mid to late 70s. The Beetles and The Monkeys are two groups notable for playing this character of rock.

 

Going to another extreme, Hard Rock is a subgenre that is opposite of Soft/Lite Rock. The instruments are played louder and harder. There are more accents and more intricate solos. Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith are two examples of the Hard Rock bands. 

 

Shifting gears and entering the fusion scene, Swing Rock is a subgenre that combines the elements of Jazz/Swing and Rock. Bands who perform Swing Rock often team up with big bands. Big Bands are large jazz groups comprised of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, maybe a tuba, guitar, bass, drums and piano. 

 

Finally, Punk Rock is a genre that mainly focuses on lyrics. These lyrics are usually about the roughness and journey of life. Punk Rock is known for it's accented beats and sped up tempo. Punk Rock can be as fast 200 beats per minutes. Greenday is a notable punk band.

 

Now that we've got the basic idea of the genre of Rock and some of it's subgenres, let's move on to the instrumental make up and sound of rock. 

 

Instruments and Sounds

 

Rock is mainly noted for the distinct sound of the guitar. The reason why the guitar sounds so grindy is because of an effect called distortion. Distortion is an effect that takes the signal of the sound created by when the musician plucks the string, and raises the volume of it so high, that the signal becomes grainy and grindy. In musical terms, the signal becomes clipped. A clipped signal is one that has passed it's actual volume limit. Let's say you're driving your car and you decide to crank up your volume all the way. The sound doesn't come out clear because the signal is being clipped due to the excess volume. Distortion is the main reason why when guitarist shred, they can hit those super high notes, which are called "harmonics". A harmonic is a note that is associated with the principal note played. There are two types of harmonics: natural and pinched. A natural harmonic is one that can be played without force. When guitarists put their finger lightly on a certain fret and strum, it creates a note an octave above the principle note. A pinched harmonic is one that can be only created using distortion and a technique where the guitarist plucks a note and immediately mutes the string with his/her strumming hand, "pinching" the string and causing a harmonic to play. Other notable effects used are chorus, flanger, phaser, reverb, delay, octave, harmonizer and filters. 

 

In terms of actual sound and mixing, Rock must have both depth and high-end. The low-end is essential for the distorted guitar and electric bass. Some rock songs have guitars that are drop-tuned. A drop-tuned guitar is one where the strings are tuned below the usual EADGBE tuning. The vocals must be above all the other instruments (if there are any). For drums, be sure you mix your kick right. The worst thing that can happen to a kick is that the high end and attack are raised so much, that the kick becomes a bouncing beach ball. Keep the low end raised and the high-end backed off ever so slightly. However, do not put too much low end because then the kick would become filtered. Make sure your cymbals don't have too much high end because that will create excess noise. In music, noise is any sound other than actual instruments that is created when something is so high, improper EQing and the result of certain effects, such as distortion. For keyboards (if used), bright grand piano settings, electric organs, synth brass, synth strings, or straight-up lead sounds may be used. Be sure not to raise the high-end too much if using sawtooths, as that will create unnecessary noise. 

 

 

Now that we've gone through the sounds and instruments of Rock, let's go through formats and chord progressions

Song Formats and Chord Progressions

 

Rock usually follows a very simple format:

 

Intro

Verse

Pre-Chorus

Chorus

Verse

Pre-Chorus

Chorus

Solo(s)

Bridge

Reprise

Outro

 

A pre-chorus is a part of the song that leads into the chorus.

 

The list of parts shown above is the most popular format of many genres. If you play any of the Guitar Hero series, you'll know some of these terms from when you look at the breakdown of your score in the game, after you've completed a song. 

 

There are many ways you can perform an intro to a rock song. Here is a list to break them all down. 

 

Soft to Hard - This intro comprises of a clean guitar riff that leads into a drum fill, going into a hard riff performed by a distorted guitar. A clean guitar is any guitar NOT affected by an effect. A riff is any repeating pattern of notes. 

 

Hard - The entire band comes in hard on the 1st beat and continues on in the song. 

 

Vocal - The vocalist performs either vocalization or solo lyrics. Vocalization is when a vocalist uses vowel sounds such as "ooh" and "aah". 

 

Rock at it's simplest form comprises of stead 4-chord progressions that repeat or vary. Sometimes, there are 8-chord progressions that combine two 4-chord progressions. Here are some examples of chords found in rock. We will be using scale degrees. To learn about scale degrees and chord basics, you can visit this thread here: https://mlpforums.com/topic/136619-chords-progressions-modulations-a-guide-to-composing-music/

 

Major Progressions

 

I-V-vi-V

 

vi-IV-I-V

 

IV-ii-I-V

 

I-IV-ii-V

 

Minor Progressions

 

i-VII-VI-V (AKA Carol of the Bells Progression)

 

i-III-iv-V

 

III-i-VI-V

 

VI-iv-III-VII

 

Now that we've gotten all the heavy stuff out of the way, here's some miscellaneous information and other notable terms.

 

Guitarists use what are called power chords, when playing certain rock songs. A power chord is one that is comprised of a simple perfect 5th. A Perfect 5th is an interval (the distance between two notes) where the notes are 7 half-steps away from each other. 

 

Endings in rock vary quite a bit. Some bands end directly, while others elongate endings with what is called a frenzy. A frenzy is a enlongated ending where the drummer either rolls the cymbals, or plays rapidally all around the drum set. The lead guitar usually shreds hard while the backups/rhythm strum on the chord. The band then slows the tempo down and come together for one or more final band hits together. A band hit is when a band hits a note all together. 

 

Well, this brings us to the end of our exploration of the genre of rock. I hope all of you aspiring musicians benefit from this guide. If you have any questions, drop a PM to me and I'll be sure to get back to you. 

 

 

[BlueBrony 388]

Do you think that Alternative could be a subgenre of rock? I sometimes feel like it has a similar sound punk and light rock.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Do you think that Alternative could be a subgenre of rock? I sometimes feel like it has a similar sound punk and light rock.

Alternative is actually a genre itself. I'll probably make an article about it later.