Arena rock
02 Iunie 2008 Morrison
Arena rock is a loosely defined style of rock music, often also
called stadium rock or opera rock. Arena rock is usually
medium hard rock, but lacks the edginess or rage often inherent in heavy
metal. Simple rhythms, acoustic/electric guitar interplay, and keyboards
define the instrumental sound, and vocally the music is far closer to
mainstream pop than most hard rock or metal.
In the 1960's the tremendous popularity of the Beatles and the Rolling
Stones led to the use of larger venues to accommodate audiences. By the
1970s the ability to perform for huge crowds in sports arenas and stadiums
became a prerequisite for rock stardom.
While many groups toured in massive venues, the term "arena
rock" is usually used to refer to 1970s hard rock groups that occupied
a middle ground between the heavy metal sound and the softer adult oriented
sounds of country rock and the singer-songwriters of the decade. Critics
named the rock group Queen with their frontman Freddie Mercury the best ever
concert-giving-band. The most well known arena in the 1980s for concerts was
Wembley Stadium. Bands such as Boston, Journey, Kansas, Styx, Foreigner, and
performers such as Peter Frampton and Eddie Money directed their appeal to a
young white American audience who favored bombastic, anthemic rock. Critics
never favored these groups, "arena rock" has long had a pejorative
connotation, but their records sold in the millions.
The rise of MTV and new wave music adversely affected many of these
groups, but some continued to be successful in the 1980s. Hair metal bands
such as Twisted Sister and Warrant, in retrospect, are essentially a
continuation of this style and sound. Indeed, even some heavy metal acts
were able to break into the fold, most notably Metallica whose drummer Lars
Ulrich was recorded as saying that they desired to "...f**k with the
concept of arena rock," during their extensive stadium tour in
1992.
This was a departure from the band's initial desires that shunned
similar popular practices, but showed that as the popularity of a group
increases, so too must the venue at which it performs. However, "arena
rock" retains much of its pejorative meaning, as some popular
"alternative" groups of the 1990s such as Stone Temple Pilots were
tagged with this label by dismissive critics. In the early 2000s, Creed was
similarly labeled.