Editing Heavy metal music (section)

===Antecedents: 1950s to late 1960s===
{{See also|Blues rock|Psychedelic rock|Acid rock|Garage rock}}
Heavy metal's quintessential guitar style, which is built around distortion-heavy riffs and power chords, traces its roots to early 1950s [[Memphis blues]] [[guitarist]]s such as [[Joe Hill Louis]], [[Willie Johnson (guitarist)|Willie Johnson]] and particularly [[Pat Hare]],<ref name=rolling_memphis>{{cite magazine |last=Miller |first=Jim |title=The Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock & roll |publisher=Rolling Stone |year=1980 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-51322-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneillu00mill |url-access=registration |access-date=5 July 2012 |quote=Black country bluesmen made raw, heavily amplified boogie records of their own, especially in Memphis, where guitarists like Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson (with the early Howlin' Wolf band) and Pat Hare (with Little Junior Parker) played driving rhythms and scorching, distorted solos that might be counted the distant ancestors of heavy metal.}}</ref><ref name=palmer/> who captured a "grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as [[James Cotton]]'s "[[Cotton Crop Blues]]" (1954).<ref name=palmer>[[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Palmer, Robert]]. "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13–38. In: DeCurtis, Anthony: ''Present Tense'', [[Duke University Press]], 1992., pp.&nbsp;24–27. {{ISBN|0-8223-1265-4}}</ref> Other early influences include the late 1950s instrumentals of [[Link Wray]], particularly "[[Rumble (instrumental)|Rumble]]" (1958);<ref>Strong (2004), p. 1693; Buckley (2003), p. 1187</ref> the early 1960s [[surf music|surf rock]] of [[Dick Dale]], including "[[Let's Go Trippin']]" (1961) and "[[Misirlou]]" (1962); and [[the Kingsmen]]'s version of "[[Louie Louie]]" (1963), which became a [[garage rock]] standard.<ref>Buckley (2003) p. 1144</ref>

[[File:Cream on Fanclub 1968.png|thumb|right|alt=The band Cream is shown playing on a TV show. From left to right are drummer Ginger Baker (sitting behind a drumkit with two bass drums) and two electric guitarists.|Cream performing on the Dutch television program ''Fanclub'' in 1968]]
However, the genre's direct lineage begins in the mid-1960s. American [[blues music]] was a major influence on the early [[British rock]]ers of the era. Bands like [[the Rolling Stones]] and [[the Yardbirds]] developed [[blues rock]] by recording covers of classic blues songs, often speeding up the [[tempo]]s. As they experimented with the music, the UK blues-based bands – and in turn the U.S. acts they influenced – developed what would become the hallmarks of heavy metal (in particular, the loud, distorted guitar sound).<ref name=vdqxbw/> [[The Kinks]] played a major role in popularising this sound with their 1964 hit "[[You Really Got Me]]".<ref>Weinstein (1991), p. 18; Walser (1993), p. 9</ref>

In addition to the Kinks' [[Dave Davies]], other guitarists such as [[the Who]]'s [[Pete Townshend]] and the Yardbirds' [[Jeff Beck]] were experimenting with feedback.<ref>Wilkerson (2006), p. 19</ref><ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=the-yardbirds-mn0000489303|pure_url=yes}} "The Yardbirds"]. Richie Unterberger. [[AllMusic]]. Retrieved 30 August 2011</ref> Where the blues rock drumming style started out largely as simple shuffle beats on small kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex and amplified approach to match and be heard against the increasingly loud guitar.<ref name=eyaqji>Walser (1993), p. 10</ref> Vocalists similarly modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylized and dramatic. In terms of sheer volume, especially in live performance, the Who's "bigger-louder-wall-of-[[Marshall Amplification#Marshall stack|Marshalls]]" approach was seminal to the development of the later heavy metal sound.<ref>McMichael (2004), p. 112</ref>

The combination of this loud and heavy blues rock with [[psychedelic rock]] and [[acid rock]] formed much of the original basis for heavy metal.<ref>Weinstein (1991), p. 16</ref> The variant or subgenre of psychedelic rock often known as "acid rock" was particularly influential on heavy metal and its development; acid rock is often defined as a heavier, louder, or harder variant of psychedelic rock,<ref name=AMgenre>{{AllMusic|class=style|id=acid-rock-ma0000012327}}</ref> or the more extreme side of the psychedelic rock genre, frequently containing a loud, improvised, and heavily distorted, guitar-centered sound. Acid rock has been described as psychedelic rock at its "rawest and most intense", emphasizing the heavier qualities associated with both the positive and negative extremes of the [[psychedelic experience]] rather than only the idyllic side of psychedelia.<ref name="bisbort">{{cite book|last1=Bisbort|first1=Alan|last2=Puterbaugh|first2=Parke|title=Rhino's Psychedelic Trip|date=2000|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xsa9NUlj9FsC&q=%22acid+rock%22+rawer&pg=PA31|access-date=5 August 2017|isbn=9780879306267}}</ref> In  contrast to more idyllic or whimsical pop psychedelic rock, American acid rock [[garage bands]] such as the [[13th Floor Elevators]] epitomized the frenetic, heavier, darker, and more psychotic psychedelic rock sound known as acid rock, a sound characterized by [[Drone (music)|droning]] guitar riffs, amplified feedback, and guitar distortion, while the 13th Floor Elevators' sound in particular featured yelping vocals and "occasionally demented" lyrics.<ref name="unterberger">{{cite book|last1=Unterberger|first1=Richie|title=All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music|date=2001|publisher=Hal Corporation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xR7MdpuSlAEC&q=%22occasionally+demented+lyrics%22&pg=PT384|access-date=5 August 2017|isbn=9780879306274}}</ref> Frank Hoffman noted that "[Psychedelic rock] was sometimes referred to as 'acid rock'. The latter label was applied to a pounding, [[hard rock]] variant that evolved out of the mid-1960s [[garage-punk]] movement.{{nbsp}}... When rock began turning back to softer, roots-oriented sounds in late 1968, acid-rock bands mutated into heavy metal acts."<ref>Hoffmann, Frank (ed.) (2004). ''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound'', Routledge, p. 1725 {{ISBN|1135949506}}</ref>

One of the most influential bands in forging the merger of psychedelic rock and acid rock with the blues rock genre was the British power trio [[Cream (band)|Cream]], who derived a massive, heavy sound from [[unison]] riffing between guitarist [[Eric Clapton]] and bassist [[Jack Bruce]], as well as [[Ginger Baker]]'s double bass drumming.<ref>Charlton (2003), pp. 232–33</ref> Their first two LPs – ''[[Fresh Cream]]'' (1966) and ''[[Disraeli Gears]]'' (1967) – are regarded as essential prototypes for the future style of heavy metal. [[The Jimi Hendrix Experience]]'s debut album, ''[[Are You Experienced (album)|Are You Experienced]]'' (1967), was also highly influential. [[Jimi Hendrix|Hendrix]]'s virtuosic technique would be emulated by many metal guitarists, and the album's most successful single, "[[Purple Haze]]", is identified by some as the first heavy metal hit.<ref name=vdqxbw/> [[Vanilla Fudge]], whose [[Vanilla Fudge (album)|first album]] also came out in 1967, has been called "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal,"<ref name=vanillafudge>{{cite web |author=Huey, Steve |title=Vanilla Fudge (Biography) |website=AllMusic |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=vanilla-fudge-mn0000311674|pure_url=yes}} |access-date=1 September 2009}}</ref> and the band has been cited as an early American heavy metal group.<ref name="browne">{{cite book|last1=Browne|first1=Ray Broadus|last2=Browne|first2=Pat|title=The Guide to United States Popular Culture|date=2001|publisher=Popular Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3rJxPYT32MC&q=vanilla+fudge+heavy+metal&pg=PA373|isbn=9780879728212}}</ref> On their self-titled debut album, Vanilla Fudge created "loud, heavy, slowed-down arrangements" of contemporary hit songs, blowing these songs up to "epic proportions" and "bathing them in a trippy, distorted haze".<ref name=vanillafudge/>

During the late 1960s, many psychedelic singers, such as [[Arthur Brown (musician)|Arthur Brown]], began to create outlandish, theatrical, and often [[macabre]] performances that influenced many metal acts.<ref>{{cite web |author=Unterberger, Ritchie |title=Arthur Brown (Biography) |website=AllMusic |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=arthur-brown-mn0000510278|pure_url=yes}} |access-date=20 July 2011}}</ref><ref>Polly Marshall, ''The God of Hellfire, the Crazy Life and Times of Arthur Brown'', {{ISBN|0-946719-77-2}}, SAF Publishing, 2005, p. 175</ref><ref>Polly Marshall, ''The God of Hellfire, the Crazy Life and Times of Arthur Brown'', {{ISBN|0-946719-77-2}}, SAF Publishing, 200, p. 103</ref> The American psychedelic rock band [[Coven (band)|Coven]], who opened for early heavy metal influencers such as Vanilla Fudge and the Yardbirds, portrayed themselves as practitioners of [[witchcraft]] or [[black magic]], using dark – [[Satanism|Satanic]] or [[occult]] – imagery in their lyrics, album art and live performances, which consisted of elaborate, theatrical "[[Black Mass|Satanic rites]]". Coven's 1969 debut album, ''[[Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls]]'', featured imagery of skulls, [[black mass]]es, [[inverted cross]]es, and [[Satan]] worship, and both the album artwork and the band's live performances marked the first appearances in rock music of the [[sign of the horns]], which would later become an important gesture in heavy metal culture.<ref name="people">{{cite web|last1=Heigl|first1=Alex|title=The Overwhelming (and Overlooked) Darkness of Jinx Dawson and Coven|url=http://people.com/music/jinx-dawson-coven-overlooked-heavy-metal-influencers/|website=People.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808005612/https://people.com/music/jinx-dawson-coven-overlooked-heavy-metal-influencers/|archive-date=8 August 2020}}</ref><ref name="pattersonblackmetal"/> Coven's lyrical and thematic influences on heavy metal were quickly overshadowed by the darker and heavier sounds of [[Black Sabbath]].<ref name="people"/><ref name="pattersonblackmetal">{{cite book|last1=Patterson|first1=Dayal|title=Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult|date=2013|publisher=Feral House|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-kIxCgAAQBAJ&q=coven+%22heavy+metal%22&pg=PA3|isbn=9781936239764}}</ref>