Heavy metal, often referred to as simply metal, is a form
of music characterised by aggressive,
driving rhythms
and highly amplified distorted guitars,
generally with grandiose lyrics
and virtuosic instrumentation. Heavy metal is a development of blues, blues
rock, rock
and prog
rock. Its origins lie in the hard
rock bands who between 1967
and 1974 took
blues and rock and created a hybrid with a heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered
sound. From the late 1970s on, many bands would fuse this sound with a
revival of European
classical music. Heavy metal had its peak popularity in the 1980s,
during which many of the now existing subgenres first evolved. Although not
as commercially successful as it was then, heavy metal still has a large
world-wide following of fans known by terms like metalheads and headbangers.
