Conventions of Rock

 Conventions of Rock  

What is Rock?

Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated from the United States along with the United Kingdom within the similar timeframe of the 1950's - 1960's. Rock has evolved over many years and as a result has created many sub genres that many do not even know about. The general conventions of rock include having a strong backbeat and they usually can be described as loud (though not limited to this) due to heavy bass drums. Finally it usually follows a main verse throughout. 

What types of sub genres exist within Rock (and artists)?

There is a vast variety of sub genre's of rock and they range vastly in style, for example you could go anywhere from Jazz-Rock to Heavy Metal which for obvious reasons sound vastly different. However there are many other variations such as Britpop, Indie Rock and Punk rock.

 

Britpop originated from the UK band 'The Beatles' and the type of music they made, this is one type of example of a sub genre being born out of a single entity. Britpop could be similarly compared to catchy 'alternative rock'.

 

Indie Rock is a sub genre that originated in the early to mid 1980's and describes small and relatively small low budget labels or productions with a do-it-yourself type of attitude where the band or artist work by themselves or together to make a song. This type of rock has gotten even more popular in the recent years due to the emergence of social media and being able to promote yourself easier than ever.

Punk Rock originated in the 1970's in which fast tempo's, short forms and simple and hard-edged melodies are used. Some popular bands that create punk rock include Green Day, Ramonies and many more. There are many other smaller sub genres that exist which just shows how vast rock as a genre can be, and it's impossible to know all or list them.