U2

Almost everyone with an iPhone knows U2. Their album Songs of Innocence was installed to most peoples phones without them having to actually download it. I ended up actually listening to it just to give it a try, and it was worth it. That lead me to watch the documentary It might get loud, which includes guitarists Jack White from the White Stripes, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, and The Edge from U2.

Songs of Innocence

U2 is an Irish band formed in 1976 in Dublin. U2 consists of Bono on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, The Edge on lead guitar and backing vocals, Larry Mullen Jr on drums, and Adam Clayton on bass guitar. The band is an alternative rock/rock band. Their music focuses a lot on politics and spiritual themes. Their biggest hit is probably Sunday Bloody Sunday, which is a song about the 1972 Bloody Sunday event, which was was when British troops killed civil rights protestors. While I haven’t really explored beyond Songs of Innocence, the band still has a great discography. One thing about them that has helped me with my playing is the use of delay pedals in songs. Also, one of their songs gave me a reason to use the crystal effect on one of my delay pedals.

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John Mayer

I feel the need to preface talking about this artist with the fact that I will only be discussing his contribution to the music world. I am a huge Taylor Swift Fan.

John Mayer with PRS Guitar

Anyway, John Mayer was an aspiring guitarist learning at Berklee under professor Tomo Fujita. However, he soon dropped out to pursue a musical career in performing. He first gained popularity in 2001 when he released his first album Room for Squares, which includes popular songs such as Why Georgia, No Such Thing, and Your Body is a Wonderland. Soon after he joined a blues band, and then dropped another album titled Continuum. This is my personal favorite album because of songs like Waiting on the World to Change, Gravity, and Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. He released a couple albums after that with not quite as much success. Currently he plays in the band Dead and Company. 

There is a lot to take from John Mayer musically. First off, his fingerstyle techniques. The song Neon is widely considered by the guitar community as one of the hardest songs to play. I have never attempted it, however I have tried to learn some of his fingerstyle songs such as Stop This Train and Who Says. They involve an incredible amount of coordination to the point where it almost seems like something only he can do perfectly.

Another thing he is exceptional at is performing. Two of his live performances are videos that I come back to at least once a week. First a performance of my favorite Beatles’ song titled Don’t Let Me Down. He performs with the country artist Keith Urban, and they really have so much chemistry together on stage. At one point Keith’s strap falls off in the middle of a guitar solo, and John doesn’t waste a second helping him fit it back on. If I were to just listen to the performance without watching I would never be able to tell that something so dramatic happened. The second performance is a performance of If I ain’t got you and Gravity with Alicia Keys. 

The Beginning

Nirvana. Soundgarden. Alice In Chains. Pearl Jam. Stone Temple Pilots. This is only 5 of the grunge rock bands that started to emerge and gain popularity around the early 90s. How did it all start? A genre doesn’t just invent itself over night, right? Of course not. Grunge is the culmination of all the rock influences before its time. It has a lot of influence from heavier bands in the 70s and 80s, like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Guns N’Roses. The first real grunge hit album was Alice in Chains first album, Facelift, in 1990. In 1991, other hit albums released such as Nirvana’s album Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s album Ten, and Soundgarden’s Motorfinger. 

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

What is Grunge?

Grunge Rock is a unique genre not only in the sounds, but the aesthetic that comes with it. Instead of the crazy hair and over the top leather jackets covered in spikes worn by artists like Kiss, Grunge rock musicians appear to be pretty regular people. Their clothes didn’t deviate far from what you might see any select college student wearing.

So what sets the actual music apart from other genres? It definitely takes a lot from its predecessors as I mentioned before. Grunge is kind of a fuse of punk and metal with varying speeds. Additionally, the vocals have a tendency to differ from the standard. Kurt Cobain from Nirvana has a certain growl to his voice that makes their songs have more character. Eddie Vedder is known for his unique way of singing, where he seems to blend a lot of the words together with a more throaty sound.

Temple of the Dog

Temple of the Dog is a fun subject to touch on when discussing Grunge Rock, primarily because of the members of the band. Hunger Strike is one of my favorite songs that has come out of the 90s. Hunger Strike is one of the songs on Temple of the Dog’s first album. It was originally supposed to be sung by Chris Cornell, until Eddie Vedder was invited to sing background vocals on the song. It then was split, making the song more of a duet. Chris Cornell came from another band in the genre called Soundgarden. Temple of the Dog was sort of a “super band” composed of Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam, Mike McCready(who would later join Pearl Jam), and Matt Cameron, who was also in Soundgarden. They Released one self titled album in 1991 in tribute to Andrew Wood. Andrew Wood was Chris Cornell’s old roommate.

Andrew was the lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, which were alternative rock and heavy rock bands. Unfortunately, he died of a heroin overdose in 1990. The band’s name is even a tribute to Andrew’s work. The phrase “Temple of the Dog” comes from the opening lyrics of the Mother Love Bone song Man of Golden Words. In my eyes they are one of the most enjoyable bands from the genre to listen to, because of the combination of bands that made it. While the genre of grunge rock is probably better defined by bands like Nirvana, I get more inspiration from Temple of the Dog. 

Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi is an American Rock band out of New Jersey. They started in 1983 with Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, Tico Torres, Phil, and Hugh McDonald. From 1984-1985 they released their first two albums, with the third album dropping in 1986. Slippery When Wet showed immediate success, selling 20 million copies and 3 top 10 singles. The next album, New Jersey, showed great success once again, selling 10 million copies. Soon after touring New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both released solo albums. Their most recent album, 2020, released in 2020 and spoke on social issues relating to the time period.

Jon Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi released 15 studio albums with Bon Jovi and 2 solo albums. One particular song by Bon Jovi that has inspired me is Dead or Alive. Last year I performed this song with my friend live on stage. I played lead guitar, while he played backup acoustic guitar and sang. The link is here. 14:27-20:00. One of the most important things I have learned is the use of pinch harmonics. A lot of Bon Jovi songs have pinch harmonics during guitar solos that do a great job in making the audience feel that “wow” factor.

Guns N’Roses

Guns N’Roses is an American hard rock band created in 1985 in Los Angeles, California. The band originally consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, guitarists Slash and Izzy Straldin, bassist Duff McKagan, and Duff McKagan. Their first album released in 1987, titled Appetite for Destruction. It had great success, reaching number one on the billboard 200 a year after its release. The album included Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, and Sweet Child O’Mine.  These songs have become a staple in Hard Rock and “slash” rock. Their next album, G N’R Lies, had even greater success, selling 35 million copies worldwide. They continued to release 2 more albums with similar levels of success before a rift developed in the band. It was not until 2008 when they released their next album with only 2 of the original members still in the band. One of the many things that makes Guns N’Roses special is that their album Appetite for Destruction is the best selling debut album of all time. I would put money on the fact that everyone has heard a Guns N’Roses song at some point.

Guns N’Roses Lead Guitarist, Slash

Slash is one of the biggest rock icons of all time with his signature top hat and slash rock shredding. To say Slash isn’t one of the greats is like saying George Washington wasn’t the first president. He got the name Slash because of an actor he met through his mother. He said that slash was,  “always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another”. One of my favorite things about him that I try to replicate is his near incomprehensible shred licks. Every time I try to sit down and learn part of a slash solo, I end up quitting and moving onto something else because of the pure speed of them.

Deep Purple

Smoke on the Water. A forbidden music store riff, and the first song I ever learned. The riff to smoke on the water is one of the most recognizable and iconic guitar riffs ever.

Deep purple is another rock band coming out of England. They are considered to be pioneers of heavy metal and hard rock after their work in 1970. In this year they released the album Deep Purple in Rock. A fun fact about them is they were listed in the 1975 in the Guinness book of world records as the globes loudest band after a performance in 1972.  Deep purple was one of the first bands to put the guitar into a drop tuning to get different and heavier sounds. Hearing Deep purples playing with drop tuning has encouraged me to experiment myself and write riffs in drop D. Deep Purple was most influential to other bands with their use of extreme distortion on the guitar and low sonorities.

Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath

Who is Ozzy Osbourne? Said nobody ever. The Prince of Darkness is one of the biggest names in metal and music history Black Sabbath is one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands ever. Ozzy was introduced into Black Sabbath in 1968 during the bands formation. Ozzy stuck with them for around 10 years before being fired for drug and alcohol problems. He then moved on in the 80s to do solo work that would further solidify the genre of hard rock and metal into the music world.

Black Sabbath got their first major exposure in 1969 after receiving play time on the radio show Top Gear. Shortly after, the band released the albums Black Sabbath and Paranoid. The band experienced many personnel changes over the years, with no consistent bass player at first.

Following the success of those two albums, Black Sabbath returned to the studio to work on a third in 1971. However, the band was struggling with a serious cocaine problem at the time. This didn’t stop them. Master of Reality was released in in April 1971 with huge success. It reached top 10 in both the US and UK and was certified gold.

After a short slow period following this album, the band continued to deliver with the album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Drug abuse however continued to be a problem, and there were many changes in the bands members in the following years. While their members and style changed many times throughout the bands lifetime, but their core sound remains in grunge, doom metal, dark lyrics, and depressing sounds. The band often took advantage of the musical tritone. It greatly assists in creating tension and dissonance in sounds. When I was much more into metal a couple years ago, this interval was one of my favorite things to write with because of how “ugly” it sounds. This has influenced metal bands following Black Sabbath, such as Metallica or Judas Priest. Black Sabbath helped create sub-genres to metal, like doom metal and slow metal. However, the band has been credited with creating the genre of heavy metal itself.