This week we’re going to return to rock one last time to talk about one of the most powerful forms of any music ever: rock ballads.
For those of you who know rock ballads, even casually, the image you associate with them is probably much like the one of the left: a stereotypical “hair-band” with tight-fitting latex suits and big stage productions. For those of you who don’t really know about rock ballads, this image can be a pretty good indicator of what’s to come.
Rock ballads are not technically a sub-genre of rock, they are more of a style or type of song. Because of this nearly every rock group at some point in their career has put out a ballad. Now, I’m going to talk about rock ballads as they exist in classic rock and among the groups associated with classic rock, although there are most certainly rock ballads in modern, punk, or alternative rock. And as a final introductory note, if you’re the type of person who switches the songs (be it radio, Spotify, etc.) every time they hear the beginnings of a slow song I would implore you to pay close attention to this post, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Ballads, in general, refer to (you guessed it) slow songs. The definition of a ballad is a song that contains a narrative or story, and this typically translates to romantic or sentimental songs in practice. Good rock ballads typically make you feel something, or at least that’s what they do to me. As a general rule ballads usually start relatively slow and simple and gradually build until a final climactic point. I almost always get goosebumps at the climatic moment of the song, just after the precisely placed impact- and hopefully you’ll experience some of this later. In general, I identify two broad types of rock ballads: power ballads and non-power ballads. Let’s look at non-power ballads first.
Non-Power Ballads:
Non-power ballads don’t really have a unifying theme, other than the fact that they aren’t power ballads. So here I’m just going to present a few different examples to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.
The song you’re listening to right now is ‘Little Wing’ by Jimi Hendrix and I personally believe this is one of the greatest songs ever written. Jimi Hendrix was a ridiculous guitar player and this is by far my favorite guitar solo of his, or perhaps anyone. You can feel the emotion he pours into it and understand why it can be considered a ballad. His lyrics here, as in most of his songs, are rather cryptic, which leaves them up to interpretation but also allows for the perception of many hidden and significant possible meanings.
So it’s worth noting that the next artist whose song I will talk about it Elton John. Elton John, in my mind, is a classic rock artist but many people would disagree and say he is a pop artist. Thus many people compromise and say pop rock, which is generally accepted. Anyway, Elton John wrote and performed countless ballads, including (but not limited to) ‘Candle In the Wind‘, a very moving song which he performed at Princess Dianna’s funeral, ‘Tiny Dancer‘ which nearly everyone is familiar with, and ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘ which I think everyone ought to know. Here’s ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me’.
You can instantly see how this song differs from ‘Little Wing’. Most of the song is sand relatively conservatively (compared to what Elton John can do) and we see this come out towards the end of the song, at the climax. You also see something here that we haven’t seen yet. The song’s verses are less intense and simpler musically compared to the choruses. This is especially seen in the way the drums play into the song, remaining absent until the first chorus, the leaving again only to reenter with the next verse and add to the building up of the song. Although not seen here, ballads often return to the simpler structure of the verses for a brief time after the climax.
Power Ballads:
Power ballads are able to be defined because of their distinct sound and structure. While their verses are typically slow and soft like those of any ballad, their choruses are follow particular brand of harder rock with distorted guitars and a driving drum beat. Check this popular one out:
This song is “Home Sweet Home” by Mötley Crüe I hope from this song you can see where the name power ballad comes from. The singer never really changes his style of singing, it remains loud and powerful like that of many of the hair bands of the 1970s and ’80s. This song also contains the return to the softer music after the hard-hitting impact which I talked about earlier. The guitar solo here, as in many power ballads, is markedly different from ones in songs like ‘Little Wing’ because they usually are more complex and intense than non-ballads, which serves the purpose of driving the song and building to the release point.
This song is “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith (yes, from ‘Armageddon’ with Bruce Willis). I like this song because Steven Tyler (the singer) has one of the most iconic voices in all of classic rock (think Dream On, Walk This Way, Dude (Looks Like a Lady)) and I think this song is entirely driven by his voice. The raw power displayed in this song shows how many of these power ballads are driven and the passion is part of what makes them great.
Check out these two great power ballads which you probably already know:
Queen- “We Are the Champions”
Styx- “Come Sail Away”
As always, I hope you found something in this post that you might come back and listen to at some point. Or, at the very least, found traces of something that you might want to investigate further. I personally believe that rock ballads is are of the most powerful forms of music. I don’t think all they make you feel sad, although some do (which isn’t a bad thing by the way), but rather some sort of cathartic release can leave you with a warm yet subtle feeling. I hope you can find this.
Until next time,
Aaron
PRO TIP: If you thought you liked a song or you want to hear something similar, a good way to explore similar music is to start a Pandora station with it or simply go off suggested videos on youtube.