Do you consider Led Zeppelin a METAL band?

[bassstrangler]

Maybe one of the best things I've heard said "labels are for soup cans".
Thanks M.Stipe

 

[Honch]

If I should place any fair label towards Zep it's ... Acid Rock.

 

[bassstrangler]

If I should place any fair label towards Zep it's ... Acid Rock.

What exactly does that term mean?

 

[bassstrangler]

I try to ignore the genres, and classify a band as either good, or bad... I loved JPJ, so I'm going to say they were awesome.

That's the best thing. I've read so far.

 

[Hahaha]

Zep, it was a loud folk band.

I would love to hear Joan Baez sing The Immigrant Song.

 

[Pirate Captain]

If making being openly gay cool isn't metal, I don't know what is. : D

 

[Pirate Captain]

I wonder if ISIS won their law suit against them for the Stairway to heaven

I think you meant SPIRIT (although ISIS could probably sue them over Kashmir)

 

[Honch]

What exactly does that term mean?

Acid rock is generally defined by distorted guitars, lyrics with drug references, and long improvised jams. Distinctions between other genres can be tenuous; it may also encompass certain garage rock, 1960s punk, proto-metal and heavy, blues based hard rock. The style may distinguish itself from other psychedelic styles by having a harder, louder, or heavier sound. This would mean psychedelic rock that is heavier, louder, and harder. Acid rock often encompasses the more extreme side of the psychedelic rock genre, frequently containing a loud, improvised, and guitar-centered sound. Ultimately, Steppenwolf and other acid rock groups such as Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Led Zeppelin paved the way for the electrified, bluesy sound of early heavy metal. By the early 1970s, bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath combined the loud, raw distortion of acid rock with occult lyrics, further forming a basis for the genre now known as "heavy metal".

 

[J-Bassomatic]

In 1969 there was no such thing as Metal except as a lyric in a Steppenwolf song. In 1969 all this genre-izing of band music didn't exist and it created one of most explosive and creative eras in music as bands as diverse as the Association, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull and the Who were all just "rock" music. I don't think of Zep as metal or even proto-metal but within the historical context, J.P's use of layered guitars and J.B's drums definitely pushed rock in a heavier direction and were considered heavy by the standards of 1969. It also wasn't until the second album that the "heavy" really kicked in with songs like Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love though Dazed and Confused from LZ 1 certainly had a big sound.

I would posit that the genre we now call metal started with Black Sabbath which was what? 1970? I would also posit that The Who gave birth to arena rock and punk rock with the same windmill strum of a guitar.

Before someone gets after me for over simplifying. Nobody invents anything in music. Nothing comes from nothing; it always has an antecedent. It's like asking, did Beethoven invent symphonic music? No, but it certainly changed direction after him but before that Bach took the strict baroque forms of the melodious Telemann and gave us new ways to think of harmony which Handel then turned into the Sonata form which Mozart elevated to high art and then Beethoven came along and added about 30 members to the orchestra and some double basses and gave us dat-dat-dat DAH! and nothing was ever the same again. I don't know if Page and friends had quite the same impact on the music world; we'll have to wait another couple hundred years to sort that out but the fact that there's no musical instrument forum, guitar, bass or drums, where the names Zeppelin, Page, Bonham or John Paul Jones don't come up at least weekly after 47 years shows some lasting impact and influence.

I recall 'Heavy Metal' used to describe Deep Purple, which predated Sabbath,also and it's been suggested that the 'heavy metal thunder' line in Born to Be Wild is the source. You know how these thing go though, it was a long time ago. Blue Oyster Cult was considered heavy metal. Even back in the day (I was in high school when Led Zep hit) we never referred to them as heavy metal.

 

[bassstrangler]

Acid rock is generally defined by distorted guitars, lyrics with drug references, and long improvised jams. Distinctions between other genres can be tenuous; it may also encompass certain garage rock, 1960s punk, proto-metal and heavy, blues based hard rock. The style may distinguish itself from other psychedelic styles by having a harder, louder, or heavier sound. This would mean psychedelic rock that is heavier, louder, and harder. Acid rock often encompasses the more extreme side of the psychedelic rock genre, frequently containing a loud, improvised, and guitar-centered sound. Ultimately, Steppenwolf and other acid rock groups such as Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Led Zeppelin paved the way for the electrified, bluesy sound of early heavy metal. By the early 1970s, bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath combined the loud, raw distortion of acid rock with occult lyrics, further forming a basis for the genre now known as "heavy metal".

Thanks, another label. Who comes up with them? When people ask me what type of music I'm into, I usually reply, "good".

 

[monsterthompson]

Nope.

 

[Honch]

Thanks, another label. Who comes up with them? When Pete ask me what type of music I'm into, I usually reply, "good".

I didn't come up with that label. It was a term used by most people back then, when labelling Zep and others. Long and way before anything metal, heavy or light metal, life metal or death metal. It's not something I got out of the blue.

I wouldn't think it would be worthwhile to call any band today that plays "Zeppelin" style music, and then show up and all you play was "Friends" and "That's the Way" and "Tangerine" and their totally acoustic folk stuff... ONLY. What a snorefest it would turn out. People would go "but hey, that's not Zeppelin". Well it is to me, just as equally as their heavier/louder stuff. I knew a lot of friends even back then who thought Zeppelin was boring, in spite of they playing heavier stuff. I generally didn't.

 

[Honch]

Acid rock - Wikipedia

I wrote that article right now, in the couple of minutes we've discussed it. It's a label I came up with right on the spot .... ;-)

 

[BlueAliceOasis]

Black Sabbath is the first metal band, their contemporaries Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin are hard rock bands.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Mid 20's here - always considered them classic rock.

Black Sabbath/Pentagram is where I thought metal began. Then Metallica came around in '81 and polished the genre to what we know as metal today

Yes, that makes sense as that is what has been bestowed upon it now. Steppenwolf released their first record in 67 and that is more in line with my memory, I was buying their records, and that is closer to the time the term 'heavy metal' was beginning to be used. It goes back a ways. Like me. By the time Sabbath came around 'heavy metal' was already in use and they fit the bill the best at the time.

 

[Jazz Ad]

Guitar tones became heavier and harsher over time.
A lot of pop singers today make use of distortions that would have been considered extreme in metal 30 years ago.

Led Zeppelin to me is a hard rock band, a style that pretty much vanished.

 

[Charlzm]

Howdy Friends,

I've often heard Led Zeppelin referred to as one of the first metal bands, but do you consider them a metal band?

Personally, although they have some hard rockin "metal" songs, I think the label "alternative" is more fitting, even if they were 20 years prior to the official "alternative genre". They drew heavily from the blues and folk, but I don't think their catalog is comprehensively METAL.

Is it metal? Clearly, the music influenced metal as we know it today. But in my music collection, I tag Led Zeppelin as "hard rock". Metal has a certain intent and flavor that Zeppelin touched from time to time, though Zep were only dipping their toes in that particular pond.

I think of Zeppelin as both an honorary progressive rock band and borderline proto-metal act. They started off bluesy, added folk and acoustic elements, mutated into epic structured songs with ever growing lengths, played with time signatures other than 4/4 or 3/4, incorporated ethnic elements, recorded with an orchestral ensemble...

Chart the journey from "Led Zeppelin" recorded in 1968 to "In Through the Out Door" literally ten years later. That's a lot of ground covered. The only other band I can think of that changed as rapidly and radically is Rush, but that's a different story...

Or, to put it another way: I know metal when I hear it and Led Zeppelin was not a metal band. However, metal would have been radically different today without them.

 

[Sixgunn]

They defy categorization.

 

[Joe Ty]

Acid rock - Wikipedia

I wrote that article right now, in the couple of minutes we've discussed it. It's a label I came up with right on the spot .... ;-)

Acid Rock (or psychedelic rock) clearly was an entry drug to heavy metal, as noted in Rob Reiner's outstanding documentary on the topic.

 

[Aidenn7]

Metal came from Folk/Blues/jazz/Rockabilly. I used to think led zeppelin was not heavy metal and was just hard rock. I'm going to stand by that statement. Sabbath is Heavy Metal, Zeppelin is Hard Rock. even though both influenced modern Metal. Punk and hardcore also influenced todays metal. so I must look at the music in the context of itself.