Do you consider Led Zeppelin a METAL band?

[Spidey2112]

You're going to find this strange, but all this talk of metal has put a 'MetalHead Dating' ad on my display...

... now, if we can all start talking about displaying the winning Power Ball numbers, I'm sure there would be mucho appreciation within this thread.

 

[bassdude51]

More of a "hard rock" blues oriented type of band. LOVE LZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bassballs27]

They're progressive rock in my books.

 

[jwilson67]

Led Zeppelin were Led Zeppelin. Genre defying. Before them there was nobody like them.

 

[jwilson67]

It was the days before the executives took over the music industry and a band could be anything they wanted to be as long as the records were selling. Bands like Zep and Queen couldn't do today what they did back then.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I wish there were some way to quantify all these answer, something like a poll...

 

[Joe Ty]

Here's his quote from an interview done with The Independent: "We were not heavy metal," he snaps. "We were a rock'n'roll band. Still are. Everyone always describes us as heavy metal even when I tell them otherwise. Why won't people listen?"

Why? Because you are defined by how others perceive you regardless of your self perception.

 

[rtav]

No and never did. They are a hard rock band but not metal.

 

[BassBrass]

Mentioning the great LZ, often times I remember the other band, Iron Butterfly, this song, as the being the beginning of metal for me along with Deep Purple In Rock & Black Sabbath Paranoid. The end of this song is dramatic Uriah Heep had a great sound too, by the time they get to the 2 note riff it has some weight. (it had more bass response on the Space Lizard lp on the home stereo with AR3a's) I imagine these bands would be in the "experimental rock" category now!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Why? Because you are defined by how others perceive you regardless of your self perception.

depending on which song or which album, many people identified MH as "their" genre
many Punk fans have told me Motörhead is a great Punk band, and of course many Metalheads have told me Motörhead is a great Heavy Metal band

Ian didn't want to be pigeonholed into a single genre.
They started out as just Blues, but then accelerated the tempo.

 

[FrenchBassQC]

Nope

 

[Watchootognbout]

Genre labels are the invention of record companies and old-school broadcasters, and exist solely for shelving and marketing purposes. As musicians we should feel free to ignore labels and not get sucked into playing that game.

Not if you are looking for ONE particular genre of music!!

 

[Chris 'Wighat' Jordan]

I read only the OP and the first a few posts in this thread. Of course, LZ is not a metal band. They also aren't a "classic rock" band. This term only exists to describe cover bands or radio programming. Among the conventional terms used to describe types of music "hard rock" is the only one that fits. I have heard LZ's music referred to as "atomic blues" and that nails it.

 

[Antman3820]

Fusion band.

 

[micguy]

There was no "metal" when Led Zeppelin came out. There was "heavy metal", which pretty much meant the band played distorted guitars. Led Zeppelin fit that at the time. Nowadays, people have re-defined things, so they wouldn't be considered that.

There was a time when cassettes were new. Now they're "vintage".

 

[Gaolee]

There was no "metal" when Led Zeppelin came out. There was "heavy metal", which pretty much meant the band played distorted guitars. Led Zeppelin fit that at the time. Nowadays, people have re-defined things, so they wouldn't be considered that.

There was a time when cassettes were new. Now they're "vintage".

Exactly. There was also acid rock, which was also distorted guitars. There was no such thing as progressive rock, alt rock, or any of that. Heavy metal included bands that are about as non-current metal sounding as is possible. I suppose if Led Zeppelin was metal in the current sense, it would be some oddball subgenera like standard core blues life melodic metal or something. But, I don't know all the subgenera, so I'm probably wrong.

 

[ThuzzleFump]

Led Zepplin is a classic rock band. They helped pioneer a branch of rock and roll that eventually became heavy metal, but nowadays, they are about as "metal" as the Who or the Doobie Brothers.

Oh, come now, they are more metal than the Doobies.

 

[kleinenenten]

I certainly don't think they're metal (or even particularly good). But that's just me. I will openly admit that they are one of the most influential rock groups of all time, and heavy metal does owe them a great bit. They're just not metal to me. And for those that compare Sabbath to Zep, there's just no comparison. They just sound very different from the get go.

No. If anything, they lean towards the progressive side with their use of folk, country, Middle Eastern and Indian influences.

Not to mention all the Lord of the Rings references (Misty Mountain Hop, Battle of Evermore, Ramble On).

Now, I'm a HUGE heavy metal fan, and also a HUGE Tolkien fan, but both of these comments are also very much valid in large swaths of heavy metal. There's an entire folk (which encompasses all sorts of "native" instruments e world over) metal sub genre, as well as countless bands that use Tolkien inspired lyrics. Heck, there's a folk metal band that only sings about Tolkien stuff. They're called Rivendell.

Metal is a very diverse genre, much more so than it is often given credit for.

 

[40Hz]

Not if you are looking for ONE particular genre of music!!

That falls under the heading of "shelving." Where and on what shelves in the record store do you put somebody's records in order to get people to buy them.

I prefer not to be herded into to some corral where a suit "suggests" and "similar bands" and hands me lists of "what others who looked at _____ are buying"

Let's "Tear down the wall:"

 

[Plectrum72]

Hard rock