Hi, my name is Joo Pedro and I will talk about Heavy Metal music.

I chose this topic because I already have a good knowledge about, I think it interesting and I like this kind of music.

Heavy Metal Music

Heavy metal is a kind of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and in the United States. With roots in blues rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are generally associated with masculinity and male chauvinistic. Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals.

Black Sabbath are cited as pioneers of heavy metal

Image and fashion

For certain artists and bands, visual imager plays a large role in heavy metal. In addition to its sound and lyrics, a heavy metal band's "image" is expressed in album sleeve art, logos, stage sets, clothing, and music videos. Down-the-back long hair is the "most crucial distinguishing feature of metal fashion." Originally adopted from the hippie subculture, by the 1980s and 1990s, heavy metal hair "symbolized the hate, fury of a generation that apparently never felt at home". Long hair gave members of the metal community "the power they needed to rebel against nothing in general." Many metal musicians when performing live engage in headbanging, which involves rhythmically beating time with the head, often emphasized by long hair. The devil horns, a hand gesture.

Traditional visual of Heavy Metal

Origins: late 1960s and early 1970s In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal began to expand. That January, the San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues", from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum , that many consider the first true heavy metal recording. The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild", which refers to "heavy metal thunder" in describing a motorcycle. Although there are debates among experts, most consider groups like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to be the first heavy metal bands.

Heavy Metal band Steppenwolf

Ozzy Osbourne

After being fired from his band Black Sabbath, the English heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne began his solo career in 1979. His initial band comprised himself, the guitarist Randy Rhoads, the bassist Bob Daisley, the drummer Lee Kerslake, the keyboardist Don Airey was brought in temporarily to record on Osbourne's first album, Blizzard of Ozz, in 1980. Blizzard of Ozz is one of the very few albums amongst the 100 best-selling albums of the 1980s to have achieved multi-platinum status without the benefit of a Top 40 single. The album is known for the globally recognised singles "Crazy Train", "Mr Crowley", "Goodbye to Romance" and "Revelation (Mother Earth)". On 19 March 1982 while Rhoads was in Florida for the follow-up tour, a light aircraft carrying guitarist Randy Rhoads crashed while performing low passes over the band's tour bus. In a prank turned deadly, the aircraft touched the bus, and crashed killing Rhoads. Experiencing firsthand the horrific death of his close friend and band mate, Osbourne fell into a deep depression.

The Heavy Metal band Ozzy Osbourne

Future of Heavy Metal

Heavy metal has gradually come of age over the last quarter of a century; it has transcended, infiltrated and incorporated all musical styles to some degree, including classical, jazz, blues, rock, pop, folk and funk. To some extent, the original meaning of the word is now obsolete, although its use as a clich by the popular media is still in a derogatory sense. The future of heavy metal offers much promise. There will be a continued acceptance of its major musical form and copies of the latest Metallica, Guns 'n' Roses, Slayer and Def Leppard albums will no doubt be successful within the future heavy metal audience. Artistic creativity and technical innovation continue apace, and with them the potential for new and exciting musical developments. The growth and diversification of metal has proceeded at an expansive rate over the last 25 years and there is no evidence to suggest that it is slowing down.

To complete this project I had to learn things I did not know yet. I used the Internet as the primary research tool, and found some key information on websites and blogs related to the subject.