Metal fans, please explain.

Can someone please explain me the difference between hard rock and heavy metal? And please don't throw around words like 'riffs', or 'hooks', or 'sweep picking' or whatever, cause I already feel enough like an idiot.

AC/DC is hard rock, Black Sabbath is metal.
Van Halen is hard rock, Iron Maiden is metal.
Guns N' Roses is hard rock, Metallica is metal.

The difference lies within the melody. Rock 'n' roll has more melody, still has the blues, the r'n'b in it. Metal is completly free of that.

As Joe Perry was saying it: "Metal is not sexy, hard rock is!"

Of course, a lot of the times you have borderline cases like early Judas Priest records, WASP or some Twisted Sister. Actually, I am sure nobody can give you a perfect definition (although Iceman will pretend he did). I always listen to my ear. Hard Rock is simply more FUN!

DevilsSon is correct - it's a good explanation.

Some history though - back when Led Zeppelin first became popular and then when they became very big - they were known (and billed) as heavy metal. This was in the seventies though and I think the meaning changed a lot in the eighties. Before that - Iron Butterfly was know as heavy metal. Has anyone ever heard In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida? At the time some people called that psychedelic music in addition to heavy metal.

Kathleen

MY best friend swears that Iron Maiden is hard rock. The distinction is pretty much yours to give as much as anyone elses

and I always thought it was the other way round ...... :S

To me it's like this: if you can see your parents liking it or the high school cheerleader (if you are really lucky), then it is hard rock. If the they turn and freak, it's metal.



I know I am rather technical with these things

That's just it; bands such as Led Zep and Deep Purple are being placed in both genres, which for me makes the genre heavy metal even more hard to grasp. I mean: Black Sabbath was pretty much from the same time, right? I can hear the difference between Sabbath and Led Zep and going from there, I can't see why Led Zep is considered heavy metal.

Piss off. I've never categorized music, there's only two kinds; good and bad.

Ice

hmmm isnt that not a bit of a contradiction??

Only if you feel "good" and "bad" are categories. I don't. They're opinions to me.

Ice

That's exactly the point that I made. The music is categorized differently depending on who is doing the categorizing and which decade it is. Even good and bad is an opinion but - at least I know what I like. I don't care what category it is in.

Kathleen