rock

Rock is the defining popular music revolution of the 20th century, born from the fusion of blues, country, and rhythm & blues in the 1950s and exploding into a vast sonic universe that prioritizes electric guitars, drums, bass, and raw vocal expression. From Chuck Berry's pioneering licks through the British Invasion's global conquest to the stadium anthems of the '70s and '80s, rock established the blueprint for modern band dynamics and the album as art form. Its core philosophy celebrates rebellion, authenticity, and emotional directness—whether through the primal energy of three-chord progressions, the technical prowess of virtuoso solos, or the communal power of the live performance. What separates rock from its descendants is its foundational balance: more structurally grounded than alternative's experimental restlessness, less polished than pop's commercial sheen, and serving as the ancestral wellspring from which indie's DIY ethos and classic rock's canonized legends both flow.

This genre houses civilization-shifting icons—The Beatles' melodic innovations, the Stones' swaggering blues-rock, Queen's operatic bombast, Springsteen's working-class poetry—artists who didn't just make songs but forged cultural identity. Rock is the sound of electric rebellion meeting mass appeal, the place where Fleetwood Mac's polished heartbreak and Rage Against the Machine's political fury can coexist under one sprawling umbrella. It's the essential language of guitar-driven passion, the genre that taught the world that amplified instruments and unfiltered emotion could change everything.