Is Zep a Rock/Blues/Heavy Metal band?

[McSeven]

So is Zep a Rock band or Blues Band Heavy Metal Band? What is the difference for you?

For me When I think of Rock, I think of short songs that don't stretch out. Blues bands can stretch things out. Heavy Metal wants to sonically assault you with sound. AcDc is a Rock band. I think that Zep are a Blues band.

Mc7

[magicfingers1985]

Led Zeppelin most certainly plays a lot of "Blues" music but they are fundementally a rock and roll band. To be Blues the music has to be built around blues chord progressions and many (actually most) Zeppelin songs do not follow blues progressions.

Like most great rock and roll bands their music is firmly rooted in blues but they are not a blues band in the purest sense of the term.

[ZPN]

Rock band (influenced by blues, folk, psychedelia & non western musics)

I've never understood the thing about Zep being a heavy metal band or starting the heavy metal genre. I usually don't like "heavy metal". But maybe I don't get it because I only started following Zep post 2000: maybe you need to have followed them from the beginning and then heard the bands that came after them, chronologically.

[glicine]

Rock band (influenced by blues, folk, psychedelia & non western musics)

I've never understood the thing about Zep being a heavy metal band or starting the heavy metal genre. I usually don't like "heavy metal". But maybe I don't get it because I only started following Zep post 2000: maybe you need to have followed them from the beginning and then heard the bands that came after them, chronologically.

The band members don't consider themselves as a heavy metal band, either.

[ninelives]

Unclassifiable - they were certainly rooted in the blues but they had so much more going on - North African, folk, roots, reggae etc. etc. Most definitely NOT metal though IMO.

[BonzoLikeDrumer]

This question has been around the mill in here before but I'll say, they where basically a Rock/Blues band with over tone's of many other style's of music incorporated into the Blue's style that they had stumbled into.

Stumbled, as in taking some old kind of music and turning it into some thing that sounded different or playing/singing it in and unorthodox manor. It's been done before and it will be done again by any one who thinks out side the box.

Thank you Jimmy, Robert, John Paul and the late great Bonzo! Thank you for thinking out side the box!

[pagemccartney95]

Led Zeppelin is a rock band that plays blues. The first two albums consisted of blues-influenced hard rock; a number of the songs were versions of old blues standards. The band is not heavy metal; they forerunners of the genre, the original headbangers, that is, bands that play hard-rocking music you can bang your head and jam to. However, Led Zeppelin proved they were capable of producing some excellent acoustic, folk-influenced work.

My opinion.

,

Jo

[Bill M.]

So is Zep a Rock band or Blues Band Heavy Metal Band? What is the difference for you?

I hate to say it, but the use of different names for different music genres is largely a byproduct of marketing. New genres never happen over night, nor do they ever start with one particular band. Bands just play the music they want to play. Inevitably, you get a generation of bands who share some of the same influences and thus sound similar. It's only after you have enough of these bands with enough similarities that people attach a category name for them.

That's not to say I don't use such labels myself. Labels can be very useful. I LIKE knowing that I can find Ravel in the "Classical" section and John Lee Hooker in the "Blues" section. And if I've never heard of a particular band before, I prefer it if somebody can tell me "they play [insert genre here]" rather than "Oh, they simply defy all categories". Yeah, right. Even the most weirdest original music can be described in SOME way.

But music genres still aren't exact, discreet categories. No matter what definition you give me of "rock" or "blues" or whatever, I guarantee you that I can either find some band that fits your description yet you would think doesn't belong in that category, or some song that should be in the genre but doesn't match your description. And the longer a genre is around, the more diverse it gets. Strictly speaking, "jazz" can be mean anything from Louis Armstrong to Kenny G, and "rock" could include anything from Little Richard to Slayer.

What makes this confusing regarding Led Zeppelin is that their songs cover a wide variety of different styles. Just take the Led Zeppelin III album. I don't think it would be out of place to call a song like Immigrant Song "heavy metal". Similarly, you could call Since I've Been Loving You and Hats Off to (Roy) Harper "blues". Or call That's the Way "folk". Or Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp "country folk". So what does that make the album, let alone the band?

On top of this, they've been successfully marketed to a number of different audiences over the years. For many people, Led Zeppelin doesn't look out of place in a list like this: "The Kinks, The Who, Led Zeppelin" or this: "Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin", or even "Metallica, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin".

I suppose I'd have to at least put Led Zeppelin in that vague category of "rock", but again, the term doesn't tell you much these days.

[Bill M.]

I've never understood the thing about Zep being a heavy metal band or starting the heavy metal genre.

I think it's largely due to the number of heavy metal bands that cite Led Zeppelin as a main influence. That was the case with most of the hard rock/metal bands that were popular in the 80s. And around that time, every magazine article and interview seemed to unquestionably call Led Zeppelin the starters of heavy metal.

Fast forward to the 90s, where most of the newer heavy metal bands were constantly citing Black Sabbath as their main influence. And shortly after, every magazine article and interview seemed to unquestionably call Black Sabbath the starters of heavy metal. Coincidence?

But maybe I don't get it because I only started following Zep post 2000: maybe you need to have followed them from the beginning and then heard the bands that came after them, chronologically.

I actually got into Led Zeppelin because of heavy metal. Growing up in the 80s, well after the band had broken up, I was a big fan of heavy metal (still am, in fact). Invariably, "Led Zeppelin" was a name you saw popping up in metal magazines, t-shirt shops, jacket patches, your friend's music collection, etc. So it seemed inevitable that I'd end up checking them out.

[BonzoLikeDrumer]

It can in fact depend on what you are talking about as to what kind of band they where.

The word's, the arrangement of the song (word's/music), how the bass player played the bass? The guitarist approach to the lead structure, how was it sang, how was the drummer playing? Even how the song's where recorded or how they where managed.

"How do I love the .... Let me count the way's ....."

[el mago]

about the drummer is a great jazz band for me =)