# Which band best typifies "hard rock"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 7, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397 "2021-03-07T18:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/121 "2021-03-10T15:26:48Z")
AC ⚡ DC ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/122 "2021-03-10T15:32:59Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Also important is the lyrical subject matter. Heavy metal lyrics tend to be darker and more expansive thematically. That’s congruent with my understanding of the heavy metal / hard rock distinction. By comparison, AC/DC’s lyrics are more about the classic themes of sex, drugs/alcohol, and rock & roll. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/123 "2021-03-10T15:51:11Z")
When I think Blues Rock - I think **George Thorogood** ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/124 "2021-03-13T22:35:18Z")
With all this semantic fun I’ll slot Foghat right in there with Zed Zed Top under “Boogie Rock”. Yeah I’d consider AC 🌈DC and Priest significantly different bands. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/125 "2021-03-14T01:43:09Z")
OK me the bands that best typifies: Classic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal(This would be to me any band formed before 1970)—Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly Hard Rock----AC/DC , Aerosmith, KISS Southern Rock–Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, The Black Crowes British Heavy Metal—Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead American Heavy Metal–Metallica(at least up to The Black Album) and Megadeath, Anthrax,and Slayer, Hair Metal—Motley Crue, Skid Row, Def Lepard and Warrant Grunge–Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden Guns N Roses skirts the line between Hard Rock, Hair Metal and Heavy Metal. Van Halen is hard to classify overall—with David Lee Roth they more of glam/hair metal band and with Sammy Hagar they were more of hard rock/blues band. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/126 "2021-03-14T02:22:40Z")
I’m surprised so few people have listed Guns n’ Roses. To me, they are the prototypical hard rock band. What is it about GnR that makes them slide under the radar? They were also one of the biggest bands of their era. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/127 "2021-03-14T02:25:42Z")
I have to say that IMO you have a pretty solid list there: nary a band out of place. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/128 "2021-03-14T02:28:58Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > What is it about GnR that makes them slide under the radar? They were also one of the biggest bands of their era. Part of it might be their relatively short window of “big” (four albums over four years, 1987-91), followed by years of infighting, departures, and long-delayed albums. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/129 "2021-03-14T02:32:09Z")
What could be be more hard rock than that? (-: It’s like excluding someone from the hard rock category because they trashed their hotel room and drove a Rolls into a fountain. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/130 "2021-03-14T02:34:55Z")
Apologies if I wasn’t clear in my hypothesis: they certainly were as “hard rock” offstage as on. You asked why GnR “slides under the radar,” and I hypothesize that a comparatively small body of work, and a relatively short timeframe of popularity/visibility, is why they haven’t been getting mentioned as much in this thread, compared to bands which were around for longer, and recorded more. That’s all. Also, I think that they were probably the last big hard rock band, before grunge, alt-rock, hip-hop, and a bunch of other genres took over. ---
**Author:** ![Drsunflower1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drsunflower1/32/12711_2.png) [@Drsunflower1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drsunflower1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/131 "2021-03-15T10:33:50Z")
Yes. And there was a distinct punk influence from early on, which makes them less prototypically Hard Rock. Nevertheless I agree, they should be on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/132 "2021-03-15T11:43:17Z")
I too endorse **Dorvann** ’s typology, and dodge tons of pointless arguing over stuff like ZZ Top being hard rock, jeez. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/133 "2021-03-15T12:46:28Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > With all this semantic fun I’ll slot Foghat right in there with Zed Zed Top under “Boogie Rock”. That works too. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I’m surprised so few people have listed Guns n’ Roses. To me, they are the prototypical hard rock band. Way too late to be _proto_typical. I think also they had a whiff of “hair” that, say, the fan favourite Oz-Scots never had. Axl was just too damn pretty. For all of 15 minutes. That, plus the ballads, man. The damn ballads. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/134 "2021-03-15T13:33:49Z")
Hmm. Well I guess I define “hard rock” as rock music that just seems… _ **loud** _. And one of the early “loud” rock bands was **Blue Cheer**. So I think Blue Cheer is hard rock. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/135 "2021-03-15T14:36:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I think also they had a whiff of “hair” that, say, the fan favourite Oz-Scots never had. Axl was just too damn pretty. For all of 15 minutes. > > That, plus the ballads, man. The damn ballads. I cannot argue with that. I would buy your newsletter. Also, points docked from GnR for Axl’s plastic surgery. That is anti-rock. You’re supposed to wind up either dead or dessicated like Keith Richards. Still… Appetite for Destruction has to be one of the great hard rock albums. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/136 "2021-03-15T14:47:15Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Hmm. Well I guess I define “hard rock” as rock music that just seems… _ **loud** _ . By that standard, _My Bloody Valentine_ would be “hard rock”. Which they are not. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/137 "2021-03-15T17:50:49Z")
Man, when you go into a concerts and they give you earplugs at the door … I’ve only been to one show, right after the _mbv_ album came out, and it was easily the loudest show I’ve been to. During the Holocaust section of “You Made Me Realize,” I think I even had to cup my ears even though I was wearing plugs. How the idiots in front of me managed to listen to it without earplugs, I don’t know. The ignorance of youth, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/138 "2021-03-15T17:55:27Z")
What we really need is to adapt the [Mohs hard rock scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness) to rock music. We need an examplar song for each level of hardness, from 1 to 10. Then we can rate any song, and by looking at a band’s entire body of work, their hardness. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/139 "2021-03-15T17:59:31Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Way too late to be _proto_ typical. > > I think also they had a whiff of “hair” that, say, the fan favourite Oz-Scots never had. Axl was just too damn pretty. For all of 15 minutes. > > That, plus the ballads, man. The damn ballads. Guns N Roses is definitely hard rock more than they’re hair metal. They were definitely a transition stage , and are not easily categorized. To my mind it’s AC/DC. There was hard rock before them, and hard rock after them, and BETTER hard rock, but no one is more purely hard rock. They didn’t do other stuff the way Zep did. They did hard rock. That’s it. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397/140 "2021-03-15T18:05:16Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > What we really need is to adapt the [Mohs hard rock scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness) to rock music. We need an examplar song for each level of hardness, from 1 to 10. Then we can rate any song, and by looking at a band’s entire body of work, their hardness. Ok, then the thread is over, cause Spinal Tap are settled at 11. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-band-best-typifies-hard-rock/937397.md?page=8)