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<blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 4241836" data-attributes="member: 34175"><p><strong>Chapter 5 – Glam Goes Gold (or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the synthesizer)</strong></p><p></p><p>The time is the late 70s, Iggy Pop is drugged out of his mind, The New York Dolls wear more make-up than Poison ever owned, and David Bowie is gold most of the time and as androgynous as Pat on Saturday Night Live in the 90s or Michael Jackson at any point in his career past 1986. It is hard to deny that the music from this time period and this genre was a little lacking musically, not stylistically, but musically. Listen to any of Bowie’s stuff and for him to be strutting around in gold lamiea and glitter with platform boots that would give Gene Simmons pause, his music was more akin to a single acoustic guitar and a bar stool in a dark backroom club. </p><p></p><p>Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the 70s still hadn’t figured form following function. Then something amazing happened, New Year’s Eve 1979; it was like the whole world decided to start fresh and the music industry was no different. New Wave, Punk, and Popular music embraced a burgeoning technology that had just started to make a splash in the 70s, the synthesizer. A box that had a dizzying array of buttons and might or might not have a keyboard style input device. The Moog was the grand–daddy of them all and the heavy rock stand-by <em>“Frankenstein”</em> by the Edgar Winter Group, and anything by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra at the time) contained several layers of the instrument. But in 1983 a wonderful thing happened, Yamaha released the DX7, the first digital FM synthesizer (actually it was a phase-modulated synth, but who cares, it sounded great, was portable and you didn’t have to have a degree in engineering to understand how it worked.) From that time forward, the keyboard synth (or keyboard) was here to stay and the old Moog style button/dial/wire models rode off into history.</p><p></p><p>By 1984 every pop music group had a synthesizer or keyboard player. The old Fender Rhodes or Hammond B3 organs were retired or at least moved to a secondary position of authority in the arsenal of serious keyboard artists. But a pivotal moment for Heavy Metal came with the release of Bon Jovi’s first radio hit <em>“Runaway”</em> (1983 single release). That cool, choppy, keyboard intro and Jon Bon Jovi’s rough vocal straining pretty much hailed the end of the guitar as the premier instrument of Rock n’ Roll (at least for many years). Producers moved into the studio and sound engineers actually started injecting ideas of how music should sound overriding band decisions (a situation that would never have taken wing in the 60s & 70s where the tried to ‘find’ the sound, not create it.)</p><p></p><p>Unlike other editions where I would list a group of bands and tell their contributions, this is more about the hardware involved, because EVERY band had at least one synth player in the group. Now some would argue that this was a bad thing for heavy rock music to incorporate a fresh clean sound into the music, and for the purist, I would agree, however, they were just so darn keen, (Did I actually just say that?) and versatile that you could now interject sound effects into any song without fear of trying to reproduce them on stage with thousands of dollars of audio gear and hope that the sound engineer or hired gun under the stage didn’t miss his cue. Bands that shaped the future of heavy rock were there when they rolled out the originals and began to incorporate and update with the rest of them; Rush, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Dio, Rainbow, Van Halen, Journey and a host of others followed Bon Jovi and brought out the synth and they found out it was just shot in the arm they need to reach the mass market. On a side note Bon Jovi didn’t headline with this album (they opened up for .38 Special) and it would be another two years before they became headliners with the sound they created. Now it can be argued that there were others that came before Bon Jovi, and of course they did, some of them even had keyed instruments and some even experimented with synthesizers and sequencers, but until that time, there was never a full time position in a rock band for a keyboard player unless your name was Linda McCartney (Wings), Jerry Lee Lewis (himself) Greg Rollie (Journey/Santana) or Keith Emerson (ELP) and with the exception of Jerry Lee or ELP those positions were usually support positions. </p><p></p><p>So what did synthesizers do to the industry, revolutionized it and eventually killed it. Glam rock and the genre of synth metal that followed in the late 80s was the harbinger of the end even as it was responsible for opening up the Heavy Metal and Heavy Rock sound to mass consumption by the public at large. Progressive groups like Triumph and Rush sequenced large parts of their concerts to recreate studio work, band hired keyboardists to accompany them on tour and play from off stage to supplement their acts and by 1987 almost every major mainstream act had a keyboard player as an actual band member (with some notable exceptions of course.) Where before the 5 man line-up would have two guitarists, now there was a lead guitar and lead keys, or the singer had to play either bass or rhythm guitar in order to recreate that ‘classic’ sound of dual guitars while the keyboard player gave sound support. But the killing shot was fired by a band that for the most part gets a footnote in musical history aside from a few rabid fans – Tesla. On their freshman release <em>Mechanical Resonance</em> was a small tag line at the bottom of their liner notes <u>“no machines”</u>. Their lack of synthesized audio, in any form, was a pot shot at the new status quo and began the take down for what was quickly becoming a meltdown of epic proportions in the music industry.</p><p></p><p>By the time Nirvana hit the stage with a stripped down three piece and a “who cares” attitude, it was all over for Heavy Metal and the heady days of hearing your favorite metal group on popular radio or catching them on MTV (you know when it stood for MUSIC television) was over. Hip-hop, R&B and rap had won the battle of the electronic and rock crawled under a rock and pulled out the distortion pedal again. Glam rock had come full circle, where once the music was all visual and no true substance, it was again. But for a brief shining moment in the 80s, glam was about the aural substance, and all thanks to a piece of plastic that was improperly labeled and today wouldn’t compete with a cheap keyboard you can purchase at Wal-Mart…</p><p></p><p>I realize that this may seem out of place in my history of metal, but once you do your research you realize how pivotal it truly was. Some groups of note that used synths to great lengths and great effect (besides the ones mentioned above) were Pretty Maids (a must hear group), Yngwie Malmsteen, Zebra, Dream Theater, Night Ranger, Great White and a host of others. As to their effect, there are several bands emerging now that are pulling their synthesizers out of the closet and blending them with distorted guitars, a testament to the effect they hold over music even today.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Thunderfoot, post: 4241836, member: 34175"] [B]Chapter 5 – Glam Goes Gold (or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the synthesizer)[/B] The time is the late 70s, Iggy Pop is drugged out of his mind, The New York Dolls wear more make-up than Poison ever owned, and David Bowie is gold most of the time and as androgynous as Pat on Saturday Night Live in the 90s or Michael Jackson at any point in his career past 1986. It is hard to deny that the music from this time period and this genre was a little lacking musically, not stylistically, but musically. Listen to any of Bowie’s stuff and for him to be strutting around in gold lamiea and glitter with platform boots that would give Gene Simmons pause, his music was more akin to a single acoustic guitar and a bar stool in a dark backroom club. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the 70s still hadn’t figured form following function. Then something amazing happened, New Year’s Eve 1979; it was like the whole world decided to start fresh and the music industry was no different. New Wave, Punk, and Popular music embraced a burgeoning technology that had just started to make a splash in the 70s, the synthesizer. A box that had a dizzying array of buttons and might or might not have a keyboard style input device. The Moog was the grand–daddy of them all and the heavy rock stand-by [I]“Frankenstein”[/I] by the Edgar Winter Group, and anything by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra at the time) contained several layers of the instrument. But in 1983 a wonderful thing happened, Yamaha released the DX7, the first digital FM synthesizer (actually it was a phase-modulated synth, but who cares, it sounded great, was portable and you didn’t have to have a degree in engineering to understand how it worked.) From that time forward, the keyboard synth (or keyboard) was here to stay and the old Moog style button/dial/wire models rode off into history. By 1984 every pop music group had a synthesizer or keyboard player. The old Fender Rhodes or Hammond B3 organs were retired or at least moved to a secondary position of authority in the arsenal of serious keyboard artists. But a pivotal moment for Heavy Metal came with the release of Bon Jovi’s first radio hit [I]“Runaway”[/I] (1983 single release). That cool, choppy, keyboard intro and Jon Bon Jovi’s rough vocal straining pretty much hailed the end of the guitar as the premier instrument of Rock n’ Roll (at least for many years). Producers moved into the studio and sound engineers actually started injecting ideas of how music should sound overriding band decisions (a situation that would never have taken wing in the 60s & 70s where the tried to ‘find’ the sound, not create it.) Unlike other editions where I would list a group of bands and tell their contributions, this is more about the hardware involved, because EVERY band had at least one synth player in the group. Now some would argue that this was a bad thing for heavy rock music to incorporate a fresh clean sound into the music, and for the purist, I would agree, however, they were just so darn keen, (Did I actually just say that?) and versatile that you could now interject sound effects into any song without fear of trying to reproduce them on stage with thousands of dollars of audio gear and hope that the sound engineer or hired gun under the stage didn’t miss his cue. Bands that shaped the future of heavy rock were there when they rolled out the originals and began to incorporate and update with the rest of them; Rush, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Dio, Rainbow, Van Halen, Journey and a host of others followed Bon Jovi and brought out the synth and they found out it was just shot in the arm they need to reach the mass market. On a side note Bon Jovi didn’t headline with this album (they opened up for .38 Special) and it would be another two years before they became headliners with the sound they created. Now it can be argued that there were others that came before Bon Jovi, and of course they did, some of them even had keyed instruments and some even experimented with synthesizers and sequencers, but until that time, there was never a full time position in a rock band for a keyboard player unless your name was Linda McCartney (Wings), Jerry Lee Lewis (himself) Greg Rollie (Journey/Santana) or Keith Emerson (ELP) and with the exception of Jerry Lee or ELP those positions were usually support positions. So what did synthesizers do to the industry, revolutionized it and eventually killed it. Glam rock and the genre of synth metal that followed in the late 80s was the harbinger of the end even as it was responsible for opening up the Heavy Metal and Heavy Rock sound to mass consumption by the public at large. Progressive groups like Triumph and Rush sequenced large parts of their concerts to recreate studio work, band hired keyboardists to accompany them on tour and play from off stage to supplement their acts and by 1987 almost every major mainstream act had a keyboard player as an actual band member (with some notable exceptions of course.) Where before the 5 man line-up would have two guitarists, now there was a lead guitar and lead keys, or the singer had to play either bass or rhythm guitar in order to recreate that ‘classic’ sound of dual guitars while the keyboard player gave sound support. But the killing shot was fired by a band that for the most part gets a footnote in musical history aside from a few rabid fans – Tesla. On their freshman release [I]Mechanical Resonance[/I] was a small tag line at the bottom of their liner notes [U]“no machines”[/U]. Their lack of synthesized audio, in any form, was a pot shot at the new status quo and began the take down for what was quickly becoming a meltdown of epic proportions in the music industry. By the time Nirvana hit the stage with a stripped down three piece and a “who cares” attitude, it was all over for Heavy Metal and the heady days of hearing your favorite metal group on popular radio or catching them on MTV (you know when it stood for MUSIC television) was over. Hip-hop, R&B and rap had won the battle of the electronic and rock crawled under a rock and pulled out the distortion pedal again. Glam rock had come full circle, where once the music was all visual and no true substance, it was again. But for a brief shining moment in the 80s, glam was about the aural substance, and all thanks to a piece of plastic that was improperly labeled and today wouldn’t compete with a cheap keyboard you can purchase at Wal-Mart… I realize that this may seem out of place in my history of metal, but once you do your research you realize how pivotal it truly was. Some groups of note that used synths to great lengths and great effect (besides the ones mentioned above) were Pretty Maids (a must hear group), Yngwie Malmsteen, Zebra, Dream Theater, Night Ranger, Great White and a host of others. As to their effect, there are several bands emerging now that are pulling their synthesizers out of the closet and blending them with distorted guitars, a testament to the effect they hold over music even today. [/QUOTE]
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