What is the difference between hard rock, and heavy metal?

Answer 1

Hard rock is bands like Aerosmith, Guns N Roses, AC/DC, or if you want to talk about more modern bands it's stuff like Nickelback and Audioslave. There are a lot of different kinds of metal, but it can be anything from Metallica (duh) or Slipknot to Slayer or Cannibal Corpse.

Basically the main differences are vocals, guitar, and drums. Rock vocalists sing more or less melodically, and even if their voice sounds kind of raw they generally don't just yell. The emphasis is on being catchy, something easy to remember that makes you want to sing it too. Metal vocalists usually employ some combination of harsh singing and yelling or screaming, or growling. It usually sounds aggressive and unpleasant if you're not used to it. There is a subgenre of metal where the vocals sound more operatic than harsh (Iron Maiden is an example) but it's nowhere near the catchy type of thing you hear from a rock band.

Rock guitar is usually a combination of chord progressions and catchy riffs, with a solo or two in the middle. Metal guitars are more distorted, usually downtuned, and the chord progressions are of the "chugga-chugga" type - in essence the guitar is almost being used as more of a percussion instrument. Riffs lean toward being technical rather than catchy, and the solos are more about speed than being in key.

A rock drummer usually keeps the same mid-tempo beat throughout the entire song, with little or no double bass. A rock drummer generally just keeps the beat without showing off or doing anything that will call attention to themselves. Metal drumming is more of a sport - the beats are much faster, with sudden tempo changes and lots of blindingly fast double bass. The bottom line is that hard rock overall still tries to be catchy and appealing, while metal is more focused on speed, aggression, and technical prowess, regardless of whether it alienates some listeners.

Of course there are bands that don't fit into either category, or bands that might have been considered metal in the 70's or 80's that would be considered hard rock in comparison to metal now. So it will always be somewhat subjective on the part of the listener.

Answer 2

Hard rock is a form of rock and roll music which finds its closest roots in early-1960s garage rock and psychedelic rock. It is typified by a heavy use of distorted electric guitar, bass guitar and drums. The term "hard rock" is often used as an umbrella term for genres such as punk, grunge, alternative metal and heavy metal, in order to distinguish them from softer, more radio friendly pop rock music.

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that emerged as a defined musical style in the 1970s, having its roots in hard rock bands which, between 1967 and 1974, mixed blues and rock to create a hybrid with a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterised by the use of highly-amplified distortion. Out of heavy metal various subgenres later evolved, many of which are referred to simply as "metal". As a result, "heavy metal" now has two distinct meanings: either the genre as a whole or what is known as "traditional heavy metal" in the 1970s style, as exemplified by Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath.

Answer 3

heavy metal was the 80's era hard rock is newer

Answer 4

Ones a piece of stone the other is a piece of metal