The King of Rock doing one of his more hard core ballads![/caption]That's right folks, you might not think it, but it is true... You see, in a lot of respects, in the past Heavy Metal music has tended to be offensive to those who would prefer, 'Disco' or other forms of more easier listening music...
A great example of this is there was a TV series that I was watching a few years back that had been based in the 1970s, and during the episode there is a major fight that breaks out between people that were very clearly fans of Disco, (all the way to those strange looking suits and their overly large hairdos on guys...) And the metal heads of the time (they were more defined by the more sloppy look...)
And so you might be wondering why I have added Elvis Presley songs in to the reviews for music that I have done for music since I expanded the site... Well the simple truth is that in a lot of respects you can say that the music of, 'Elvis Presley' is a direct ancestor of heavy metal music, and that a lot of the building blocks that made him the, 'King of Rock' is what helped make Heavy Metal and keeps it being so great!
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One of Elvis's controversial songs.[/caption]A great example of this is, that with Elvis Presley when he was around and was still a sex symbol, he was regularly producing music that the older generation, (those who were almost certainly more a fan of stuff like, 'Big Band' music) just did not like it and found offensive!
Now for me it was a little bit different (Believe it or not, my mother is a metal head from way back, and my father is more of a fan of the soft rock stuff that I enjoy as well!) But to this day I have heard that a lot of the, 'Disco Generation', that are starting to head toward senior citizen life, just really don't like it!
Another great example of that the instrumentals used in Elvis Presley's more famous (yet harder), music could be said to be lighter but similar in tone to what the more darker Heavy Metal music would be!
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Elvis Presley doing, 'Jailhouse Rock' & Megadeth playing live... To different generations of music that are indirectly connected in basic style and attitude![/caption]And one last thing that I thought that I would mention here is the themes in which Elvis would use for his more heavier songs, and the ones that are used in more modern day metal songs... Now the truth is, is Elvis's music is lighter then say, 'Disturbed's' music, but the one thing that they use a lot is alternative themes... A great example of this is Disturbed's song, 'Asylum'... A song that has to do with the problems of insanity and being forcibly institutionalized, and Elvis's 'Heartbreak Hotel' (which as I understand it, is actually based on a suicide case that the King had read about...)
In the end, if you have ever wondered where Heavy Metal music comes from... Well I can't say that Elvis is exclusively responsible, but I will say that the work that he did, was definitely an ancestor of the music that all of us metal heads have grown to love!
http://youtu.be/1K9jBL2syJ8
http://youtu.be/gj0Rz-uP4Mk
