The Birth of Hard Rock

Hard rock wasn't the heir to rock 'n' roll — it was its opposite. When Cream, Hendrix and Blue Cheer turned the blues up to ten in 1967, the door opened to something heavier. Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf made the songs longer and darker, The Beatles answered with Helter Skelter, and in 1969–70 Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple delivered the genre's defining formula: distorted riffs, commanding vocals, and volume as a weapon. By the mid-70s Aerosmith, Kiss, AC/DC and Rainbow had taken the sound to the arenas while UFO and The Stooges pushed it underground. 36 tracks from proto-metal's golden years (1967–1975).