Music of California
Encyclopedia
In the United States
, California
is commonly associated with the film
, music
, and arts
industries
; there are numerous world-famous Californian musicians. Hardcore punk
, hip hop
, country
and heavy metal
have all appeared in California. Furthermore, new genres of music, such as surf rock and third wave ska, have their origins in California.
", written by F. B. Silverwood and composed by Alfred F. Frankenstein of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. It was designated the state song in 1951. Other songs, including "California, Here I Come
", have also been candidates for additional state songs since 1951, but in 1988 the official standing of "I Love You, California" was confirmed.
California also has an official fife
and drum
band, the California Consolidated Drum Band, which was so designated in 1997.
The state's official folk dance is the square dance
, which has been found in California since at least the Gold Rush
.
of many different kinds lived in California prior to the discovery of the New World
by Europe
. Most of the tribes were culturally related to each other, as well as to the Yuman-speaking peoples of Arizona
and New Mexico
. They use a relaxed vocal technique, in stark contrast to Native Americans from much of the rest of North America. The songs of this area are non-strophic
, and are characterized by the use of a rise, a section of a song which is slightly higher in pitch than the rest of the song. This technique is absent or rare outside of the California-Yuman area, known only among some tribes on both coasts of North America.
In the late 19th century, Native American music began to be incorporated by classical composers throughout the country. In San Francisco, Carlos Troyer
published compositions like Apache Chief Geronimo's Own Medicine song with a piano accompaniment by Troyer. He also later published two Zuni songs.
. Chanted prayers and hymns were often used, and choirs were eventually formed; many missions formed Native American choirs among recent converts.
As California's Europe
an, Asia
n and Africa
n population increased in the 19th century, the state became the earliest West Coast territory admitted to the United States
. As on the East Coast, music at the time was dominated by popular minstrel show
s and the sale of sheet music
. Performers included the Sacramento
-born Hyers Sisters
and Black Patti
. The state's large Mexican
population brought traditional folk
guitar
to California, including virtuoso Luis T. Romero
. Chinese
immigrants came to California to work on the transcontinental railroad and soon became a large minority in the state; the San Francisco
Chinese Opera House was built in 1880, though two years later saw the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in order to prevent more immigration. The visit of King Kalakaua
of Hawaii
in 1874 saw the Hawaiian national anthem
, "Hawaii Ponoi" (written by the king) set to music by Henri Berger
. In the 1880s, Carlos Troyer
became a prominent composer, incorporating Spanish
and Zuni influences. Polish
composer Anton de Kontski
's Polish Patrol and Awakening the Lion were also quite popular.
The Spanish missions in California has brought European music to the area. From the late 18th century to the late 19th century, many visitors to California remarked on the uniqueness of the Spanish language music in California. This music was distinctively Californian, different from both Mexican
and Spanish
music of the time (though many elements are found throughout these traditions).
With the arrival of many Americans from the East Coast, as well as immigrants from as far away as China, however, Spanish folk music began to dwindle in popularity in California. Charles Fletcher Lummis
, himself an immigrant to California, recorded many kinds of Spanish and Native American folk music for the Southwest Society of the Archaeological Institute of America
.
Later in the 20th century, other revivalists like Gabriel Eulogius Ruiz and Al Pill helped keep Spanish-California traditions alive.
and Mexican folk music bands. Popular music such as Ranchera
, Norteño
, son music can be heard on many radio stations across the state from the San Francisco Bay Area
to Central Valley. Among the most celebrated Mexican American singers from California are Jenni Rivera, Carlos Santana
and Ritchie Valens
. Southern California has been home to Spanish language singers and musicians for over 100 years. La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley has worked promote Salsa and traditional Latin American music to encourage a strong cultural connection between Californians and Latin Americans.
Reggaeton
is becoming popular in California due to the success of rappers Daddy Yankee
, Pitbull
and Ruben Blades
who have broken across language barriers into mainstream music. Reggaeton dance clubs can be found in Long Beach
, Los Angeles
and Chula Vista. Fusing reggaeton with hip hop music
has ensured the genre's popularity among both young and old aficionados of Latin music. Salsa music
has had success as popular dance music since the early 1980s. Its popularity continues due to popular music shows So You Think You Can Dance
and Dancing with the Stars
. Local Salsa and Caribbean music groups regularly perform in Bay Area and Los Angeles.
was dominated by the slick Nashville sound
that stripped the genre of its gritty roots. The town of Bakersfield
saw the rise of the Bakersfield sound as a reaction against Nashville, led by people like Buck Owens
and future star Merle Haggard
.
, like The Beach Boys
, Jan and Dean
, The Chantays
, Royale Monarchs
and The Surfaris
. Surf rock is said to have been invented by Dick Dale
with his 1961 (see 1961 in music
) album "Let's Go Trippin'
". Surf rock's popularity ended in the mid-1960s with the coming of psychedelic music
, however bands like Papa Doo Run Run
have continued to perform and tour for the last 40 years.
s. Haight-Ashbury became a countercultural capital, and bands like Jefferson Airplane
, Loading Zone, Quicksilver Messenger Service
, Country Joe and the Fish
, Santana
, The Charlatans, Big Brother & the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead
helped to launch the blues- and folk-rock scene; other bands, like Moby Grape
and The Flamin' Groovies used a more country-influenced sound, while Cold Blood
incorporated R&B and Orkustra
played a sort of freeform psychedelia. Of all these bands, the Grateful Dead were undoubtedly the longest-lasting of all. They continued recording and performing for several decades under the leadership of Jerry Garcia
, experimenting with a wide variety of folk, country and bluegrass
, and becoming a part of the jam band
phenomenon.
Hollywood's Sunset Strip
area produced bands like The Byrds
, The Doors
, Love
, Buffalo Springfield
, and The Seeds
. The Byrds went on to become a major folk-rock act, helping to popularize some of Bob Dylan
's compositions and eventually launching the careers of folk-rockers like David Crosby
and country-rock fusionist Gram Parsons
.
Frank Zappa
and Captain Beefheart
, both from Antelope Valley, started their aggressively experimental music careers during the late 1960s.
The band Iron Butterfly
is another noted California psychedelic band, coming out of San Diego.
, the first folk club in San Francisco, opened; Jefferson Airplane, then a newly-formed and unknown band, performed that night. Later that year, a band known as The Warlocks became the Grateful Dead, performing at The Fillmore
, which was to become a major musical venue in the area. Jefferson Airplane became the first San Francisco psychedelic band signed to a major label, followed soon after by Sopwith Camel
. In 1966, the first acid test
was held, and the use of the drug LSD
became a more prominent part of psychedelic rock, and music in general. One of the first albums from the scene was Country Joe and the Fish
's Electric Music for the Mind and Body
(1967). A year later, the band Blue Cheer
released Vincebus Eruptum
, which launched a national hit with a cover
of Eddie Cochran
's "Summertime Blues
"; Blue Cheer is now regarded as a progenitor of heavy metal
.
acts such as The Eagles and Poco
, and singer-songwriters such as Jackson Browne
and Joni Mitchell
. There were also funk
acts that were prominent such as War
from the South Central (now South
) district of Los Angeles
, Sly and the Family Stone and Tower of Power
from Oakland
. Santana
blended rock, jazz, funk and Latin music. This period also saw a number of difficult to classify acts arising who did not sell many records, but proved to be very influential on things to come, such as Kim Fowley
and Captain Beefheart
, both of whom had been active in the 1960s but reached their artistic peaks during this era, and Sparks
, all from Los Angeles. Fowley would go on to manage and produce the all-female proto-punk group, The Runaways
.
The Tubes
, who mixed progressive rock
with wild theatricality, and Journey
, formed from among some of Carlos Santana's
sidemen and eventually experiencing a peak as one of the most popular AOR
acts in the United States, were virtually the only acts from San Francisco to gain any sort of fame in the mid-1970s.
Californians Stevie Nicks
and Lindsey Buckingham
joined Fleetwood Mac
in the 1970s and were a key part of the band's multi-platinum success.
arose along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in the 1980s with bands like Quiet Riot
, Mötley Crüe
, and later Poison
and quickly became known for anthemic hard rock
and power ballads, as well as band members' distinctively feminine make-up, hair, and clothing in spite of the scene's macho posturing. This scene would die out in the 1990s due to grunge
.
, The Germs
, The Weirdos
, The Dils
, The Bags
, and X.
Youth Brigade
of Los Angeles
were a group from LA who eventually became known for founding the Better Youth Organization (BYO), which advanced the hardcore scene and humanist ideals. Other Los Angeles-area hardcore and punk groups included Wasted Youth
, UXA
, The Hollywood Squares
, The Mau-Mau's
, The Gears, Black Flag
, The Circle Jerks, Vom
, Dr. Know
(featuring former child star Brandon Cruz
), Legal Weapon
and The Mentors
(originally from Seattle), along with future underground stars NOFX
.
, American hardcore punk
was born with bands like Black Flag
, the Circle Jerks
, the Minutemen, Bad Religion
and Youth Brigade
, who formed in the mid- to late 1970s/early 1980s. San Pedro, Hermosa Beach
, Wilmington, Manhattan Beach
and Hawthorne
spawned more locally famous acts like Red Cross, who would later incorporate garage rock
, power pop
and glam
influences into their sound and change their name to Redd Kross
, The Last
, Circle Jerks
, Nip Drivers, Saint Vitus
, The Descendents, and Saccharine Trust
. The famous movie about the hardcore scene, The Decline of Western Civilization
, was shot in this area, largely in an abandoned church in Hermosa called the Creative Craft Center. The movement fell out of popularity around the Mid 80s. The late 80s/early 90s saw a revival in the South Bay
punk scene with punk bands like Bad Religion
, Down by Law
, NOFX
, The Offspring
, Pennywise
and Ten Foot Pole
under the Epitaph Records
label.
, the band Middle Class
, from Santa Ana
, was probably the most influential; their "Out of Vogue" is sometimes considered the first hardcore recording. The original hardcore bands in Orange County came from the Fullerton, Ca area, where The Adolescents
, Agent Orange
and Social Distortion
and D.I.
formed. Social Distortion would later incorporate blues
, country
and early rock influences into their sound and become one of America's premier roots rock bands. Farther south, Huntington Beach
was also an influential center of hardcore, and is known as the origin of slam dancing. Huntington bands like Vicious Circle, True Sounds of Liberty
, The Screws and The Crowd
had a reputation for being aggressive and sometimes violent, while Uniform Choice
, and Doggy Style somewhat later bands, became known as the prominent straight edge
bands from the West Coast. Another Orange County band of note is The U.S. Bombs
fronted by Duane Peters
. True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL) was perhaps the most infamous for violence, and for an abrupt and unpopular change towards proto-Gothic rock
and, much later, Aerosmith
-style heavy metal as the scene developed; future underground stars The Vandals
evolved from TSOL's eventual breakdown. Other Orange County bands included Stick To Your Guns
, White Mice
, The Offspring
, Big Drill Car
, Guttermouth
, SPLNTR, Suicidal Tendencies
(who were from Venice but were associated with Orange County hardcore), China White
, Shattered Faith
, Masque of Demise, Social Task, The Screwz and Channel 3
. The Dils
were originally from Orange County but later relocated to San Francisco, California
.
. The Donkey Show was a ska band that saw some notoriety during the late 80s, helping to establish the genre known as 3rd wave ska. The late 80s gave rise to San Diego's first straight-edge band "Amenity" out of Chula Vista. Members Mike Down, Tim Gonzales, Barry Kellman, and Sergio Hernandez would have started a scene which shared the likes with Orange County bands "Chain of Strength" and "Inside Out" feat. Zach de la Rocha. Amenity later formed "House of Suffering" (w/ song "Draw the Line" covered by San Diego locals POD). House of Suffering featured Katon de Pena (front man for "Hirax") who sang for the group in early 90s. Sergio of Amenity later formed "the B-Side Players" who still perform today. Amenity reunited in 2008 to play for book "Radio Silence" and went to record "Shine" ep and video. Amenity influenced bands in the mid-90s Unbroken that became a very influential hardcore band in not just San Diego, but California in general. Highly influential Post-Hardcore luminaries, Drive Like Jehu (and the subsequent band, Hot Snakes) hail from San Diego as well. Sharing members with Drive Like Jehu, Rocket from the Crypt, gained notoriety in the 90s. In the pop-punk scene of the '90s, Blink 182, from Poway, rose to stardom. From the reggae scene came Slightly Stoopid
. More recently, bands like The Locust
and Cattle Decapitation
, all of which feature members prominent in the hardcore community in San Diego, have become increasingly popular on a worldwide basis. Additionally, Rob Crow of Pinback, Goblin Cock, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, guest vocals for Team Sleep, as well as a myriad of other projects has grown to much popularity in the last few years.
, who hailed from the western San Fernando Valley
and were only marginally associated with hardcore punk rock from the South Bay area. The punk scene in the eastern San Fernando Valley
was closely tied in with that of nearby Hollywood and produced bands such as The Dickies
, Fear
, and The Angry Samoans.The band Iconoclast, Public Nuisance, and some members of Circle One also hailed from this area. Public Nuisance were affiliated with a gang of punk rockers known as the Circle One Family. Numerous punks shows in the 1980s, including shows by Circle Jerks
and Black Flag
, took place in a warehouse on the old site of Devonshire Downs in Northridge. In more recent years, the post-punk
-inspired band, She Wants Revenge
has been based in the San Fernando Valley. The late 90s brought about label Ibex Records where there was a punk revival with the two bands Nonetheless and Soapbox Revolt who frequently played in Reseda at the American Legion Hall.
probably had the earliest punk scene, at least as far back as 1976. The scene was aided by San Francisco's infamous laid back attitude towards alternative lifestyles, and the legendary record label
Alternative Tentacles
. Crime
and The Nuns
were first, followed by Chrome
, The Mutants
, VKTMS, The Contractions
, Angst
, The Sleepers
, Pop-O-Pies
, Sick Pleasure (aka Code of Honor), Crucifix
, Negative Trend
, The Avengers (band)
, SSI, Flipper
and Pink Section. The most influential San Francisco hardcore band was the Dead Kennedys
, whose frontman, Jello Biafra
, became a noted social activist even after the band's last show at the On Broadway, which included The Black Athletes and Naked Lady Wrestlers on the card. Many hardcore bands moved to San Francisco, including legends MDC
, as well as D.R.I.
, Tales of Terror (band)
(from Sacramento, CA. who made Kurt Cobain's Top 50 list of favorite Bands and essential listening , The Dicks
and Rhythm Pigs
Fat Wreck Chords
(all from Texas).
experienced a hardcore boom led by Fang
. Berkeley also saw hardcore fusing with heavy metal to form thrash metal
and bands like Possessed
, Faith No More
, Metallica
, and Exodus
.
Also in the mid-late '80s hardcore, pop punk, and ska punk bands gained a following with bands such as Operation Ivy (band)
, Crimpshrine
, The Mr. T Experience
, The Lookouts
, Isocracy (band)
, Green Day
, Blatz
, and Plaid Retina
. These bands played at the infamous Gilman Street Project and released records on Lookout! Records
.
's most famous hardcore band was Whipping Boy
, who played with local bands like Tongue Avulsion and The Faction. Also where the famed punk band Rancid
started out.
multiple-drum-machine and Farfisa organ laden recordings with wild guitars and clever and desert wise road lyrics out of central Hollywood Boulevard and Selma Avenue wild life started the Newave trend in Southern California late 70s early 80s.
At the same time that Gothic rock
began in the United Kingdom
, a parallel death rock scene evolved in Los Angeles out of the punk scene, with bands like 45 Grave
and Christian Death
.
Inspired by bands like The Gun Club and Ohio
transplants
The Cramps
, cowpunk
bands such as Tex & the Horseheads
, Blood on the Saddle
, and The Lazy Cowgirls arose from Los Angeles in the 1980s.
The Paisley Underground
scene would arise out of Los Angeles in the mid-1980s around Redd Kross, The Three O'Clock
(originally The Salvation Army), The Bangles
, The Dream Syndicate and others. In a completely different vein, the Red Hot Chili Peppers
also first came to national attention about the same time with their mix of punk, funk, rock, and theatricality, although they would not become a huge-selling act until the end of the decade.
Santa Cruz
spawned Camper Van Beethoven
in the mid-1980s.
Jane's Addiction
would arise out of Venice in the late 1980s.
During the grunge
era of the early 1990s, Los Angeles became less important nationally as a source of alternative rock
, and bands like The Nymphs
, The Hangmen
and The Miracle Workers
never got the attention they might have if from Seattle. Internationally popular bands from Southern California during this time were Hole
(Los Angeles) and Stone Temple Pilots
(San Diego).
Bands such as Incubus and Hoobastank were also popular in California in the 90s.
30 Seconds To Mars
is a popular alternative rock band, originating from Los Angeles, California.
scene was centered around Los Angeles and San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s. Bands associated with this scene include Metallica
, Megadeth
, Slayer
, Exodus
, Vio-lence
, Suicidal Tendencies
, Dark Angel
, Death Angel
, D.R.I.
, Testament
, Forbidden
, Defiance
, Evildead
, Holy Terror.
flourished in Los Angeles
and surrounding areas, especially Watts
and Compton
. Derived from New York City
, hip hop drew upon primarily Jamaica
n and East Coast influences, though early 1970s black nationalist poets The Watts Prophets
were also notable.
The earliest forms of Los Angeles hip hop were hardcore hip hop
artists like Ice-T
(whose mid-80s "6 'N Da Mornin'" is arguably the first West Coast gangsta rap track) and a kind of dance music called electro hop. Among the most popular electro hop groups was the World Class Wrecking Cru, which included future star Dr. Dre
, DJ Yela, and others. In 1988, Dr. Dre, along with Eazy-E
and Ice Cube
, released Straight Outta Compton
under the name N.W.A.
The album took many hip hop fans by surprise, as it single-handedly placed West Coast hip hop
on the map and quickly moved gangsta rap
into the mainstream. The main gangsta rap and west coast hip hop cities were San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo
, Pittsburg, California
Sacramento
, Richmond, California
, East Palo Alto, Berkeley
, Los Angeles
, Compton
, and Inglewood
, Eazy-E
, 2Pac, and, Ice Cube
, as well as the group Cypress Hill
. Cube released a total of six albums throughout the course of the 90s: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990), Kill at Will
(1990), Death Certificate
(1991), The Predator
(1992), Lethal Injection (1993), and War & Peace Vol. 1 (The War Disc) (1998). The first five albums all went platinum, and the last one, War & Peace, went gold. Cube became an icon for West Coast hip hop
for his songs about social and political issues. In 1992, Dr. Dre's solo debut, The Chronic
, made West Coast hip hop and Death Row Records
the dominant sound in hip hop, drawing primarily upon George Clinton
's P-Funk
for samples
and the general, slow, lazy funk. Death Row Records soon acquired Tupac Shakur
, Warren G
and Snoop Doggy Dogg as a feud developed between the East and West Coasts. In the mid-90s, Shakur and his rival Notorious B.I.G. were both shot and killed. Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight
was imprisoned, and most of the label's acts tried to leave. The lack of leadership helped put New York, Atlanta and New Orleans on the top of the hip hop charts, leaving local would-be legends and underground MC's (emcees) to work under self-financed productions. Jeremiah St.Clair, MC Overflo, and few others can still be found making platinum quality singles, and battling newer school street corner rappers, almost like a petition or social demonstration on preserving hip hop etiquette. Many consider lesser known rappers like Jeremiah St. Clair (originating from the early 90s) as the last real hip hop mc's.
In the 1990s, underground hip hop flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area
. Early pioneers included Too $hort and E-40
; their success helped pave the way for new performers like RBL Posse
, whose 1992 "Don't Gimme No Bammer" achieved some crossover success. The Bay Area's thriving underground rap scene has produced literally hundreds of artists, some of the better known being Andre Nickatina, The Coup
, Michael Franti
, Paris
, Blackalicious
, Ya Boy
, San Quinn
, and Emcee Lynx
. The Bay Area is also home to the relatively new "Hyphy
" sub-genre. Mac Dre
was one of the notable innovators. San Francisco was very impressive in rap/hip hop. It boasted west coast legends Rappin' 4-Tay
, RBL Posse
, Andre Nickatina
, JT The Bigga Figga
, Cougnut
, and more. San Francisco was one of the homes of the late global rapping legend Tupac Shakur
. The inner-city of San Francisco's neighborhoods' crime inspired the rap scene of San Francisco.
, an influential indie rock band from Stockton
. In the mid-1990s, Beck
came out of the Silver Lake
(a neighborhood in Los Angeles) indie rock scene. Los Angeles has also produced the folky singer-songwriter
Ross Altman.
The 2000s have seen the emergence of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
, Or, The Whale
, The Aislers Set
, The Botticellis
and Scissors for Lefty
, Deerhoof
, The Dodos
, and The Union Trade
from San Francisco and The Quarter After, Scarling.
, Autolux
, Giant Drag
, Brian Jonestown Massacre, HEALTH
, Fool's Gold No Age
, Abe Vigoda
and the Warlocks
from Los Angeles. Though originally from Portland, much of Elliott Smith
's music is about and was created in Los Angeles.
Groups from San Diego include The Album Leaf
, Three Mile Pilot
, Pinback
, Thingy
, The Soft Pack
, The Black Heart Procession
.
, Antioch Arrow
, and other innovative hardcore bands. Many released albums on the Gravity Records
label.
Southern California saw the rise of Christian hardcore
, specifically Spirit-filled hardcore(SFHXC)
during the mid-90s with the likes of The Blamed, Bloodshed, Focused, No Innocent Victim
, and Unashamed
. This led to drummer Jason Dunn of No Innocent Victim
starting Facedown Records
.
As metalcore
became the popular subgenre of hardcore in the late 1990s to early 2000s, bands such as As I Lay Dying
, Atreyu
, Bleeding Through
, Eighteen Visions
and Throwdown made their mark in Southern California.
, the Hootenanny at Irvine Park, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
, Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival
, High Sierra Music Festival
, and Facedown Fest
. The Monterey Pop Festival
, held in 1967, is perhaps the most famous concert in California's history; the show launched the international careers of performers like Jimi Hendrix
, The Who
, Otis Redding
and Janis Joplin
.
Music organizations in the state include the Community Arts Music Association
. There is also an organization that gives out California Music Awards.
(1911), Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (1919), San Diego Symphony
(1910), Fremont Symphony Orchestra
, Oakland East Bay Symphony
(formed in 1988 by combining two older organizations), Coachella Valley Symphony, Orchestra Nova San Diego (1983) (formerly the San Diego Chamber Orchestra), Peninsula Symphony Orchestra
(1949), and the Fresno Philharmonic Association (1954).
20th century avant garde composer John Cage
was born in Los Angeles
. Other notable composers from California include David Cope
, Henry Cowell
, Harry Partch
and Terry Riley
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
is commonly associated with the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, and arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
industries
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
; there are numerous world-famous Californian musicians. Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
have all appeared in California. Furthermore, new genres of music, such as surf rock and third wave ska, have their origins in California.
Official symbols
The official state song of California is "I Love You, CaliforniaI Love You, California
I Love You, California is the official state song of California. The lyrics were written by Francis Bernard Silverwood , a Los Angeles clothier and the words were subsequently put to music by Abraham Franklin Frankenstein , then conductor of the Orpheum Theatre Orchestra...
", written by F. B. Silverwood and composed by Alfred F. Frankenstein of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. It was designated the state song in 1951. Other songs, including "California, Here I Come
California, Here I Come
"California, Here I Come" is a song written for the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo, starring Al Jolson. The song was written by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer, with Jolson often listed as a co-author. Jolson recorded the song in 1924...
", have also been candidates for additional state songs since 1951, but in 1988 the official standing of "I Love You, California" was confirmed.
California also has an official fife
Fife (musical instrument)
A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer...
and drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
band, the California Consolidated Drum Band, which was so designated in 1997.
The state's official folk dance is the square dance
Square dance
Square dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...
, which has been found in California since at least the Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
.
Native American music
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
of many different kinds lived in California prior to the discovery of the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
by Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Most of the tribes were culturally related to each other, as well as to the Yuman-speaking peoples of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. They use a relaxed vocal technique, in stark contrast to Native Americans from much of the rest of North America. The songs of this area are non-strophic
Strophic form
Strophic form is the simplest and most durable of musical forms, elaborating a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as "A A A..."...
, and are characterized by the use of a rise, a section of a song which is slightly higher in pitch than the rest of the song. This technique is absent or rare outside of the California-Yuman area, known only among some tribes on both coasts of North America.
In the late 19th century, Native American music began to be incorporated by classical composers throughout the country. In San Francisco, Carlos Troyer
Carlos Troyer
Carlos Troyer, born Charles Troyer, was an American composer known for his musical arrangements of traditional Native American melodies....
published compositions like Apache Chief Geronimo's Own Medicine song with a piano accompaniment by Troyer. He also later published two Zuni songs.
Early foreign influences
The earliest Spanish and English explorers in California encountered Native Americans and established missions to convert them to ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Chanted prayers and hymns were often used, and choirs were eventually formed; many missions formed Native American choirs among recent converts.
As California's Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n population increased in the 19th century, the state became the earliest West Coast territory admitted to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As on the East Coast, music at the time was dominated by popular minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
s and the sale of sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
. Performers included the Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
-born Hyers Sisters
Hyers Sisters
With Joseph Bradford and Pauline Hopkins, the Hyers Sisters produced the "first full-fledged musical plays... in which African Americans themselves comment on the plight of the slaves and the relief of Emancipation without the disguises of minstrel comedy", the first of which was Out of Bondage...
and Black Patti
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, was an African-American soprano. She sometimes was called "The Black Patti" in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti...
. The state's large Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
population brought traditional folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
to California, including virtuoso Luis T. Romero
Luis T. Romero
-Biography:Romero was born in San Luis Obispo, California in 1854 and died in Boston, November 19, 1893. His parents came from Spain. As a boy he played the guitar and when he moved to Los Angeles, he continued his studies with Miguel S. Arrevalo. Later he moved to San Jose, California to perform...
. Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
immigrants came to California to work on the transcontinental railroad and soon became a large minority in the state; the San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
Chinese Opera House was built in 1880, though two years later saw the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in order to prevent more immigration. The visit of King Kalakaua
Kalakaua
Kalākaua, born David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua and sometimes called The Merrie Monarch , was the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii...
of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in 1874 saw the Hawaiian national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
, "Hawaii Ponoi" (written by the king) set to music by Henri Berger
Henri Berger
Henry or Henri Berger was a Prussian Kapellmeister composer and royal bandmaster of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1872 to his death....
. In the 1880s, Carlos Troyer
Carlos Troyer
Carlos Troyer, born Charles Troyer, was an American composer known for his musical arrangements of traditional Native American melodies....
became a prominent composer, incorporating Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Zuni influences. Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
composer Anton de Kontski
Anton de Kontski
Anton de Kontski was a Polish pianist and composer. He was also known as Antoni Kątski and Antoine de Kontski, sometimes with the appellation "Chevalier."...
's Polish Patrol and Awakening the Lion were also quite popular.
Spanish music in California
Music of Mexico
The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages...
and Spanish
Music of Spain
The Music of Spain has a long history and has played an important part in the development of western music. It has had a particularly strong influence upon Latin American music. The music of Spain is often associated abroad with traditions like flamenco and the classical guitar but Spanish music...
music of the time (though many elements are found throughout these traditions).
With the arrival of many Americans from the East Coast, as well as immigrants from as far away as China, however, Spanish folk music began to dwindle in popularity in California. Charles Fletcher Lummis
Charles Fletcher Lummis
Charles Fletcher Lummis was a United States journalist and Indian activist; he is also acclaimed as a historian, photographer, poet and librarian....
, himself an immigrant to California, recorded many kinds of Spanish and Native American folk music for the Southwest Society of the Archaeological Institute of America
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America is a North American nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of public interest in archaeology, and the preservation of archaeological sites. It has offices on the campus of Boston University and in New York City.The institute was founded in 1879,...
.
Later in the 20th century, other revivalists like Gabriel Eulogius Ruiz and Al Pill helped keep Spanish-California traditions alive.
Mexican and Latin American music in California
Because of its historical and cultural connections to Mexico and strong Hispanic influences, California hosts numerous Spanish language radio stations, variety music shows and local based MariachiMariachi
Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
and Mexican folk music bands. Popular music such as Ranchera
Ranchera
Ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico originally sung by only one performer with a guitar. It dates to the years of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. It later became closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco. Ranchera today is also played...
, Norteño
Norteño (music)
Norteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...
, son music can be heard on many radio stations across the state from the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
to Central Valley. Among the most celebrated Mexican American singers from California are Jenni Rivera, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
and Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
. Southern California has been home to Spanish language singers and musicians for over 100 years. La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley has worked promote Salsa and traditional Latin American music to encourage a strong cultural connection between Californians and Latin Americans.
Reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
is becoming popular in California due to the success of rappers Daddy Yankee
Daddy Yankee
Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez , known artistically as Daddy Yankee, is a Latin Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican Reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in baseball,...
, Pitbull
Pitbull (rapper)
Armando Christian Pérez , better known by his stage name Pitbull, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer. His first recorded performance was from the Lil Jon album Kings of Crunk in 2002, after which he released his debut album in 2004 titled M.I.A.M.I. under TVT Records...
and Ruben Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
who have broken across language barriers into mainstream music. Reggaeton dance clubs can be found in Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Chula Vista. Fusing reggaeton with hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
has ensured the genre's popularity among both young and old aficionados of Latin music. Salsa music
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
has had success as popular dance music since the early 1980s. Its popularity continues due to popular music shows So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)
So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
and Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars is the name of several international television series based on the format of the British TV series Strictly Come Dancing, which is distributed by BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the format has been licensed to over 35 countries...
. Local Salsa and Caribbean music groups regularly perform in Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Bakersfield sound
In the 1950s and early 1960s, country musicCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
was dominated by the slick Nashville sound
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
that stripped the genre of its gritty roots. The town of Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
saw the rise of the Bakersfield sound as a reaction against Nashville, led by people like Buck Owens
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
and future star Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
.
Surf rock
In the early 1960s, youth in southern California became enamored with surf rock groups, many instrumentalInstrumental rock
Instrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features very little or no singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Link...
, like The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, Jan and Dean
Jan and Dean
Jan and Dean were a rock and roll duo, popular from the late 1950s through the mid 1960s, consisting of William Jan Berry and Dean Ormsby Torrence...
, The Chantays
The Chantays
The Chantays are an American surf rock band from the early 1960s, known for the hit instrumental, "Pipeline" . Their music combined electronic keyboards and surf guitar, creating a unique ghostly sound.-History:...
, Royale Monarchs
Royale Monarchs
The Royale Monarchs were a Southern California surf band of the late 1960s, signed by radio personality Bob Eubanks as house band at his Cinnamon Cinder night clubs, regulars on his Hollywood Dance Time and The Cinnamon Cinder television shows....
and The Surfaris
The Surfaris
The Surfaris were an American surf rock band formed in Glendora, California in 1962. They are best known for two songs that hit the charts in the Los Angeles, California area, and nationally by May 1963: "Surfer Joe" on the A-side and "Wipe Out" on the B-side of a 45 RPM single.-Career:The original...
. Surf rock is said to have been invented by Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...
with his 1961 (see 1961 in music
1961 in music
-Events:*January 15 – Motown Records signs The Supremes.*January 20 – Francis Poulenc's Gloria receives its premiėre in Boston, USA.*February 12 – The Miracles' "Shop Around" becomes Motown's first million-selling single....
) album "Let's Go Trippin'
Let's Go Trippin'
"Let's Go Trippin" is an instrumental by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. It is often regarded as the first surf rock instrumental. First played in public on May 31, 1958 at the Rendezvous ballroom in Balboa, Ca...
". Surf rock's popularity ended in the mid-1960s with the coming of psychedelic music
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
, however bands like Papa Doo Run Run
Papa Doo Run Run
Papa Doo Run Run is a band from Cupertino, California, United States, that specializes in covers of songs from the heyday of surf music in the 1960s.-History:...
have continued to perform and tour for the last 40 years.
Psychedelic rock
The late 1960s saw San Francisco and Hollywood rise as the center for psychedelic rock and a mecca for hippieHippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s. Haight-Ashbury became a countercultural capital, and bands like Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, Loading Zone, Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
, Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971, and also regarded as a seminal influence to psychedelic rock.-History:...
, Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, The Charlatans, Big Brother & the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
helped to launch the blues- and folk-rock scene; other bands, like Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music...
and The Flamin' Groovies used a more country-influenced sound, while Cold Blood
Cold Blood
Cold Blood is a long-standing soul-rock-jazz band founded by Larry Field in 1968 and originally based in the San Francisco East Bay area. They have also gone by the name Lydia Pense and Cold Blood due to the popularity of their lead singer, Lydia Pense....
incorporated R&B and Orkustra
Orkustra
Orkustra was a band that tried a synthesis between symphonic orchestra and psychedelic band. The result was a sort of freeform psychedelia. According to member Bobby Beausoleil, the group was originally known as "The Electric Chamber Orchestra." The name was changed to avoiding limiting bookings...
played a sort of freeform psychedelia. Of all these bands, the Grateful Dead were undoubtedly the longest-lasting of all. They continued recording and performing for several decades under the leadership of Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, experimenting with a wide variety of folk, country and bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, and becoming a part of the jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
phenomenon.
Hollywood's Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
area produced bands like The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...
, Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
, and The Seeds
The Seeds
The Seeds were an American rock band. The group, whose repertoire spread between garage rock and acid rock, are considered one of the pioneers of punk rock.-History:...
. The Byrds went on to become a major folk-rock act, helping to popularize some of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's compositions and eventually launching the careers of folk-rockers like David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
and country-rock fusionist Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
.
Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, both from Antelope Valley, started their aggressively experimental music careers during the late 1960s.
The band Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is a US psychedelic rock band best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has been reincarnated with various members. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the 31st best-selling album in the world, selling more than 25 million copies.-History:The...
is another noted California psychedelic band, coming out of San Diego.
San Francisco psychedelic scene
This era began in about 1965, when The MatrixThe Matrix (club)
The Matrix, a renovated former pizza shop, was a nightclub in San Francisco from 1965 to 1972 and was one of the keys to what eventually became known as the "San Francisco Sound" in rock music...
, the first folk club in San Francisco, opened; Jefferson Airplane, then a newly-formed and unknown band, performed that night. Later that year, a band known as The Warlocks became the Grateful Dead, performing at The Fillmore
The Fillmore
The Fillmore Auditorium is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California, made famous by Bill Graham. Named for its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it lies on the boundary of the Western Addition and the Pacific Heights neighborhoods.In 1968,...
, which was to become a major musical venue in the area. Jefferson Airplane became the first San Francisco psychedelic band signed to a major label, followed soon after by Sopwith Camel
Sopwith Camel (band)
Sopwith Camel was a rock music band associated with the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene of the late 1960s.-Career:The band formed in late 1965 and their line-up consisted of vocalist and saxophone player Peter Kraemer, guitarists Terry MacNeil and William "Truckaway" Sievers, bassist Martin...
. In 1966, the first acid test
Acid Test
Acid test or acid tests may refer to:*Acid test , a chemical or metallurgical test which uses acid, now also used as a general term for "verified", "approved", or "tested" in a large number of fields...
was held, and the use of the drug LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
became a more prominent part of psychedelic rock, and music in general. One of the first albums from the scene was Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971, and also regarded as a seminal influence to psychedelic rock.-History:...
's Electric Music for the Mind and Body
Electric Music for the Mind and Body
Electric Music for the Mind and Body is Country Joe and the Fish's debut album. It was one of the first psychedelic albums to come out of San Francisco....
(1967). A year later, the band Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer was an American psychedelic blues-rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009...
released Vincebus Eruptum
Vincebus Eruptum
-Personnel:Blue Cheer*Dickie Peterson – vocals, bass*Leigh Stephens – guitar*Paul Whaley – drumsAdditional personnel*Abe "Voco" Kesh – production*John MacQuarrie – engineering*John Van Hamersveld – photography...
, which launched a national hit with a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...
's "Summertime Blues
Summertime Blues
"Summertime Blues" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American rockabilly artist Eddie Cochran. It was written in the late 1950s by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on...
"; Blue Cheer is now regarded as a progenitor of heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
.
1970s and 80s
The early part of this era was dominated by country rockCountry rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
acts such as The Eagles and Poco
Poco
Poco is an Southern California country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative,...
, and singer-songwriters such as Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
and Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
. There were also funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
acts that were prominent such as War
War (band)
War is an American funk band from California, known for the hit songs "Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?". Formed in 1969, War was a musical crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues, and reggae...
from the South Central (now South
South Los Angeles
South Los Angeles, often abbreviated as South L.A. and formerly South Central Los Angeles, is the official name for a large geographic and cultural portion lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central, and is still widely known...
) district of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Sly and the Family Stone and Tower of Power
Tower of Power
Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
from Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
blended rock, jazz, funk and Latin music. This period also saw a number of difficult to classify acts arising who did not sell many records, but proved to be very influential on things to come, such as Kim Fowley
Kim Fowley
Kim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
and Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, both of whom had been active in the 1960s but reached their artistic peaks during this era, and Sparks
Sparks (band)
Sparks is an American rock and pop band formed in Los Angeles in 1968 by brothers Ron and Russell Mael , initially under the name Halfnelson...
, all from Los Angeles. Fowley would go on to manage and produce the all-female proto-punk group, The Runaways
The Runaways
The Runaways were an American all-girl rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run. Among its best known songs: "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin", "California Paradise"...
.
The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
, who mixed progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
with wild theatricality, and Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
, formed from among some of Carlos Santana's
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
sidemen and eventually experiencing a peak as one of the most popular AOR
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...
acts in the United States, were virtually the only acts from San Francisco to gain any sort of fame in the mid-1970s.
Californians Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
and Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Adams Buckingham is an American guitarist, singer, composer and producer, most notable for being the guitarist and male lead singer of the musical group Fleetwood Mac. Aside from his tenure with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has also released six solo albums and a live album...
joined Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
in the 1970s and were a key part of the band's multi-platinum success.
Glam metal
Glam metalGlam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
arose along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in the 1980s with bands like Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
, Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
, and later Poison
Poison (band)
Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. To date, Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100,...
and quickly became known for anthemic hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and power ballads, as well as band members' distinctively feminine make-up, hair, and clothing in spite of the scene's macho posturing. This scene would die out in the 1990s due to grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles' original late 1970s punk scene received less press attention than their counterparts in New York or London, but it included cult bands The ScreamersThe Screamers
The Screamers were a punk rock group active in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1970s. The Screamers were pioneers of a genre now known as "synthpunk," and can also be classified as art punk....
, The Germs
The Germs
The Germs are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1977 to 1980. The band's early lineup consisted of singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Lorna Doom, and their most consistent drummer Don Bolles. Germs have since reformed in 2005 with Shane...
, The Weirdos
The Weirdos
The Weirdos were an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California. They formed in 1976 and broke up in 1981, were occasionally active in the 1980s, and recorded new material in the 1990s...
, The Dils
The Dils
The Dils were an American punk rock band of the late 1970s, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman...
, The Bags
The Bags
The Bags were an American rock band formed in 1977. They were one of the first generation of punk rock bands to emerge out of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...
, and X.
Youth Brigade
Youth Brigade (band)
Youth Brigade is a Southern California punk music trio formed in 1980 by brothers Mark Stern, Adam Stern, and Shawn Stern. The band subsequently founded BYO , which served both as their record label and as a statement of their attitude toward the young people involved in the punk subculture, which...
of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
were a group from LA who eventually became known for founding the Better Youth Organization (BYO), which advanced the hardcore scene and humanist ideals. Other Los Angeles-area hardcore and punk groups included Wasted Youth
Wasted Youth (American Band)
Wasted Youth was a hardcore punk band in early 1980s from Los Angeles, California. The band followed in the footsteps of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, and were a prominent and popular act amongst the Los Angeles punk underground of the early 1980s.-Overview:The band consisted of Chett Lehrer,...
, UXA
UXA
In computing, UXA is the reimplementation of the EXA graphics acceleration architecture of the X.Org Server developed by Intel. Its major difference with EXA is the use of GEM, replacing Translation Table Maps...
, The Hollywood Squares
The Hollywood Squares (band)
The Hollywood Squares were an American band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1977. They are probably best known for their classic "Hillside Strangler". Released in a very limited edition on the trio's own Square Records label, the issue quickly sold out and has since become a highly...
, The Mau-Mau's
The Mau-Mau's
were started in 1978 by Rick Wilder after returning from a trip to London in 1977.The original line-up from Hollywood,California was Greg Salva on guitar, Roderick Donahue on bass, and Rick Sherman on drums. They started out playing at The Masque in Hollywood. Greg was replaced by Mike R...
, The Gears, Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
, The Circle Jerks, Vom
VOM (punk rock band)
VOM was conceived in 1976, a self-described beat combo featuring the renowned writer and critic Richard Meltzer on vocals, with Gregg Turner on 2nd vocals and "Metal" Mike Saunders on drums under the pseudonym "Ted Klusewski". The band also featured Dave Guzman on 'tuneless rhythm guitar', Lisa...
, Dr. Know
Dr. Know (band)
Dr. Know is a punk band which began as a Nardcore band and now has roots in Los Angeles, CA.They are one of the founding figures of the "Nardcore" punk movement from Oxnard, CA. The band was started by Kyle Toucher, Ismael Hernandez, and Robin Cartwright in early 1981, and after auditioning a few...
(featuring former child star Brandon Cruz
Brandon Cruz
Brandon Edwin Cruz is an American former child actor and currently a punk rock musician, and also works in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. In the late 1960s, the freckled-faced Cruz came to prominence by playing Tom Corbett's charming and conniving son, Eddie Corbett, in the comedy-drama The...
), Legal Weapon
Legal Weapon
Legal Weapon was an early Southern California punk band, initially composed of singer Kat Arthur, guitarist Brian Hansen, drummer Charlie Vartanian, bassist Patricia Morrison and guitarist Mike R. Livingston...
and The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...
(originally from Seattle), along with future underground stars NOFX
NOFX
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
.
South Bay
In the Los Angeles South BaySouth Bay, Los Angeles
The South Bay is a region of the southwest peninsula of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The name stems from its geographic features stretching along the southern shores of Santa Monica Bay which forms its western border.The picture at right uses the broadest definition of the...
, American hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
was born with bands like Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
, the Circle Jerks
Circle Jerks
The Circle Jerks are an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. It was formed by Black Flag's original singer, Keith Morris, and future Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson. They were among the preeminent hardcore punk bands of the L.A. scene in the late 1970s.The band...
, the Minutemen, Bad Religion
Bad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
and Youth Brigade
Youth Brigade (band)
Youth Brigade is a Southern California punk music trio formed in 1980 by brothers Mark Stern, Adam Stern, and Shawn Stern. The band subsequently founded BYO , which served both as their record label and as a statement of their attitude toward the young people involved in the punk subculture, which...
, who formed in the mid- to late 1970s/early 1980s. San Pedro, Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach, California
Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,506 at the 2010 census, up from 18,566 at the 2000 census....
, Wilmington, Manhattan Beach
Manhattan Beach, California
Manhattan Beach is the wealthiest beachfront city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, USA. The city is on the Pacific coast, south of El Segundo, and north of Hermosa Beach. Manhattan Beach is the home of both beach and indoor volleyball, and surfing. During the winter, the...
and Hawthorne
Hawthorne, California
Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. The city at the 2010 census had a population of 84,293, up from 84,112 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
spawned more locally famous acts like Red Cross, who would later incorporate garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
, power pop
Power pop
Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...
and glam
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
influences into their sound and change their name to Redd Kross
Redd Kross
Redd Kross, a rock band from Hawthorne, California had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by Jeff and Steve McDonald while the brothers were still in middle school...
, The Last
The Last (band)
The Last is a Los Angeles-based power pop band formed in the 1970s around three brothers: Joe , Mike , and David Nolte . They released several albums on SST Records and Bomp! Records.-History:...
, Circle Jerks
Circle Jerks
The Circle Jerks are an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. It was formed by Black Flag's original singer, Keith Morris, and future Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson. They were among the preeminent hardcore punk bands of the L.A. scene in the late 1970s.The band...
, Nip Drivers, Saint Vitus
Saint Vitus (band)
Saint Vitus is an American doom metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1978. They consist of founding members Dave Chandler and Mark Adams , alongside sporadic singer Scott Weinrich and recently added drummer Henry Vasquez...
, The Descendents, and Saccharine Trust
Saccharine Trust
Saccharine Trust is a post-hardcore band from California that was started in 1980 by singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza.The band would frequently perform with SST labelmates Minutemen and Black Flag. Drummer Rob Holzman appeared on their 1981 debut Paganicons but left the band to play in...
. The famous movie about the hardcore scene, The Decline of Western Civilization
The Decline of Western Civilization
The soundtrack was released in December 1980 by Slash Records on LP. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. It is currently out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the...
, was shot in this area, largely in an abandoned church in Hermosa called the Creative Craft Center. The movement fell out of popularity around the Mid 80s. The late 80s/early 90s saw a revival in the South Bay
South Bay, Los Angeles
The South Bay is a region of the southwest peninsula of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The name stems from its geographic features stretching along the southern shores of Santa Monica Bay which forms its western border.The picture at right uses the broadest definition of the...
punk scene with punk bands like Bad Religion
Bad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
, Down by Law
Down by Law (band)
Down by Law is a punk rock band formed in 1989 by former All frontman Dave Smalley, who is the their only permanent member. The band has recorded 7 studio albums. They stayed on Epitaph Records until 1998 and have since switched to labels. Down by Law has never achieved substantial commercial...
, NOFX
NOFX
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
, The Offspring
The Offspring
The Offspring is an American punk rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1984. Known as Manic Subsidal until 1986, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dexter Holland, lead guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, bassist Greg K. and drummer Pete Parada...
, Pennywise
Pennywise (band)
Pennywise is a Californian punk rock band from Hermosa Beach, California, formed in 1988. The name is derived from the monster, It, from the Stephen King novel of the same title....
and Ten Foot Pole
Ten Foot Pole
Ten Foot Pole is an American punk rock band, formerly on Epitaph Records.-History:Ten Foot Pole was founded in 1983 as Scared Straight.Scared Straight was a Nardcore Punk band from Simi Valley, California...
under the Epitaph Records
Epitaph Records
Epitaph Records is a Hollywood, California based independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The label was originally "just a logo and a P.O. box" created in the 1980s for the purpose of selling Bad Religion records, but has evolved into a large independent record...
label.
Orange County
In Orange CountyOrange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, the band Middle Class
Middle Class (band)
The Middle Class are an American punk rock/hardcore punk band established in 1977 in Santa Ana, California. The band consisted of Jeff Atta on vocals, Mike Atta on lead guitar, Mike Patton on bass, and Bruce Atta on drums. The band achieved major success in the hardcore punk scene of Southern...
, from Santa Ana
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
, was probably the most influential; their "Out of Vogue" is sometimes considered the first hardcore recording. The original hardcore bands in Orange County came from the Fullerton, Ca area, where The Adolescents
The Adolescents
The Adolescents are an American punk band formed in 1980 in Fullerton, California. It is a punk supergroup, made up of early members of Agent Orange and Social Distortion. They are often credited as one of the leading bands of the 1980s hardcore punk scene....
, Agent Orange
Agent Orange (band)
Agent Orange is an American punk rock band formed in Orange County, California in 1979. The band is one of the first to mix punk rock with surf music. They first gained attention with their song "Bloodstains" which they released on their own 7" E.P. An early demo of the song was presented to...
and Social Distortion
Social Distortion
Social Distortion is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California. The band currently consists of Mike Ness , Jonny Wickersham , Brent Harding and David Hidalgo, Jr...
and D.I.
D.I.
D.I. is a Southern California punk band featuring ex-Adolescents and Social Distortion drummer Casey Royer on vocals. Royer formed the group after he and former Social Distortion original member Rikk Agnew , left the original Mike Ness crew.Since forming in 1982, D.I. has had many line-up changes...
formed. Social Distortion would later incorporate blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and early rock influences into their sound and become one of America's premier roots rock bands. Farther south, Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...
was also an influential center of hardcore, and is known as the origin of slam dancing. Huntington bands like Vicious Circle, True Sounds of Liberty
TSOL
TSOL is an American punk rock band which formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California. TSOL is short for True Sounds of Liberty although they are rarely referred to by their full name....
, The Screws and The Crowd
The Crowd
The Crowd is a 1928 American silent film directed by King Vidor. It is notable for its dramatization of the concerns and dangers of urbanization and modernity....
had a reputation for being aggressive and sometimes violent, while Uniform Choice
Uniform Choice
Uniform Choice is an Orange County, California hardcore punk band.-History:Uniform Choice was started by guitarist Myke Bates, bassist Hanson Meyer and drummer Eric Hanna during the Spring of 1982. Bates had been playing with a couple of bands previously in Palm Springs...
, and Doggy Style somewhat later bands, became known as the prominent straight edge
Straight edge
Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...
bands from the West Coast. Another Orange County band of note is The U.S. Bombs
U.S. Bombs
U.S. Bombs are an American punk rock band, formed in 1993 in Orange County, CA. U.S. Bombs consist of vocalist Duane Peters, guitarists Kerry Martinez and Jonny "Two Bags" Wickersham, bass guitarist Wade Walston and drummer Chip Hanna. Vocalist Duane Peters is a legendary professional...
fronted by Duane Peters
Duane Peters
Duane Peters , nicknamed "The Master of Disaster", is a punk rock singer/songwriter and professional skateboarder. Active since 1977, he is probably best known as the singer in the California punk rock band U.S...
. True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL) was perhaps the most infamous for violence, and for an abrupt and unpopular change towards proto-Gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
and, much later, Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
-style heavy metal as the scene developed; future underground stars The Vandals
The Vandals
The Vandals are an American rock band established in 1980 in Huntington Beach, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour...
evolved from TSOL's eventual breakdown. Other Orange County bands included Stick To Your Guns
Stick to Your Guns
Stick to Your Guns is an American hardcore band from Orange County, California, formed in 2003. They are currently signed to Sumerian records, and have released three full-length albums to date. "The Hope Division" was released June 1, 2010 through Sumerian Records.-Biography:Stick to Your Guns is...
, White Mice
White Mice
"White Mice" was a special edition of the BBC sit-com, Only Fools and Horses, broadcast on 24 December 1985.-Synopsis:The show centres around a spoof investigation of Del Boy by the BBC Breakfast show, Breakfast Time, over allegations that he sold white mice to a customer with the promise that they...
, The Offspring
The Offspring
The Offspring is an American punk rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1984. Known as Manic Subsidal until 1986, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dexter Holland, lead guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, bassist Greg K. and drummer Pete Parada...
, Big Drill Car
Big Drill Car
Big Drill Car was a pop punk/melodic hardcore group from Huntington Beach, California, who were active from the late 1980s to mid-1990s and briefly again in the mid-2000s...
, Guttermouth
Guttermouth
Guttermouth is an American punk rock band formed in 1988 in Huntington Beach, California and currently recording for Hopeless Records. They have released nine full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour...
, SPLNTR, Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is a U.S. crossover thrash band founded in 1981 in Venice, Los Angeles, California by Mike Muir, its leader and only permanent member. The band is sometimes credited as one of "the fathers of crossover thrash"...
(who were from Venice but were associated with Orange County hardcore), China White
China White (band)
China White is a punk rock band from Huntington Beach, California, famous for their EP Dangerzone and their violent gigs. They were, along with TSOL, the most preeminent figures of Orange County punk.-Biography:...
, Shattered Faith
Shattered Faith (band)
Shattered Faith is a punk rock band from Southern California.Formed in 1978 by Kerry Martinez, currently guitarist for U.S. Bombs, and Spencer Barsch, now lead vocalist for Firecracker 500, the group featured songs with a political and biblical bent, although whether or not they could be classified...
, Masque of Demise, Social Task, The Screwz and Channel 3
Channel 3 (band)
Channel 3, also known as CH3, is a punk rock band from Cerritos, California. Part of the Southern California punk scene of the early 1980s, the band had a sound that was more melodic than many of their hardcore contemporaries, and lyrics which ranged from thoughtful and satirical to bratty and...
. The Dils
The Dils
The Dils were an American punk rock band of the late 1970s, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman...
were originally from Orange County but later relocated to San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
.
San Diego
The Neutrons gained limited success, eventually changing their name to Battalion of SaintsBattalion of Saints
Battalion of Saints is a hardcore punk rock band from San Diego, California that was founded in 1980. They went through numerous lineups until breaking up in 1985. Singer George Anthony reformed the band in 1995 with Terry "Tezz" Roberts Battalion of Saints is a hardcore punk rock band from San...
. The Donkey Show was a ska band that saw some notoriety during the late 80s, helping to establish the genre known as 3rd wave ska. The late 80s gave rise to San Diego's first straight-edge band "Amenity" out of Chula Vista. Members Mike Down, Tim Gonzales, Barry Kellman, and Sergio Hernandez would have started a scene which shared the likes with Orange County bands "Chain of Strength" and "Inside Out" feat. Zach de la Rocha. Amenity later formed "House of Suffering" (w/ song "Draw the Line" covered by San Diego locals POD). House of Suffering featured Katon de Pena (front man for "Hirax") who sang for the group in early 90s. Sergio of Amenity later formed "the B-Side Players" who still perform today. Amenity reunited in 2008 to play for book "Radio Silence" and went to record "Shine" ep and video. Amenity influenced bands in the mid-90s Unbroken that became a very influential hardcore band in not just San Diego, but California in general. Highly influential Post-Hardcore luminaries, Drive Like Jehu (and the subsequent band, Hot Snakes) hail from San Diego as well. Sharing members with Drive Like Jehu, Rocket from the Crypt, gained notoriety in the 90s. In the pop-punk scene of the '90s, Blink 182, from Poway, rose to stardom. From the reggae scene came Slightly Stoopid
Slightly Stoopid
Slightly Stoopid is an American band based in Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, who describe their music as "a fusion of acoustic rock and blues with reggae, hip-hop, and punk". As a band, they have released eight albums with their sixth studio album, entitled Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat...
. More recently, bands like The Locust
The Locust
The Locust is a musical group from San Diego, California, United States known for their unique mix of grindcore speed and aggression, mathcore complexity, and new wave weirdness.- Style :...
and Cattle Decapitation
Cattle Decapitation
Cattle Decapitation is an American deathgrind band from San Diego, California, formed in 1996.-History:Originally founded in 1996, Cattle Decapitation's songs protest the mistreatment and consumption of animals as well as the abuse of the environment. Lyrics may also focus on subjects such as...
, all of which feature members prominent in the hardcore community in San Diego, have become increasingly popular on a worldwide basis. Additionally, Rob Crow of Pinback, Goblin Cock, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, guest vocals for Team Sleep, as well as a myriad of other projects has grown to much popularity in the last few years.
San Fernando Valley
Also of note is the band Bad ReligionBad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
, who hailed from the western San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
and were only marginally associated with hardcore punk rock from the South Bay area. The punk scene in the eastern San Fernando Valley
was closely tied in with that of nearby Hollywood and produced bands such as The Dickies
The Dickies
The Dickies are an American punk rock group formed in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, U.S. in 1977.-History:The Dickies were among the first punk rock bands to emerge from Los Angeles...
, Fear
Fear (band)
Fear is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1977. The band is credited for helping to shape the sound and style of American hardcore punk, the group started out as part of the early California punk rock scene, and gained national prominence after an infamous 1981...
, and The Angry Samoans.The band Iconoclast, Public Nuisance, and some members of Circle One also hailed from this area. Public Nuisance were affiliated with a gang of punk rockers known as the Circle One Family. Numerous punks shows in the 1980s, including shows by Circle Jerks
Circle Jerks
The Circle Jerks are an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. It was formed by Black Flag's original singer, Keith Morris, and future Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson. They were among the preeminent hardcore punk bands of the L.A. scene in the late 1970s.The band...
and Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
, took place in a warehouse on the old site of Devonshire Downs in Northridge. In more recent years, the post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
-inspired band, She Wants Revenge
She Wants Revenge
She Wants Revenge is an American musical duo, based in San Fernando Valley, California. The group's debut album She Wants Revenge was released in early 2006, with three singles to follow...
has been based in the San Fernando Valley. The late 90s brought about label Ibex Records where there was a punk revival with the two bands Nonetheless and Soapbox Revolt who frequently played in Reseda at the American Legion Hall.
San Francisco
Outside of New York, London, and Cleveland, San FranciscoSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
probably had the earliest punk scene, at least as far back as 1976. The scene was aided by San Francisco's infamous laid back attitude towards alternative lifestyles, and the legendary record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label originally based in San Francisco, California and was established in 1979. It was originally used as the label name by the Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single "California Über Alles", and after realizing the potential for an independent...
. Crime
Crime (band)
Crime was an early American punk band from San Francisco. The band was formed in 1976 by Johnny Strike , Frankie Fix , Ron "The Ripper" Greco , and Ricky Tractor...
and The Nuns
The Nuns
The Nuns were a punk rock/new wave band in San Francisco in the late 1970s. The band has periodically reformed and played to the present day. The band formed in 1975, and were the among the first punk bands in California. In January 1978, together with The Avengers they opened for the Sex Pistols...
were first, followed by Chrome
Chrome (band)
Chrome was an experimental rock group founded in San Francisco, California in 1976.Chrome took part of their inspiration for their rough and sometimes chaotic music from proto punk pioneers like The Stooges. The sound of the group was often coarse and featured heavy elements of feedback and...
, The Mutants
The Mutants (San Francisco)
The Mutants are an important band in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics...
, VKTMS, The Contractions
The Contractions
The Contractions is an early-Eighties all-female punk power trio based in San Francisco. The band consists of Mary Kelley on guitar and vocals, Debbie Hopkins on drums and vocals, and Kathy Peck on bass and vocals....
, Angst
Angst (U.S. band)
Angst was an American punk rock band from San Francisco, California. In mid-1978, brothers Joseph Pope and Jon E. Risk formed their first punk rock group, the Instants, in Boulder, Colorado. The band gigged in the Denver/Boulder area before moving to England in late 1979 where they lasted only a...
, The Sleepers
The Sleepers (Band)
The Sleepers are an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois.-Biography:Was a San Francisco punk band from 1977-1982.A separate band formed in 2002, where they performed their first concert at Brixie's Tap in Brookfield, Illinois...
, Pop-O-Pies
Pop-o-pies
The Pop-O-Pies are a punk band from San Francisco founded by Joe Pop-O-Pie that got their start by repeatedly playing a cover of The Grateful Dead's "Truckin' ". Though the band went through many line up changes, notably featuring members of Faith No More and Mr...
, Sick Pleasure (aka Code of Honor), Crucifix
Crucifix (band)
Crucifix was an American hardcore punk band from Berkeley, California, active from 1980 to 1984. They were among the most popular acts of the San Francisco hardcore scene of the early 1980s...
, Negative Trend
Negative Trend
Negative Trend was an early San Francisco punk rock band, active from 1977–1979.The former members of Negative Trend would go on to start a number of other notable western US punk bands...
, The Avengers (band)
The Avengers (band)
The Avengers are an American punk rock band formed in 1977 in San Francisco, California. Penelope Houston, who has also been a folk musician, is their singer.-Original history:...
, SSI, Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
and Pink Section. The most influential San Francisco hardcore band was the Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
, whose frontman, Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...
, became a noted social activist even after the band's last show at the On Broadway, which included The Black Athletes and Naked Lady Wrestlers on the card. Many hardcore bands moved to San Francisco, including legends MDC
MDC (band)
MDC is an American hardcore punk band formed in Austin, Texas in 1979. The band were subsequently based in San Francisco, California, and are currently based in Portland, Oregon. MDC originally formed as The Stains before changing their name...
, as well as D.R.I.
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles is a thrash metal/crossover thrash band from the United States that formed in Houston, in 1982. The band currently comprises founding members, vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as drummer Rob Rampy and bassist Harald Oimoen.D.R.I...
, Tales of Terror (band)
Tales of Terror (band)
Tales of Terror was a Sacramento punk rock band which was active from 1982 until 1986. The band released a self-titled LP in 1984 on the label CD Presents. The LP is rare, and no CD version has been released. Tales of Terror played sleazy, sloppy, raucous California punk in the vein of the Stooges...
(from Sacramento, CA. who made Kurt Cobain's Top 50 list of favorite Bands and essential listening , The Dicks
The Dicks
The Dicks are an American punk rock band from Austin, Texas, originally formed in 1980. They initially disbanded in 1986 before reforming in 2004...
and Rhythm Pigs
Rhythm Pigs
This article is about the Texan punk rock band, for the Californian Rock band see Top Jimmy & The Rhythm PigsThe Rhythm Pigs were a punk band, originally from El Paso, Texas, later relocated to San Francisco. Their first two albums were among the first to be released by the influential independent...
Fat Wreck Chords
Fat Wreck Chords
Fat Wreck Chords is a San Francisco, California based independent record label, focused on punk rock. It was started by Fat Mike and his ex-wife, Erin, in 1990....
(all from Texas).
Berkeley
Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
experienced a hardcore boom led by Fang
Fang (band)
Fang is a punk rock band that originated in 1980. Fang was originally part of the punk rock scene in Berkeley, California in the 1980s. The band broke up in 1989 when key member Sam McBride was sent to prison for killing his girlfriend, Dixie Lee Carney...
. Berkeley also saw hardcore fusing with heavy metal to form thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
and bands like Possessed
Possessed (band)
Possessed is an American death metal band, originally formed in 1983. Noted for their fast style of playing and Jeff Becerra's guttural vocals, they are routinely called the first band in the death metal genre...
, Faith No More
Faith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Michael Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike...
, Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, and Exodus
Exodus (band)
Exodus is an American thrash metal band formed in 1980 in Richmond, California. Spanning a career of over 30 years, Exodus has gone through numerous lineup changes, two extended hiatuses, and the deaths of two former band members. Guitarist Gary Holt remains the only constant member of the band,...
.
Also in the mid-late '80s hardcore, pop punk, and ska punk bands gained a following with bands such as Operation Ivy (band)
Operation Ivy (band)
Operation Ivy was an American ska punk band that formed in Berkeley, California, and was often credited with spurring the 1990s punk revival in California. It is well-known as one of the first bands to "mix" hardcore punk with elements of ska, known as ska-core...
, Crimpshrine
Crimpshrine
Crimpshrine was an American punk rock band from Berkeley, California. The group was formed in 1982 by Aaron Cometbus, founder of the seminal punk rock zine Cometbus, and a friend, Jeff Ott. Within D.I.Y...
, The Mr. T Experience
The Mr. T Experience
The Mr. T Experience is an American punk rock band formed in 1985 in Berkeley, California and currently recording for Lookout! Records. They have released ten full-length albums along with numerous EPs and singles and have toured internationally...
, The Lookouts
The Lookouts
The Lookouts were an American punk rock band that existed from 1985 to 1990 on Iron Peak, a remote rural mountain community outside of Laytonville, CA. The members were Lawrence Livermore on guitar and vocals, Kain Kong on bass and vocals and Tre Cool on drums and vocals. All three have...
, Isocracy (band)
Isocracy (band)
Isocracy was an American punk rock band from the Berkeley, California-area, formed in 1986. The band was one of the key bands in the MRR/Gilman Street project. John Kiffmeyer , who later went on to form Green Day, was the drummer for the band...
, Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
, Blatz
Blatz (band)
Blatz was a punk band formed in 1989 in Berkeley, California. Blatz came out of the 924 Gilman Street Project scene during the late '80s, and early '90s along with bands like Operation Ivy, Filth, and Green Day.-History:...
, and Plaid Retina
Plaid Retina
Plaid Retina was an American punk rock band from Visalia, California, formed in 1986 and active until 1996.-The Beginning:The history of Plaid Retina begins in [984, in Visalia, a small city in California Central Valley, when drummer Don Hudgens joined metal band Oblivion, a high school band...
. These bands played at the infamous Gilman Street Project and released records on Lookout! Records
Lookout! Records
-History:Larry Livermore and David Hayes formed the label in 1987. From the start, Lookout released punk rock records, but over time expanded its scope to include various types of pop rock, reggae fusion, acoustic rock, pop punk, and indie rock...
.
San Jose
San JoseSan Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
's most famous hardcore band was Whipping Boy
Whipping Boy (American band)
Whipping Boy was an American hardcore punk, psychedelic, and experimental-metal band from Palo Alto, California. The band was created in 1982, made up of four students from Stanford University: Eugene Robinson, Steve Ballinger, Sam Smoot, and David Owens. Their sound featured lightning-fast...
, who played with local bands like Tongue Avulsion and The Faction. Also where the famed punk band Rancid
Rancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
started out.
Alternative rock
Wall of VoodooWall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo was an American New Wave group from Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit "Mexican Radio". The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone.-Formation:...
multiple-drum-machine and Farfisa organ laden recordings with wild guitars and clever and desert wise road lyrics out of central Hollywood Boulevard and Selma Avenue wild life started the Newave trend in Southern California late 70s early 80s.
At the same time that Gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
began in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, a parallel death rock scene evolved in Los Angeles out of the punk scene, with bands like 45 Grave
45 Grave
45 Grave are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California formed in 1979. The original group broke up in 1985 but vocalist Dinah Cancer subsequently revived the band. 45 Grave are noted as one of the first bands to mix punk rock with horror-themed lyrics, thereby positioning them as...
and Christian Death
Christian Death
Christian Death is an American deathrock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1979. The band was founded and fronted by Rozz Williams. Christian Death is most notable for their first album Only Theatre of Pain....
.
Inspired by bands like The Gun Club and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
transplants
The Cramps
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
, cowpunk
Cowpunk
Cowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock and New Wave that began in the UK and California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or New Wave with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style...
bands such as Tex & the Horseheads
Tex & the Horseheads
Tex & the Horseheads is an American punk rock band, which emerged in the Los Angeles punk subculture of the early-1980s. Their original run was from 1980 to 1986, and during this time they enjoyed a sizeable cult following...
, Blood on the Saddle
Blood on the Saddle
Blood on the Saddle was a cowpunk band from Los Angeles formed in 1981. They released three albums before splitting up in 1987, with the band's only constant member Greg Davis forming a new line-up in the 1990s, releasing a final album in 1995.-History:...
, and The Lazy Cowgirls arose from Los Angeles in the 1980s.
The Paisley Underground
Paisley Underground
Paisley Underground is an early genre of alternative rock, based primarily in Los Angeles, California, which was at its most popular in the mid-1980s.- History :...
scene would arise out of Los Angeles in the mid-1980s around Redd Kross, The Three O'Clock
The Three O'Clock
The Three O'Clock were a United States alternative rock group associated with the Los Angeles 1980s Paisley Underground scene. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio is credited with coining the term "Paisley Underground" to describe a subset of the 1980s L.A...
(originally The Salvation Army), The Bangles
The Bangles
The Bangles are an American all-female band that originated in the early 1980s, scoring several hit singles during the decade.-Formation and early years :...
, The Dream Syndicate and others. In a completely different vein, the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
also first came to national attention about the same time with their mix of punk, funk, rock, and theatricality, although they would not become a huge-selling act until the end of the decade.
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
spawned Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven is an American alternative rock group formed in Redlands, California in 1983.An eclectic band, Camper Van Beethoven mixes elements of pop, ska, punk rock, folk and alternative country, as well as various types of world music. Their aggressive musical pluralism created a...
in the mid-1980s.
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
would arise out of Venice in the late 1980s.
During the grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
era of the early 1990s, Los Angeles became less important nationally as a source of alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, and bands like The Nymphs
The Nymphs
The Nymphs were an alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s with lead singer Inger Lorre. The band was signed to Geffen Records, and released their only album in 1991. The Nymphs were known for their wild stage shows and their rebellious attitude towards record companies...
, The Hangmen
The Hangmen
The Hangmen are a punk rockabilly band from the North East of England. The Hangmen play punk/rockabilly music under the generic term of ‘Psychobilly’...
and The Miracle Workers
The Miracle Workers
The Miracle Workers were a rock and roll band in the 1980s, who began as a garage rock revival band in Portland, Oregon.-Background:The Miracle Workers were formed in January 1982 by Gerry Mohr , and Joel Barnett . The original guitarist and drummer, who were friends of Gerry's, but weren't...
never got the attention they might have if from Seattle. Internationally popular bands from Southern California during this time were Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
(Los Angeles) and Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots is an American rock band from San Diego, California that consists of Scott Weiland , brothers Robert DeLeo and Dean DeLeo , and Eric Kretz ....
(San Diego).
Bands such as Incubus and Hoobastank were also popular in California in the 90s.
30 Seconds To Mars
30 Seconds to Mars
30 Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1998. Since 2007, the band has consisted of actor Jared Leto , Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličević...
is a popular alternative rock band, originating from Los Angeles, California.
Thrash metal
The Bay Area thrashThrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
scene was centered around Los Angeles and San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s. Bands associated with this scene include Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Megadeth
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...
, Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
, Exodus
Exodus (band)
Exodus is an American thrash metal band formed in 1980 in Richmond, California. Spanning a career of over 30 years, Exodus has gone through numerous lineup changes, two extended hiatuses, and the deaths of two former band members. Guitarist Gary Holt remains the only constant member of the band,...
, Vio-lence
Vio-lence
Vio-lence was a thrash metal band formed in 1985 in the San Francisco Bay Area. They released demo tapes, one EP and 3 LPs between 1985 and 1993. Their most stable line-up was Phil Demmel and Robb Flynn on guitars, Deen Dell on bass, Perry Strickland on drums and Sean Killian on vocals.- 1985 -...
, Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is a U.S. crossover thrash band founded in 1981 in Venice, Los Angeles, California by Mike Muir, its leader and only permanent member. The band is sometimes credited as one of "the fathers of crossover thrash"...
, Dark Angel
Dark Angel (band)
Dark Angel was an American thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California. Their over-the-top style earned them the nickname "the L.A...
, Death Angel
Death Angel
Death Angel is a Filipino-American thrash metal band from Concord, California, initially active from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2001. Death Angel has released six studio albums, two demo tapes, one box set and two live albums....
, D.R.I.
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles is a thrash metal/crossover thrash band from the United States that formed in Houston, in 1982. The band currently comprises founding members, vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as drummer Rob Rampy and bassist Harald Oimoen.D.R.I...
, Testament
Testament (band)
Testament is an American metal band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1983. They are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
, Forbidden
Forbidden (band)
Forbidden is a thrash metal band from the San Francisco Bay Area. Formed in 1985 as Forbidden Evil, the group was founded by Russ Anderson and Craig Locicero, who are both permanent members. Since their formation, Forbidden have broken up and reformed twice with numerous line-up changes...
, Defiance
Defiance (band)
Defiance is a thrash metal band from Oakland, California. While virtually unknown to mainstream metal and rock circles, Defiance is known as one of the classic second-tier thrash bands to come from the Bay Area thrash metal scene...
, Evildead
Evildead
Evildead is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1987. The band was originally composed of members of two former bands, Agent Steel and Abattoir, including guitarist Juan Garcia, who is their only permanent member member...
, Holy Terror.
Hip hop
Also during the 1980s, hip hop musicHip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
flourished in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and surrounding areas, especially Watts
Watts, Los Angeles, California
Watts is a mostly residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California.-History:The area now known as Watts is located on the Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant...
and Compton
Compton, California
Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city to incorporate. The city is considered part of the South side by residents of Los...
. Derived from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, hip hop drew upon primarily Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n and East Coast influences, though early 1970s black nationalist poets The Watts Prophets
The Watts Prophets
The Watts Prophets are a group of musicians and poets from Watts, Los Angeles, California. Like their contemporaries, The Last Poets, the group combined elements of jazz music and spoken word performance, making the trio one that is often seen as a forerunner of contemporary hip hop music...
were also notable.
The earliest forms of Los Angeles hip hop were hardcore hip hop
Hardcore hip hop
Hardcore hip hop, also referred to as hardcore rap, is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed through the East Coast hip hop scene in the 1980s. Pioneered by such artists as Schoolly D, Spoonie Gee, Boogie Down Productions, and Kool G Rap, it is generally characterized by anger, aggression and...
artists like Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
(whose mid-80s "6 'N Da Mornin'" is arguably the first West Coast gangsta rap track) and a kind of dance music called electro hop. Among the most popular electro hop groups was the World Class Wrecking Cru, which included future star Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
, DJ Yela, and others. In 1988, Dr. Dre, along with Eazy-E
Eazy-E
Eric Lynn Wright , better known by his stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper who performed solo and in the hip hop group N.W.A. Wright was born to Richard and Kathie Wright in Compton, California...
and Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, released Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton
The lyrics on the album were mainly written by Ice Cube and MC Ren. Critics of the album expressed their view that the record glamorized Black-on-Black crime, but the emcees stated that the group was simply showing the reality of living in the areas of Compton, California, and South Central Los...
under the name N.W.A.
N.W.A.
N.W.A was an American hip hop group from Compton, California, widely considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap sub-genre....
The album took many hip hop fans by surprise, as it single-handedly placed West Coast hip hop
West Coast hip hop
West Coast hip hop is a hip hop music subgenre that encompasses any artists or music that originates in the westernmost region of the United States, as opposed to East Coast hip hop, based originally in New York alone...
on the map and quickly moved gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
into the mainstream. The main gangsta rap and west coast hip hop cities were San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
, Pittsburg, California
Pittsburg, California
Pittsburg is a city located in eastern Contra Costa County, California, the outer portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 63,264 at the 2010 census....
Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
, Richmond, California
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
, East Palo Alto, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Compton
Compton, California
Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city to incorporate. The city is considered part of the South side by residents of Los...
, and Inglewood
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
Hip hop
Called "The Golden Age of Rap," the 1990s saw the rise of such legendary rappers as Dr. DreDr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
, Eazy-E
Eazy-E
Eric Lynn Wright , better known by his stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper who performed solo and in the hip hop group N.W.A. Wright was born to Richard and Kathie Wright in Compton, California...
, 2Pac, and, Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, as well as the group Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide...
. Cube released a total of six albums throughout the course of the 90s: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990), Kill at Will
Kill at Will
-Partial list of samples:"Endangered Species "*"The Payback" by James Brown*"Funky Drummer" by James Brown*"Standin' on the Verge of Gettin' It On" by Funkadelic*"Bop Gun " by Parliament...
(1990), Death Certificate
Death Certificate (album)
Death Certificate is the second studio album by American rapper Ice Cube, released October 29, 1991 on Priority Records. Highly anticipated with over one million advanced orders, the album was certified platinum in sales on December 20, 1991...
(1991), The Predator
The Predator
The Predator is the third studio album by Ice Cube. Released within months of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, many songs comment on the racial tensions. The title is in part reference to the movie Predator 2, and the album itself includes samples from the film...
(1992), Lethal Injection (1993), and War & Peace Vol. 1 (The War Disc) (1998). The first five albums all went platinum, and the last one, War & Peace, went gold. Cube became an icon for West Coast hip hop
West Coast hip hop
West Coast hip hop is a hip hop music subgenre that encompasses any artists or music that originates in the westernmost region of the United States, as opposed to East Coast hip hop, based originally in New York alone...
for his songs about social and political issues. In 1992, Dr. Dre's solo debut, The Chronic
The Chronic
The Chronic is the solo debut album of American hip hop artist Dr. Dre, released December 15, 1992, on his own record label Death Row Records, and distributed by Priority Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1992 at Death Row Studios in Los Angeles and at Bernie Grundman...
, made West Coast hip hop and Death Row Records
Death Row Records
Death Row Records is a record label founded in 1991 by Marion "Suge" Knight Jr., Andre Young , Tracy Lynn Curry and Michael Harris . It is known to have been home to many popular West Coast hip hop artists such as Dr...
the dominant sound in hip hop, drawing primarily upon George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
's P-Funk
P-Funk
P-Funk is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed...
for samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and the general, slow, lazy funk. Death Row Records soon acquired Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
, Warren G
Warren G
Warren G , is an American West Coast rapper and hip hop producer. He is also Dr. Dre's half-brother.His biggest hit is the song "Regulate" with Nate Dogg released in 1994...
and Snoop Doggy Dogg as a feud developed between the East and West Coasts. In the mid-90s, Shakur and his rival Notorious B.I.G. were both shot and killed. Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight
Suge Knight
Marion "Suge" Knight, Jr. is the founder and CEO of Black Kapital Records and co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. Death Row Records rose to dominate the rap charts after Dr. Dre's breakthrough album The Chronic in 1992. After several years of chart successes for artists including...
was imprisoned, and most of the label's acts tried to leave. The lack of leadership helped put New York, Atlanta and New Orleans on the top of the hip hop charts, leaving local would-be legends and underground MC's (emcees) to work under self-financed productions. Jeremiah St.Clair, MC Overflo, and few others can still be found making platinum quality singles, and battling newer school street corner rappers, almost like a petition or social demonstration on preserving hip hop etiquette. Many consider lesser known rappers like Jeremiah St. Clair (originating from the early 90s) as the last real hip hop mc's.
In the 1990s, underground hip hop flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. Early pioneers included Too $hort and E-40
E-40
Earl Stevens , better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and investor from Vallejo, California. He is also part of the rap group The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. His solo debut album, Federal, was released in November 1992, after The Click's debut...
; their success helped pave the way for new performers like RBL Posse
RBL Posse
RBL Posse was a 1990s gangsta rap group from Hunters Point in San Francisco, California.-History:Formed in 1991 by Black C and Mr. Cee . Their first release, the self-produced "Don't Give Me No Bammer" came out on In-a-Minute Records and made the Billboard magazine Hot Rap Singles chart, peaking...
, whose 1992 "Don't Gimme No Bammer" achieved some crossover success. The Bay Area's thriving underground rap scene has produced literally hundreds of artists, some of the better known being Andre Nickatina, The Coup
The Coup
The Coup is a political hip hop group based in Oakland, California. It formed as a three-member group in 1992 with emcees Raymond "Boots" Riley and E-Roc along with DJ Pam the Funkstress. E-Roc left on amicable terms after the group's second album but appears on the track "Breathing Apparatus" on...
, Michael Franti
Michael Franti
Michael Franti is an American poet, musician, and composer. He is the creator and lead vocalist of Michael Franti & Spearhead, a band that blends hip hop with a variety of other styles including funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Blackalicious
Blackalicious
Blackalicious is an American hip hop duo from Sacramento, California made up of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel . They are noted for Gift of Gab's often "tongue-twisting", multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's "classic" beats...
, Ya Boy
Ya Boy
William Joseph Crawford , better known by his stage name Ya Boy, is an American rapper from the Fillmore District, San Francisco. He is a younger cousin of San Francisco rapper San Quinn and also the cousin of Bills WR Steve Johnson. Crawford graduated from El Camino High School in South San...
, San Quinn
San Quinn
Quincy Brooks IV better known by his stage name San Quinn, is an American rapper from San Francisco, California.-Career:Born in Oakland, California, Quincy moved to the Fillmore district of San Francisco at the age of three...
, and Emcee Lynx
Emcee Lynx
Lynx, or Emcee Lynx is an anarchist hip hop artist in Vallejo, California who has achieved significant popularity and name-recognition in the West Coast hip hop and underground hip hop scenes and among anarchists and other radicals around the world...
. The Bay Area is also home to the relatively new "Hyphy
Hyphy
The word hyphy is Conor Devlin's preferred short word meaning "hyperactive." It was created by Bay Area rapper Keak Da Sneak when he used the term on an album he recorded in 1994. From the USA Today article: "Every record label was getting at us at that time, but we fumbled the ball," says E-40,...
" sub-genre. Mac Dre
Mac Dre
Andre Hicks , better known by his stage name Mac Dre, was an American rapper.-Biography:Andre Hicks was born in Oakland, California but moved to Vallejo while still a child...
was one of the notable innovators. San Francisco was very impressive in rap/hip hop. It boasted west coast legends Rappin' 4-Tay
Rappin' 4-Tay
Anthony Forté , better known by his stage name Rappin' 4-Tay, is an American rapper from the Fillmore District of San Francisco, California.-Music career:...
, RBL Posse
RBL Posse
RBL Posse was a 1990s gangsta rap group from Hunters Point in San Francisco, California.-History:Formed in 1991 by Black C and Mr. Cee . Their first release, the self-produced "Don't Give Me No Bammer" came out on In-a-Minute Records and made the Billboard magazine Hot Rap Singles chart, peaking...
, Andre Nickatina
Andre Nickatina
Andre L. Adams , better known by his stage name Andre Nickatina, is an American rapper from San Francisco, California. He previously performed under the stage name Dre Dog.-Musical career:...
, JT The Bigga Figga
JT the Bigga Figga
JT the Bigga Figga born Joseph Tom is a hip hop producer/rapper from San Francisco, California's Fillmore neighborhood. The popularity of his self-released Playaz n' the Game led to his signing with Priority Records in 1995....
, Cougnut
Cougnut
-Biography:Cougnut, real name Ronald Fields was a rap artist from Lakeview, San Francisco.As frontman of rap group Ill Mannered Playas , and later as solo artist he was known for his real street credibility. His best known release is I.M.P...
, and more. San Francisco was one of the homes of the late global rapping legend Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
. The inner-city of San Francisco's neighborhoods' crime inspired the rap scene of San Francisco.
Indie rock
The early 1990s saw the emergence of PavementPavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
, an influential indie rock band from Stockton
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
. In the mid-1990s, Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
came out of the Silver Lake
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California
Silver Lake is a hilly neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California east of Hollywood and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Silver Lake is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but it is best known as an eclectic gathering of hipsters and the creative class.The...
(a neighborhood in Los Angeles) indie rock scene. Los Angeles has also produced the folky singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Ross Altman.
The 2000s have seen the emergence of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, now based in Los Angeles. BRMC is known for their garage rock, blues, folk revival, neo-psychedelia sound. They are influenced by bands such as: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Verve, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, T...
, Or, The Whale
Or, The Whale
Or, The Whale is a San Francisco based Americana band, formed in 2006. The group has released two albums, Light Poles and Pines in 2007 and Or, The Whale in 2009...
, The Aislers Set
The Aislers Set
The Aislers Set is an indie pop band that formed in San Francisco in 1997 after the breakup of chief songwriter Amy Linton’s former band Henry's Dress...
, The Botticellis
The Botticellis
The Botticellis are an American surf pop band founded in 2003 in Santa Cruz by Alexi Glickman, Zack Ehrlich, Burton Li, and Dave Tranchina. Their 2008 debut record was released by Antenna Farm Records in 2008 to critical acclaim...
and Scissors for Lefty
Scissors for lefty
Scissors for Lefty are an indie rock band, based in San Francisco. They released their debut album, Bruno, in 2005 on Rough Trade Records .-Biography:...
, Deerhoof
Deerhoof
Deerhoof is a musical group consisting of Satomi Matsuzaki, John Dieterich, Ed Rodriguez and Greg Saunier.-Origins:In 1992, Greg Saunier, having recently graduated with a degree in music composition from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, joined a short-lived San Francisco quartet called Nitre Pit, on...
, The Dodos
The Dodos
The Dodos are an American indie rock band consisting of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber.- History :The Dodos began playing music together in 2005, when musician Meric Long, who had been gigging steadily in San Francisco as a solo singer-songwriter, was introduced to Logan Kroeber through a mutual...
, and The Union Trade
The Union Trade
The Union Trade is an American Indie rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 2006. An early and leading member of the Bay Area post-rock scene, The Union Trade is also the founding band of San Francisco independent music label, Tricycle Records...
from San Francisco and The Quarter After, Scarling.
Scarling.
Scarling. is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, whose core members are Jessicka and Christian Hejnal-Addams. The band formed in 2002. They have released two albums, Sweet Heart Dealer and So Long, Scarecrow.-Name:...
, Autolux
Autolux
Autolux is an avant-garde rock group consisting of Eugene Goreshter , Greg Edwards and Carla Azar...
, Giant Drag
Giant Drag
Giant Drag is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formerly a duo, the band was founded in 2003 by Annie Hardy who continues to be the band's sole singer and songwriter....
, Brian Jonestown Massacre, HEALTH
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, Fool's Gold No Age
No Age
No Age is a two-person American indie rock group consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles and is currently signed to Sub Pop records...
, Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda is an American movie and television actor. Vigoda is well known for his portrayal of Sal Tessio in The Godfather, and for his portrayal of Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on the sitcom television series Barney Miller from 1975–1977 and on its spinoff show Fish that aired from February 1977 to...
and the Warlocks
The Warlocks
The Warlocks are an American rock band based out of Los Angeles. Their music has been defined as neo-psychedelia, but much of it spans multiple genres.-Music:...
from Los Angeles. Though originally from Portland, much of Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
's music is about and was created in Los Angeles.
Groups from San Diego include The Album Leaf
The Album Leaf
The Album Leaf is an American solo musical project founded in San Diego, California in 1998 by Jimmy LaValle. He is known for his use of electronics, synthesizer and Rhodes piano...
, Three Mile Pilot
Three Mile Pilot
Three Mile Pilot is an indie rock band from San Diego, California formed by Armistead Burwell Smith IV on bass and vocals, Pall Jenkins Three Mile Pilot (often shortened to 3MP) is an indie rock band from San Diego, California formed by Armistead Burwell Smith IV (a.k.a. Zach Smith from Pinback,...
, Pinback
Pinback
Pinback is an indie rock band from San Diego, California, currently signed to Temporary Residence Ltd. The band was formed in 1998 by singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. Tom Zinser, Chris Prescott, and Mario Rubalcaba have all contributed drums...
, Thingy
Thingy (band)
Thingy was an indie rock band formed after the dissolution of Heavy Vegetable in 1995 by Heavy Vegetable veterans Rob Crow and Eléa Tenuta.Crow, Tenuta, and bassist Jason Soares released a seven-song EP, 'Staring Contest', in 1996 on the old Heavy Vegetable label Headhunter/Cargo.They were joined...
, The Soft Pack
The Soft Pack
The Soft Pack is an indie rock band from San Diego.- History :The band was originally named The Muslims, but changed the name due to "ignorant and racist" comments. Matt Lamkin has stated Soft Pack can describe the band as being well mannered or it can refer to a device that when worn is intended...
, The Black Heart Procession
The Black Heart Procession
The Black Heart Procession is an indie rock band from San Diego, California. The band was formed in 1997 by Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel...
.
Hardcore
During the 1990s, San Diego saw the emergence of HeroinHeroin (band)
Heroin was a short-lived but influential underground post-hardcore band, originating in San Diego in 1989.-History:Heroin was a forerunner of the screamo subgenre of hardcore punk. They were noted for the psychological intensity of their songs, which tended to be very short and include...
, Antioch Arrow
Antioch Arrow
Antioch Arrow, from San Diego, California, was on the seminal post-hardcore label Gravity Records, responsible for putting San Diego on the map in the mid-90's as one of the centers of the movement....
, and other innovative hardcore bands. Many released albums on the Gravity Records
Gravity Records (US)
Gravity Records is an underground independent record label from San Diego. It was formed in 1991 by Matt Anderson, a member of the influential underground band Heroin. It has been central in developing and promoting the "San Diego sound" - an idiosyncratic form of post-hardcore with loose, chaotic...
label.
Southern California saw the rise of Christian hardcore
Christian hardcore
Christian hardcore refers to metalcore and hardcore punk bands that promote Christian beliefs. How these bands promote Christianity, and to what extent, varies between bands...
, specifically Spirit-filled hardcore(SFHXC)
Christian hardcore
Christian hardcore refers to metalcore and hardcore punk bands that promote Christian beliefs. How these bands promote Christianity, and to what extent, varies between bands...
during the mid-90s with the likes of The Blamed, Bloodshed, Focused, No Innocent Victim
No Innocent Victim
No Innocent Victim, or N.I.V., is a christian hardcore punk band on Facedown Records. The band was created in 1992 in San Diego, California. They produced two successful albums on the market, and then toured with Agnostic Front. In 1998 they signed to Victory Records and recorded Flesh and Blood...
, and Unashamed
Unashamed
Unashamed was a Christian hardcore punk band that became one of the founding bands in the Spirit-filled hardcore movement. Their bold faith based lyrics center around ideas directly lifted from the Bible and conservative morality instead of the usual punk themes of teen angst, anger, and pain...
. This led to drummer Jason Dunn of No Innocent Victim
No Innocent Victim
No Innocent Victim, or N.I.V., is a christian hardcore punk band on Facedown Records. The band was created in 1992 in San Diego, California. They produced two successful albums on the market, and then toured with Agnostic Front. In 1998 they signed to Victory Records and recorded Flesh and Blood...
starting Facedown Records
Facedown Records
Facedown Records is a Christian record label based in Fallbrook, California, devoted mostly to hardcore punk and metalcore bands . Founded by No Innocent Victim drummer Jason Dunn, the label started off small with a number of 7" record releases by bands such as Overcome, Dodgin Bullets, and Born...
.
As metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
became the popular subgenre of hardcore in the late 1990s to early 2000s, bands such as As I Lay Dying
As I Lay Dying (band)
As I Lay Dying is an American metalcore band from San Diego, California. Founded in 2000 by Tim Lambesis and having completed their first Line-up in 2001, the band consists of vocalist Tim Lambesis, drummer Jordan Mancino, lead guitarist Nick Hipa, rhythm guitarist Phil Sgrosso, and bassist Josh...
, Atreyu
Atreyu (band)
Atreyu is an American rock band from Orange County, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of vocalist/lyricist Alex Varkatzas, guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, bassist Marc McKnight and drummer/vocalist Brandon Saller...
, Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through is an American metalcore band from Orange County, California. Formed in 1999, the band blends influences stemming from modern hardcore punk, symphonic black metal, and melodic death metal...
, Eighteen Visions
Eighteen Visions
Eighteen Visions was an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, United States. Formed in October of 1995, the group was one of the first practitioners involved in the metalcore genre...
and Throwdown made their mark in Southern California.
Nu Metal
Nu Metal was a musical genre that has origins in the mid 1990s. It typically fuses influences from the grunge and alternative metal of the 1990s with funk music, hip-hop, and various heavy metal genres, most often thrash metal and groove metal. It started with bands like KoЯn.Music festivals and organizations
California hosts many well-known music festivals in a wide variety of fields, including the Stern Grove FestivalStern Grove Festival
Established in 1938, the Stern Grove Festival is an admission-free series of performing arts events held during the summer months at the Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove, a eucalyptus-wooded natural amphitheater on a site at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, about two miles south of Golden Gate Park...
, the Hootenanny at Irvine Park, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
, Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival
Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival
The Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival is an annual showcase and competition for a cappella groups of all vocal styles. The competition is organized into eight regional events across the United States, with each winning group advancing to the National Finals in San Rafael, California.-Festival...
, High Sierra Music Festival
High Sierra Music Festival
High Sierra Music Festival is a multi-day music festival held in Quincy, California, a mountainous area about 80 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada.The festival is held each year the weekend of July 4...
, and Facedown Fest
Facedown Records
Facedown Records is a Christian record label based in Fallbrook, California, devoted mostly to hardcore punk and metalcore bands . Founded by No Innocent Victim drummer Jason Dunn, the label started off small with a number of 7" record releases by bands such as Overcome, Dodgin Bullets, and Born...
. The Monterey Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
, held in 1967, is perhaps the most famous concert in California's history; the show launched the international careers of performers like Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
.
Music organizations in the state include the Community Arts Music Association
Community Arts Music Association
Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara is the oldest arts organization in Santa Barbara, California, USA.CAMA began in the fall of 1919 when a group of community-minded Santa Barbarans came together in the years following World War I to create the Civic Music Committee...
. There is also an organization that gives out California Music Awards.
Classical music in California
California has a number of established orchestras, including the San Francisco SymphonySan Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
(1911), Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (1919), San Diego Symphony
San Diego Symphony
The San Diego Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in San Diego, California. On 6 December 1910, it gave its first concert as the San Diego Civic Orchestra.Currently, the Symphony performs over 100 concerts each season...
(1910), Fremont Symphony Orchestra
Fremont Symphony Orchestra
The Fremont Symphony Orchestra was established in Fremont, California as a community orchestra in 1964 and was called the Fremont-Newark Philharmonic Society.-History:...
, Oakland East Bay Symphony
Oakland East Bay Symphony
The Oakland East Bay Symphony is a leading orchestra based in Oakland, California. The current music director and conductor is Michael Morgan, who has held the position since September 1990. The Paramount Theatre has been the home of the Symphony since the 1995. Bryan Nies has been Assistant...
(formed in 1988 by combining two older organizations), Coachella Valley Symphony, Orchestra Nova San Diego (1983) (formerly the San Diego Chamber Orchestra), Peninsula Symphony Orchestra
Peninsula Symphony
The Peninsula Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in the San Francisco Peninsula, California. The orchestra consists of over 90 community musicians. In 1995, the Peninsula Symphony was featured in a PBS broadcast....
(1949), and the Fresno Philharmonic Association (1954).
20th century avant garde composer John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
was born in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Other notable composers from California include David Cope
David Cope
David Cope is an American author, composer, scientist, and professor emeritus of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz...
, Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...
, Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
and Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
.
External links
- California Music Awards (formerly the Bammies)
- collection of 19th century Californian sheet music
- California Worldfest (an annual gathering of world musicWorld musicWorld music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
ians) - WPA recordings of 1930s folk music from California
- The California Traditional Music Society
- California Association for Music Education
- timeline of psychedelic rock in San Francisco
- collection of California sheet music
- Art California Web Portal
- California Music Venues
- S.F. Punk & New Wave Photos
- San Jaoquin Valley Bands and Concerts