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Heavy Metal is a term used since the early 1970s to designate a genre of hard rock music. During the 1960s, British hard rock bands and the American guitarist Jimi Hendrix developed a more distorted guitar sound and heavier drums and bass that led to a separation of heavy metal from other blues-based rock. Albums by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in 1970 codified the new genre, which was marked by distorted guitar 'power chords', heavy riffs, wailing vocals and solos by guitarists and drummers. During the 1970s performers such as AC/DC, Judas Priest, Kiss and Alice Cooper toured incessantly with elaborate stage shows, building a fan base for an internationally-successful style. Popularity waned at the end of the decade, but the early 1980s brought the 'new wave' of British heavy metal to revive the genre just as Edward Van Halen's astonishing virtuosity was inspiring a new generation of guitarists.
The 1980s brought on the one hand a wave of gender-bending, spectacular 'glam' metal from bands such as Poison and Motley Crue, and, on the other hand, the widespread adaptation of chord progressions from 18th-century European models, especially Bach and Vivaldi, by influential guitarists such as Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen. Heavy metal was the most popular genre of rock music worldwide during this decade, even as harder underground styles developed in opposition to the pop-oriented metal of groups such as Bon Jovi. Metallica was the most influential band in thrash metal. In the 1990s, Metallica, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne and other veteran performers continued their success, but the term heavy metal was less often used to distinguish them from the rock mainstream. New groups such as Soundgarden, Korn and Rob Zombie continued the heavy metal tradition in some ways, but were not particularly concerned with claiming the genre label, which had lost much of its prestige.
At the height of its popularity in the 1980s, heavy metal often served as a scapegoat for social problems, through poorly-informed allegations of misogyny, Satanism, and musical impoverishment. Its lyrics addressed a wide array of issues and its music was diverse. Lyrics and images often evoked horror and mysticism - just as many previous artists have in other styles -- as a way of
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