Hard Rock

Hard rock is a sub-genre of rock, developing in the late 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic. In America, it was popularised by bands like Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly, while in Britain it grew out of the late 60s Blues. Generally, it's rooted in Blues Rock and Psychedelic Rock. Its main definition is that it is considerably harder than conventional rock music. It is characterised by a heavy use of distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, pianos, and other keyboards, making it near-indistinguishable from some of the lighter Heavy Metal bands. Compare AC/DC with Led Zeppelin. Which is heavier?

That's the only definition you need, really. Hard rock doesn't have a scene, though it was most popular back in the seventies. Nowadays, hard rock is much rarer, having been effectively replaced officially by a few similar genres. Still, there are some bands, more "retro" in focus, who could still be classified as hard rock, such as Wolfmother and The Darkness.

Bands/artists typically classified as hard rock include:
 * ACDC
 * Aerosmith
 * Alice Cooper
 * Bad Company
 * Black Sabbath
 * Blue Cheer
 * Blue Oyster Cult
 * Bon Jovi
 * The Cult
 * Deep Purple
 * Def Leppard
 * Guns N' Roses
 * Hardline
 * Iron Butterfly
 * Jimi Hendrix
 * KISS
 * Led Zeppelin
 * Meat Loaf
 * Mountain
 * Nazareth
 * Ted Nugent
 * Queen
 * Scorpions
 * Billy Squier
 * Steppenwolf
 * Thin Lizzy
 * Uriah Heep
 * Van Halen
 * The Who