The biggest hard rock bands of the 1970's. Who were they?

But I wasn't asking about Bon Jovi.

 

Distorted rhythm guitar alone does not make it hard rock.

 

"A distorted/overdriven guitar tone does not indicate that the music is harder or heavier; it's the rhythm section that provides the hard and heavy feeling."

A distorted overdriven guitar tone can be a part of the rhythm section, last time I checked.

 

Each to their own. The rhythm section is only bass and drums to me.

 

Blue Cheer. Now there was a heavy, heavy band...

 

Definitely.

 

NOT hard nor heavy:



The defense rests.

 

Keith Richards used a distorted and overdriven guitar tone as part of his rhythm playing in the early 70s.

 

I saw ELP a couple of times in the 70's and they were spectacular each time. I never would classify them as a hard rock band though. They were flat-out, a progressive rock band. That's it. They certainly had moments of sheer brutality that showed up in their music...just as King Crimson did. Of course, back then there were no such genres as prog, and metal etc. All of these groups fell under one category....rock. They were all rock bands. There was no need for further classification. Everyone had all of these band's names expertly grafted onto their Pee-Chee notebooks.

 

This is a silly retort. You're picking an album that was released when they were well past their peak...the sound had completely changed. If you were to judge Led Zeppelin by 'In Through The Out Door', you wouldn't say that they were hard or heavy either.

Greg Lake would land on a bass note in a song as delicate as 'Take A Pebble' and you felt as though you were being assaulted in the chest..when they launched into Tarkus or Karn Evil 9, the heavy sound felt like it was pushing me back..I could 'feel' it.

 

Humble Pie was one of the biggest bands in the world?

 

This list sums it up nicely, I'd say

 

I assume by biggest we're talking bands capable of headlining arenas or stadiums at minimum and selling millions of records?

Led Zeppelin - #1 and it's not even close
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
The WHO
KISS
Aerosmith
Queen
Rush
ZZ Top
Ted Nugent
Styx
BOC
Heart
Boston
Foreigner

These bands fall within the definition of rock, hard rock probably not.

Pink Floyd
Yes
Jethro Tull
Supertramp
Eagles
Fleetwood Mac

 

Nice list. I would add Grand Funk, Alice Cooper, AC/DC and Van Halen (all huge hard rock bands), and remove Styx, Boston, Foreigner and Heart (all huge, but not hard rock bands).

 

Forgot about Alice duh!!!, was Grand Funk big in the US because I don't remember them being on the same level as the others? AC/DC didn't hit platinum until Highway to Hell in 1979 and I don't know if Van Halen was headlining arenas in 79 or not, I would consider them borderline for the 70's as it was so late in the decade before they broke, I always considered their superstar years as 1980--->>>.

 

They were. Van Halen World Vacation Tour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

 

Actually, Grand Funk was probably bigger than a lot of bands on that list. They had something like 9 straight Gold/Platinum albums. Absolutely huge up to and including '75, and then they faltered. But their biggest sales were limited to the US (although they had great chart success in Canada too). AC/DC may not have broken through in the States yet, but they were pretty popular in a lot of other countries already....AUS (obviously) France, England..all those early albums are fairly high charting records. I remember seeing them in '78 with Cheap Trick at Red Rocks in Colorado and the place was packed...and rocking! Did Uriah Heep get the boot too? They were pretty big in the early 70's.

 

Yeah they were huge... Sometimes people forget about them because they were a little bit earlier I think than some of the other bands we think of as "70's". But I was born in 1960 and in the Midwest when I was a kid they were a big deal. Massive.

 

They're not hard rock, they're metal. Just ask Metallica.

 

Ian Anderson's flute is forged from metal.