What one band is most responsible for the genre of heavy metal?

IMO, there are many songs that have a couple of traits that would be incorporated into heavy metal. Kinks, Blue Cheer, LZ and on and on. However, I think the answer as to what band was the biggest influence and which incorporated the most musical traits that would be used in what would later be called heavy metal, is a simple answer. Without question, it is Black Sabbath.

 

One: Black Sabbath

But the four cornerstones are:

Black Sabbath
Led Zeppelin
Deep Purple
KISS

 

If you have to pick one band and one band only, it has to be Black Sabbath. Obviously there are antecedents and later bands of immense influence, but Sabbath is at the heart of it all.

 

Wow! It even had a guitar solo.

 

....the infamous "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal" and KISS. Well, from the makeup/costumes perspective, you may have a point there.

 

Sorry, just had to throw that one in.

My real vote is for Deep Purple.

 

Black Sabbath
Led Zeppelin
Grand Funk Railroad

 

Way too many artists point to KISS as the starting point for them...so they deserve to be included.

 

I'm not sure how I've lived my whole life without ever hearing of Blue Cheer. +1 to everyone who mentioned them. Listening on Tidal now.

 

Which was the original question wasn't it? Which "One band is most responsible"?

And of course the answer is BON JOVI. At least that's what VH1 taught me

 

I don't know... YRGM has always sounded pretty light to me...

 

Judging by your reply, it`s pretty obvious that you are judging "You Really Got Me" with a 2017 ear. In 1964 standards, the song would certainly have been deemed as loud.

Here is a Wikipedia link to the song. See paragraph 2 : You Really Got Me - Wikipedia

If you do not want to read it, here below is the salient sentence from the article, addressing its influence on heavy metal :

"You Really Got Me" was built around power chords ( perfect fifths and octaves ) and heavily influenced later rock musicians, particularly in the genres of heavy
metal and punk rock".

This is an excerpt from a book written about The Kinks by Nick Hasted.

Need more ? Here is another article from another industry rock website :

How the Kinks Changed Rock Music With One Riff on 'You Really Got Me'

And as an aside and off the top of my head, Cream and Blue Cheer were much louder. They each released albums that predated the "White Album".

 

Black Sabbath was not a universally loved band when they first came out, and the association with the term heavy metal did not overcome that. I can't help thinking for many heavy metal was something less than a totally approving term.

 

It's fair to say You Really Got Me, also All Day and All of the Night, were early precursors of heavy metal.

But were they heavy metal? Not really. More garage band sounding. In fact these songs also had elements that went into punk later.

 

I understand what you are saying, but only up to a point. I don't think ANYBODY at the time was doing something like Doctor Please.

 

No, they weren't.

Neither were Led Zeppelin, who were constantly lambasted.

IMO, in both cases, it was pathetic, poorly informed writing and based on personal judgments by people without the slightest clue about musical possibilities in rock. And I think that's why both bands stopped even doing press for the most part.

My point was that Black Sabbath were not labeled as "heavy metal" to differentiate what they were doing from Led Zeppelin. TBH, I doubt most critics who were criticizing the heavy rock wave coming from Britain in the late 60s/early 70's would have even heard much difference.

Besides, one of the first to use the term "heavy metal" as applied to Sabbath was critic Mike Saunders, who unlike some of his contemporaries at the time rated Sabbath as the greatest rock band in the world. I think I referenced one of his stories a page or two back.

 

I never made the inference that "You Really Got Me" was heavy metal nor that The Kinks were heavy metal. I don't get your counterpoint as it states the obvious. You need to scroll up higher to see the context of my conversation with Mychkine. And I would certainly agree with you that the sound of these two Kink's songs has a garage rock sound. Technically speaking, "You Really Got Me" was released before "All Day and All of the Night", hence my reference to the former alone.

 

Budgie and Steppenwolf

 

In the early to mid seventies I cannot remember any Record Shop that had a Heavy Metal section, plenty of Heavy Rock or Hard Rock sections but never Heavy Metal. Therefore Black Sabbath are not have not and never will be Heavy Metal, they are/were and always will be Heavy Rock in my book.

 

I think the day we start judging the musical significance of subgenres based on whether record stores had a section for it back in the day is the day we should all give up even discussing music.

I don't remember a "Free Jazz" section at record stores either, so I guess Ornette Coleman and Duke Ellington are the same.

 

uriah heep

 

Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Cream laid the groundwork.
Beatles' I Want You helped
Black Sabbath cemented it as a separate thing from heavy rock.

 

montrose

 

I was merely responding to the mention of the Kinks in this thread, which is about heavy metal.