Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with pianos and keyboards.

Hard rock developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, AC/DC and Van Halen. During the 1980s, some hard rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock, while others began to return to a hard rock sound. Established bands made a comeback in the mid-1980s and it reached a commercial peak in the 1980s, with glam metal bands like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard and the rawer sounds of Guns N' Roses, which followed up with great success in the later part of that decade. Hard rock began losing popularity with the commercial success of grunge and later Britpop in the 1990s.

Despite this, many post-grunge bands adopted a hard rock sound and in the 2000s there came a renewed interest in established bands, attempts at a revival, and new hard rock bands that emerged from the garage rock and post-punk revival scenes. In the 2000s, only a few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers.

Hard Rock Hallelujah

"Hard Rock Hallelujah" is a song by the Finnish hard rock band Lordi. "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was released as a single in 2006, reaching the #1 spot in Finland and also peaking in the UK Top 40 at #25.

Lordi performed "Hard Rock Hallelujah" in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest and won the contest with 292 points. It was voted as the most popular Finnish Eurovision entry in the forty years the country has participated. It held the record for most points until it was beaten by "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak of Norway with 387 points three years later. On 26 May 2006, the Finns broke a world record for karaoke songs, when about 80,000 people sang Hard Rock Hallelujah on Helsinki's Market Square.

Track listings

Finnish edition:

GSA edition:

GSA Special limited DualDisc edition:

Rock

Rock commonly refers to:

Rock or Rocks may also refer to:

Places

United Kingdom

United States

Multiple countries

Elsewhere

Hard

Hard or hardness may refer to:

Entertainment

See also

Calling Festival

Calling Festival (formerly Hyde Park Calling and Hard Rock Calling) is an annual music festival, formerly held in Hyde Park, London, from 2006 until 2012, and from 2013 in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The music played is primarily rock music, and various performers, including The Killers, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Who, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters (with Nick Mason), The Police, Aerosmith, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen have played at the event. The festival was organised by Hard Rock Cafe and Live Nation. In September 2013, Hard Rock International announced that they would no longer be sponsoring the festival, however Livenation confirmed that the event would return in 2014 under the name of Calling Festival at the Clapham Common.

Hyde Park Calling 2006

The inaugural festival had two stages, and was headlined by Roger Waters (performing in its entirety the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon as part of his set) and his band (featuring Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason) on the Saturday and The Who on the Sunday. Gates opened at 14:00 and the show ended at 22:15 on both evenings.The Who's Sunday headline performance was released as part of their Encore Series 2006 of CDs & DVDs.