Music of California: Encyclopedia II - Music of California - 1970s and 80s

Music of California - 1970s and 80s

The early part of this era was dominated by country rock acts such as The Eagles and Poco, and singer-songwriters such as Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell. There were also funk acts that were prominent such as War from the South Central (now South) district of Los Angeles, and Sly and the Family Stone and Tower of Power from Oakland. Santana blended rock, jazz, funk and Latin music. This period also saw a number of difficult to classify acts arising who did not sell many records, but proved to be very influential on things to come, such as Kim Fowley and Captain Beefheart, both of whom had been active in the 1960s but reached their artistic peaks during this era, and Sparks, all from Los Angeles. Fowley would go on to manage and produce the all-female proto-punk group, The Runaways.

The Tubes, who mixed progressive rock with wild theatricality, were virtually the only act from San Francisco which would gain any sort of fame in the mid-1970s.

Music of California - Hair metal

Main article: Hair metal

Hair metal arose along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in the 1970s with bands like Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe, and later Poison and quickly became known for anthemic hard rock and power ballads, as well as band members' distinctively feminine make-up, hair, and clothing in spite of the scene's macho posturing. This scene would die out in the 1990s due to grunge and Britpop.

Music of California - Punk rock

Main article: Punk rock

Los Angeles' original late 70s punk scene received less press attention than their counterparts in New York or London, but it included cult bands The Screamers, The Germs, The Weirdos, The Dils, The Bags and X.

Main article: Hardcore punk

In the South Bay, American hardcore punk was born with bands like Black Flag and the Minutemen, who formed in the mid- to late 1970s. San Pedro, Hermosa Beach, Wilmington, Manhattan Beach and Hawthorne spawned more locally famous acts like Red Cross, who would later incorporate garage rock, power pop and glam influences into their sound and change their name to Redd Kross, The Last, Circle Jerks, The Skrews, Saint Vitus, The Descendents, and Saccharine Trust. The famous movie about the hardcore scene, The Decline of Western Civilization, was shot in this area, largely in an abandoned church in Hermosa called the Creative Craft Center.

Youth Brigade of Los Angeles were a group from LA who eventually became known for founding the Better Youth Organization (BYO), which advanced the hardcore scene and humanist ideals. Other Los Angeles-area hardcore and punk groups included Wasted Youth, UXA, Dr. Know (featuring former child star Brandon Cruz), Legal Weapon and The Mentors (originally from Seattle), along with future underground stars NOFX.

In Orange County, the band Middle Class, from Santa Ana, was probably the most influential; their "Out of Vogue" is sometimes considered the first hardcore recording. The original hardcore bands in Orange County came from the Fullerton area, where The Adolescents, Agent Orange and Social Distortion formed. Social Distortion would later incorporate blues, country and early rock influences into their sound and become one of America's premier roots rock bands. Farther north, Huntington Beach was also an influential center of hardcore, and is known as the origin of slamdancing. Huntington bands like Vicious Circle, True Sounds of Liberty and The Crowd had a reputation for being aggressive and sometimes violent, while Uniform Choice, a somewhat later band, became known as one of the few prominent straight edge band from the West Coast. True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL) was perhaps the most infamous for violence, and for an abrupt and unpopular change towards proto-Gothic rock and, much later, Aerosmith-style heavy metal as the scene developed; future underground stars The Vandals evolved from TSOL's eventual breakdown. Other Orange County bands included Suicidal Tendencies, (who were from Venice but were associated with Orange County hardcore), China White, Shattered Faith, and Channel 3. The Dils were originally from Orange County but later relocated to San Francisco.

Main article: San Francisco hardcore

Outside of New York, London, and Cleveland, San Francisco probably had the earliest punk scene, at least as far back as 1976. The scene was aided by San Francisco's legendary laidback attitude towards alternative lifestyles, and the legendary record label Alternative Tentacles. Crime and The Nuns were first, followed by Chrome, The Mutants, VKTMS, The Contractions, Angst, The Sleepers, Pop-O-Pies, Sick Pleasure (aka Code of Honor), Crucifix, The Offs, Negative Trend, The Avengers (band), SSI, Flipper and Pink Section. The most influential San Francisco hardcore band was the Dead Kennedys, whose frontman, Jello Biafra, became a noted social activist even after the band's dissolution (Biafra is also noted at the inventor of stagediving). Many hardcore bands moved to San Francisco, including legends MDC, as well as Verbal Abuse, DRI, The Dicks and Rhythm Pigs (all from Texas).

San Diego's hardcore scene was never highly evolved, though The Neutrons gained limited success, eventually changing their name to Battalion of Saints.

Also of note is the band Bad Religion, who hailed from the western San Fernando Valley and were only marginally associated with hardcore punk rock from the South Bay area. The punk scene in the eastern San Fernando Valley was closely tied in with that of nearby Hollywood and produced bands such as The Dickies, Fear, and The Angry Samoans.The band Iconoclast, Public Nuisance, and some members of Circle One also hailed from this area. Public Nuisance were affiliated with a gang of punk rockers known as the Circle One Family.

Berkeley, California experienced a hardcore boom led by Fang. Berkeley also saw hardcore fusing with heavy metal to form thrash metal and bands like Slayer, Possessed, Faith No More, Metallica, and Exodus.

Berkeley would later become a magnet for pop-punk bands like Green Day.

San Jose's most famous hardcore band was Whipping Boy, who played with local bands like Tongue Avulsion and The Faction.

Main article: Skacore

In the 1980s, skacore bands like Operation Ivy - two of whose members formed Rancid in the 1990s - became popular, primarily in southern California and in the Long Beach area. During the middle of the next decade, descendants like Sublime, Rancid, and Sugar Ray became mainstream sensations.

Music of California - Alternative rock

Main article: Alternative rock

At the same time that Gothic rock began in the United Kingdom, a parallel death rock scene evolved in Los Angeles out of the punk scene, with bands like 45 Grave and Christian Death.

Inspired by bands like The Gun Club and Ohio transplants The Cramps, cowpunk bands such as Tex & the Horseheads, Blood On The Saddle, and The Lazy Cowgirls arose from Los Angeles in the 1980s.

The Paisley Underground scene would arise out of Los Angeles in the mid-1980s around Redd Kross, The Three O'Clock (originally The Salvation Army), The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and others. In a completely different vein, the Red Hot Chili Peppers also first came to national attention about the same time with their mix of punk, funk, rock, and theatricality, although they would not become a huge-selling act until the end of the decade.

Santa Cruz spawned Camper Van Beethoven in the mid-1980s.

Jane's Addiction would arise out of Venice in the late 1980s.

During the grunge era of the early 1990s, Los Angeles became less important nationally as a source of alternative rock, and bands like The Nymphs, The Hangmen and The Miracle Workers never got the attention they might have if from Seattle. The only internationally popular bands that came out of Los Angeles during this time were Hole and Stone Temple Pilots.

Music of California - Thrash metal

Main article: Thrash metal

The Bay Area thrash scene was centered around San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s. Bands associated with this scene include Metallica, Exodus, Vio-lence, Death Angel, D.R.I., Testament, Forbidden, Defiance.

Music of California - Hip hop

Main article: Hip hop music

Also during the 1980s, hip hop music flourished in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, especially Watts and Compton. Derived from New York City, hip hop drew upon primarily Jamaican and East Coast influences, though early 1970s black nationalist poets The Watts Prophets were also notable.

The earliest forms of Los Angeles hip hop were hardcore hip hop artists like Ice-T (whose mid-80s "6 'N Da Mornin'" is arguably the first West Coast gangsta rap track) and a kind of dance music called electro hop. Among the most popular electro hop groups was the World Class Wrecking Cru, which included future star Dr. Dre, among others. In 1989, Dr. Dre, along with Eazy-E and Ice Cube, released Straight Outta Compton under the name N.W.A. The album took many hip hop fans by surprise, as it single-handedly placed West Coast hip hop on the map and quickly moved gangsta rap into the mainstream.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1970s and 80s", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki