Multitrack recording ( MTR ), also known as multitracking , is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive whole. Multitracking became possible in the mid-1950s when the idea of simultaneously recording different audio channels to separate discrete tracks on the same reel-to-reel tape was developed. A track was simply a different channel recorded to its own discrete area on the tape whereby their relative sequence of recorded events would be preserved, and playback would be simultaneous or synchronized .
199-443: The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach ( guitar , vocals ) and Patrick Carney ( drums ). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their records, before they eventually emerged as one of the most popular garage rock artists during a second wave of the genre's revival in
398-440: A demo . To record one, he asked for help from Carney, who agreed to provide recording equipment and allow his basement to be used if Auerbach recruited the other musicians. However, none of Auerbach's backing band showed up on the recording date. Instead, Carney and Auerbach jammed, eventually leading to the duo forming a band in mid-2001. Together, they recorded a six-song demo consisting of "old blues rip-offs and words made up on
597-1144: A softsynth or virtual instrument (e.g., VSTi ) which converts the data to audio sound. Multitrack software may also provide other features that qualify it being called a digital audio workstation (DAW). These features may include various displays including showing the score of the music, as well as editing capability. There is often overlap between many of the categories of musical software. In this case, scorewriters and full-featured multitrackers such as DAWs have similar features for playback but may have less similarity for editing and recording. Multitrack recording software varies widely in price and capability. Popular multitrack recording software programs include: Reason , Ableton Live , FL Studio , Adobe Audition , Pro Tools , Digital Performer , Cakewalk Sonar , Samplitude , Nuendo , Cubase and Logic . Lower-cost alternatives include Mixcraft , REAPER and n-Track Studio . Open-source and free software programs are also available for multitrack recording. These range from very basic programs such as Jokosher to Ardour and Audacity , which are capable of performing many functions of
796-407: A submix ) onto two (or one) tracks of a multitrack recorder, allowing additional sound (tracks) to be layered on the remaining tracks. During multitracking, multiple musical instruments (and vocals) can be recorded, either one at a time or simultaneously, onto individual tracks, so that the sounds thus recorded can be accessed, processed and manipulated individually to produce the desired results. In
995-742: A Duo or Group with Vocal (for "Tighten Up"), while Michael Carney , the band's creative director and Patrick's brother, won Best Recording Package for designing the album's artwork. The band's sudden success proved overwhelming, as they found themselves booking additional promotional commitments and facing demand for additional touring dates. In January 2011, the group canceled concerts in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, citing exhaustion, thus clearing out most of their touring schedule into April. Patrick Carney said, "We've been touring long enough to know when we're about to hit our breaking point." The desire to record another album soon after Brothers also led to
1194-447: A band may start with just the drums is because this allows the band to pick the song's key later on. The producer and the musicians can experiment with the song's key and arrangement against the basic rhythm track. Also, though the drums might eventually be mixed down to a couple of tracks, each individual drum and percussion instrument might be initially recorded to its own individual track. The drums and percussion combined can occupy
1393-446: A built-in feature of other audio equipment. Software for multitrack recording can record multiple tracks at once. It generally uses graphic notation for an interface and offers a number of views of the music. Most multitrackers also provide audio playback capability. Some multitrack software also provides MIDI playback functions not just for audio; during playback the MIDI data is sent to
1592-509: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1791-629: A co-writer, producer, and drummer on Hopeless Romantic , the first studio album by Michelle Branch in 14 years. After beginning a relationship while working on the album, the two were engaged in July 2017 and married in April 2019. On March 7, 2019, the Black Keys released the single " Lo/Hi ", their first new music released in five years. A week later, the band announced a North American tour co-headlining with Modest Mouse and openers *repeat repeat . On April 25,
1990-563: A collaborative album featuring the Black Keys and several hip hop artists, was released in 2009 on Black Friday . The project was supported and brought together by Damon Dash , who is a big fan of the band. The album features rappers Mos Def , Ludacris , RZA , Raekwon , Pharoahe Monch , Q-Tip , NOE , Jim Jones , Nicole Wray , M.O.P. , and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard . The album was recorded in Brooklyn , New York by co-producer, engineer and mixer Joel Hamilton at Studio G. Auerbach said on
2189-538: A computer and audio recording software. Multi-track recording devices vary in their specifications, such as the number of simultaneous tracks available for recording at any one time; in the case of tape-based systems this is limited by, among other factors, the physical size of the tape employed. With the introduction of SMPTE timecode in the early 1970s, engineers began to use computers to perfectly synchronize separate audio and video playback, or multiple audio tape machines. In this system, one track of each machine carried
SECTION 10
#17328442399012388-514: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
2587-477: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
2786-609: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
2985-725: A high-end laptop computer . Though magnetic tape has not been replaced as a recording medium, the advantages of non-linear editing (NLE) and recording have resulted in digital systems largely superseding tape. Even in the 2010s, with digital multitracking being the dominant technology, the original word track is still used by audio engineers. Multitracking can be achieved with analogue recording , tape-based equipment (from simple, late-1970s cassette-based four-track Portastudios, to eight-track cassette machines, to 2" reel-to-reel 24-track machines), digital equipment that relies on tape storage of recorded digital data (such as ADAT eight-track machines) and hard disk -based systems often employing
3184-612: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
3383-523: A keynote event. The documentary film This Is a Film About the Black Keys , directed by Jeff Dupre, debuted as part of the film festival. They also performed at SXSW on March 14 and 15. A North America arena tour titled the International Players Tour was announced in April 2024, but was suddenly canceled in May. The band would announce later the tour would be rescheduled for smaller venues. In June 2024
3582-415: A large number of tracks utilized in a recording. This is done so that each percussion instrument can be processed individually for maximum effect. Equalization (or EQ) is often used on individual drums, to bring out each one's characteristic sound. The last tracks recorded are often the vocals (though a temporary vocal track may be recorded early on either as a reference or to guide subsequent musicians; this
3781-420: A lot of planning ahead of time, a lot of gear to carry and set up, a lot of waiting, and then a lot of hectic activity over the next 40 minutes or so! There is little doubt that a pseudolive studio performance can enhance certain forms of music, particularly those with a lot of intensity in the live performance, but it still lacks the atmosphere of a real gig. You may record the moment with a portable setup during
3980-568: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
4179-572: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
SECTION 20
#17328442399014378-406: A mainstream recording technique. Since the early 1990s, many performers have recorded music using only a Mac or PC equipped with multitrack recording software as a tracking machine. The computer must have a sound card or other type of audio interface with one or more Analog-to-digital converters . Microphones are needed to record the sounds of vocalists or acoustic instruments. Depending on
4577-487: A major effect on recording quality. A single studio-quality microphone can cost $ 5,000 or more, while consumer-quality recording microphones can be bought for less than $ 50 each. Microphones also need some type of microphone preamplifier to prepare the signal for use by other equipment. These preamplifiers can also have a major effect on the sound and come in different price ranges, physical configurations, and capability levels. Microphone preamplifiers may be external units or
4776-485: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
4975-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
5174-737: A man dancing and lip-syncing. The song became the group's best-charting single in several countries, reaching number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 2 on the Australian Singles Chart , and number 33 on the Canadian Hot 100 . The song was certified nine-times platinum in Canada, triple platinum in Australia, platinum in New Zealand, and gold in Denmark. The band returned to Saturday Night Live as
5373-402: A mistake in it, and wanted to replace it, one could do so by re-recording only the guitar part (i.e., re-recording only the track on which the guitar was recorded), rather than re-recording the entire song. If all the voices and instruments in a recording are individually recorded on distinct tracks, then the artist is able to retain complete control over the final sculpting of the song, during
5572-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
5771-468: A more melancholy tone, largely in part due to Auerbach dealing with the divorce from his wife during the album sessions. The first single, " Fever " was released on March 24, while a second single, " Turn Blue ", followed on April 14. The album debuted at number one in the US and Australia, the band's first record to top the album charts in either country; 164,000 copies were sold in the US in its first week. The album
5970-481: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
6169-404: A music video. This coincided with the announcement of their eleventh album, Dropout Boogie , which was released on May 13, 2022. A second single, "It Ain't Over", was released on April 27, 2022. On August 11, 2023, the Black Keys released the song "No Lovin'", their contribution to the compilation album Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound) . On January 12, 2024,
The Black Keys - Misplaced Pages Continue
6368-460: A musical guest on December 3, 2011. El Camino was released three days later and received wide critical acclaim. In the US, it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and sold 206,000 copies in its first week, the highest single-week sales and (to that point) charting position the group had achieved in the country. Many publications, such as Rolling Stone and Time ranked El Camino among
6567-570: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
6766-411: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
6965-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
7164-484: A raw blues rock sound for the group; the covers included tracks originally by blues musicians Muddy Waters , Junior Kimbrough , and R. L. Burnside . Two tracks, covers of the traditional blues standard " Leavin' Trunk " and the Beatles ' song " She Said, She Said ", were released as a single on Isota Records. The track "I'll Be Your Man" would later be used as the theme song for the HBO series Hung . In order to help fund
7363-484: A record for Ike Turner and asked the Black Keys to write a few songs for the project. The collaboration ultimately fell through, and Turner later died in December 2007. The duo decided to turn the material they had written into their fifth studio album, Attack & Release , and they asked Danger Mouse to produce the record. The sessions saw the band transitioning away from their "homemade" ethos to record-making; not only
7562-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
7761-695: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
7960-407: A single track ('mixed down'), they were previously considered inseparable. More recent software allows sound source separation, whereby individual instruments, voices and effects can be upmixed — isolated from a single-track source — in high quality. This has permitted the production of stereophonic or surround sound mixes of recordings that were originally mastered and released in mono. The process
8159-478: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
The Black Keys - Misplaced Pages Continue
8358-404: A solo melody has its own microphone, the different microphones can record on multiple tracks simultaneously. After recording the orchestra, the record producer and conductor can adjust the balance and tone of the different instrument sections and solo instruments, because each section and solo instrument was recorded to its own track. With the rock or pop band example, after recording some parts of
8557-407: A song, an artist might listen to only the guitar part, by muting all the tracks except the one on which the guitar was recorded. If one then wanted to listen to the lead vocals in isolation, one would do so by muting all the tracks apart from the lead vocals track. If one wanted to listen to the entire song, one could do so by un-muting all the tracks. If one did not like the guitar part, or found
8756-632: A swimming accident while vacationing in Saint Barthélemy in January 2015. After concluding their tour with a performance at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in August 2015, the Black Keys began an extended hiatus. Shortly after they began their hiatus, the band were ranked No. 20 on Rolling Stone 's list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. During the band's hiatus, Auerbach and Carney were involved in several musical projects on their own. Auerbach formed
8955-517: A tour, Auerbach and Carney took jobs mowing lawns for a landlord. Despite modest sales for The Big Come Up , it gained a cult following and attracted attention from critics, eventually landing the group a record deal with Fat Possum Records . Within days of signing to Fat Possum, the Black Keys completed their second album, Thickfreakness . It was recorded in Carney's basement in a single 14-hour session in December 2002, an approach necessitated because
9154-460: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
9353-522: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
9552-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
9751-625: Is built into the computer motherboard . The most sophisticated audio interfaces are external units of professional studio quality which can cost thousands of dollars. Professional interfaces usually use one or more IEEE 1394 (commonly known as FireWire) connections. Other types of interfaces may use internal PCI cards, or external USB connections. Popular manufacturers of high-quality interfaces include Apogee Electronics , Avid Audio (formerly Digidesign), Echo Digital Audio, Focusrite , MOTU , RME Audio, M-Audio and PreSonus . Microphones are often designed for highly specific applications and have
9950-411: Is chosen as the recording method (as opposed to direct to stereo, for example), a different arrangement is used; all tracks are recorded simultaneously. Sound barriers are often placed between different groups within the orchestra, e.g. pianists, violinists, percussionists, etc. When barriers are used, these groups listen to each other via headphones . Multitrack live recording is a lot like gigging –
10149-536: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
SECTION 50
#173284423990110348-464: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
10547-600: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
10746-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
10945-409: Is satisfied with the recorded sound finished tracks can be mixed into a new stereo pair of tracks within the multitrack recording software. Finally, the final stereo recording can be written to a CD, which can be copied and distributed. In modern popular songs, drums , percussion instruments and electric bass are often among the first instruments to be recorded. These are the core instruments of
11144-500: Is sometimes called a guide vocal , ghost vocal or scratch vocal ). One reason for this is that singers will often temper their vocal expression in accordance with the accompaniment. Producers and songwriters can also use the guide/scratch vocal when they have not quite ironed out all the lyrics or for flexibility based on who sings the lead vocal (as The Alan Parsons Project 's Eric Woolfson often did). For classical and jazz recordings, particularly instrumentals where multitracking
11343-453: Is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in
11542-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
11741-400: Is the Band." Multitrack recording A multitrack recorder allows one or more sound sources to different tracks to be simultaneously recorded, which may subsequently be processed and mixed separately. Take, for example, a band with vocals, guitars, a keyboard, bass, and drums that are to be recorded. The singer's microphone, the output of the guitars and keys, and each individual drum in
11940-981: The Billboard 200 chart, leading to the first arena concert tour of the band's career, the El Camino Tour . The album and its hit single " Lonely Boy " won three Grammy Awards. In 2014, they released their eighth album, Turn Blue , their first number-one record in the US, Canada, and Australia. After completing the Turn Blue Tour in 2015, the duo took a hiatus for several years to work on side projects and produce other artists. They returned in 2019 with their ninth album, Let's Rock . They have since released three additional studio albums: Delta Kream (2021), consisting of hill country blues covers ; Dropout Boogie (2022); and Ohio Players (2024). Guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney first met when they were eight or nine years old while living in
12139-528: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
SECTION 60
#173284423990112338-441: The 2000s . The band's raw blues rock sound draws heavily from Auerbach's blues influences, including Junior Kimbrough , R.L. Burnside , Howlin' Wolf , and Robert Johnson . Friends since childhood, Auerbach and Carney founded the group after dropping out of college. After signing with indie label Alive , they released their debut album, The Big Come Up (2002), which earned them a new deal with Fat Possum Records . Over
12537-462: The 55th Annual Grammy Awards (2013), Dan Auerbach was nominated and won the award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical , for work including the band's El Camino . Rock music Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in
12736-519: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
12935-568: The Pretenders , also an Akron native and Firestone High School graduate, followed their set. In November, they toured through Europe together with Liam Finn . That month, the group released the concert video Live at the Crystal Ballroom , which was filmed on April 4, 2008, at the group's show at Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. The video was produced by Lance Bangs . Tensions grew within
13134-411: The blues to psychedelia to classic, good ol' fashioned rock 'n' roll , and so many of their most interesting tunes bring all those elements together". Current touring musicians Former touring musicians Timeline Studio albums Note: At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards (2011), Michael Carney was nominated and won the award for Best Recording Package , for Brothers . At
13333-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
13532-530: The lead vocals , while not being applied to other tracks where this effect would not be desirable (e.g., on the electric bass ). Multitrack recording was much more than a technical innovation; it also enabled record producers and artists to create new sounds that would be impossible to create outside of the studio, such as a lead singer adding many harmony vocals with their own voice to their own lead vocal part, an electric guitar player playing many harmony parts along with their own guitar solo , or even recording
13731-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
13930-444: The rhythm section . Musicians recording later tracks use the precise attack of the drum sounds as a rhythmic guide. In some styles, the drums may be recorded for a few bars and then looped. Click ( metronome ) tracks are also often used as the first sound to be recorded, especially when the drummer is not available for the initial recording, and/or the final mix will be synchronized with motion picture and/or video images. One reason that
14129-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
14328-648: The 1950s–1970s, including rock and roll , glam rock , rockabilly , surf rock , and soul . The band cited several retro acts as musical influences on the album, including the Clash , the Cramps , T. Rex , Ramones , the Beatles , the Sweet , the Cars , and Johnny Burnette . " Lonely Boy " was released in October as the album's lead single, accompanied by a popular one-shot music video of
14527-461: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
14726-408: The 2010 MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video . Brothers sold over 73,000 copies in the US in its first week and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, their best performance on the chart to that point. In total, the record sold 1.5 million copies worldwide, including 870,000 copies in the US, and it was certified double-platinum in Canada, platinum in the US, and gold in
14925-484: The 2010s, many rock and pop bands record each part of the song one after the other. First, the bass and drums are often recorded, followed by the chordal rhythm section instruments. Then the lead vocals and guitar solos are added. As a last step, the harmony vocals are added. On the other hand, orchestras are always recorded with all 70 to 100 instrumentalists playing their parts simultaneously. If each group of instrument has its own microphone, and each instrument with
15124-571: The 3M and Mitsubishi X-800 32-track machines, and Sony DASH PCM-3324 and later the PCM-3348 machines, which allowed greater flexibility with more available tracks for recording. As well, in order to mix using automation on the console, analogue recorders generally required adjacent tracks to the time code track to be kept blank to avoid the time code signal interfering with the audio signals, which limited available tracks to 22 or 23 track at most. Digital multitrack machines had time code inserted elsewhere on
15323-638: The Arcs in 2015, who released their debut album, Yours, Dreamily, that September. He also released his second solo album, Waiting on a Song , in 2017, and contributed to albums by artists such as the Pretenders , A$ AP Rocky and Jake Bugg . Meanwhile, Carney worked as a producer on albums by Tobias Jesso, Jr. and Karen Elson , and he composed the theme song to the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman with his late uncle Ralph Carney . In 2017, Carney served as
15522-472: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
15721-568: The Beatles' self-titled ninth album . The Beach Boys ' Pet Sounds also made innovative use of multitracking with eight-track machines of the day (circa 1965). Motown also began recording with eight-track machines in 1965, before moving to 16-track machines in mid-1969. Multitrack recording also allows any recording artist to record multiple takes of any given section of their performance, allowing them to refine their performance to virtual perfection by making additional takes of songs or instrumental tracks. A recording engineer can record only
15920-609: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
16119-672: The Black Keys drew comparisons to them—sometimes as a derivative act—since both groups had two-piece lineups, Midwest origins, bluesy sounds, and names with colors. In September, the Black Keys released a split-EP with the Six Parts Seven titled The Six Parts Seven/The Black Keys EP , featuring one song by the Six Parts Seven and three songs by the Black Keys. The Black Keys released an EP titled The Moan on January 19, 2004, featuring "Have Love Will Travel", an alternate version of "Heavy Soul", and two covers. The group found itself struggling to sell records or gain airplay of their songs on
16318-472: The Black Keys released "Eagle Birds", the second single from their ninth album, Let's Rock . "Lo/Hi" became the band's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. On May 16, the band released Let's Rock ' s third single, "Go". On April 13, 2021, the Black Keys announced an album comprising 11 covers of hill country blues songs titled Delta Kream , which
16517-596: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
16716-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
16915-578: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
17114-499: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
17313-464: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
17512-498: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
17711-499: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
17910-454: The One ", " Your Touch ", and " Just Got to Be ". In support of Magic Potion , the band embarked on its largest tour to that point, performing in large theaters and 1,000-seat venues. The Black Keys recorded covers of " The Wicked Messenger " for the soundtrack of the film I'm Not There and "If You Ever Slip" for The Hottest State soundtrack. In 2007, producer Danger Mouse began working on
18109-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
18308-573: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
18507-650: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
18706-465: The UK. The Black Keys were among several artist judges at the 9th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. The band continued to gain exposure through continued song licensing, so much so that they were Warner Bros. Records ' most-licensed band of the year. Rolling Stone placed Brothers at number two on its list of the best albums of 2010 and "Everlasting Light" at number 11 on
18905-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
19104-604: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
19303-513: The United States and opening concerts for Sleater-Kinney , Beck , and Dashboard Confessional . However, exhaustion had set in by the end of the year, forcing the band to cancel European tour dates. In August, the group made its national television debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals . As fellow garage band the White Stripes grew in popularity,
19502-541: The United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock
19701-722: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
19900-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
20099-573: The album with tours in North America, Europe, and Australia. In 2005, the band released their first live video album, Live , recorded at The Metro Theatre in Sydney, Australia on March 18, 2005. In July, they played at the Lollapalooza music festival. On May 2, 2006, the Black Keys released Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough , a 6-track album of cover versions of songs by Junior Kimbrough. It
20298-630: The album. It was recorded primarily at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, from July–August 2013, with additional recording at Key Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan , and Nashville's Easy Eye Sound in early 2014. The album was announced in March 2014 via Mike Tyson 's Twitter account, with a link to a cryptic teaser video on YouTube featuring a hypnotist, and was released on May 13, 2014. The record exhibits psychedelic rock and soul influences and features
20497-401: The artist could blend and alter all of the instrument and vocal sounds with complete freedom. Multitracking a song also leaves open the possibilities of remixes by the same or future artists, such as DJs . If the song was not available in a multitrack format recording, the job of the remixing artist was very difficult, or impossible, because, once the tracks had been re-recorded together onto
20696-457: The band in 2009. Prior to Carney's divorce from his wife Denise Grollmus, Auerbach found it increasingly difficult to communicate with the drummer due to his antipathy for Grollmus. Auerbach said, "I really hated her from the start and didn't want anything to do with her." In February, Auerbach released his debut solo album, Keep It Hid . Carney, who claimed Auerbach did not tell him about the side project, felt betrayed. Carney subsequently formed
20895-424: The band released the single "Beautiful People (Stay High)", taken from their twelfth studio album Ohio Players . The album was released on April 5, 2024, on streaming services, as well as vinyl, CD and cassette. The album was well received with one review saying the Black Keys have 'found that creative musical joy again' In March 2024, the band appeared at SXSW 2024 , participating in an onstage interview during
21094-436: The band spent 41 days at Easy Eye Sound Studio, which was opened in 2010 by Auerbach in the duo's new hometown of Nashville, Tennessee . For the album, Danger Mouse reprised his role as producer and also contributed as a co-writer on all 11 songs. After struggling to translate the slower songs from Brothers to a live setting, the band decided to write more uptempo tracks for El Camino . The record draws from popular genres from
21293-509: The band split from their managers Irving Azoff and Steve Moir. Media speculation questioned if the tour changes and management departure was due to poor ticket sales, which Carney eventually responded to on social media stating "We got fucked. I'll let you all know how so it doesn't happen to you. Stay tuned." In late 2024 the band released the singles "Mi Tormenta" featuring DannyLux and "Stay in Your Grave" featuring Alice Cooper in advance of
21492-648: The best albums of the year, despite its late release. The album was certified double-platinum in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand; platinum in the US, UK, and Ireland; and gold in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. In 2012, the group commenced the first headlining arena tour of its career, the El Camino Tour , playing dates in Europe and North America. After tickets went on sale, their show at Madison Square Garden sold out in 15 minutes. Just as it did on its previous tour,
21691-575: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
21890-460: The capabilities of the system, some instruments, such as a synthesizer or electric guitar , can also be sent to an interface directly using Line level or MIDI inputs. Direct inputs eliminate the need for microphones and can provide another range of sound control options. There are tremendous differences in computer audio interfaces. Such units vary widely in price, sound quality, and flexibility. The most basic interfaces use audio circuitry that
22089-456: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
22288-521: The companies to license its music were Sony , Nissan, and Victoria's Secret , which used "The Desperate Man" in a lingerie commercial featuring Heidi Klum . Despite having the resources of a major record label available to them, the group elected to return to recording in Carney's basement for its fourth studio album, Magic Potion . Released on September 12, 2006, the album was the group's first release on Nonesuch, as well as its first album to comprise all original songs. Three singles were issued: " You're
22487-724: The decision. Carney said, "We could have waited another year or so, and milked the Brothers album and kept touring, but we like bands, and our favourite bands growing up and even today, are bands that put out a lot of music and every album is different from the last." Brothers ' second single, " Howlin' for You ", was a successful follow-up, achieving a gold certification in the US. The music video, directed by Chris Marrs Piliero, parodied action movie trailers and starred Tricia Helfer , Diora Baird , Sean Patrick Flanery , Christian Serratos , Corbin Bernsen , Todd Bridges , and Shaun White . It
22686-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
22885-576: The deluxe "Trophy Edition" of Ohio Players. The band was announced for a show on the "2024 America Loves Crypto Tour" at the Akron Civic Center. The booking was criticized by lifestyle magazine GQ due to the tour's relationship to political action committees financing cryptocurrency friendly politicians in the 2024 US elections. The Black Keys have been described as blues rock , garage rock , punk blues , indie rock , lo-fi , and alternative rock . According to Paste , "they've bounced from
23084-443: The development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk
23283-481: The device will be used for each instrument, voice, or other input and can even blend one track with two instruments to vary the music and sound options available. At any given point on the tape, any of the tracks on the recording device can be recording or playing back using sel-sync or Selective Synchronous recording. This allows an artist to be able to record onto track 2 and, simultaneously, listen to track 1, 3 and 7, allowing them to sing or to play an accompaniment to
23482-508: The drums and replaying the track backwards for an unusual effect. In the 1980s and 1990s, computers provided means by which both sound recording and reproduction could be digitized , revolutionizing audio recording and distribution. In the 2000s, multitracking hardware and software for computers was of sufficient quality to be widely used for high-end audio recordings by both professional sound engineers and by bands recording without studios using widely available programs, which can be used on
23681-408: The duo completed Attack & Release (2008) in a professional studio and hired producer Danger Mouse , who subsequently became a frequent collaborator with the band. The group's commercial breakthrough came in 2010 with Brothers , which along with its popular single " Tighten Up ", won three Grammy Awards . Their 2011 follow-up El Camino received strong reviews and peaked at number two on
23880-451: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
24079-455: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
24278-457: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
24477-510: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
24676-512: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
24875-408: The festival, Carney and Auerbach spent their early tour days driving themselves from show to show in a 1994 Chrysler van they nicknamed the "Gray Ghost". Thickfreakness was released on April 8, 2003, and received positive reviews from critics. The record spawned three singles: " Set You Free ", " Hard Row ", and a cover of Richard Berry 's " Have Love, Will Travel ". The other cover from the album
25074-462: The first half of 2004, including Coachella and Bonnaroo . For their third album, Rubber Factory , the band was forced to find a new recording location, as the building that housed their basement studio was sold by its landlord. They created a makeshift studio in a former tire -manufacturing factory in Akron, and recorded from January to May 2004. The album was released on September 7, 2004, and became
25273-491: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
25472-451: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
25671-503: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
25870-511: The group added bassist Gus Seyffert and keyboardist/guitarist John Wood as touring musicians in order to perform songs as close to their studio arrangements as possible. The album's second single, " Gold on the Ceiling ", like its predecessor, went to number one on the Alternative Songs chart and was certified platinum in Australia and Canada. The group headlined several music festivals throughout
26069-479: The group spent its small advance payment from Fat Possum on rent. The group had recorded sessions with producer Jeff Saltzman in San Francisco but ultimately aborted them, as they were unhappy that the results sounded too much like "modern-rock radio". In March 2003, the group played at one of its first music festivals, South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, after driving for nearly 24 hours from Akron. Much as they did for
26268-481: The group's first record to chart on the US Billboard 200 , reaching number 143. Rubber Factory received critical acclaim and was named one of the year's best albums by Entertainment Weekly and The New Yorker . Two singles were released, " 10 A.M. Automatic " and the double A-side " 'Till I Get My Way/Girl Is on My Mind ". Comedian David Cross directed the music video for "10 A.M. Automatic". The duo promoted
26467-453: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
26666-710: The indie band Drummer , with whom he played bass guitar. The group released its debut album Feel Good Together on September 29, 2009. The Black Keys reconciled later in the year. On June 6, 2009, they performed along with the Roots , TV on the Radio , Public Enemy , Antibalas , and other acts at the 2nd Annual Roots Picnic on the Festival Pier in Philadelphia . They also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers. Blakroc ,
26865-460: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
27064-408: The kit can all be recorded separately using a multitrack recorder. This allows each track to be fine-tuned individually, such as increasing the voice or lowering the chimes, before combining them into the final product. Prior to the development of multitracking, the sound recording process required all of the singers, band instrumentalists, and/or orchestra accompanists to perform at the same time in
27263-511: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
27462-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
27661-453: The list of the year's best songs. Spin named the Black Keys the "Artist of the Year" for 2010. On January 8, 2011, the band appeared as the musical guest on American television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live . At the 53rd Grammy Awards , Brothers and its songs won awards in three of the five categories they were nominated in; the band received honors for Best Alternative Music Album (for Brothers ) and Best Rock Performance by
27860-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
28059-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
28258-669: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
28457-603: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
28656-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
28855-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
29054-580: The mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to
29253-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
29452-466: The mix-down (re-recording to two stereo tracks for mass distribution) phase. For example, if an artist wanted to apply one effects unit to a synthesizer part, a different effect to a guitar part, a chorused reverb effect to the lead vocals, and different effects to all the drums and percussion instruments, they could not do so if they had all been originally recorded together onto the same track. However, if they had been recorded onto separate tracks, then
29651-464: The most common being five tracks, with an additional low-frequency effects track, hence the 5.1 surround sound most commonly available on DVDs.) Most of the records, CDs and cassettes commercially available in a music store are recordings that were originally recorded on multiple tracks, and then mixed down to stereo. In some rare cases, as when an older song is technically updated , these stereo (or mono ) mixes can in turn be recorded (as if it were
29850-403: The most sophisticated programs. Instruments and voices are usually recorded as individual files on a computer hard drive. These function as tracks which can be added, removed or processed in many ways. Effects such as reverb , chorus , and delays can be applied by electronic devices or by computer software. Such effects are used to shape the sound as desired by the producer. When the producer
30049-461: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
30248-591: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
30447-463: The next decade, the Black Keys built an underground fanbase through extensive touring of small clubs, frequent album releases and music festival appearances, and broad licensing of their songs. Their third album, Rubber Factory (2004), received critical acclaim and boosted the band's profile, eventually leading to a record deal with major label Nonesuch Records in 2006. After self-producing and recording their first four records in makeshift studios,
30646-430: The official Blakroc site, "Pat and I have been preparing for this record since we were 16." Auerbach and Carney moved to Nashville in 2010, where they established a studio downtown. The group's sixth studio album, Brothers , was released on May 18, 2010. Recorded primarily at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio , the album was produced by the Black Keys and Mark Neill, and was mixed by Tchad Blake . The song " Tighten Up ",
30845-490: The only track from the album produced by Danger Mouse, preceded the album as the lead single. The song became their most successful single to that point, spending 10 weeks at number one on the Alternative Songs chart and becoming the group's first single on the Billboard Hot 100 , peaking at number 87. The song also reached gold certification status. The music video for "Tighten Up", directed by Chris Marrs Piliero , won
31044-412: The original tracks erased, making more room for more tracks to be reused for fresh recording. In 1963, the Beatles were using twin track for Please Please Me . The Beatles' producer George Martin used this technique extensively to achieve multiple-track results, while still being limited to using only multiple four-track machines, until an eight-track machine became available during the recording of
31243-547: The performance already recorded on these tracks. They might then record an alternate version on track 4 while listening to the other tracks. All the tracks can then be played back in perfect synchrony, as if they had originally been played and recorded together. This can be repeated until all of the available tracks have been used, or in some cases, reused. During mixdown, a separate set of playback heads with higher fidelity are used. Before all tracks are filled, any number of existing tracks can be bounced into one or two tracks, and
31442-497: The performance. You can produce wonderful live recordings with just two microphones and a building's inherent acoustics, but that will have to wait for another day. Taking a feed from the front of house (or FOH) desk directly to tape or DAT is another technique of live recording, although this will only work in large venues where everything is run through the PA system. Even so, a loud backline will result in less guitar and bass being routed via
31641-465: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
31840-463: The radio, and they were not making much money either; they had to absorb a $ 3,000 loss from a European tour. Frustrated with their lack of success, the band relented and decided to begin licensing their music, beginning with the song "Set You Free" in a Nissan automobile commercial. It was the first of an eventual 300-plus song placements in television shows, films, TV commercials, and video games. The group played several high-profile musical festivals in
32039-628: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
32238-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
32437-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
32636-468: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
32835-440: The same neighborhood of Akron, Ohio a couple houses down from each other. Auerbach and Carney both come from musical backgrounds. Auerbach is the cousin of guitarist Robert Quine , a "veteran of New York's avant-rock scene." Carney is the nephew of saxophonist Ralph Carney , who performed on several Tom Waits albums. While attending Firestone High School , they became friends, though they were part of different crowds—Auerbach
33034-488: The same space. Multitrack recording was a significant technical improvement as it allowed studio engineers to record all of the instruments and vocals for a piece of music separately. Multitracking allowed the engineer to adjust the levels and tone of each individual track, and if necessary, redo certain tracks or overdub parts of the track to correct errors or get a better take . Also, different electronic effects such as reverb could be applied to specific tracks, such as
33233-440: The section being worked on, without erasing any other section of that track. This process of turning the recording mechanism on and off is called punching in and punching out . When recording is completed, the many tracks are mixed down through a mixing console to a two-track stereo recorder in a format which can then be duplicated and distributed. (Movie and DVD soundtracks can be mixed down to four or more tracks, as needed,
33432-498: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
33631-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
33830-554: The spot" with minimal equipment. After sending the demo to a dozen record labels , they accepted an offer in 2002 from a small indie label in Los Angeles named Alive , because it was "the only label that would sign [them] without having to see [them] first". According to an interview on NPR 's Fresh Air , the group's name "the Black Keys" came from an acquaintance diagnosed with schizophrenia, Alfred McMoore. He would leave incoherent messages on their answering machines referring to their fathers as " black keys " such as "D flat" when he
34029-424: The tape, and thus did not require allocating it to an audio track, which meant all tracks were available for recording. What's more, in the case of the PCM-3348, which doubled the number of tracks from the PCM-3324, both machines could use the same ½” digital tape, and also a 24-track reel first recorded on a PCM-3324 was able to be used on a PCM-3348 and have another 24 tracks overdubbed. For computer-based systems,
34228-558: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
34427-445: The timecode signal, while the remaining tracks were available for sound recording. Some large studios were able to link multiple 24-track machines together. An extreme example of this occurred in 1982, when the rock group Toto recorded parts of Toto IV on three synchronized 24-track machines. This setup theoretically provided for up to 69 audio tracks. In the late 1970s and 1980s, digital multitrack tape machines emerged, including
34626-417: The trend in the 2000s is towards unlimited numbers of record/playback tracks, although issues such as RAM memory and CPU available do limit this from machine to machine. Moreover, on computer-based systems, the number of simultaneously available recording tracks is limited by the number of sound card discrete analog or digital inputs. When recording, audio engineers can select which track (or tracks) on
34825-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
35024-418: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
35223-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
35422-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
35621-467: The year, including Catalpa Music Festival , Coachella , Memphis in May (in 2013), Lollapalooza , and Osheaga . At the 2013 Grammy Awards , El Camino and "Lonely Boy" were nominated in five categories and were winners in three; the album won Best Rock Album , while "Lonely Boy" won Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song . For their eighth studio album, Turn Blue , the band once again collaborated with Danger Mouse, who co-produced and co-wrote
35820-462: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
36019-474: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " (1960) and " Kon-Tiki " (1961), while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
36218-465: Was Junior Kimbrough's "Everywhere I Go". Time later named Thickfreakness the third-best album of 2003. That year, the duo received a lucrative offer of £200,000 to license one of their songs for use in an English mayonnaise advertisement. At the suggestion of their manager , they rejected the offer for fear of being perceived as " sell-outs " and alienating their fan base. The band toured extensively throughout 2003, playing its first dates outside of
36417-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
36616-430: Was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
36815-489: Was captain of the high school soccer team, while Carney was a social outcast. Encouraged by their brothers, the duo began jamming together in 1996, as Auerbach was learning guitar at the time and Carney owned a four-track recorder and a drum set. After graduating, both briefly attended the University of Akron before dropping out. Auerbach attempted to make a living from performing at small bars in town, but realized he would not be able to book shows in other cities without
37014-474: Was conceived and developed by Ross Snyder at Ampex in 1955 resulting in the first Sel-Sync machine, an 8-track machine which used one-inch tape. This 8-track recorder was sold to the American guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor Les Paul for $ 10,000. It became known as the Octopus. Les Paul, Mary Ford and Patti Page used the technology in the late 1950s to enhance vocals and instruments . From these beginnings, it evolved in subsequent decades into
37213-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
37412-474: Was featured in the video games Grand Theft Auto IV and NASCAR 09 . "I Got Mine" is used as the theme song for Canadian police drama TV series The Bridge . The song was ranked number 23 on Rolling Stone ' s list of The 100 Best Singles of 2008. On October 17, 2008, the Black Keys was an opening act for fellow Akron-area band Devo at a special benefit concert at the Akron Civic Theatre for presidential candidate Barack Obama . Chrissie Hynde of
37611-449: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
37810-490: Was it the first time that the band completed an album in a professional studio, but it was also the first time they hired an outside producer to work on a record. Danger Mouse supplemented the band's sound with instrumental flourishes and more polished production values. Released on April 1, 2008, Attack & Release debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200. Four singles were released: " Strange Times ", " I Got Mine ", "Oceans and Streams", and "Same Old Thing". "Strange Times"
38009-441: Was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album , with "Fever" being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song as well as the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance . In May 2014, the Black Keys embarked on a world tour to support the album, with Cage the Elephant , Jake Bugg , and St. Vincent all separately opening for them. Several shows on the tour were cancelled after Carney broke and dislocated his shoulder in
38208-591: Was nominated for the 2011 MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video . In 2014, the band donated the song rights to PETA for an animal adoption ad campaign. The Black Keys were nominated for three Billboard Music Awards : Top Alternative Artist, and Top Rock Album and Top Alternative Album for Brothers . The group continued to make appearances at American music festivals throughout the year, playing at Bonnaroo, Kanrocksas , and Outside Lands . The group recorded their seventh studio album, El Camino , from March to May 2011. Splitting time between touring and recording,
38407-448: Was released on May 14, 2021. It is their second release of hill country blues covers following the Chulahoma EP in 2006. The announcement was made through the band's Lonely Boys and Girls fan club, through which they also premiered the album's opening track, a cover of John Lee Hooker 's version of " Crawling Kingsnake ". On March 10, 2022, the group released the song "Wild Child", their first original music since Let's Rock , along with
38606-411: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
38805-548: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
39004-411: Was the band's final release with the independent label Fat Possum. Having fulfilled their two-album contract, the band signed with the major label Nonesuch Records . Later in May, the group released its second live album, Live in Austin, TX —also known as Thickfreakness in Austin —which was recorded in 2003. The group's music appeared in several television commercials over the course of the year; among
39203-439: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
39402-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
39601-440: Was upset with them. On March 20, 2002, the duo played their first live show at Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom and Tavern to an audience of approximately eight people. The band's debut album, The Big Come Up , was recorded entirely in Carney's basement on an 8-track tape recorder in lo-fi and was released in May 2002, three months after they signed to Alive. The album, a mix of eight original tracks and five cover songs, forged
#900099