10 Bands That Mixed Different Music Genres

Ever since Led Zeppelin started, there have always been people who are looking to slag them off for being ripoffs of other artists. It's not like they're necessarily wrong either, with songs like When the Levee Breaks to Whole Lotta Love having to go to court for how similar they sounded to old blues tunes. Rock was always a product of the blues though, and Led Zeppelin's brightest moments came from what they're able to do with that concept.

While the start of their career may have been a part of the British Blues Boom at the time, you could see them drawing on different influences all the time, from the riff based rock of their second album to their third album's wild turns into the world of folk rock. Aside from paving the way for heavier genres like metal, the ambition behind Zeppelin's tracks was a lot more interesting than any other band of their time, creating something like The Battle of Evermore as a maypole jaunt or bringing in the different orchestral sweeps for a song like Kashmir.

Up until the death of John Bonham, you could still hear the band toying with different sounds, like bringing in the synthesizers on In Through the Out Door and trying to get funky on songs like The Crunge. Led Zeppelin might go down as history's favorite hard rock band, but there's something more to it than that. These guys were looking to give something more than just a good time, and this music taps into something almost spiritual in its best moments.