10 Best Hard Rock Bands Of The 1970's

Growing up listening to the British blues of the Yardbirds and Cream, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry wanted to bring a different kind of rock music to the masses. When Aerosmith first started making waves in the local scene, their bluesy material quickly morphed into an undefinable sound which brought boogie into stadiums.

Here was a band that was taking the relentless rhythm of R&B music and delivering it with the same power as a band like Led Zeppelin. Initially starting out as a drummer, Steven Tyler's sense of rhythmic structure turned the band's songs into some of the most hard-edged swing tunes you would ever hear. On songs like "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way," the band's lead breaks seem to be the hard rock answer to a James Brown horn section.

Even if you didn't pick up on the more percussive eccentricities of the band, the songs were too damn good to deny, with a wonderful sense of melody that took cues from all kinds of genres, from the Rolling Stones to even classical music. While many bands from England were taking the hard rock genre into new territories, Aerosmith were one of the first bands to give America a hard rock identity.