10 Hard Rock Songs By Non-Hard Rock Artists
The heavy-hitters from outside the norm.
As far as hard rock goes, there are always artists who many consider to be essential to the genre. Whenever you need something to blow out your speakers and rock out to, most people will argue you can't go wrong with anything from artists like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. At the same time, some artists who don't fall under the hard rock umbrella have their fair share of bangers too.
From genres like Britpop, heartland rock, or just straight up pop music, artists that many rockers would consider soft have shown their ability to write ferocious material when the time called for it. Sure, the guitars may not be as crunchy as say...Metallica, but the aggression behind these tracks gets the job done all the same.
These were the songs that shook things up from the artist's usual sound and made their projects sound new and exciting again. Gravitating towards heavier instrumentation came to these artists by creative experiments, wanting to cut loose, or even to just take the piss out of the hard rock glory days. Regardless of the artist's inspiration, there's no denying that these songs could fit right in amidst your hard rock playlist.
10. Bank Holiday - Blur
Blur's Britpop masterpiece Parklife is one of the essential pop releases of the 90's. The entire record is draped around the idea that everyday life is meaningless to the tune of fabulous pop songs. In an effort to capture the hustle and bustle of vacation, "Bank Holiday" shows the lads' suburban take on punk rock.
Starting off with a mezmerizing guitar riff from Graham Coxon, the song jerks around like a worn-out machine as Damon Albarn's vocal delivery fluctuates between apathetic and impassioned. While the effort seems farcical in the verses, the chorus is one of the most balls-to-the-wall sounds the band had achieved up to that point. What people don't catch though is the poignancy behind the raw aggression.
The whole song is meant to illustrate the idea of workers using their bank holiday to get plastered to forget about their troubles. As such, the verses act as the menial worker mindset, while the chorus is the nonstop party animal personality. Just when the track gets going, it's final riff builds to a climax only to have the song cut off, leaving the listener in a daze. In less than 2 minutes, Blur turned their musical satire into some of the most feral rock of the era.