https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Shock_rockShock rock - Revision history2026-06-11T13:48:06ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Shock_rock&diff=323835&oldid=previmported>Maxeto0910: period after sentence2025-10-30T01:02:36Z<p>period after sentence</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Music genre}}<br />
{{for|the rock band|Shlock Rock}}<br />
{{Infobox music genre<br />
| name = Shock rock<br />
| stylistic_origins = {{flatlist|<br />
* [[Rock music|Rock]]<br />
* [[cabaret]]<br />
* [[hard rock]]<br />
* [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]]<br />
* [[punk rock]]<br />
* [[horror fiction]]<br />
* [[glam rock]]<br />
* [[science fiction]]<br />
* [[shock value]]<br />
}}<br />
| cultural_origins = 1950s–1970s, [[United Kingdom]] and [[United States]]<br />
| derivatives = [[Horror punk]]<br />
| subgenres = <br />
| fusiongenres = <br />
| local_scenes = [[United Kingdom]], [[United States]]<br />
| other_topics = {{hlist|[[Glam punk]]|[[glam metal]]|[[gothic rock]]}}<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Shock rock''' is the combination of [[rock music]] or [[heavy metal music]] with highly theatrical live performances emphasizing [[shock value]]. Performances may include violent or provocative behavior from the artists, the use of attention-grabbing imagery such as costumes, masks, or face paint, or [[special effects]] such as [[pyrotechnics]] or [[Theatrical blood|fake blood]]. Shock rock also often includes elements of [[horror and terror|horror]].<br />
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==History==<br />
[[Screamin' Jay Hawkins]] has been seen as a pioneer for shock rock. After the success of his 1956 hit "[[I Put a Spell on You]]", Hawkins began to perform a recurring stunt at many of his live shows: he would emerge from a [[coffin]], sing into a [[human skull|skull]]-shaped [[microphone]] and set off [[smoke bombs]].<ref name="Komara 2006">{{cite book |author=Komara, Edward M. |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&q=Screamin%27+Jay+Hawkins&pg=PA415 |title=Encyclopedia of the Blues: A-J |publisher=Routledge |pages=415 |isbn=978-0-415-92700-0}}</ref> Another artist who performed similar stunts was the British singer-songwriter [[Screaming Lord Sutch]].<br />
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[[File:Arthur Brown.jpg|thumb|right|[[Arthur Brown (musician)|Arthur Brown]] in 2005. During live performances and in the promotional television video, Brown performed the 1968 song "Fire" wearing black and white makeup ([[corpse paint]]) and a burning headpiece.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miles|first1=Barry|title=The British Invasion: Arthur Brown|date=2009|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|page=274|isbn=9781402769764|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r8xbaIlrUREC&q=arthur+brown+black+and+white+face+paint&pg=PA274}}</ref><ref name="RS">[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/arthur-brown-on-shock-rock-hendrix-close-calls-with-fire-w463039 "Arthur Brown on Shock Rock, Hendrix, Close Calls With Fire"]. ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 29 December 2017</ref>]]<br />
The 1960s brought several proto-shock rock artists. In the UK, [[the Who]] often [[Instrument destruction|destroyed their instruments]], [[the Move]] did the same to television sets, and [[Arthur Brown (musician)|Arthur Brown]] wore vivid makeup and a flaming headpiece.<ref name="RS"/> In the US, [[Jimi Hendrix]] set his guitar alight at the [[Monterey Pop Festival]] in 1967. [[Detroit]] musician [[Iggy Pop]] of [[the Stooges]] adopted a violent, erratic onstage persona which drew influence from [[Jim Morrison]] of [[the Doors]]. Pop would often throw his body around the stage and was known to wear a dog collar during some performances, along with arm length silver lamé gloves, exemplifying both shock and [[glam rock]] sensibilities.<ref name="surivalofiggy">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/02/the-survival-of-iggy-pop |title=The Survival of Iggy Pop |last=Petrusich |first=Amanda |date=August 26, 2019 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=April 10, 2020}}</ref> At one show in 1970, Pop smeared peanut butter on his body and threw it into the crowd.<ref name="surivalofiggy" /> In 1973, Pop committed [[self-mutilation]] on stage with a knife and at a later show [[Public nudity|exposed]] himself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stone |first=Rolling |date=2021-04-21 |title=20 Wildest Iggy Pop Moments |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/20-wildest-iggy-pop-moments-72545/ |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref><br />
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On seeing Arthur Brown, [[Alice Cooper]], often described as 'The Godfather of Shock rock',<ref>{{Cite web|last=Loud|first=All Things|date=October 3, 2019|title=Alice Cooper is Still the Godfather of Shock Rock|url=https://www.allthingsloud.com/alice-cooper-still-godfather-shock-rock/|access-date=April 25, 2021|website=All Things Loud|language=en-US}}</ref> stated, "Can you imagine the young Alice Cooper watching that with all his make-up and hellish performance? It was like all my Halloweens came at once!"<ref>{{cite news|title=Alice Cooper recruits Arthur Brown for fire-themed Halloween show|url=http://ultimateclassicrock.com/alice-cooper-arthur-brown-halloween-show/|agency=Ultimate Classic Rock|date=December 29, 2017}}</ref><br />
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Subsequently, [[Roky Erickson]] coined the term "[[Deathrock|horror rock]]"<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=William |title=The Pioneers of Horror Rock |url=https://sccompassnews.com/3003/showcase/the-pioneers-of-horror-rock/ |access-date=2025-07-28 |website=Compass News}}</ref> in 1980, when describing the music of his band [[Roky Erickson and the Aliens]], whose music influenced by [[horror movies]] was retroactively noted by ''Compass News'',''<ref name=":1" />'' as influential to the development of shock rock.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Belsito |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnO-anKbEzoC |title=Hardcore California: A History of Punk and New Wave |last2=Davis |first2=Bob |date=1983 |publisher=Last Gasp |isbn=978-0-86719-314-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Stegall |first=Tim |title=A history of horror punk, from the Damned and Misfits to Alkaline Trio |url=https://www.altpress.com/best-horror-punk-bands-misfits-alkaline-trio/ |access-date=2025-07-24 |website=Alternative Press Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2009-08-19 |title=Getting To Grips With Roky Erickson: A Dr Rock Interview |url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/getting-to-grips-with-roky-erickson-a-dr-rock-interview/ |access-date=2025-07-24 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kogon |first=Bennett |date=2018-10-30 |title=I Walk with Demons: Roky Erickson depicts selling his soul to the devil on public TV, Halloween '84 |url=https://dangerousminds.net/comments/i_walk_with_demons_roky_erickson_depicts_selling_his_soul_to_the_devil_on_p/ |access-date=2025-07-24 |website=dangerousminds.net |language=en-US}}</ref><br />
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[[The Plasmatics]] were an American [[punk rock]] band formed by [[Yale University]] art school graduate Rod Swenson with [[Wendy O. Williams]]. The band was a controversial group known for wild live shows. In addition to chainsawing guitars, blowing up speaker cabinets and sledgehammering television sets, Williams and the Plasmatics blew up automobiles live on stage. Williams was arrested in [[Milwaukee]] by the Milwaukee police before being charged with [[public indecency]].<ref name="Skanse">Skanse</ref>{{Citation not found|date=May 2023}} Jim Farber of ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' described the show: "Lead singer/ex-porn star/current weight lifter Wendy Orleans Williams (W.O.W. for short) spends most of the Plasmatics' show fondling her family size breasts, scratching her sweaty snatch and eating the drum kit, among other playful events".<ref name="Gimarc235">Gimarc, p.235</ref>{{Citation not found|date=May 2023}}<br />
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From the late 1970s to his death in 1993, [[GG Allin]] was known less for his music than for his wildly [[transgressive art|transgressive]] antics, which included indecent exposure (stripping and performing naked was one of Allin's most common rituals), on-stage [[defecation]], [[coprophagia]], [[Self-harm|self-mutilation]], and attacking audience members.<ref name="GG Allin">Huey, Steve. [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gg-allin-p51370/biography GG Allin bio]. [[AllMusic]]. Retrieved March 11, 2012.</ref><br />
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In the 1980s in Richmond, Virginia, [[Gwar]] formed as a collaboration of artists and musicians, and since 2024, has been touring consistently for over forty years.<ref name="GWAR & Static-X Unleash 'Machines Vs. Monsters' Tour As GWAR Celebrates 40 Years of Groundbreaking Shock Rock">GWAR. [https://gwar.net/blogs/news/machines-vs-monsters]. [[GWAR]]. Retrieved March 25, 2025.</ref> The band members make their own lavish monster costumes, which they claim are inspired by many of the creatures from [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s literary multiverse, the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. Gwar frequently incorporates extravagant theatrics into their shows, such as mock [[joust]]s and pretending to murder each other.<br />
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The [[Mentors (band)|Mentors]] cultivated a shock-rock image by wearing executioners' hoods in concert and making deliberately outlandish statements to the press. In the 1990s, vocalist [[Eldon Hoke]] also began incorporating onstage sex acts into the band's repertoire.<ref name="Mentors">Torreano, Bradley. [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-mentors-p4898/biography The Mentors bio]. [[AllMusic]]. Retrieved March 11, 2012.</ref><br />
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[[File:Marilyn Manson Rotr 2015 (109543887).jpeg|thumb|[[Marilyn Manson]] has widely been described as a shock rocker.]]<br />
In the 1990s and 2000s, [[Marilyn Manson]] became perhaps the most notable and well known act in shock rock. [[Marilyn Manson (band)|His band]] was once dubbed by former [[United States Senate|US Senator]] [[Joseph Lieberman]] (D-Conn) as "perhaps the sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company." Manson's stage antics, such as burning the [[Flag of the United States|American flag]] and ripping pages out of the [[Bible]], have been the focus of protests throughout his career.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/325957.stm | work=BBC News | title=The mystery of Marilyn Manson | date=April 22, 1999}}</ref> Manson argued that every artist has their means of presentation and that his visual and vocal styles are merely a way for him to control the angle that his audience and the general public view and interpret what he is trying to convey artistically.<ref name="youtube">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxomNoPN-Q|title=Fox News Marilyn Manson Interview|access-date=January 12, 2008|work=YouTube}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[List of shock rock musicians]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist|30em}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
*Haenfler, Ross (2006). ''Straight Edge: Hardcore Punk, Clean-Living Youth, and Social Change'' (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press). {{ISBN|0-8135-3852-1}}<br />
*Leblanc, Lauraine (1999). ''Pretty in Punk: Girls' Gender Resistance in a Boys' Subculture'' (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press). {{ISBN|0-8135-2651-5}}<br />
*[[John Lydon|Lydon, John]] (1995). ''Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs'' (New York: Picador). {{ISBN|0-312-11883-X}}<br />
*[[Legs McNeil|McNeil, Legs]], and Gillian McCain (1997). ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'' (New York: Penguin Books). {{ISBN|0-14-026690-9}}<br />
*Raha, Maria (2005). ''Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground'' (Emeryville, Calif.: Seal). {{ISBN|1-58005-116-2}}<br />
*Reynolds, Simon (2005). ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978–1984'' (London and New York: Faber and Faber). {{ISBN|0-571-21569-6}}<br />
*[[John Robb (musician)|Robb, John]] (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'' (London: Elbury Press). {{ISBN|0-09-190511-7}}<br />
*Sabin, Roger (1999). ''Punk Rock, So What? The Cultural Legacy of Punk'' (London: Routledge). {{ISBN|0-415-17030-3}}<br />
*[[Jon Savage|Savage, Jon]] (1991). ''England's Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock'' (London: Faber and Faber). {{ISBN|0-312-28822-0}}<br />
*Simpson, Paul (2003). ''The Rough Guide to Cult Pop: The Songs, the Artists, the Genres, the Dubious Fashions'' (London: Rough Guides). {{ISBN|1-84353-229-8}}<br />
*Taylor, Steven (2003). ''False Prophet: Field Notes from the Punk Underground'' (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press). {{ISBN|0-8195-6668-3}}<br />
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[[Category:Rock music genres]]</div>imported>Maxeto0910