Poll: Is Led Zeppelin Metal?

[Tomster595]

I wouldn't say they're metal.. but they are my favorite band =D. I really can't argue my point though. To be perfectly honest, i don't know very much about music.

 

[loc978]

They influenced metal (among other genres, from progressive anything to hip-hop) quite a bit, but no. Led Zeppelin is not metal. They're classic rock. Black Sabbath formed in the same year, and they are metal.

 

[Eumersian]

I wouldn't think so. There were bands in that same era that were heavier. Black Sabbath and Deep Purple come to mind.

If anything, I'd say that some of their stuff was a kind of precursor to metal, because I can name several songs of theirs that are pretty heavy.

 

[Mailman]

It depends on the song. Immigrant Song and Kashmir are Metal. Going to California and The Rain Song are more bluesy. The Battle of Evermore, however, is Heavy Mithril.

 

[Ayjona]

Words and expressions are generally thought have three different possible meanings.

The etymological meaning is what the word originally aimed to describe, and how that definition has changed throughout the ages.

The formal, or semantic, meaning is how the word is officially defined in the highest level of nationally accepted dictionaries for that particular language, and sometimes country.

From the first two perspectives, Led Zeppelin is not metal, not in any way, form, or shape, not in any usage of the word.

Then there's the popular meaning, which is how the word is used on a daily, general and common basis. This meaning is solely defined by popular opinion.

From the popular perspective, yeah, Zeppelin is metal. Along with Kings of Leon, Avril Lavigne, and Britney Spear's "I Love Rock and Roll"

(Then there's the meaning of the word in the context of media and news reports, possibly a fourth established meaning. In that case, Zeppelin is even more metal, and you can add Owl City, Rebecca Black and every Glee song ever recorded to the list of metal.)

 

[se7ensenses]

IMO LZ is straight up, no chaser, a rock & roll cover band. Influenced very much by the blues, Jimmy Page ripped off ALOT of early blues artists.

"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" - A folk song by Anne Bredon, this was originally credited as "traditional, arranged by Jimmy Page," then "words and music by Jimmy Page," and then, following legal action, "Bredon/Page/Plant."

"Black Mountain Side" - uncredited version of a traditional folk tune previously recorded by Bert Jansch.

"Bring It On Home" - the first section is an uncredited cover of the Willie Dixon tune.

"Communication Breakdown" - derived from Eddie Cochran's "Nervous Breakdown."

"Custard Pie" - uncredited cover of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down," with lyrics from Sleepy John Estes's "Drop Down Daddy."

"Dazed And Confused" - uncredited cover of the Jake Holmes song *see The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes.

"Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - uncredited version of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down."

"How Many More Times" - Part one is an uncredited cover of the Howlin' Wolf song. Part two is an uncredited cover of Albert King's "The Hunter."

"In My Time Of Dying" - uncredited cover of the traditional song (heard on Bob Dylan's debut).

"The Lemon Song" - uncredited cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" - Wolf's publisher sued Zeppelin in the early 70s and settled out of court.

"Moby Dick" - written and first recorded by Sleepy John Estes under the title "The Girl I Love," and later covered by Bobby Parker.

"Nobody's Fault But Mine" - uncredited cover of the Blind Willie Johnson blues.

"Since I've Been Lovin' You" - lyrics are the same as Moby Grape's "Never," though the music isn't similar.

"Stairway To Heaven" - the main guitar line is from "Taurus" by Spirit.

"White Summer" - uncredited cover of Davey Graham's "She Moved Through The Fair."

"Whole Lotta Love" - lyrics are from the Willie Dixon blues "You Need Love."

Man I h8 zepplin

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

No they are not Heavy Metal. You could say they are Hard Rock or Classic Metal or even just Metal but not heavy metal.

 

[Nimcha]

Wow, 4 pages before somebody posted a rant about Zep 'stealing' stuff. Usually that's on page one.

 

[Skjalg Kreutzer]

I would argue that yes, they are indeed a metal band. Metal, in my mind, is a broad range of music, but what defines it at its core is not any particular riff or backbeat, but a sense of scale. Metal is grand in its scope, both musically and lyrically. Metal songs and albums tell epic tales of adventure and use an almost Tolkien-esque grasp of myth and legend to create a feeling of connection to the past while venturing forth into the future.

You DO know there are other genres of metal than Power Metal, right?

Oh, we were going to use those stupid sub-genre definitions? Nevermind then.

All Im saying is that I listen to a ton of metal, and practically none of it is like you describe. I mean, Luca Turilli and Blind Guardian? Sure!
Stone Sour, Machine Head or Caliban? Not so much.

 

[FireOfOlympus]

Zeppelin have certainly covered a pretty wide range of musical styles. They've covered everything from Blues to even a bit of Reggae. Is it really a good idea to try to categorize them in such a restrictive genre?

 

[Taldeer]

Led Zep are firmly rooted in the blues, picking up oriental influences as they went along. That to me spells hard rock.

 

[L8NEYET]

Is Led Zeppelin to be classified as heavy metal?

The genre metal didin't even exist before the 90's as a real genre, for example Ozzy Osbourne was classed as "alternative" in the 90's together with other metal bands and those who were a little softer was only classed as rock, but it's new times now so yes they are metal.

Even if my personal opinion is that they are all still alternative and rock.

If Heavy Metal didn't exist as a genre before the 90's, then how could the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal genre have existed in the 80's?

For bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon or Diamond Head to be considered the new wave of that genre, then that genre would have had to exist before their time, in the 70's with bands like Black Sabbath.


Heavy Metal definitely existed as a genre long before the 90's.

Can you provide any proof of any band being called Heavy Metal in the 80's? I was there, hell I was at the shows and they were called Rock and even hard rock, but never metal. Metal was a term adopted in the 90's prolly to better categorize music in stores, when there was stores that solly sold albums. Hell, Nirvana pioneered grunge, but what are they filled under at your local store?

At the end of the day, you can call any band what you want to call them.

uhh Metallica's first album "Kill 'em All was originaly to be titled "metal up your ass" in reference to their music as being of the metal genre and it was released in 1983 which means that they considered themselves to be Metal even earlier than that.. or how bought the 80s US music mag "Metal Forces" which also went into publication in '83 ..or how about in the May 11, 1968, issue of Rolling Stone, there was an article about the album A Long Time Comin' by U.S. band Electric Flag which said "Nobody who's been listening to Mike Bloomfield?either talking or playing?in the last few years could have expected this. This is the new soul music, the synthesis of white blues and heavy metal rock." ....metal started in the late 60s early 70s in the US and UK mostly and was known as such.. now while the terms heavy metal and hard rock are often used interchangeably, particularly in discussing bands of the 1970s the term Metal was most definitely a known genre in the 80s..... if you didn't know that than you are either lying about being there or knowing anything about this type of music, your memory is going, or your very oblivious

Hmmm... Metal up your ass I do believe I still have that t-shirt and it refering to mace coming from the toilet... hence the name "Metal up your ass." While we are at it, I guess we can call Metallica a black or death Metal band because they had a "Black album." All I am saying is they were not identifying themselves as metal until latter. At the end of the day many bands have crossed over into other genres and are never what they are labeled as. Kid Rock started off as rap and is now country, is he calling himself a rapper while trying to sell country albums, no, does it really matter...no!

but they WERE identifying themselves as metal.. many bands were as early as the late 60s.. I have VHS and Betamax tapes of interviews with them from the mid 80s where they specifically do .. not to mention you ignored the straight forward quote I put up from rolling stone magazine and the fact that there were already "Metal" magazines in the 80s that specifically catered to nothing but metal.. the term has been used since way before the 90s and Metallica specifically identified themselves as Metal since before their first album when they were a garage band .. and it was a dagger coming out of a toilet not a mace.. it was originally meant to signify that they were shoving their metal music up you ass .. ya know that whole "in your face" attitude

This is why I love simple questions because you cannot get a simple answer and people will argue their opinion until they are blue in the face. And this is the last thing I am going to say on this thread. Metallica's album, "Metal up your ass," was never released as so and was changed to "Kill them all," so it had many different concept arts period. You still have VHS and Betamax of the band, good for you. I have a piece of sandsrkit that says that Led Zepplin is not a metal band and they never will be.

 

[wastedyouth89]

Another weird thought. They released albums until 1982. Do you think they would sound more metal now if they had continued playing and releasing CDs?

 

[TonyVonTonyus]

Zeppelin are Hard Rock but they were one of the foundations for metal to come about.

 

[Sven und EIN HUND]

There should be more poll options. They were one of the first bands using that early metal sound, what with Page's distorted riffing and the incorporation of blues into a rock setting; this was also popularized by Sabbath, who marked the point at which metal really began to take off. They were predominantly a metal band, but not in the modern sense, although one could surely argue hard rock. Fuck it, I guess I'll just say that rather than being a metal band, they (along with several other bands) formed the basis for metal, which many bands would adopt in the future.

 

[Wayneguard]

metal:


not metal:

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

They influenced metal, but they weren't metal themselves.

 

[Death_Korps_Kommissar]

Nah they are a precursor to metal. Like sabbath and others.