The History of Shock Rock

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was arguably the first shock rocker. After the success of his 1956 hit “I Put a Spell on You”, Hawkins began a stage show where he’d emerge from a coffin, sing to a skull and set off smoke bombs. The 1960’s brought several new shock rockers.

In the UK, The Who often destroyed their instruments, The Move did the same to TVs, and Arthur Brown wore a flaming hat.

In the US, Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, while Frank Zappa and his band the Mothers of Invention used all kinds of props. With a career spanning the mid 1960s to now, Alice Cooper redesigned shock rock.

In early 1970s Cooper’s unique brand of heavy metal, complete with elaborate, satirical and inevitable controversial live performances, were the sensation of the day and proved to be a big inspiration for many future genre artists such as KISS of the mid 1970s, King Diamond of the 1980s and Marilyn Manson of the 1990s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the punk-metal Plasmatics focused more on live shows than their music, which included chainsaws ripping apart guitars and lots of explosions. Cars were also blown up. During the 1990s, Marilyn Manson employed the basics of Shock Rock into an artistic and commercial success. At times strongly referencing Glam Rock forbears David Bowie and especially Alice Cooper, Manson’s career was built on an Industrial Metal sound and controversial image.

Information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_rock

Created by: Jon Christensen on October 31, 2007

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