.jpg/1334px-The_Who's_Tommy_(5171688334).jpg)
Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Rock opera
A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs, especially a concept album, with lyrics that relate to a common story. The use of various character roles within the song lyrics is a common storytelling device. The success of rock opera has inspired similar works in other musical styles, such as rap opera.
Unlike classical opera, rock operas are typically not scripted for theatrical production, like a classical oratorio, though some have been adapted as rock musicals.
A number of rock artists became interested in the idea of creating a rock opera in the 1960s. Early use of the terms rock opera and teenage opera date from 1963, when Frank Zappa used both phrases to describe a work in progress, I Was a Teenage Malt Shop. Zappa can be heard discussing his rock opera in a radio program: a recording of a which is included on the album Joe's Xmasage, on the track The Uncle Frankie Show. Don Van Vliet was to be cast as a character named “Captain Beefheart”. Zappa abandoned the project in 1964 after a demo tape with a few of the songs was rejected by a record company. Several songs that were written for the uncompleted opera appeared on later albums (e.g. I Was a Teen-age Malt Shop on the album Mystery Disc, Status Back Baby on the album Absolutely Free). Zappa later wrote and produced Joe’s Garage in 1979.
Another early use of the term, the July 4, 1966, edition of RPM Magazine (published in Toronto) reported that "Bruce Cockburn and Mr [William] Hawkins are working on a Rock Opera, operating on the premise that to write you need only 'something to say'." Mark Wirtz explored the idea in a project A Teenage Opera, from which an early song "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" recorded by Keith West was released and became a hit song in 1967. However, the album for the rock opera was not released until 1996, and it was only fully realised and staged in 2017.
Colin Fleming of The Atlantic described The Story of Simon Simopath (1967) by British psychedelic band Nirvana as an "early foray into the rock opera sub-genre". Neil Strauss of The New York Times wrote that S.F. Sorrow (1968) by the Pretty Things is "generally acknowledged as the first rock opera".
Scott Mervis of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the Who's 1969 record Tommy was the first album to be billed as a rock opera. The album tells the story of Tommy Walker, a "deaf, dumb and blind kid." Tommy displays the titular character's experiences with life and his relationship with his family. Although the band's guitarist Pete Townshend denied taking any influence from S.F. Sorrow, critics have compared Tommy to it. The Tommy album developed into other media, including a Seattle Opera production in 1971, an orchestral version by Lou Reizner in 1972, a film in 1975, and a Broadway musical in 1992. The original album has sold 20 million copies and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Tommy would also go on to influence On and On, a rap opera by the Fat Boys and American Idiot, a punk rock opera by Green Day, the latter of whom having made 21st Century Breakdown, another rock opera. The Who had previously toyed with the concepts which would lead to the full-blown rock opera with their six-movement 1966 track "A Quick One, While He's Away".
A rock opera that experienced commercial recording and Broadway success is Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and in respect of which Lloyd Webber said "the piece was written as a rock album from the outset and set out from the start to tell the story through the music itself." In 1972, David Bowie released the rock opera The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Bat Out of Hell is a rock album by Meat Loaf that remains one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold over 50 million copies worldwide. It is certified 14× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of June 2019, it has spent 522 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, the second longest chart run by a studio album. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 343 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. A musical based on Bat Out of Hell, staged by Jay Scheib, opened at the Manchester Opera House in 2017. The album's producer, Jim Steinman, coined the term Wagnerian rock after composer Richard Wagner to describe the genre of the record.
Hub AI
Rock opera AI simulator
(@Rock opera_simulator)
Rock opera
A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs, especially a concept album, with lyrics that relate to a common story. The use of various character roles within the song lyrics is a common storytelling device. The success of rock opera has inspired similar works in other musical styles, such as rap opera.
Unlike classical opera, rock operas are typically not scripted for theatrical production, like a classical oratorio, though some have been adapted as rock musicals.
A number of rock artists became interested in the idea of creating a rock opera in the 1960s. Early use of the terms rock opera and teenage opera date from 1963, when Frank Zappa used both phrases to describe a work in progress, I Was a Teenage Malt Shop. Zappa can be heard discussing his rock opera in a radio program: a recording of a which is included on the album Joe's Xmasage, on the track The Uncle Frankie Show. Don Van Vliet was to be cast as a character named “Captain Beefheart”. Zappa abandoned the project in 1964 after a demo tape with a few of the songs was rejected by a record company. Several songs that were written for the uncompleted opera appeared on later albums (e.g. I Was a Teen-age Malt Shop on the album Mystery Disc, Status Back Baby on the album Absolutely Free). Zappa later wrote and produced Joe’s Garage in 1979.
Another early use of the term, the July 4, 1966, edition of RPM Magazine (published in Toronto) reported that "Bruce Cockburn and Mr [William] Hawkins are working on a Rock Opera, operating on the premise that to write you need only 'something to say'." Mark Wirtz explored the idea in a project A Teenage Opera, from which an early song "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" recorded by Keith West was released and became a hit song in 1967. However, the album for the rock opera was not released until 1996, and it was only fully realised and staged in 2017.
Colin Fleming of The Atlantic described The Story of Simon Simopath (1967) by British psychedelic band Nirvana as an "early foray into the rock opera sub-genre". Neil Strauss of The New York Times wrote that S.F. Sorrow (1968) by the Pretty Things is "generally acknowledged as the first rock opera".
Scott Mervis of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the Who's 1969 record Tommy was the first album to be billed as a rock opera. The album tells the story of Tommy Walker, a "deaf, dumb and blind kid." Tommy displays the titular character's experiences with life and his relationship with his family. Although the band's guitarist Pete Townshend denied taking any influence from S.F. Sorrow, critics have compared Tommy to it. The Tommy album developed into other media, including a Seattle Opera production in 1971, an orchestral version by Lou Reizner in 1972, a film in 1975, and a Broadway musical in 1992. The original album has sold 20 million copies and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Tommy would also go on to influence On and On, a rap opera by the Fat Boys and American Idiot, a punk rock opera by Green Day, the latter of whom having made 21st Century Breakdown, another rock opera. The Who had previously toyed with the concepts which would lead to the full-blown rock opera with their six-movement 1966 track "A Quick One, While He's Away".
A rock opera that experienced commercial recording and Broadway success is Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and in respect of which Lloyd Webber said "the piece was written as a rock album from the outset and set out from the start to tell the story through the music itself." In 1972, David Bowie released the rock opera The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Bat Out of Hell is a rock album by Meat Loaf that remains one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold over 50 million copies worldwide. It is certified 14× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of June 2019, it has spent 522 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, the second longest chart run by a studio album. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 343 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. A musical based on Bat Out of Hell, staged by Jay Scheib, opened at the Manchester Opera House in 2017. The album's producer, Jim Steinman, coined the term Wagnerian rock after composer Richard Wagner to describe the genre of the record.