Rock of the South

Preface: This is a re-post of an older work no longer available.

Dixie has long been a cultural and musical hearth for America. It has been the birthplace of countless forms of music that have taken the country and world by storm. The most obvious genre to find in Dixie is country. However, the superior genre of music to spring from the musical talent of Dixians is rock. While it spread throughout the world and has been influenced by many places and changed throughout the years, rock started here. Much of Dixie’s music no longer belongs to the people who created it, but it is always nice to look back and see what was created here. Unfortunately, rock and heavy metal have fallen far from their Dixian influences.

While rock n’ roll first started in the South, the most well know type of rock to form within the region manifested as the ironically titled “Southern Rock.” Made popular by Lynyrd Skynyrd, this music characterized the typical Southern lifestyle but distinguished itself from country with various rock characteristics, most notably its focus on musical skills. Lynyrd Skynyrd received widespread positive reception and has been solidified as having a major impact on music and bringing Southern culture into the mainstream. While they tend to get little credit for things they achieved or the impact they had, it is impossible to not see the popularity of their music. “Free Bird,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “The Ballad of Curtis Loew,” “Gimme Three Steps,” and many more are timeless classics that only could have been concocted by Southerners.

One of the more bizarre bands featured in this piece is ZZ Top, originated in Houston, Texas. Established in 1969, these Texans quickly utilized a psychedelic, synth, new wave, blues influenced sound. Debuting into quick success in 1973 due to its singles “La Grange” and “Tush,” the band released a multitude of successful hits over the years, including “Got Me Under Pressure,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” and “Give Me All Your Lovin.'” An entire piece for these Texans could be written. Though that is an attempt for another day, it can still be said that ZZ Top continues to tour with great success and continues producing music as well.

Most likely to surprise a handful of readers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers originated from Florida. Forming in 1976 in Gainesville, the band experienced quick success with its fusion of Southern rock and Heartland rock, two distinct regional genres. Blending the two sounds, the band quickly rose to fame. Producing a multitude of hits which included “The Waiting,” “Refugee,” “American Girl,” and many more, this band enjoyed mainstream success until 2017. Tom Petty’s death put an abrupt end to the group.

The Black Crowes began in 1984 as a blues, psychedelic, Southern Rock band under the moniker Mr. Crowe’s Garden. After a series of name changes and a struggle to find a production studio willing to give them a chance, the band finally gained the endorsement of a studio. The Crowes made a breakthrough in 1990 with the release of their debut album Shake Your Money Maker. Finally entering the mainstream, the Crowes’ first album produced instant classics such as “Twice as Hard,” “Hard to Handle,” “Jealous Again,” and “She Talks to Angels.” The following album The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion continued to warrant mainstream spotlight. Unfortunately for this Georgia group, their fame did not last, and after 1995, they have so far been unable to release such higher tier albums and have additionally gone through a series of lineup changes.

Metal, unlike normal rock, took a bit more time to achieve success in Dixie. Despite the many failed attempts at metal bands from Dixie to achieve success, one band managed to make a breakthrough in 1990. With the release of “Cowboys from Hell,” the Texas based band Pantera broke into the mainstream, solidifying their popularity in 1992 with the release of the album Vulgar Display of Power. Darrell Lance Abbott, commonly known by his stage name Dimebag Darrell, receives much posthumous praise and admiration for his guitarmanship and has gone on to be considered one of the best metal guitarists ever. For a second time, the South managed to create what was once a very popular subgenre, this time known as groove metal, originally coined by Pantera as power groove during the making of Cowboys from Hell and was heavily influenced by thrash metal. Creating masterworks of the heavy metal genre, such as “Cowboys from Hell,” “Cemetery Gates,” “Domination,” “The Great Southern Trendkill,” “Floods,” “Suicide Note Part 2,” “5 Minutes Alone,” and “Walk,” Pantera’s status within the metal world and Southern Rock remains legendary and venerable.

While Pantera continued garnering deserved success with the release of more albums, the horizon began expanding for Southern Metal. Phil Anselmo, Pantera’s lead singer and New Orleans native, began expanding the genre from the more extreme, rapid sound of Pantera into a blues-ier but still aggressive sound with his band Down. The band’s first album, NOLA, featured a mixture of New Orleans blues and metal and featuring dark lyrics largely involving personal struggles and addiction. This heavily influenced and eventually gave way to sludge metal. This subgenre was a bit more blues influenced and originated in Louisiana, specifically the New Orleans area. The underground scene was typically focused on speed and aggression, but the grunge scene, specifically the Melvins, took strong root with the New Orleans underground. This brought in a sound that seemed to combine old school doom metal with hardcore punk and a bit of degenerate New Orleans seasoning to create a bizarre, but interesting, concoction.

Following Dimebag Darrell’s murder on December 8, 2004, the Southern Metal scene came to an abrupt halt. While several bands still produced the music, none were able to achieve the success that Pantera had and none of the smaller bands, like Down, were able to achieve much success following one or two successful record releases. Much like the death of Southern Rock and just about any great movement or trend in Dixie, the Southern Metal genre met a tragic end. While it is still possible to find good music in this genre out there, such as bands like Sign of the Southern Cross, they must be searched for and often do not achieve much success.

The South once produced illustrious music; however, it no longer does so. Both rock and metal found superlative production in Dixie, and the region claims the grand pride having been the birthplace of the genre. Unfortunately, Southerners lack the identity and inspiration for musicianship, a byproduct of communistic cultural liquification, and the only individuals producing remotely Southern sounding music are urbanites with fake accents. While a void certainly exists for Southern music and symbolism, current trends imply a far darker fate for Dixie’s cultural ambitions.