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Metal describes a style of heavy, aggressive music. It evolved from the acid rock/heavy psych of the late 1960s, a heavier form of psychedelic rock originating in the San Francisco music scene. Metal music is typically characterized by loud guitars, fast drumming, and often intense lyrics.

Early bands credited with the origins of metal range from the heavy blues of Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, and Jimi Hendrix, to the occult rock of Coven and Blue Öyster Cult, and artists like Alice Cooper and Pentagram. MC5 and The Stooges also played a crucial role in foreshadowing the development of rock music into both punk and metal. Black Sabbath is often credited with crystallizing the genre in the early-mid 1970s.

The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the rise of the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal." During this period, bands from the United States and continental Europe established early subgenres, notably doom metal and power metal, as well as the popular Thrash Metal scene. This sonic and subcultural diversification within heavy metal continued into the 21st century.

The aggressive sound of metal led to a moral panic among some Christian parents in the 1980s, who feared the music was Satanic and a negative influence. Despite this opposition, metal remains popular and has influenced genres such as Grunge , Groove Metal, Alt Metal, Nu-Metal , and Metalcore among numerous other subgenres. Fans of metal are commonly known as headbangers or metalheads .

Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in Blues rock, Psychedelic rock, and Acid rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. The genre's lyrics and performance styles are sometimes associated with aggression and machismo.