Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage and blues rock movements. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar and accompanied with keyboards. Hard rock developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with notable bands such as AC/DC, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Aerosmith and Van Halen. During the 1980s, some hard rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock, while others began to return to a hard rock sound. Established bands made a comeback in the mid-1980s and it reached a commercial peak in the 1980s, with glam metal bands like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard and the rawer sounds of Guns N' Roses, which followed up with great success in the part of that decade. Hard rock began losing popularity with the commercial success of R&B, hip-hop, urban pop and Britpop in the 1990s. Despite this, many post-grunge bands adopted a hard rock sound and in the 2000s there came a renewed interest in established bands, attempts at a revival, new hard rock bands that emerged from the garage rock and post-punk revival scenes.
Out of this movement came garage rock bands like the White Stripes, the Strokes, Interpol and on, the Black Keys. In the 2000s, only a few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain successful recording careers. Hard rock is a form of aggressive rock music; the electric guitar is emphasised, used with distortion and other effects, both as a rhythm instrument using repetitive riffs with a varying degree of complexity, as a solo lead instrument. Drumming characteristically focuses on driving rhythms, strong bass drum and a backbeat on snare, sometimes using cymbals for emphasis; the bass guitar works in conjunction with the drums playing riffs, but providing a backing for the rhythm and lead guitars. Vocals are growling, raspy, or involve screaming or wailing, sometimes in a high range, or falsetto voice. Hard rock has sometimes been labelled cock rock for its emphasis on overt masculinity and sexuality and because it has been predominantly performed and consumed by men: in the case of its audience white, working-class adolescents.
In the late 1960s, the term heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock, but began to be used to describe music played with more volume and intensity. While hard rock maintained a bluesy rock and roll identity, including some swing in the back beat and riffs that tended to outline chord progressions in their hooks, heavy metal's riffs functioned as stand-alone melodies and had no swing in them. Heavy metal took on "darker" characteristics after Black Sabbath's breakthrough at the beginning of the 1970s. In the 1980s it developed a number of subgenres termed extreme metal, some of which were influenced by hardcore punk, which further differentiated the two styles. Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have existed side by side, with bands standing on the boundary of, or crossing between, the genres; the roots of hard rock can be traced back to the 1950s electric blues, which laid the foundations for key elements such as a rough declamatory vocal style, heavy guitar riffs, string-bending blues-scale guitar solos, strong beat, thick riff-laden texture, posturing performances.
Electric blues guitarists began experimenting with hard rock elements such as driving rhythms, distorted guitar solos and power chords in the 1950s, evident in the work of Memphis blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson, Pat Hare, who captured a "grittier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues". Other antecedents include Link Wray's instrumental "Rumble" in 1958, the surf rock instrumentals of Dick Dale, such as "Let's Go Trippin'" and "Misirlou". In the 1960s, American and British blues and rock bands began to modify rock and roll by adding harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming, louder vocals, from electric blues. Early forms of hard rock can be heard in the work of Chicago blues musicians Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" which made it a garage rock standard, the songs of rhythm and blues influenced British Invasion acts, including "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, "My Generation" by the Who, "Shapes of Things" by the Yardbirds, "Inside Looking Out" by the Animals, " Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones.
From the late 1960s, it became common to divide mainstream rock music that emerged from psychedelia into soft and hard rock. Soft rock was derived from folk rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies. In contrast, hard rock was most derived from blues rock and was played louder and with more intensity. Blues rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Jeff Beck Group. Cream, in songs like "I Feel Free" combined blues rock with pop and psychedelia in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton. Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz and rock and roll. From 1967 Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band, the Jeff Beck Group. Dave Davies of the Kinks, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of the Who, Hendrix and Beck all pioneered the use of new guitar effects like phasing and distortion.
The Beatles began producing songs in the new
Canada
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border, its capital is Ottawa, its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra, its population is urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons. Various indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Beginning in the 16th century and French expeditions explored, settled, along the Atlantic coast.
As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces; this began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with Elizabeth II as its queen and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the federal cabinet and head of government; the country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education.
It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. A developed country, Canada has the sixteenth-highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the twelfth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index, its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origins of Canada, the name is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".
In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village but to the entire area subject to Donnacona. From the 16th to the early 18th century "Canada" referred to the part of New France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named the Canadas. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country at the London Conference, the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title. By the 1950s, the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom, which considered Canada a "Realm of the Commonwealth"; the government of Louis St. Laurent ended the practice of using'Dominion' in the Statutes of Canada in 1951. In 1982, the passage of the Canada Act, bringing the Constitution of Canada under Canadian control, referred only to Canada, that year the name of the national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day.
The term Dominion was used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term federal had replaced dominion. Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Métis, the last being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers; the term "Aboriginal" as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in some legal documents, including the Constitution Act 1982. The first inhabitants of North America are hypothesized to have migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago; the Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian indigenous societies included permanent settlements, complex societal hierarchies, trading networks; some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.
The indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000
Hard-Ons
The Hard-Ons are an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1981. Founding members included Keish de Silva on guitar and Peter "Blackie" Black on guitar, Ray Ahn soon joined on bass guitar with de Silva switching to drums; the group issued eight studio albums before disbanding in 1994. They reformed in 1997 to release further material. In 2002 de Silva was replaced on drums by Peter Kostic, replaced in turn by Murray Ruse in 2011. De Silva returned as a guest vocalist in 2014 and permanently rejoined the band in 2016. During their first 12 years, the group issued 17 consecutive number-one hits on the Australian alternative charts. During that time they became Australia's most commercially successful independent band, with over 250,000 total record sales. Australian music historian, Ian McFarlane, described their music as "cheap and potent, their appeal selective, yet never has so much been owed by so many to so few chords... fused punk tempos, hardcore attitude, heavy metal riffs and surf-pop melodies into a seamless ball of energy".
The Hard-Ons' origins are traced to Western Sydney's Punchbowl Boys High School, where three founding members were students. In 1981 the first version of the band, then-known as Dead Rats, included Peter "Blackie" Black on guitar, Brendan Creighton on drums and Shane Keish de Silva on guitar and vocals. In 1982 Creighton left to form Thrust and Raymond Dongwan Ahn joined on bass guitar with de Silva taking over on drums, the group began playing as The Plebs before being renamed as The Hard-Ons by the end of the year. Being too young to play in pubs, the band featured at birthday parties and school dances. On 20 June 1984, The Hard-Ons played their first official show at the Vulcan Hotel in Ultimo. Black recalled "We wanted to be punk rockers... We didn't want Keish's parents to see so we had bags full of these jackets and chains and stuff and went around the corner of the street and put all these clothes on. Keish's dad busted us". Gaining a considerable following, in August 1985 the band released its debut extended play, Surfin' on My Face, on ViNil Records.
This was the beginning of a series of releases for the band that netted them a run of 17 consecutive No. 1 listings on the Australian alternative music charts. The band demonstrated an independent punk spirit, with the members deliberately controlling their own careers: recording and promoting themselves, creating their own artwork, choosing support bands and managing the merchandise stand whilst on tour. During 1987 the group were promoted as part of the Australian skate boarding scene. While maintaining a solid if underground following in Australia, The Hard-Ons were popular in Europe, scoring a Top 10 hit in Spain and a Top 5 slot in Greece with their 1989 album, Love is a Battlefield of Wounded Hearts, it reached the Top 5 on the NME chart. In 1989 the group recorded a split EP with British band The Stupids. Two years they teamed up with Henry Rollins and released a cover version of AC/DC's hit, "Let There Be Rock", released in a limited edition on 10" vinyl. In January 1992 the group performed at the inaugural Big Day Out and were joined on-stage by Rollins on four songs.
Following the release of 1993's album, Too Far Gone, after recording a live album for Your Choice Records, the band announced their break up, to pursue projects outside The Hard-Ons' style of music: "after more than ten years of playing the same songs, they were just not interested in doing so any more". During the break-up of The Hard-Ons and Black formed another punk band, Nunchukka Superfly, with Joel Ellis on drums. Nunchukka Superfly released their debut, self-titled album in 1999. Black compared Nunchukka Superfly with The Hard-Ons as "a much heavier and experimental outfit, citing psychedelic, avant-garde, progressive rock, free jazz and dub among the usual inspirations of punk and post-punk". In October 1997 The Hard-Ons played a reunion gig, followed by the release of a new EP, Yesterday and Today, in 1998 and a compilation album, The Best Of, in 1999. In August 2001, ABC-TV broadcast Long Way to the Top; the Hard-Ons featured on "Episode 6: Gathering of the Tribes 1984–2000" where they were described as "an eclectic band of misfits that took up where punk had left off in the early 80s.
Their challenge was to make that sound exciting in the 1990s. There was nothing left but to get downright offensive". Following This Terrible Place... in 2000, the band's first line-up change in twenty years occurred, with de Silva deciding to leave the band during 2001. Black took up full-time vocals and Pete Kostic was brought in on drums. In 2002 The Hard-Ons and Boom Boom Kid issued a shared EP, Split!. In 2003 The Hard-Ons released Very Exciting!, their first album for Chatterbox Records. In 2005, the 21st anniversary of the band's first pub gig was celebrated by Australian and European tours as a four-piece, with Kostic drumming and de Silva on vocals. Although technically a three-piece band, de Silva maintained a close relationship with his old band. Recordings were made in 2006 with contributions from all four – though Black and Kostic – with the intention of releasing a double album; this project was released as two separate albums: the'poppier' Most People Are a Waste of Time and the'heavier' Most People Are Nicer Than Us, with subsequent tours around Australia.
The band recorded with United States comedian Neil Hamburger on guest lead vocals in January 2008. In April 2011, the group announced via their website. On 5 August that yea
Nu metal
Nu metal is a subgenre of alternative metal that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk and grunge. Nu metal bands have drawn elements and influences from a variety of musical styles, including multiple genres of heavy metal. Nu metal features guitar solos. Many nu metal guitarists use seven-string guitars. DJs are featured in nu metal to provide instrumentation such as sampling, turntable scratching and electronic backgrounds. Vocal styles in nu metal include singing, rapping and growling. Nu metal is one of the key genres of the new wave of American heavy metal. Nu metal became popular in the late 1990s with bands and artists such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock all releasing albums that sold millions of copies. Nu metal's popularity continued during the early 2000s, with bands such as Papa Roach, P. O. D. all selling multi-platinum albums, came to a peak with Linkin Park's diamond-selling album Hybrid Theory. However, by the mid-2000s, the oversaturation of bands combined with the under-performance of a number of high-profile releases led to nu metal's decline, leading to the rise of metalcore and many nu metal bands disbanding or abandoning their established sound in favor of other genres.
During the 2010s, there has been a minor nu metal revival. Nu metal is known as nü-metal and aggro-metal, it is a subgenre of alternative metal. MTV states that the early nu metal group Korn "arrived in 1993 into the burgeoning alternative metal scene, which would morph into nü-metal the way college rock became alternative rock." Stereogum has claimed that nu metal was a "weird outgrowth of the Lollapalooza-era alt-metal scene". Nu metal merges elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as grunge, hip hop, alternative rock. Nu metal bands have been influenced by and have used elements of a variety of musical genres, including electronic music, gothic rock, hardcore punk, punk rock, dance music, new wave, post-punk, symphonic rock and synth-pop. Nu metal bands are influenced by and use elements of genres of heavy metal music such as death metal, rap metal, groove metal, funk metal, thrash metal; some nu metal bands, such as Static-X and Dope, made nu metal music with elements of industrial metal.
In contrast with other heavy metal subgenres, nu metal tends to use the same structure of verses and bridges as those in pop music. Nu metal is syncopated and is based on guitar riffs. Mid-song bridges and a general lack of guitar solos contrasts it with other genres of heavy metal. Kory Grow of Revolver wrote, "... N its efforts to tune down and simplify riffs, nu-metal drove a stake through the heart of the guitar solo". Another contrast with other heavy metal genres is nu metal's emphasis on rhythm, rather than on complexity or mood its rhythm sounds like that of groove metal; the wah pedal is featured in nu metal music. Nu metal guitar riffs are similar to those of death metal. Nu metal bassists and drummers are influenced by funk and hip hop adding to nu metal's rhythmic nature. Blast beats, which are common in heavy metal subgenres such as black metal and death metal, are rare in nu metal. Nu metal's similarities with many heavy metal subgenres include its use of common time, distorted guitars, power chords and note structures revolving around Dorian, Aeolian or Phrygian modes.
While loud and distorted electric guitars are a core feature of all metal genres, nu metal guitarists took the sounds of "violence and destruction" to new levels with their overdriven guitar tone, which music journalists Kitts and Tolinski compared to the "...sound a Mack truck being crushed by a collapsing skyscraper."Some nu metal bands use seven-string guitars that are down-tuned, rather than traditional six-string guitars. Some bass guitarists use five-string and six-string instruments. Bass guitar-playing in nu metal features an emphasis on funk elements. In nu metal music, DJs are sometimes featured to provide instrumentation such as sampling, turntable scratching and electronic backgrounds. Nu metal tends to have hip hop rhythms. Vocal styles used in nu metal music include singing, rapping and growling. Vocals in nu metal are rhythmic and influenced by hip hop. Although some nu metal bands, such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park have rapping in their music, some nu metal bands, such as Godsmack and Staind, do not feature rapping.
Nu metal bands feature hip hop musicians as guests in their songs. The hip hop musician Nas was featured on Korn's song "Play Me", on the band's album Take a Look in the Mirror. Limp Bizkit has recorded with multiple hip hop musicians including Method Man, Lil Wayne, Redman, DMX and Snoop Dogg. Linkin Park collaborated with hip hop musician Jay Z on their 2004 extended play Collision Course. Kid Rock has recorded with hip hop musicians Snoop Dogg. Trevor Baker of The Guardian wrote, "Bands such as Linkin Park and the much reviled Limp Bizkit... did far more to break down the artificial barriers between'urban music' and rock than any of their more critically acceptable counterparts." Lyrics in nu metal songs are angry or nihilistic.
Segression
Segression is a heavy metal band from Wollongong, Australia. Their 2000 album "Smile" is still one of the highest selling metal albums released in Australia despite their rocky relationship with the music industry, their latest album'Painted In Blood' featured cover art by infamous blood painter Rev Myers, it was released independently late in 2019. Known as Eezee, the band had recorded an EP in 1993 and the 1995 album Rise From Darkness; the group had played support shows with Morbid Angel, Machine Head and Deicide. The line-up at this time was Sven Sellin, James Broadbent and John Buckley; the group decided to change its name after moving into in a thrash direction in mid-1994. Formed from a conjunction of the words "segregated" and "aggression", Segression announced its new name on New Year's Day 1996 and played its first show, at the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle, a few weeks later. By this time, Broadbent had been replaced by Shane Partridge; some of Broadbent's playing appears on the first album, underway.
A show in Sydney with Fear Factory and a rigid touring schedule that took in several centres in regional New South Wales followed. L. I. A. an abbreviation for lesson in aggression, was released in October 1996. In 1997 Segression continued to tour solidly, featuring on several shows of Mortal Sin's comeback tour at the same time as working on its second album. Fifth of the Fifth took its name from a prediction that the world would end on 5 May 2000 and was released in September; the album consolidated the band's success on the Australian metal scene and saw the introduction of the nu metal elements into their music. During 1998 the group played a national support tour with Ozzy Osbourne and late in the year Buckley was asked to leave due to personal issues, opening the door to Adrian Herbert. Segression toured with Strapping Young Lad soon after, with this new line-up, Segression headlined one of the 1st annual Australian Metal Festivals Metal For The Brain; the band toured nationally with Fear Factory, toured most of Australia doing their own shows or playing smaller festivals.
The part of 1999 was spent writing and recording a new album and playing live rarely. The early part of 2000 was spent touring with Soulfly which culminated in Chris being asked to perform the song "Bleed" with Soulfly at the Sydney Big Day Out; the Smile album surfaced in early 2000 during a national tour with Slipknot. The album was released to critical acclaim on Roadrunner Records' Australian development label Dark Carnival; the relationship with Roadrunner soured immediately and Segression was forced to do all of the promotion for the album itself but due to the hugely successful tour with Slipknot the Smile album went on to become the most successful of their career, to this date it is still one of the highest selling metal albums released in Australia. Segression toured extensively behind the "Smile" album and in fact were voted Best live band, Best Guitarist and Best Vocalist in a public poll held in a high-profile music magazine. After being announced as part of that year's Metal for the Brain festival, Segression decided to withdraw from the show, instead announcing a move to the United States after a final near sold-out Australian tour.
Segression moved to Chicago in early 2001 and played some club shows on their own as well as with Hatebreed and Shadows Fall. Although these shows were a success they were there to write and record new material which ended in a week-long recording session at Chicago's Groove Master Studios where Disturbed and Sevendust had recorded albums, they returned to Australia in May to tour nationally with Corrosion of Conformity. Adrian decided to leave the band after he could no longer dedicate to the band and was replaced by Keith Owen. June 2002 saw the release of the band's fourth album Segression. After a large touring schedule for the album, Segression played a final show in December in Wollongong NSW. After the show the band had gone into the studio to record a follow-up album; this album took a new direction. In late 2003, Segression announced. With the addition of bass player Michael Caruana, all members of Segression created Side Effect X, a melodic heavy rock band; the new band was announced during the 2003 Musicoz Awards and participated in the 2004 Live'n Local unsigned bands competition on Channel Ten's Video Hits.
That group released a single, "Turn the Page" and an album called Life featuring music videos for the songs "Get Off Me", "Waste Of Time" and "Golden Skies". After a few shows and a small push by the band for this album they decided to go their separate ways, leaving both Side Effect X and Segression up in the air with no plans for either band to tour or play shows again. In mid-2009 a new Myspace and Facebook page became active, rumours went around that the band was back together; this was confirmed with an official Facebook page post stating that Singer/Bass Player Chris Rand, Guitarist Shane Partridge and Drummer Adrian had in fact reformed the band and in Oct 2009 the band announced on their Myspace that they will be playing a return show at Sydney's Gaelic Club. Segression's return show on 30 November 2009 was sold out. After the success of this show the band decided to return full-time adding guitarist Michael Katselos with long term guitarist Sven Sellin opting out of the reformation.
In November 2010 Segression were confirmed as the "Special Guests" on the December 2010 Australian east coast tour by Fozzy which features WWE star Chris Jerich
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is faster and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock, its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was inspired by New York punk rock and early proto-punk. New York punk had a harder-edged sound than its San Francisco counterpart, featuring anti-art expressions of masculine anger and subversive humor. Hardcore punk disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics."Hardcore sprouted underground scenes across the United States in the early 1980s in Washington, D. C. New York, New Jersey, Boston—as well as in Australia and the United Kingdom. Hardcore has spawned the straight edge movement and its associated submovements and youth crew.
Hardcore was involved in the rise of the independent record labels in the 1980s and with the DIY ethics in underground music scenes. It has influenced various music genres that have experienced widespread commercial success, including alternative rock and thrash metal. While traditional hardcore has never experienced mainstream commercial success, some of its early pioneers have garnered appreciation over time. Black Flag's Damaged, Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime and Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising were included in Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003 and Dead Kennedys have seen one of their albums reach gold status over a period of 25 years. In 2011, Rolling Stone writer David Fricke placed Greg Ginn of Black Flag 99th place in his 100 Greatest Guitarists list. Although the music genre started in English-speaking western countries, notable hardcore scenes have existed in Italy, Japan and the Middle East. Steven Blush states that the Vancouver-based band D. O.
A.'s 1981 album, Hardcore'81 "...was where the genre got its name." This album helped to make people aware of the term "hardcore". Konstantin Butz states that while the origin of the expression "hardcore" "...cannot be ascribed to a specific place or time", the term is "...usually associated with the further evolution of California's L. A. Punk Rock scene". A September 1981 article by Tim Sommer shows the author applying the term to the "15 or so" punk bands gigging around the city at that time, which he considered a belated development relative to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D. C. Hardcore historian Steven Blush said that the term "hardcore" is a reference to the sense of being "fed up" with the existing punk and new wave music. Blush states that the term refers to "an extreme: the absolute most Punk."Kelefa Sanneh states that the term "hardcore" referred to an attitude of "turning inwards" towards the scene and "ignoring broader society", all with the goal of achieving a sense of "shared purpose" and being part of a community.
Sanneh cites Agnostic Front's band member selection approach as an example of hardcore's emphasis on "scene citizenship". An article in Drowned in Sound argues that 1980s-era "hardcore is the true spirit of punk", because "after all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics", the punk scene consisted only of people "completely dedicated to the DIY ethics". One definition of the genre is "a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock." Like the Oi! subgenre of the UK, hardcore punk can be considered an internal music reaction. Hardcore has been called a "...faster, meaner genre" of punk, a "stern refutation" of punk rock. Steven Blush states that though punk rock had an "unruly edge", "Reagan-era kids demanded something more primal and immediate, with speed and aggression as the starting point."According to one writer, "distressed by the'art'ificiality of much post-punk and the emasculated sellouts of new wave, hardcore sought to strengthen its core punk principles."
Lacking the art-school grace of post-punk, hardcore punk "favor low key visual aesthetic over extravagance and breaking with original punk rock song patterns." Hardcore "...disavows...synthetic technological effects... the recording industry." Around 1980, as punk became "moribund" and radio-friendly, angry "shorn-headed suburban teenagers" discarded new wave's artistic statements and pop music influences and created a new genre, for which there were no places to play, which forced the performers to create independent and DIY venues. Music writer Barney Hoskyns compared punk rock with hardcore and stated that hardcore was "younger and angrier, full of the pent up rage of dysfunctional Orange County adolescents" who were sick of their life in a "bland Republican" area. While the hardcore scene was young white males, both onstage and in the audience, there are notable exceptions, such as the all-African-American band Bad Brains and notable women such as Crass singer Joy de Vivre and Black Flag's second bassist, Kira Roessler.
Steven Blush states that Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye "set in motion a die-hard mindset that begat everything we now call Hardcore" with his "virulent anti- industry, anti-star, pro-scene exhortations." One of the important philosophies in the hardcore scene is authenticity. The
