Piano rock (term)

Piano rock
Stylistic origins	Rock
Cultural origins	1970s
Typical instruments	Piano
Other topics
Glam rock, electronic rock, pop rock, soft rock

Search Piano rock (term) on Amazon.

Piano rock is a catch-all term for any number of rock music genres that make prominent use of the piano in place of or alongside rock music instruments. The style originated in the 1970s with Billy Joel and Elton John making prominent use of the piano in their songs. Piano Man and Rocket Man, by Billy Joel and Elton John respectively, can be considered piano rock's signature tracks.

Later, in the late 1990s–2000s, after a period of decline, artists such as Ben Folds, Coldplay, Keane, and The Fray would all achieve success in piano rock.

History

Early examples (1960s-early 1970s)

Early examples of piano rock can be found in the 1960s. Artists such as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones made prominent use of pianos on some of their albums, such as Let It Be and Between the Buttons. After John Lennon went officially solo following the Beatles breakup, he released the piano-laced track Imagine, which would go on to become his biggest hit, with many artists covering it or being inspired by it.

It Don't Come Easy, a non-album single by the Beatles member Ringo Starr features a prominent piano by Gary Wright. Layla by Derek and the Dominoes in 1971 features an extended piano instrumental as an ending.

1970s

Piano rock originated in the 1970s with Elton John and Billy Joel. Both artists used the piano prominently with various rock styles such as glam rock, pop rock, soft rock, and hard rock, etc. The perhaps signature tracks to piano rock are Piano Man and Rocket Man by the aforementioned artists. Besides Piano Man, Billy Joel also had hits with She's Got a Way, My Life, and Big Shot, etc., while Elton John, besides Rocket Man, had Bennie and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and Candle in the Wind, etc.

Decline

Early 1980s-late 1990s

The piano rock style began to decline in the early 1980s as the synthesizer began to replace the piano in rock music in a style known as synthrock. While Billy Joel and Elton John still featured the piano on certain tracks like I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues and Allentown, they also introduced the synthesizer to many of their tracks to great success. U2 would also prominently feature the piano on New Year's Day, released in 1983, their first successful song.

In 1985, Motley Crue would prominently feature the piano on Home Sweet Home. In 1989, Richard Marx would use the piano prominently alongside the synthesizer in his big hit Right Here Waiting.

Early-mid 1990s

Eric Clapton, on his 1992 cover of Layla originally by his band Derek and the Dominoes, from his MTV Unplugged album, features the piano prominently alongside acoustic instruments. The piano instrumental solo ending from the original is removed in this version, however. Rod Stewart, with a cover of Van Morrison's Have I Told You Lately in 1992, from his MTV Unplugged album Unplugged...and Seated also makes prominent use of the piano. Semisonic's 1995 one-hit wonder Closing Time also makes use of the piano throughout the song as well.

Revival

Late 1990s

After being in decline since the 1980s, piano rock started to regain momentum in the late 1990s. This started with Ben Folds and his group Ben Folds Five, which had a big hit in 1997 with Brick. Aerosmith soon followed in 1998 with the Diane Warren-penned song I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, their only number one song, for the Armageddon (movie) soundtrack.

2000s

In the 2000s, a whole new slate of piano rock bands and artists began to crop up. They were: Coldplay, Keane, The Fray, and Five for Fighting. All of them had many hits throughout the 2000s. Coldplay with Yellow, Clocks, and The Scientist among others, Keane with Somewhere Only We Know and Everybody's Changing among others, The Fray with How to Save a Life, Over My Head (Cable Car), and You Found Me among others, and Five for Fighting with 100 Years, Superman (It's Not Easy), and The Riddle among others.

Besides those artists, several other artists would use the piano in some of their songs like Everclear with Wonderful, Hoobastank with The Reason, Train with Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me), and Jet with Look What You've Done, which itself was criticized for sounding like the Beatles Let It Be and John Lennon's Imagine.

2010s

Piano rock lost some of its momentum in the 2010s. Coldplay continued their successes although only A Sky Full of Stars and Hymn for the Weekend feature the piano, with a lot of their tracks featuring the synthesizer. Disturbed featured the piano on their cover of Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence.

This article "Piano rock (term)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Piano rock (term). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---