Boogie Rock

Boogie rock is a music genre which came out of the hard heavy blues-rock of the late 1960s. It tends to feature a repetitive driving rhythm in place of instrumental experimentation found in the more progressive blues-rock bands of the period. Boogie rockers concentrate on the groove, working a steady, chugging back beat, often in shuffle time. Boogie rock can be considered the upbeat form of blues-rock.

One of the first bands to popularize boogie rock worldwide was Canned Heat. The main distinction between bands is their instrumental attack. Boogie rock reached the height of its popularity in the mid to late 1970s. Jerry Lee Lewis, whose boogie-woogie piano style was one of the influences of the genre. Chuck Berry developed a similar style on guitar, and even earlier, artists like John Lee Hooker together with many Blues players, were among the forerunners of Boogie Rock. As it developed through the 1970s, the genre has been described as a mixture of Blues and Chuck Berry, with a lot more band.

Boogie rock started out as a sub-genre of Rock and roll, but evolved into a genre in its own right. It is divided between US style, Southern rock with bands like ZZ Top, Molly Hatchet, Foghat (originally British but moved to the USA in the early 1970s) and Blackfoot, and a European/Australian style with bands like Status Quo, Slade, Nazareth, Spider, Whitesnake (though the band left the style in the mid 1980s), AC/DC and Rose Tattoo. All bands being at their heights in the 1970s and early 1980s.