Def Leppard

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Def Leppard
Nước: Anh
Tình trạng : Đang hoạt động
Năm hoạt động: Từ 1977 đến nay
Thể loại nhạc: Hard Rock
Loại đĩa:
Thành viên hiện tại: Joe Elliott
Rick Savage
Rick Allen
Phil Collen
Vivian Campbell
Thành viên cũ: Steve Clark
Pete Willis
Tony Kenning
Frank Noon


Def Leppard là một ban nhạc hard rock được thành lập năm 1977 tại Sheffield nước Anh, là thành viên của phong trào New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Nhờ hai album kinh điển là Pyromania ra đời năm 1983 và Hysteria ra đời năm 1987 mà Def Leppard trở thành một trong những ban nhạc rock ăn khách nhất thập niên 1980.

Mục lục

[sửa] Âm nhạc

Nhạc Def Leppard chơi pha trộn giữa các thể loại hard rock, glam rock, Album Oriented Rock, và heavy metal. Ban nhạc này thường được gắn với phong trào pop metal của thập niên 1980 dù đúng ra loại nhạc của họ thuộc phong trào New Wave of British Heavy Metal thịnh hành trong thập niên 1970.

[sửa] Music

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The music of Def Leppard is a mixture of hard rock, glam rock, AOR, and heavy metal elements. The band has occasionally been associated with the pop metal movement of the 1980s, although its sound is more accurately associated with the contemporary NWOBHM genre of the late 1970s. The band's songs generally feature simple guitar hooks and catchy, melodic choruses. The Def Leppard sound is also characterized by its combination of hard rock and polished melodic backing vocals.

By the release of the Hysteria record, it was apparent that the band had developed a distinctive, futuristic sound featuring heavily processed drums and effects-laden "space-aged" guitar sounds, overlaid with a layered wall of husky, harmonized vocals. Def Leppard are considered a classic example of the rock sound of the 1980s. Def Leppard is one of only five rock bands with two original albums selling over 10 million copies each in the U.S. The others are The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Van Halen.

[sửa] Lịch sử

[sửa] Những năm đầu tiên: 1977-1979

Rick Savage (bass), Pete Willis (ghita) và Tony Kenning (trống) đã lập nên ban nhạc ( với cái tên gốc là "Atomic Mass") ở Sheffield năm 1977. Joe Elliott trong một lần gặp Willis sau đó đã tới ban nhạc chơi thử vai ghita. Nhưng buổi tử đã đi đến quyết định là anh hợp với vai ca sĩ chính hơn.

Ngay sau đó họ lấy tên ban là "Deaf Leopard" mà Elliot đã nghĩ ra ở trường học. Tony Kenning đề nghị đổi một chút từ Deaf Leopard thành Def Leppard để tránh bị so sánh với những ban nhạc punk. Cũng có thể cái tên này đặt theo kiểu tên của ban Led Zeppelin.

Trong khi hoàn thiện cách chơi nhạc của nhóm trong một nhà máy làm muỗng họ đã nhận thêm một cây ghita nữa là Steve Clark vào tháng 1 năm 1978. Kenning đột nhiên rời nhóm trước khi họ thu âm ba bài hát EP cuối năm 1978. Frank Noon thế chỗ Kenning trong cái sau này được gọi là Def Leppard EP.

Lượng bán ra của EP tăng lên nhanh chóng sau khi DJ trứ danh John Peel của đài phát thanh BBC nhận xét tổng quát về bài hát "Getcha Rocks Off" là bài hát hay nhất của thể loại punk rock và nhạc new wave. Tay tống 15 tuổi Rick Allen bắt đầu dành toàn bộ thời gian cho nhóm vào tháng 11 năm 1978. Suốt năm 1979 nhóm chiếm được sự trung thành của người hâm mộ hard rock/heavy metal tại Anh và được xem là nhóm dẫn đầu của nhạc New Wave of Heavy Metal tại Anh quốc. Sự nổi tiếng tăng lên đã dẫn đến kết quả một thỏa thuận với nhãn Phonogram/Vertigo thuộc hãng đĩa Mercury tại Hoa Kỳ.


[sửa] Thành công vang dội: 1980-1983

Hình:Defleppard.jpeg
Def Leppard, 1978 – 1982. L to R: Rick Savage (bass), Joe Elliot (vocals), Steve Clark (guitars), Pete Willis (guitars), Rick Allen (drums)

Album đầu tiên của Def Leppard tựa là "On through the night" phát hành ngày 14 tháng 03 năm 1980. Dù lọt vào Top 15 tại Anh nhưng nhiều người hâm mộ đã thôi không ủng hộ nhóm do cái cách không hay của nhóm cứ gắng sức lôi kéo thính giả Mỹ. Bằng chứng là một bài hát trong album lấy tên "Hello America", còn nhóm thì đi lưu diễn tại Hoa Kỳ nhiều hơn tại Anh. Thái độ phản đối lên đến cực điểm tại lễ hội Reading trong tháng tám khi khán giả ném rác vào ban nhạc trong lúc họ đang diễn.

Nhìn lại lúc đó có thể thấy sự thống đối này không hợp lý. Vì ban nhạc chỉ tận dụng cơ hội mà hầu hết những nhóm rock trẻ tại Anh quốc lúc ấy không có được. Nhưng sự đỗ vỡ đã xảy ra và phải mất một thời gian Def Leppard mới chiếm lại cảm tình của người hâm mộ quê nhà.



The band then caught the attention of AC/DC producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who agreed to work on their second album, High 'N' Dry. Lange's painfully meticuluous approach in the studio greatly improved on Def Leppard's potential from On Through The Night.

Despite mediocre album sales, the "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" promo clip became one of the first "metal" videos played on MTV in 1982, and this brought increasing visibility (and momentum) to the band in the States.

Phil Collen, former guitarist with the glam band Girl, replaced Pete Willis who was fired on July 11, 1982, due to excessive alcohol consumption on the job (Willis later resurfaced with the bands Gogmagog and Roadhouse). This personnel change took place during the recording of their third release, Pyromania, released on May 20, 1983, which was also produced by Lange.

The song "Photograph" turned Def Leppard into household names, knocking off Michael Jackson's Beat It as the most requested video clip on MTV, and becoming a staple of rock radio (dominating the US Album Rock Charts for six weeks) while hitting #12 on the pop charts.

Fueled by "Photograph" and subsequent singles "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'", Pyromania went on to sell six million copies in 1983, then going to sell ten million copies in the U.S. in 2004, and was held off the top of the US album charts only by Michael Jackson's Thriller. The album has since been certified Diamond by the RIAA in the US, and is considered both a classic in both the mainstream rock and heavy metal genres.

Def Leppard's US tour in support of Pyromania began by opening for Billy Squier in March, and ended with an audience of 55,000 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, CA in September.

As a testament of the band's popularity at the time, a US Gallup poll in 1984 saw Def Leppard voted in as favorite rock band over peers such as the Rolling Stones and Journey. Conversely, the band could not be any less popular in their native UK, a fact that greatly bothered them.

[sửa] 1984 – 1989 / Mass Hysteria

Following their big break, the band moved to Dublin in 1984 to begin writing for the follow-up to Pyromania. Mutt Lange initially joined in on the sessions, but declined to return as producer due to exhaustion. Instead, Jim Steinman (producer of Meat Loaf), was brought in.

The Leppard-Steinman pairing was a disaster, as Steinman's production ideas were totally at odds with those that Lange had instilled in the band. This quickly led to his being fired, with Lange's assistant Nigel Green taking over, with no more productive results.

On December 31 1984, tragedy first struck the band when Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash on the A57 outside Sheffield when his speeding Corvette veered off the road into a concrete wall. Despite the severity of the accident, Rick was committed to continuing his role as Def Leppard's drummer. He practiced drumming with pillows, and realized that he could use his legs to do some of the percussive work previously done with his arms. He then worked with Simmons to design a custom electronic drum kit.

The other members of the band fully stood behind Rick's determination and never sought a replacement. During his recovery, Mutt Lange eventually returned to the fold as producer, and Rick's triumphant comeback was sealed at the 1986 Donington Monsters of Rock festival, with a emotionally charged ovation upon his introduction by Joe Elliott.

Def Leppard's fourth album, Hysteria, was finally released on August 3 1987. The first single from the album, "Animal", reached #6 in the UK and finally made the band into stars in their home country. Hysteria immediately topped the charts in its first week of release.

US album sales were relatively slow (compared to Pyromania) until the fourth single, "Pour Some Sugar On Me". The song went to Number 2 in the US, and a full year after its release, Hysteria finally went to Number One on the US Album Charts in the summer of 1988. In October, the power ballad "Love Bites" would become Def Leppard's first (and only) Number One single on the Billboard Hot 100, and in January 1989 the band scored another US Top 5 hit with "Armageddon It".

Hysteria is one of only a handful of albums (and the third in rock history) that has charted seven singles or more on the US Hot 100: "Women" (#80), "Animal" (#19), "Hysteria" (#10), "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (#2), "Love Bites" (#1), "Armageddon It" (#3) and "Rocket" (#12). It remained on the charts for three years and has sold over 12 million copies in the US alone.

Equally as successful (if not infamous) was the accompanying Hysteria world tour which ran for 15 months and saw Def Leppard perform "In The Round". The concept proved wildly popular with fans, as evidenced in the videos for Pour Some Sugar On Me and "Armageddon It" (and was used again for the Adrenalize tour).

By decade's end, although contemporaries like U2, Guns N' Roses and Bon Jovi garnered more mainstream exposure, Def Leppard was in fact the best selling rock band of the 80's.

[sửa] 1990 – 1999 / Rock Survivors

Hình:X 05 1.jpg
Def Leppard's current lineup, 1992 – present.
L to R: Rick Savage, Phil Collen, Joe Elliott, Vivian Campbell, and Rick Allen

After Hysteria's mammoth success and tour, the band quickly set out to work on their fifth album, hoping to avoid another lengthy absence between albums. However, Steve Clark's alcoholism worsened to the point where he was constantly in and out of rehab. Recording sessions suffered from this distraction, and in mid-1990 Steve was given a six-month leave of absence from the band.

Sadly, this culminated in Steve's death from an accidental mixing of prescription drugs and alcohol on January 8, 1991. The other band members decided to temporarily carry on as a four-piece, with Phil playing Steve's intended guitar parts.

Def Leppard's fifth album Adrenalize was finally released in April 1992. The album simultaneously entered at Number One on both the UK and US album charts, staying there for 5 weeks on the latter.

The first single, "Let's Get Rocked", was an instant smash hit and the accompanying video was later nominated for Best Video of the Year at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. Adrenalize yielded a total of six hit singles around the world.

However, the rise of grunge in 1992 began to eat into the popularity of more established rock groups. Although Adrenalize sold 6 million copies in the US, it did not have the chart longevity of its two predecessors. In addition, many fans saw the album as a weaker, lighter version of Hysteria. Mutt Lange, who had co-written all but one of the tracks, was credited as executive producer for Adrenalize.

In April 1992, accclaimed hard rock guitarist Vivian Campbell joined Def Leppard. Campbell had previously been in Sweet Savage, Dio, Whitesnake, Trinity, Riverdogs, and Shadow King. Shortly afterwards, he made his live debut with his new band at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held at Wembley Stadium. Def Leppard performed three songs: "Animal", "Let's Get Rocked" and Queen's "Now I'm Here" (with Brian May). In the second half of the concert, Joe Elliott sang another Queen song, "Tie Your Mother Down", with the surviving Queen members and Slash of Guns N' Roses.

A collection of b-sides and unreleased tracks recorded between 1984 and 1993, Retro Active, was released in October 1993. It was preceded by the chart success of the acoustic ballad "Two Steps Behind", originally featured in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero.

Another Retro Active acoustic ballad, "Miss You In A Heartbeat", hit the Top 5 in Canada, becoming one of the band's biggest hits in that country.

Two years later, the band issued its first greatest-hits collection, Vault: Def Leppard's Greatest Hits (1980-1995), which would go on to sell over 2 million copies. The compilation included a new track, the ballad "When Love & Hate Collide", which became their biggest ever hit in the UK, hitting #2. However, in a reversal of fortunes, the single did not hit the Top 40 in the US.

The next Leppard album, the first on which Campbell would actively collaborate in the songwriting and recording, was Slang, released in 1996. Slang was a drastic musical departure from their traditional hard rock, melody-heavy sound, and had an altogether darker and grungier feel. While the album was not well-received by most fans, Q Magazine would feature it on their list of Top Ten Albums of 1996, and it is still one of the band's favorite albums.

Just when the 90's seemed to mark the beginning of the end for Def Leppard, VH1 revived the band's fortunes in 1998 by featuring them on one of the initial episodes of Behind The Music. The documentary, including interviews with past and present members, told of their compelling tale, and renewed interest in the band in the US (although they still had strong fan bases in Canada, Japan, and the UK). The episode remains one of the most popular in the Behind The Music series, and was even parodied on Saturday Night Live.

Also in the meantime, the spoken line intro from "Rock Of Ages" was now being heard on The Offspring's Pretty Fly (for a White Guy), the biggest hit single of their career.

Next came the album Euphoria in 1999. The first single, "Promises", reunited the band with former producer Mutt Lange, and hit the top of the US mainstream rock charts for three weeks. Another track, "Demolition Man", also featured guest guitar work from Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill, a fan of the group. The return to the classic Def Leppard hard rock sound proved a hit with both fans old and new as Euphoria was quickly awarded for gold sales over 500,000 units in the US.

[sửa] 2000 – Present / New Beginnings

On September 5, 2000, Def Leppard was inducted into the RockWalk of Fame, on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard inducted by their longtime friend Brian May of Queen.

In 2001 VH1 produced and aired Hysteria - The Def Leppard Story, a biopic starring Orlando Seale as Joe Elliott, Tat Whalley as Rick Allen, Anthony Michael Hall as Mutt Lange and Karl Geary as Steve Clark. The movie covered the band's history between 1977 through 1986, from formation to the tragedies of Rick Allen's accident and Steve Clark's battles with alcoholism to Rick's triumphant comeback. It was broadcast that summer to some of the channel's highest-ever ratings. The movie was subsequently released on DVD in January 2005.

Def Leppard's tenth album, simply titled "X", was released in July 2002. It saw the band's musical direction moving more towards pop and further away from the band's hard rock roots. In fact, some tracks were written and produced by people who'd worked with Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.

The first single from the album, "Now", featured a video depicting the "adventures" of a classic Def Leppard Union Jack shirt between 1983 and 2002. Although it was greeted with generally positive reviews, X quickly disappeared from the charts. However, the accompanying tour played to the band's strongest audiences since the Adrenalize period.

An expanded and updated greatest-hits CD, Best Of, was released in October 2004 around the world. The North America-only version, renamed Rock Of Ages - The Definitive Collection, was released on May 17 the following year. The compilations went platinum in Canada, the US and the UK.

In 2005, Def Leppard participated at the Live 8 show in Philadelphia, and toured baseball stadiums with Bryan Adams in the summer. The year also saw the band leave their longtime management team, Q-Prime, to sign with HK Management (Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz).

Hình:Bandpic2006.jpg
Def Leppard's current lineup in 2006

On May 23 2006, Def Leppard released an all-covers album titled Yeah!. The disc pays homage to the musical heroes of their childhood, with songs by David Bowie (Drive-In Saturday), The Kinks (Waterloo Sunset), Blondie (Hanging On The Telephone), Electric Light Orchestra (10538 Overture), among others.

Def Leppard is also set to embark on a summer tour headlining various rock festivals in Europe, followed by an amphitheater tour with Journey in the US. Along with KISS, Queen, and Judas Priest, the band was selected as one of the inaugural inductees on the "VH1 Rock Honors" show, to be broadcast on VH1 May 31, 2006.

They will be performing two dates in England: one in London and another in their hometown of Sheffield.

[sửa] Influence

Much like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple served as a template for most hard rock artists in the 70's, Def Leppard were pioneers for their unique brand of melodic hard rock in the 80s, sometimes referred to as "pop metal", that influenced a generation of bands in their decade, and beyond.

Prior to Pyromania, hard rock was restricted to a mostly male following with limited to no mainstream success. When the five young, photogenic members of Def Leppard arrived on MTV, the image added a large female following to the audience, but the music remained loyal to the influences of hard rock and glam metal with a radio-friendly edge, courtesy of Mutt Lange.


It wasn't long before other young bands started also hitting MTV (Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Ratt). While the look was more outrageous (notably the hair) in some cases, the music indisputably followed Leppard's lead, and was now crossing over onto the pop charts with greater frequency and success.

For the rest of the decade, many "pop metal" bands would come and go, some with lasting popularity (Bon Jovi, Poison, Queensryche) while others not so much (Cinderella, Slaughter, Warrant). No other group outsold Def Leppard, even with a more frequent output of albums.

Ironically, the legion of Leppard soundalike bands would indirectly cause its own fall at the dawn of the 90s. Pop metal bands were now being churned out like a factory, armed with the power ballad sure-fire hit and generic party tunes on mostly mediocre albums. Fans would grow tired of the formula, and drifted towards grunge and alternative rock bands with a totally opposite image and style.

However, Leppard would be one of the prime targets of derision in this backlash, to some extent unfairly so since they were not the worst purveyors of pop metal excesses. Their fan base would drastically shrink within a couple of years.

Even if the music scene had virtually erased the band from existence by the mid-90's, more and more artists began citing Def Leppard as an influence. Some of the names included Dave Grohl, Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) and Dexter Holland (The Offspring).

Whereas some critics wished to pass off Def Leppard as only a guilty pleasure, their songs had in fact set a standard for rock bands who wanted to incorporate a melodic edge into their otherwise heavier style of rock with little artistic compromise. In recent years, newer stars such as Nickelback, System of a Down, The Darkness, All-American Rejects and even artists in other genres like Justin Timberlake, Allison Krauss and Faith Hill have expressed the same admiration.


[sửa] Side Projects

Phil Collen played guitar, uncredited, on Sam Kinison's "Wild Thing" from 1988. The video featured members of Poison, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith.

Collen produced and played on the 1991 album On The Edge from Australian band BB Steal.

Joe Elliott sang lead vocals on two tracks on Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood's 1992 solo album, Slide On This. His then-wife Karla even appeared in one of Ron's videos.

Various members of Def Leppard have played on tribute records for Jeff Beck, AC/DC and Alice Cooper.

Elliott also contributed two tracks to the soundtrack of the 1996 Sheffield-set motion picture, When Saturday Comes, the title track and an instrumental, "Jimmy's Theme".

Collen and Elliott were both involved in the side project Cybernauts, a tribute to the David Bowie-Mick Ronson Ziggy Stardust era, featuring members from the Spiders from Mars. The group released one Japan-only live album, which was subsequently released online with additional studio material. Both albums were limited edition and have since been deleted.

Phil Collen has a side band called Man-Raze, which released its single on October 31, 2005.

Vivian Campbell has two side bands, Clock and the Riverdogs, and recorded a solo album, Two Sides of If, released in 2005.

[sửa] Personnel

[sửa] Current members

  • Joe Elliott - vocals (1977-present)
  • Phil Collen - guitar (1982-present)
  • Vivian Campbell - guitar (1992-present)
  • Rick Savage - bass (1977-present)
  • Rick Allen - drums and percussion (1978-present)

[sửa] Past members

  • Pete Willis - guitar (1977-1982)
  • Tony Kenning - drums
  • Frank Noon - drums ("Def Leppard EP" sessions, 1978)
  • Steve Clark - guitar (1977-1991)

[sửa] Influences

  • Queen
  • Thin Lizzy
  • Sweet
  • T. Rex
  • Led Zeppelin
  • AC/DC
  • Mott The Hoople
  • Judas Priest
  • UFO
  • KISS

[sửa] See also

  • Def Leppard discography
  • List of best-selling music artists
  • Terror Twins - Steve Clark and Phil Collen together

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