762 articles
Rock or Bust
Rock or Bust is AC/DC's 15th international studio album (16th counting Australian releases), released November-December 2014. First album with Stevie Young replacing Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar; produced by Brendan O'Brien in Vancouver; 11 songs in 34 minutes.
Rock You Like a Hurricane
Rock You Like a Hurricane is a 1984 hard rock song by Germany's Scorpions, lead single of Love at First Sting. Written by Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine, and Herman Rarebell, it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the 1980s' most licensed metal anthems.
Rocka Rolla
Rocka Rolla is Judas Priest's debut album, released September 6, 1974 on Gull, produced by Rodger Bain, recorded live in London studios; the band criticized its sound and omitted songs later appeared on Sad Wings of Destiny.
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is an early rock and roll style from the mid-1950s American South, blending country (hillbilly) music with rhythm and blues; born at Sun Records with Elvis Presley, defined by slapped upright bass and bluesy lead guitar.
Rocks (Aerosmith album)
Rocks, Aerosmith's fourth studio album (Columbia, May 3, 1976), produced by Jack Douglas and the band, reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, was the band's first platinum album, and is widely ranked their finest record.
Rocksteady
Rocksteady: Jamaican popular music style of roughly 1966–1968, between ska and reggae; half-speed ska with prominent bass, piano for trombone, vocal trios like the Heptones and Paragons, Alton Ellis and Ken Boothe as key figures.
Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey (born 1944), English singer and actor, founder and lead vocalist of the Who from its 1961 origins in the Detours, with a parallel solo career since 1973, including the hit "Giving It All Away"; distinguished from namesakes by his Who frontman role, 1990 Rock Hall induction, and 2026 "A Great Night Out" solo tour.
Roger Troutman
Roger Troutman (1951-1999), known as Roger, American funk singer, songwriter, and producer, founder and lead vocalist of Zapp; famed for talk-box-led funk, "More Bounce to the Ounce," the solo hit "I Want to Be Your Man," and heavy sampling in hip hop.
Roger Waters
Roger Waters is the English bassist, singer, and songwriter who co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965 and wrote its 1973-1983 concept albums including Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, then left in 1985, lost his lawsuit over the band name, and built a solo and activist career.
Roland TR-808
Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, the 1980 fully analog drum machine (about 12,000 units, discontinued 1983) whose bridged-T kick and synthetic voices defined hip-hop, electro, and trap after secondhand prices collapsed.
Roll the Bones
Roll the Bones is Rush's fourteenth studio album, released September 3, 1991 on Atlantic, produced by Rupert Hine, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, certified platinum, and known for its rap-inflected title track and mortality-themed lyrics.
Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, also issued as "The Immortals," is a peer-voted ranking of rock-era artists by 55 musicians and executives, published 2004–2005 and updated in 2011, topped by the Beatles and Bob Dylan.
Room on Fire
Room on Fire is The Strokes' second studio album (RCA, October 2003), produced by Gordon Raphael after scrapped Nigel Godrich sessions; 11 tracks in 33 minutes, Metacritic 77, Platinum, UK number 2, later reappraised with Pitchfork's 9.2.
Roots rock
Roots rock: American rock style blending country, blues, R&B, rock and roll, and folk; arose late 1960s (CCR, Dylan, The Band), revived mid-1980s, overlaps alt-country and Americana.
Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers (1940–2025), American jazz-funk vibraphonist and Roy Ayers Ubiquity leader; 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine' (1976) sampled by Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, 2Pac; 12 Billboard 200 albums.
Rude boy
Rude boy (rudie, rudy): Jamaican youth subculture from 1960s Kingston, unemployed young men in sharp tonic suits and pork-pie hats, subject of ska and rocksteady records, later influencing British skinheads and two-tone ska.
Rufus (band)
Rufus (band): American funk and soul band from Chicago, active 1971–1983, that launched Chaka Khan; hits "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing", and "Ain't Nobody", two Grammy wins. Distinct from the Australian electronic trio Rüfüs du Sol.
Ryan Ross
Ryan Ross (George Ryan Ross III, born 1986, Summerlin, Nevada) is an American guitarist and songwriter, founding lyricist of Panic! at the Disco, later of The Young Veins (Take a Vacation!, 2010) and the 2019 Dead End Kids Club.
Sampler (musical instrument)
Sampler (musical instrument) is an electronic device that records and stores digital sound samples, allowing playback from a keyboard while supporting looping, editing, and sound-shaping.
Sampling (music)
Sampling (music): reusing fragments of existing sound recordings in new works, central to hip-hop and electronic music; involves two copyrights, MPC60/SP-1200 hardware, Grand Upright v. Warner, and sample clearance costs.
Sass (music)
Sass, or sasscore, is a loose post-hardcore and screamo style from late-1990s/early-2000s North America, marked by lisping flamboyant vocals, danceable rhythms, chaotic guitars, synths, and a 2020s revival.
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), also called Scary Monsters, is David Bowie's 14th studio album, released 12 September 1980 by RCA, produced with Tony Visconti, topping the UK chart with the singles Ashes to Ashes and Fashion.
Schlager music
Schlager (German for "hit") is a European popular-music genre with light, catchy melodies and sentimental German lyrics, shaped in 19th-century sheet music culture, postwar West Germany, and Eurovision, with stars like Helene Fischer.
School's Out (album)
School's Out (1972) is the fifth studio album by the Alice Cooper band on Warner Bros., produced by Bob Ezrin. Its title single hit No. 1 in the UK and No. 7 in the US; the album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million copies.
Scott Stapp
Scott Stapp (born 1973, Orlando, Florida; birth name Anthony Scott Flippen) is an American singer, lead vocalist of Creed and Grammy-winning co-writer of "With Arms Wide Open"; solo albums include The Great Divide and Higher Power.
Screamo
Screamo, also called skramz, is an aggressive early-1990s subgenre of emo and hardcore punk from San Diego, defined by continuous screamed vocals, dissonant guitars, and very short songs, pioneered by Heroin and Gravity Records.
Second British Invasion
The Second British Invasion was the early-1980s wave of UK new wave and synth-pop acts, including Duran Duran, Culture Club, and Eurythmics, that dominated US charts via MTV, peaking in 1983-1984 with record Billboard shares of British hits.
Sexy, Sexy, Sexy
Sexy, Sexy, Sexy is a 1973 funk single by James Brown with The J.B.'s, from the blaxploitation soundtrack Slaughter's Big Rip-Off on Polydor; it peaked at No. 6 US R&B and No. 50 pop. Distinct from later same-titled songs by Janet Jackson's refrain and Kirani Ayat.
Shake Your Money Maker (album)
Shake Your Money Maker, The Black Crowes' 1990 debut album on Def American, produced by George Drakoulias; hits "Jealous Again," "Hard to Handle," "She Talks to Angels"; five-times platinum in the US.
Shibuya-kei (渋谷系)
Shibuya-kei (渋谷系, "Shibuya style") is a 1990s Japanese pop microgenre and subculture from Tokyo's Shibuya district, led by Flipper's Guitar and Pizzicato Five, defined by sampling of imported Western retro-pop rather than a single sound.