Led Zeppelin, British rock band that was extremely popular in the 1970s. Although their musical style was diverse, they came to be well known especially for their influence on the development of heavy metal. The members were Jimmy Page on guitar, Robert Plant on vocals, John Paul Jones on bass and keyboard, and John Bonham on drums.

Formation and influences

Led Zeppelin performed their first concert in September 1968, under the name the New Yardbirds, a spin off of the legendary British blues band the Yardbirds, for which Page was the final lead guitarist. The Yardbirds were in the process of dissolving in 1968 but had remaining contracts to fulfill, prompting Page to assemble a new lineup. Page recruited bassist and keyboard player Jones, who was a veteran studio musician, and vocalist Plant and drummer Bonham, both of whom came from little-known provincial bands. The group was influenced by various kinds of music, including early rock and roll, psychedelic rock, blues, folk, Celtic, Indian, and Arabic music.

Distinctive sound and style

Although acoustic and folk-based music was part of the band’s repertoire from its inception, it was the bottom-heavy, loud, raw, and powerful electric style that gained them their following and notoriety early on; their first two albums included many of the songs that prompted Led Zeppelin’s categorization as a precursor of heavy metal. The heaviness of songs such as “Dazed and Confused,” captured on the band’s first album, Led Zeppelin (1969), and “Whole Lotta Love,” on Led Zeppelin II (1969), was created by Bonham’s enormous drum sound and through Page’s production techniques, in which he emphasized drums and bass, resulting in a sonic spaciousness that has kept the records sounding fresh years after they were made.

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Page and Jones wrote most of the band’s music, while Plant contributed lyrics and some musical ideas. Although Page was responsible for the majority of their signature riffs, Jones wrote the riff for the celebrated “Black Dog,” on the band’s fourth (officially untitled) album, and several other songs. Jones also contributed much to the arrangement of songs. Page’s guitar solos were based primarily on melodic ideas derived from the blues scale (“Heartbreaker” on Led Zeppelin II is a good example), and he is especially known for creating multiple, simultaneous guitar parts—a kind of guitar orchestra—in such songs as “Achilles Last Stand,” recorded on Presence (1976), and “The Song Remains the Same,” the first track on Houses of the Holy (1973). Page is considered one of rock’s guitar heroes, but, because he was more interested in creating a distinctive mood and sound on a recording than in displaying his virtuosity, he frequently chose not to include a guitar solo in Zeppelin songs.

Plant’s voice rounded out Led Zeppelin’s sound. Exaggerating the vocal style and expressive palette of blues singers such as Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, Plant created the sound that has defined much hard rock and heavy metal singing: a high range, an abundance of distortion, loud volume, and emotional excess (“Whole Lotta Love” is a classic example). Plant was, however, capable of a broader stylistic range, including tender ballads (“The Rain Song”) and songs showing the influence of Indian and Arabic vocal styles (“Kashmir”).

Stairway to Heaven

Led Zeppelin’s best-known song is “Stairway to Heaven”; its gentle acoustic beginning eventually builds to an exhilarating climax featuring a lengthy electric guitar solo. This combination of acoustic and electric sections was typical for Page, who from the band’s beginning was interested in juxtaposing what he called “light and shade.” The song appeared on the band’s fourth and most famous album, released untitled, which showed only four runic symbols (intended to represent the band members) on the cover and had the mystical, mythological lyrics to “Stairway” printed on the inner sleeve.

The sense of mystery and ritual that the untitled album created became an important part of the band’s image. They kept their distance from the press and were uninterested in catering to the singles market. Moreover, “Stairway” and several other songs were of epic length by rock standards, and concert improvisations stretched some songs to triple the length of their studio versions. “Stairway to Heaven,” which was never released as a single, is considered one of rock’s greatest songs of all-time.

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Legacy

Thanks in part to their manager, Peter Grant, the band enjoyed phenomenal commercial success throughout the 1970s. While Led Zeppelin never received the kind of critical acclaim or mainstream acceptance accorded the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, their influence on rock music has been prodigious. They are regularly cited as the progenitors of both hard rock and heavy metal. Their sound has been imitated by bands from Black Sabbath to Nirvana. They also inspired hard rock bands to include acoustic elements in their music and were among the first to experiment with Indian and North African music. Page’s style—both his solos and riffs—has served as an important model for most rock guitarists, and Bonham is often cited as the model for metal or hard rock drumming.

Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 after Bonham’s accidental death. The group re-formed for short, one-off performances in 1985 (the Live Aid benefit), 1988 (Atlantic Records’ 40th anniversary concert), and 1995 (the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). Much more momentous was the group’s full-blown concert in London in December 2007 to honor Atlantic’s cofounder Ahmet Ertegun, at which Bonham’s son, Jason, played the drums. Although the Recording Academy had honored Led Zeppelin with a lifetime achievement award in 2005, the group received its first Grammy Award in 2014 for Celebration Day (2012), a live album derived from the 2007 reunion show. In 2012 Led Zeppelin was named a Kennedy Center honoree.