Heartland Rock

Heartland Rock is a late 1970s caused American style of rock music that was prevalent in the 1980s, especially in the U.S. and commercially successful.

The style developed in the Midwest and can be characterized as a mix of folk, country and rock ' n ' roll. Under the influence of various musical models such as the Rolling Stones, the Byrds, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and the garage rock of the 1960s, this typical American style of rock music that did address the everyday life of the white underclass in their lyrics was. As a leading exponent of Heartland rock Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp apply.

The music is rather simple and straightforward structure. The instrumentation is traditional, it usually consists of guitars, drums, bass and keyboards; often the harmonica is used.

The lyrics of this musical genre have a textual reference to the U.S. everyday and go beyond that of the level of pure entertainment music by they address social and community problems. Milestones in the early phase of Heartland rock were the two albums The River ( 1980) and Nebraska ( 1982) by Bruce Springsteen, the protagonists of the songs were part of the white working-class Midwestern, had lost their jobs or simply hope. Also, many musicians of this style dedicated to specific projects to alleviate social distress or to help threatened by dismissal workers, but were these actions - especially in the form of donations and concerts - usually on a humanitarian and charitable level, a clear political position to relate, avoided the musicians. This led, for example, the U.S. presidential campaign in 1984 to the fact that Springsteen was recognized right from the two presidential candidates, Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Walter Mondale, as comrade.

The Style Heartland rock had the biggest commercial successes early and mid- 1980s. Springsteen's big sales success, apart from the hit Hungry Heart in 1980, were especially 1984-1987, being mainly the title Born in the USA developed political relevance. The most commercially successful years of Mellencamp, Petty and Seger fall into the era of Heartland rock.