History of Rock Opera

A history of rock opera involves a long list of well known names and music projects. The question of where the idea of a rock opera originated is up for debate, but this subgenre of rock music represents how some artists have been able to push creative boundaries and inspire other musicians over the years.

A rock opera is not so different from traditional opera, with the exception that rock music is the foundation. A rock opera is a series of songs that hang together as a group to tell a story. It may be performed live, or it may live only as a recording.

Music historians disagree about where the term “rock opera” comes from. One story involves a 1966 issue of RPM magazine that said that Bruce Cockburn and William Hawkins were working on manipulating some of the songs from their Christopher’s Movie Matinee album into a rock opera.

Another story involves the group that is most linked to the rock opera, The Who. Interestingly enough, this story also takes place in 1966. Legend has it that Pete Townshend played Gratis Amatis, a comedy tape, for some of his friends. One of his friends referred to the tape as rock opera, to which The Who’s producer Kit Lambert replied, “Now, that’s an idea!”.

The term “rock opera” may or may not have been invented by a friend of The Who, but The Who was certainly the first band to release a rock opera. Their track A Quick One While He Is Away is considered to be the first rock opera and tells the story of a seduction during the nine minute track that featured a series of suites.

The Who launched the first rock opera, and shortly after that, they created the most famous: Tommy. Tommy was released in 1969 and marked the first time that “rock opera” was used as a promotional angle for a release. Tommy would go on to become one of the most successful rock operas ever launched. It has subsequently been interpreted for theater, ballet and cinema.

Later than year, The Kinks experimented with their own rock opera. Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) was actually more successful than Tommy at the time of the release and was made into a movie and film production. Over the years, it has not retained the same audience as Tommy.

Then 1970s might be considered the golden age of rock opera. Many musicians experimented in the medium, and rock operas also influenced more traditional theater. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar is one prominent example of the effect of rock opera in musical theater.

The Who and The Kinks both came back with new rock operas in the 1970s. The Who debuted Quadrophenia while The Kinks released three throughout the decade: Preservation: Act One, Preservation: Act Two, Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace.

Other artists to get in on the rock opera craze in the 1970s include:

• David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars)
• Lou Reed (Berlin)
• Queen (Queen II and A Night at the Opera)
• Genesis (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)
• Pink Floyd (The Wall)

After the 1970s, for all intent and purposes, grand rock operas died and were replaced by concept albums (albums made up of songs that share a theme but that the do not necessarily tell a complete story or develop characters as an opera does). Prog-rock bands in particular tend to experiment in this genre. Some goth artists have also experimented with rock operas, though again, not in as clearly defined a manner as the rock operas of the 1960s and 1970s.

A subgenre of rock operas that has appeared since the 1970s is the hip-hopera, which features hip-hop music. Although musically different from rock operas, hip-hoperas adhere to the traditional rock opera framework in terms of storytelling.

Which rock operas do you love? Do you think concept albums should count as rock operas? Let us know!

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