When Led Zeppelin ruled the world

Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 by guitarist Jimmy Page, with an eventual line-up of legendary front-man Robert Plant, Drummer John Bonham and bassist John Paul Jones in London. The band’s popularity was undeniable following the successes of their first four, self titled chronologically named albums, which established the band’s unique sound which incorporated elements of blues, folk and even eastern elements. The band could justifiably claim to have been the biggest act of the 1970s, with an early ending due to the unfortunate and tragic passing of Bonham.

The band had a tight grip on the musical scene in the 1970s both due to a financial success, as well as a musical ingenuity expressed by their inventive musical endeavours. Although their musical style mainly stemmed from blues, they had experimented (quite successfully so) with the incorporation of foreign, more eastern elements into their songs. One of the most prominent examples of such concepts comes in the form of one of the band’s most successful pieces, titled Kashmir, inspired by (and gained production ideas for) in 1972 from a trip to Mumbai, where Page and Plant worked with various Indian musicians for a recording session. The band has established their own unique sound, whilst having a musically diverse catalogue of songs. It has been noted that “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”.

The diversity of Led Zeppelin’s music had an undeniable effect on their popularity. This is evident in their immense commercial success, leading to the combined sales of over 41 million copies of their various records, putting the band on the list of Business Insider’s top 50 best selling albums on three separate ranks, and a grand total of 7 Grammy awards, as well as multiple diamond and platinum album awards, and have even gone on to win the Grammy, and various other lifetime achievement awards.[1]

Whilst never rising to the level of mainstream popularity as other contemporary artists, such as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, they are often viewed as the “progenitors of both hard rock and heavy metal”.[2]

The influence of Led Zeppelin reached far and led way to the emergence of such bands as Metallica or the much more recent formation, called Greta Van Fleet.