... return to traditional, largely rural musical styles, with the emergence of country rock. In Britain, a second tendency took the form of a very eclectic transcription of traditional and symphonic musical forms within an electric or electronic rock context, with groups such as King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The third trend, which may be found in both American and British rock music of this period, was towards the heavy metal sound (featuring a predominantly long haired white male audience), frequently based in the chord structures of the blues but retaining from psychedelia an emphasis on technological effect and instrumental virtuosity. In groups on the edge of psychedelia - such as Blue Cheer, The Yardbirds, Cream, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and Iron Butterfly - many of the stylistic traits that would become dominant within heavy metal were already in evidence: the cult of the lead guitarist, the ...

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