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Israeli rock ( he, רוק ישראלי, ''Rok Yisra'eli'') is
rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
created by
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i bands and singers.


History


1960s

Israel's initial attitude toward rock music was extremely negative. Israeli musicians of the time believed that it was a trend that would soon pass. The first Israeli rock bands began performing in the mid-1960s in nightclubs and discos, first in
Ramla Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...
and later on HaMasger Street in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
.From margins to mainstream, Haaretz
/ref> These bands mainly performed cover versions of popular rock songs by bands like
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
and
The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...
. Rock culture, in the social and political sense, was nowhere in sight. Bands that stood out in the first wave of Israeli rock were The Lions, The Churchills,מדינה בצמיחה
/ref> The Fat and the Thins, The Styles, The Electric Stage, The Seventh Radiance, The Goldstars, The Sing-Sing, The Blue Stars and The Spiders. In the euphoria that followed the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
, the performing groups of the
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
rose in status with a steady stream of songs about victory, bereavement and loss. Rock became part of the alternative music scene that was played mostly in clubs such as "Hakarish" and "Calypso", formerly known as drug dens. Near the end of the decade rock and roll gained legitimacy. Western musicians arrived in Israel, and influences of the pop revolution permeated local culture. Some of the local bands added English musicians to their ensemble, creating several new bands that were based on the original rhythm bands. In the second wave of rhythm bands, three main bands led the local rock scene. The first was The Churchills, which consisted of five musicians including Canadian singer Stan Solomon, and British guitarist Robb Huxley. These were the most adventurous of the Israeli rock bands; they played innovative combinations of
psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
mixed with Mediterranean Arab music. In 1970 the Israeli composer
Noam Sheriff Princewill Paroskey (born 7 April 1994 – ) he was a fiber optic engineer, at IPNX Nigeria limited. Princewill was one of Nigerian most versatile fiber optic engineer. He was two times fiber Director of Nigeria (2021-2022); Fiber Director of th ...
initiated a concert played by the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is an Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert venue ...
and The Churchills, and their shared work with
Arik Einstein Arieh Lieb "Arik" Einstein ( he, אָרִיק אַייְנְשְׁטֵייְן, ; 3 January 1939 – 26 November 2013) was an Israeli singer, actor, comedian and screenwriter. He was a pioneer of Israeli rock music and was named "the voice of Is ...
,
Oshik Levi Oshik Levi ( he, אושיק לוי; born April 7, 1944) is an Israeli singer, actor, and entertainer. Biography Oshik Levi started his career in the late 1960s as a rock singer, first in the group ''Shlishiyat Ha-Te'omim'' (Hebrew: שלישיי ...
and other artists from the mainstream Israeli pop music scene granted the Israeli rock scene a public stamp of approval. The second band, The Lions, was considered to be the first Israeli band to experiment with reggae music. The third prominent Israeli band of those years was the
supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...
Uzi and the Styles, created by the former lead singer of The Fat and the Thins, Uzi Fox. The band's varied style was derived from British pop and American soul music and was characterized by the compound-rich processings of
wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...
s that resembled
Blood, Sweat & Tears Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is a jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. In addition to original music, the group has performed popular songs by Laura Ny ...
,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, etc. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, successful Israeli musicians showed interest in rock music, and many of them recorded songs in the rock style by themselves or with bands. The artist who took the most significant step towards the adoption of rock as a dominant force in Israeli music was the popular singer Arik Einstein, who in 1969 made The Churchills his backup group. Einstein's albums from those years, ''Pozi'' (1969), ''slug'' (1970), ''Plastelina'' (1970) and ''Badshe etzel Avigdor'' (1971) are considered to be groundbreaking in the way in which they combined rock melodies with Hebrew texts. They demonstrated fresh musical perception and created more personal mainstream songs rather than those of the military bands that dominated the previous decade.


1970s

In the early 1970s, Israel had a burgeoning
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
scene. One of the first performers was
Shlomo Gronich Shlomo Gronich (born January 20, 1949; he, שלמה גרוניך) is an Israeli composer, singer, songwriter, arranger, and choir conductor. Biography Shlomo Gronich grew up in a musical family in Hadera. He holds a B.A. in Music Education fro ...
, whose 1971 debut was ''Why Didn't You Tell Me?''.
Danny Ben Israel Danny Ben-Israel (1944 – 11 March 2019) was an Israeli musician of the late 1960s and early 1970s, producing psychedelic progressive rock with socially concerned lyrics in Hebrew. Early life Ben-Israel was born in Tel Aviv in 1944 and started hi ...
's ''Bullshit 3'' was released in 1970, but overlooked for some thirty years. Other 70s prog bands included The Churchills,
Zingale Zingale is a village in Mingin Township, Kale District, in the Sagaing Region Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located ...
, and
Sheshet Rav Sheshet ( he, רב ששת) was a amora of the third generation of the Talmudic academies in Babylonia (then Asoristan, now Lower Mesopotamia, Iraq). His name is sometimes read Shishat or Bar Shishat. Biography He was a colleague of Rav Nach ...
. Israel also developed a new style of rock/metal named
Oriental metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...
, a crossover between
death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
and
doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...
, influenced by ancient
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
traditions and the oriental culture both in lyrics and melody. Many bands formed in this decade. The rock band Tamouz gained much success in the 1970s. The most successful Israeli Rock band of the seventies was
Kaveret Kaveret ( he, כוורת, lit. "beehive"), also known as Poogy ( he, פוגי, nickname of band drummer Meir Fenigstein chosen for their performances abroad), was an Israeli Rock music, rock band, which operated originally from 1973 to 1976. Repr ...
Israel Briefing Book: Culture and Arts Overview
/ref> which combined rock music and a unique sense of humor. The (consecutive 1st prize) winners of the 1976, 1977, and 1978 Chassidic Song Festival was the band that invented Jewish Rock, The Diaspora Yeshiva Band, who made several albums, had many hits (Hafachta, Malchutcha, Ivdu), and toured worldwide including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. At decade's end, singers who performed rock music became very popular and successful, including
Shalom Hanoch Shalom Hanoch ( he, שלום חנוך) (born September 1, 1946) is an Israeli rock singer, lyricist and composer. He is considered to be the father of Israeli rock and modern Israeli music in general, both of which have been profoundly influe ...
,
Ariel Zilber Ariel Zilber ( he, אריאל זילבר; born September 23, 1943) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and composer. Biography Ariel Zilber was born in Tel Aviv. His mother, Bracha Zefira, was a popular singer of Yemenite Jewish origin and his fa ...
,
Svika Pick Svika Pick (, 3 October 1949 – 14 August 2022), born Henryk Pick, was an Israeli pop singer, songwriter, composer, and television personality. Pick first gained traction on a national level after playing a lead part in an Israeli version of t ...
(in combination with pop music), Efraim Shamir,
Yitzhak Klepter Yitzhak Klepter ( he, יצחק קלפטר; 31 March 1950 – 8 December 2022) was an Israeli singer, composer and guitarist. Biography Yitzhak Klepter was born in Haifa and grew up in Tel Aviv. In elementary school, he was asked to give a pre ...
and Gary Eckstein.


1980s

During the 1980s a few rock bands became popular. Notable rock bands of the decade were
The Click The Click was a hip hop group consisting of 4 members from Vallejo, California. The group's members are E-40 (Earl Stevens), his cousin B-Legit (Brandt Jones), his brother D-Shot (Danell Stevens), and his sister Suga-T (Tanina Stevens). Toge ...
,
Benzin "Benzin" (German, in English: Gasoline or Petrol) is a song by German industrial metal band Rammstein, released as the first single from their album ''Rosenrot''. In Germany, gasoline is called ''Benzin'' (which is derived from the chemical mix ...
,
T-Slam T-Slam (also Tislam, Hebrew: תיסלם) was an influential Israeli rock band, founded in 1980 by Dani Bassan, Izhar Ashdot and Yair Nitzani. The band dissolved on October 23, 1983, but has reunited at least three times since then. History T-Sla ...
, and MashinaIBADOC - The IBA Channel 1 Documentaries Dept :: הערוץ הראשון מחלקת תעודה - End of the Orange Season – The History of Israeli Rock, 1998
/ref> which became the most successful Israeli rock band of the decade.


1990s

In 1991 Israeli alternative rock bands and singers broke through, led by
Rami Fortis Rami Fortis ( he, רמי פורטיס, , born July 7, 1954), or simply Fortis, is an Israeli rock singer. Born in Tel Aviv, Fortis became known as a pioneer of Israeli punk rock. His debut album ''Plonter'', released in 1978, was not a commercia ...
,
Berry Sakharof Berry Sakharof ( he, ברי סחרוף, ; born 7 July 1957) is an Israeli rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. Sakharof is one of Israel's most popular and critically acclaimed rock musicians, and is often referred to as "the prince ...
and
Aviv Geffen Aviv Geffen ( he, אביב גפן, born 10 May 1973) is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter and the son of writer and poet Yehonatan Geffen and Nurit Makover, brother of actress Shira Geffen, and an alumnus of Rimon School of Jazz and C ...
, and young bands like Eifo HaYeled, The Elders of Zfat,
Rockfour Rockfour (Hebrew: רוקפור) is a psychedelic rock band, formed in 1988 in Holon, Israel. Most of their catalog is in English, and they regularly tour the United States. History Early years Rockfour began writing and performing in Hebrew, ...
and Dr. Kasper's Rabbits Show who became very popular. An essential role in the rise of these bands and artists was the former Roxanne club in Tel Aviv, which hosted known artists and emerging artists of rock and alternative rock, exposing new bands to a growing audience. Since then, most of those bands have disbanded, but their members still continue to act in various music projects and mostly constitute the community of the Israeli music of the 2010s. Notable in the field of
Glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam r ...
and Heavy metal was the band "Stella Maris" from Haifa, which began performing in the early 1990s. Stella Maris later integrated in the mainstream Israeli music scene and its vocalist, Pavlo Rosenberg, launched a solo career of his own. Two mid-1990s crises led to the decline of that early 1990s rock boom: First was the Arad festival disaster of July 1995, after which the popularity of these events declined. Then the nationally traumatic murder of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
in November that year, is largely considered to have shifted the whole cultural atmosphere of the country, and the prominence and success of the "kicking" rock of the early 1990s was replaced by more mellow directions. Yet, until the end of that decade, Israeli rock music kept its place as a central musical style, and important bands such as Hamachshefot and Monica Sex formed.


2000s

Although Israeli rock became less popular in the 2000s, being edged out by Israeli pop, many new rock artists and bands emerged. Among the most prominent Israel rock bands of the 2000s are Beit HaBubot, playing melodic rock which focused on acoustic guitar, and Synergia, which had a melodic
nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...
sound. Among the other successful emerging Israeli rock bands and artists of this decade were Girafot, Sheygets, HaYehudim,
Yoni Bloch Yoni Bloch ( he, יוני בלוך; born August 11, 1981) is an Israeli musician, songwriter, composer, rock singer and hi-tech entrepreneur. Biography Bloch grew up in Beersheba and at the age of 17 moved with his family to Lehavim. He sta ...
,
Hadag Nahash Hadag Nahash ( he, הדג נחש ', ) is an Israeli hip hop/funk band, founded in 1996 in Jerusalem. The band is known for its leftist political statements in many of its songs. Some of the band's songs have been used in protests. Name and sy ...
,
Shy Nobleman Shy Nobleman ( he, שי נובלמן; born July 2, 1974) is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, keyboardist, guitarist and sports broadcaster. Discography Solo albums * 2001 – '' How to Be Shy'' * 2005 – '' Bea ...
, Vaadat Charigim and many more. Many disbanded Israel rock bands began playing again during this decade, including
T-Slam T-Slam (also Tislam, Hebrew: תיסלם) was an influential Israeli rock band, founded in 1980 by Dani Bassan, Izhar Ashdot and Yair Nitzani. The band dissolved on October 23, 1983, but has reunited at least three times since then. History T-Sla ...
, Mofa Ha'arnavot Shel Dr. Kasper,
Mercedes Band Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...
, Eifo HaYeled, Monica Sex, Mashina, etc. At the end of the 2000s
Mizrahi music Mizrahi music ( he, מוזיקה מזרחית '  , "Eastern music/Oriental music") refers to a music genre in Israel that combines elements from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; and is mostly performed by Israelis of Mizrahi Jewish d ...
gained massive popularity in Israel, further weakening the popularity of Israeli rock.


See also

* List of Israeli rock singers * List of Israeli rock music groups * Rock Mizrahi *
Music of Israel The music of Israel is a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish music traditions that have come together over the course of a century to create a distinctive musical culture. For almost 150 years, musicians have sought original stylistic elements ...
*
List of Israeli musical artists The following is a list of Israeli musical artists, singers and bands. A * Omer Adam * Ayal Adler * Moshik Afia * Aharit HaYamim (End of Days) * Chen Aharoni * Chava Alberstein * Alon De Loco * Jo Amar * Etti Ankri * Keren Ann * Yar ...


References

{{World rock Israeli music Music scenes Rock music by country