Pioneers of Dutch rock were the so-called Indorock bands from the late 1950s, like The Tielman Brothers and the Blue Diamonds. They played rock guitar instrumental music at a time when white Dutch musicians did not perform rock 'n' roll.[1] They stemmed from the Indo community in The Hague, which was also the center of the succeeding genre in the mid-1960s, Nederbeat, when Dutch musicians formed bands influenced by British beat groups and rock music. It earned the city the title of Beatstad ('Beat city') in later years. With 1960s bands like Golden Earring and Shocking Blue,[2]Vandenberg in the 1980s, and Kane, Di-Rect and Anouk in the 1990s, 2000s The Hague became synonymous for mainstream rock.
From the late 1960s the post war generation gained political influence. Many state subsidised rock venues opened all over the country. These clubs, like Amsterdam's Paradiso and Melkweg, were stepping stones for many alternative rock bands on their first European tour and the Dutch crowd stayed well informed about new British and American acts.
In the 1970s some artists stood out. Mouth and MacNeal[3] had a hit "How Do You Do" (1972) in the US chart. Herman Brood became the ultimate Rock 'n Roll icon. He even scored a hit in the US with "Saturday Night". He became the epitome of the "rock'n'roll junkie" he sang about. As an artist he was in the media until his suicide in 2001. Other bands from the 1970s include Gruppo Sportivo, Massada, Vitesse, Solution, the Nits, Focus, whose "Hocus Pocus" (1973) was a hit, and Golden Earring with their biggest hit, "Radar Love" (1974), which hit the Top 10 in the US.
Similarly, in the last decade of the previous century a more extreme variety of metal, death metal, have had some success. Bands like Gorefest, Pestilence, Asphyx and Sinister were well-known both in and outside Europe. At the present, bands like Legion of the Damned, Pyaemia, Maaswater Veenlijk and Severe Torture enjoy a similar status.
In the 1980s Vandenberg was internationally successful.
As a result of U.K. and U.S. bands touring the Netherlands, punk exploded as a cultural phenomenon in 1977. The credit for being the first Dutch punk band is given sometimes to Ivy Green (formed in Hazerswoude-Dorp in 1975), to the Flyin’ Spiderz (formed in Eindhoven in 1976), or to
Blitzkrieg (formed in Utrecht in 1976, and who quickly changed their name to The Duds). These bands had already formed at the point that punk "reached" the Netherlands, but they all quickly began performing and producing records in the punk style.
Dutch punk evolved with a combination of U.K., U.S., European, and global punk influences. The early Dutch punk bands wrote songs with English lyrics. Although today some bands use lyrics in Dutch, many Dutch punk bands continue to write English lyrics and tour internationally. The Netherlands has a lively punk scene that includes many different styles including hardcore, ultra, crust punk, pop punk, fun punk, skate punk, emocore, and melodic hardcore. Some popular Dutch punk bands that have toured internationally include Antidote, Minny Pops, Bambix, and De Heideroosjes.
Musically, the music played by such bands can be described as a rowdy, straightforward style of rock music, inspired by bands such as ZZ Top, Motörhead, AC/DC and CCR. At other times, influences from pop music and folk music (for instance the case with Rowwen Hèze) can be heard.
Not rarely, these bands display a lot of humorous elements in their repertoire, lyrics and live performances. An example is the repertoire of the WC Experience, which contains cover songs from bands such as Queen, Guns N' Roses and Madness, only the lyrics are replaced by different, rather silly lyrics in their own dialect. Also, the name of 'Band Zonder Banaan' means "Band without a Banana", and is a humorous play on the name of a famous Dutch pop-band, BZN (Band Zonder Naam, or 'Band Without a Name'). The name "Jovink en de Voederbietels" is a contraction of the names of the two founding band members (Hendrik Jan Lovink en Gijs Jolink), and "voederbietel" is a Dutch word for a food trough on a farm.
Boerenrock bands tend to perform at local festivities and concerts in big tents in rural areas, rather than in concert halls in bigger cities. An event where a lot of Boerenrock music can be heard, and a famous event amongst Boerenrock bands and fans, is the yearly Zwarte Cross ('Black Motocross') which is organized by members of 'Jovink en de Voederbietels'. The event is a mixture of several motocross related activities and a rock festival.
^Elizabeth J Miles (2017). "Immigrant Music in Europe". In Chris Goertzen; James Porter; Timothy Rice (eds.). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Vol. 8. Taylor & Francis. p. 411. ISBN9781351544269 – via Google Books.
