Stoner rock
subgenre of rock music

Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sleep.
Characteristics
Stoner rock is typically slow- to mid-tempo and features a heavily distorted, groove-laden bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and "retro" production. Due to the similarities between stoner and sludge metal, there is often a crossover between the two genres. This hybrid has traits of both styles, but generally lacks stoner metal's laid back atmosphere and its usage of psychedelia. Bands such as Weedeater, High on Fire and Electric Wizard creatively fuse both styles.
Terminology
The descriptor "stoner rock" may originate from the title of the 1997 Roadrunner Records compilation Burn One Up! Music for Stoners. Desert rock is also used interchangeably as a descriptor, and was coined by a MeteorCity Records intern, around the time the label released the 1998 stoner rock compilation Welcome to MeteorCity; however, not all stoner rock bands would fall under the descriptor of "desert rock", since bands under this subgenre tend to include more hard rock characteristics.
Cannabis influence on the genre
The involvement of cannabis in the creation of "stoner rock/metal" can range among bands in the genre.
The public source identifies “Stoner rock” as subgenre of rock music. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stoner, rock and subgenre.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stoner rock” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.