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How to read rock history
You do not need the full encyclopedia. Pick one song, find its year, then add one neighboring act.
Rock history looks like a warehouse of albums. In practice it works more like reply chains: each scene answers the last one.
Blues first. Rock & roll puts it on radio. Britain sends it back louder in the mid-60s. The 70s split into stadium hard rock, prog complexity, and three-chord punk. The 80s harden metal and post-punk. The 90s put grunge and Britpop on the same decade with different agendas. Indie keeps claiming small-room values while playing large festivals.
Do not memorize that paragraph. Use it as a map. Timeline is chronological browsing. Genre Map is for when someone says "post-punk" and you want the family tree. People pages track the same musician under different logos.
Rule for newcomers: do not start from "I should know everything." Start from one song you already care about. Open that era. Add one related band. Stop when you want. The archive will still be there.