Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are cited as one of the progenitors of hard rock and heavy metal, and drew from influences including blues and folk music. Led Zeppelin significantly influenced the music industry, particularly in the development of album-oriented rock (AOR) and stadium rock.
Led Zeppelin evolved from a previous band, the Yardbirds, and were originally named the New Yardbirds. They signed a deal with Atlantic Records that gave them considerable artistic freedom. Initially unpopular with critics, they achieved significant commercial success with eight studio albums over ten years. Their 1969 debut, Led Zeppelin, was a top-ten album in several countries and featured such tracks as "Good Times Bad Times", "Dazed and Confused" and "Communication Breakdown". Led Zeppelin II (1969), their first number-one album, included "Whole Lotta Love" and "Ramble On". In 1970, they released Led Zeppelin III which opened with "Immigrant Song". Their untitled fourth album, commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV (1971), is one of the best-selling albums in history, with 37 million copies sold. It includes "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll" and "Stairway to Heaven", with the latter among the most popular and influential works in rock. Houses of the Holy (1973) yielded "The Song Remains the Same" and "Over the Hills and Far Away". Physical Graffiti (1975), a double album, featured "The Rover" and "Kashmir".
Page composed most of Led Zeppelin's music, while Plant wrote most of the lyrics. Jones occasionally added keyboard-focused contributions, particularly on the final album. The latter half of their career saw a series of record-breaking tours that earned the group a reputation for excess and debauchery. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, their touring and output, which included Presence (1976) and In Through the Out Door, declined in the late 1970s. After Bonham's death in 1980, the group disbanded. The former members have sporadically collaborated and participated in one-off concerts, including the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London, with Bonham's son Jason Bonham on drums.
Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated record sales of between 200 and 300 million units worldwide. They achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums and six number-one albums on the US Billboard 200, with five of their albums certified Diamond in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rolling Stone described them as "the heaviest band of all time", "the biggest band of the seventies", and "unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995; the museum's biography states that they were as influential in the 1970s as the Beatles were in the 1960s. (Full article...)
