Genre map for mainstream rock, late seventies to present day:
"Regular" rock: These are groups or artists which really can't be defined as being anything more than just straight up rock. I'm talking Springsteen, Tom Petty, Seger, Mellencamp, etc. I've also heard the term "heartland" rock used, I guess to represent the "everyman" American that these artists and songs targeted but I never really liked it. Neil Young, Elton John (before he almost completely converted to adult contemporary), and other early seventies holdovers could also be placed here.
Arena rock could essentially encompass all of the next four.
AOR: Lighter, poppier, and cheesier (although not quite being enough of any to be considered soft rock or "mom" rock although they veer dangerously close at times), this style of rock was pretty much made for radio with catchy hooks and choruses and light-hearted subject matter. Think Journey, Foreigner, later Chicago, etc.
Hair Rock/Glam Rock: Basically hard rock but slightly more poppy with bigger hair and subject matter geared more towards partying, sex, and drugs. A lot of artists blurred the lines between the two, particularly Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue.
Hard Rock: A pretty generic term, this style featured harder riffs solos than the above two genres. This would be G N'R, Kiss, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, solo Ozzy, Queen, etc.
Progressive Rock: Hard rock, but with slightly more intricate or complicated musical arrangements and nerdier subject matter. Rush is an obvious example.
Heavy Metal: A faster and harder version of "hard" rock. Longer songs and more "adult" subject matter, focusing on darker lyrical themes, like death, war, and the occult. Like hair, there were definitely some blurred lines between metal and hard rock with bands like Sabbath, Scorpions, Dio, Rainbow, etc. Bands that played faster and focused more intently on the dark subject matter can be placed into the dozens of sub-genres of metal, with thrash being one of the most prominent due to the success of bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth, although all three (Slayer the least of which) slowed their tempo into a more "mainstream" metal sound by the early nineties.
