Rock The culture in Pictures

The staid world of pop music was shaken to its foundations during the 1960s with the arrival of rock, hard-edged and typified by electric guitar, drums and dominant vocals. With its roots in the rock 'n' roll of the 1940s and 1950s, and influence from rhythm and blues and country music, rock also drew on blues, folk, jazz - and even classical genres.

Rock's 4/4 beat and verse-chorus format was invariably served up by long-haired white male musicians and ballsy 'rock chicks' who enjoyed a notoriously hard-living, often drug-fuelled lifestyle. Dividing into hybrids and sub-genres - such as progressive, psychedelic, heavy metal, glam, grunge, and punk - rock also embodied cultural and social movements.

ROCK captures the essence of the music, the fashions, the lifestyle and excesses of the genre through 300 gritty, amusing and poignant images from the Mirrorpix archives.