Hard rock Styx helped further cement heavy rock in the Midwest as a form of stadium rock. In 1978, Van Halen emerged from the Los Angeles music scene with a sound based around the skills of lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen. He popularised a guitar-playing technique of two-handed hammer-ons and pull-offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album "Van Halen", which was highly influential in re-establishing hard rock as a popular genre after the punk and disco explosion, while also redefining and elevating the role of electric guitar. The opening years of the 1980s saw a number of changes
Rock Hard (magazine) 300 issues have been published in Germany since 1983; it has been published monthly since 1989. "Rock Hard" magazine is independent from major media companies. Its slogan is "critical, competent, independent". Since 1990, magazine employees have also organized the Rock Hard Festival, which has been held annually in Gelsenkirchen on the Pentecost weekend since 2003. The festival is streamed by news magazine "Spiegel Online", the internet edition of "Der Spiegel", and by "WDR" television under the "Rockpalast" label. Götz Kühnemund was editor-in-chief of "Rock Hard" from 1990 until January 2014, when he and some other editors had to leave the