The original coinage of the term "heavy metal" to define a certain kind of intense and hard kind of music is quite uncertain. Legend says it was the group Iron Butterfly, a band of the early 70's, who made a sort of music that could be defined as "heavy metal" because of the added distortion and sonic amplification of their music. During the 70's, this trend was followed by musicians like Ted Nugent, famous for playing aggressively and at the top of the volume.

Another theory has to do with the British origin of bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin or the Move. These bands began to play in the northern, industrial part of England so the term "heavy metal" applied to their music might bear some resemblance to the hammer-like and metallic soundscape of cities like Birmingham or Sheffield.

In the 80's, Iron Maiden became the most popular heavy metal band and it was precisely the fact that their audience consisted basically of young working-class people from the factories might also concur with the thesis of industrial cities as origin for the term "heavy metal" to the sound of some bands.