Originally Posted by Gavin B.

I'm a blues fan who loves Led Zeppelin but they're not a blues band by any stretch of the imagination.

Blues has a unique twelve bar, 3 chord progression. The sound is based on the Blue Note, or a slight drop of pitch on the third, seventh, and sometimes the fifth tone of the scale. It is also known as a bent pitch. There is room for minor chord progressions and jazzy innovations like the Baise 12 Bar progression. Cadence plays a role in what makes the blues unique as well.

A lot of Led Zep's music falls well within the blues category and a lot their music doesn't.

The band has influences as diverse as Celtic music, rockabilly, psychedelica, traditional country music, jazz and especially early black R&B rockers like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

A lot of Jimmy Page's guitar playing is influenced by Jeff Beck's sonic experiments with feedback, fuzz, distortion and rave-up style music when both Beck and Page were in the Yardbirds. Led Zeppelin's first album sounded like an extension of blues/psychedelic music of the Yardbirds.