History YMMV / LedZeppelin

* SignatureSong: “Stairway to Heaven” is by ''far'' their most celebrated song as a whole and arguably one of the most iconic rock songs ''ever'', though "Immigrant Song", "Black Dog" and "Kashmir" aren’t too far behind in terms of recognizability and cultural impact. If you were to go by album…

*** Overall: "Immigrant Song" and "Stairway to Heaven" are the frontrunners, with close competition from "Whole Lotta Love", "Black Dog", and "Kashmir".

* SignatureSong: By album...

** The band is notorious for "borrowing" from other artists [[https://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html This piece]] outlines several examples of the band lifting riffs and even entire tunes from other musicians and being taken to court for it.

** The band is at least as known for its litigiousness as it is for being a hard rock pioneer, to the point where prominent independent film directors [[Film/PhantomOfTheParadise Brian de Palma]], [[Film/WaynesWorld Penelope Spheeris]], and [[Film/BadLieutenant Abel Ferrara]] have nothing nice to say about the band.

** The band is notorious for "borrowing" from other artists [[http://https://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html This piece]] outlines several examples of the band lifting riffs and even entire tunes from other musicians and being taken to court for it.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: John Bonham's drum beats, especially in "When the Levee Breaks". His influence is so pervasive in modern rock that many younger listeners probably are legitimately baffled as to what's the big deal about him. The same goes for the band's blues-inflected hard rock style, which has also been widely copied. Zeppelin is often credited as one of the founders of UsefulNotes/HeavyMetal along with Music/BlackSabbath, but they tend to be mild by comparison. The trope could just as easily be called Zeppelin Is Un-Heavy.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Averted by the time ''Presence'' and ''In Through the Out Door'' rolled around.

** ''Music/LedZeppelinIII'': [[Film/ThorRagnarok "Immigrant]] [[Film/SchoolOfRock Song"]], though "Since I've Been Loving You" and "Tangerine" are also well-known.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: What is "Stairway" really about? [[WMG/LedZeppelin Try to guess.]] But "if you listen very hard, the tune will come to you at last".

** The band is notorious for "borrowing" from other artists [[http://https://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html This piece]] outlines several examples of the band lifting riffs and even entire tunes from other musicians and been taken to court for it.

* FanNickname: "Led Zeppelin IV" -- or, somewhat less commonly, "Zoso" or "The Runes" -- for the Led Zeppelin album with just the symbols on it.

* PeripheryDemographic: Despite mostly being seen as a "dad rock"/"boomer" band, Led Zeppelin is still enjoyed by a good portion of today's youth. Especially given that new bands like Music/TheWhiteStripes, Music/TheBlackKeys, Music/TameImpala, and [[FollowTheLeader most egregiously]] Music/GretaVanFleet have been inspired by them.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Page was infamous for reworking old songs (mostly blues ones) and not crediting the original artist. The band was successfully sued for it several times, and reissues of the albums often add credits that were omitted in the original releases.

** Also, amongst the Led Zeppelin fans, there are a good portion who despise "Stairway to Heaven" -- considering other songs from the band's catalogue to be far superior. The fact that lead singer/lyricist Robert Plant [[CreatorBacklash has stated that he has come to hate the song]] emboldens this sub-group further. This was famously {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/WaynesWorld'', with the music shop that Wayne and Garth like to visit carrying a strict "No Stairway to Heaven" policy for people interested in testing out instruments, though that could also have been due to the extreme length of the song, thus making it inappropriate for an in-store demonstration which is supposed to be fairly brief. (This was based on an actual sign in a Toronto music shop. It was put up because of the staff being sick of hearing too many amateur guitarists playing the intro in the store.)

** Zepp's rendition of "When the Levee Breaks". See HarsherInHindsight.

** "Since I've Been Loving You", especially the live version, contains some of Page's best guitar playing. Along with the pain in a fantastic blues vocal by Plant, the keyboard and bass parts by Jones and and drums by Bonham, it bleeds blues.

** ''Music/LedZeppelinIV'': "Stairway to Heaven" is their SignatureSong, but "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll", "Going to California", and [[CoveredUp "When the Levee Breaks"]] are all among the band's major classics.

** ''Music/{{Led Zeppelin|1969}}'': "Good Times Bad Times", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Dazed and Confused", or "Communication Breakdown"
** ''Music/LedZeppelinII'': "Whole Lotta Love", "Ramble On", or "Heartbreaker"
** ''Music/LedZeppelinIII'': [[Film/ThorRagnarok "Immigrant]] [[Film/SchoolOfRock Song"]] or "Since I've Been Loving You"
** ''Music/LedZeppelinIV'': "Black Dog", "Stairway to Heaven", "Going to California", or [[CoveredUp "When the Levee Breaks"]]
** ''Music/HousesOfTheHoly'': "The Song Remains the Same", "Over the Hills and Far Away", or "D'yer Mak'er"
** ''Music/PhysicalGraffiti'': "Houses of the Holy" or "Kashmir"
** ''Presence'': "Nobody's Fault But Mine"
** ''In Through the Out Door'': "In the Evening", "Fool In the Rain", or "All My Love"
** ''Led Zeppelin Boxed Set'': [[CoveredUp "Travelling Riverside Blues"]]

** "When the Levee Breaks" after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and... the levees broke. When the levee broke, the people of New Orleans didn't have any place to stay. The song is actually about the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, as it is a reworking of a Delta blues song from that era, but these days it's hard to associate the image of levees breaking with anything ''but'' Hurricane Katrina. Harsher still, the fact that Music/APerfectCircle covered it a year before the tragedy.
** Also, Sandy Denny, who lent some vocals on ''IV'' -- you know, the one with "Stairway to Heaven" on it? -- died a few years later after falling down a flight of stairs.

* {{Narm}}: The version of "Stairway to Heaven" from their live album ''The Song Remains the Same''.
-->Does anybody remember ''laughter''?

* NeverLiveItDown:
** The shark incident. Also Robert Plant ad-libbing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dteBUV_coN8 "Does anybody remember laughter?"]] in the performance of "Stairway" depicted in ''Film/TheSongRemainsTheSame''.
** Also the fact that Jimmy Page had a sexual relationship with the "baby groupie" Lori Mattix while she was 13 and he was 28. While that might have been barely tolerated at the time, it would most certainly be considered child sexual abuse nowadays - especially in the wake of [=#MeToo=].