Van Halen乐队最主要的音乐贡献来自于乐队核心、主音吉他手Eddie Van Halen，他对于吉他的贡献在于重新诠释了电吉他的演奏技巧，曾经自幼学习古典钢琴弹奏的他把键盘技术移植到吉他演奏上，极富创造性的发明了对于此后的重金属和前卫金属摇滚乐具有重要价值的点弦技术，而他在单曲中的大量令人陶醉的solo也是乐队音乐最大的亮点，藉此，Eddie Van Halen在任何关于最佳吉他手的评选中始终都能够名列前茅，并且这位传奇吉他手还曾经在90年代末成功的战胜了癌症的折磨。Van Halen乐队主唱David Lee Roth富有个人特色的舞台表演也成为了乐队早期标志性的特点之一，而他随后与Eddie Van Halen的分分合合也使这支乐队的经历更加的传奇。1985年，David Lee Roth由于和Eddie Van Halen的矛盾恶化而被Sammy Hagar所取代，在随后长达十年的时间里使后者跟随乐队经历了最辉煌的一个时期，但是在90年代中期以后Sammy Hagar也由于和Eddie Van Halen的矛盾而被迫离队，尽管前Extreme乐队的Gary Cherone一度是乐队的新主唱，不过在此间David Lee Roth仍然时常的帮助Van Halen乐队录制单曲，而在2004年的夏季巡演中，巡演主唱依然是Sammy Hagar。不同的两个主唱分别代表了Van Halen乐队的两个不同的时期，而Eddie Van Halen的哥哥Alex Van Halen和名家之后Michael Anthony则是乐队最为稳定的两名成员。
自从1978年发行首张专辑《Van Halen》以来，截至目前，Van Halen乐队在近30年的艺术生命中，共发行了11张录音室专辑，几乎每张专辑都能够轻松的取得排行榜上的高排名。凭借专辑《For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge》，Van Halen乐队还在1991年度第34届格莱美奖中获得了最佳硬摇滚演奏奖(Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocal)，当时乐队的主唱是Sammy Hagar.
47.Van Halen-Jump
[mp=500,50,1]http://ciapek.uci.agh.edu.pl/~mulder/skoki/Jump.mp3[/mp]
lyrics
Owwww!
I get up, and nothin' gets me down
You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around
And I know, baby, just how you feel
You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real
Ah, can't ya see me standin' here
I got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen
Ah, can't ya see what I mean?
Ah, might as well jump. Jump!
Might as well jump
Go ahead an' jump. Jump!
Go ahead and jump
Ow-oh! Hey, you! Who said that? Baby, how you been?
You say you don't know, you won't know until you begin
So can't ya see me standing here
I got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen
Ah, can't ya see what I mean?
Ah, might as well jump. Jump!
Go ahead and jump
Might as well jump. Jump!
Go ahead and jump
Jump!
(Guitar Solo)
Might as well jump. Jump!
Go ahead and jump
Get it in, jump. Jump!
Go ahead and jump
Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!