|
ieva
United States
|
Art rock is a term used to describe a subgenre of rock music with "experimental or avant-garde influences" that emphasizes "novel sonic texture." Art rock is an "intrinsically album-based" form, which takes "advantage of the format's capacity for longer, more complex compositions and extended instrumental explorations. The concept of "art rock" has also sometimes been used to refer the "progressive rock" bands which became popular in the 1970s. The All Music Guide states that "Progressive rock and art rock are two almost interchangeable terms describing a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." ) Progressive rock eventually stuck as a label for a specific genre of rock music, while "art rock" was used to refer to a wider, more subjective and harder to categorize collection of bands. Art rock reached its commercial height with the popularity of the aforementioned progressive rock bands, such as King Crimson, Yes, Rush and especially Pink Floyd, whose mix of jazz, classical and blues influences, smooth psychedelic soundscapes, and anti-establishment lyrics proved to be commercially viable as mainstream pop music, and very influential. For instance, Pink Floyd's 1979 Double album The Wall shows heavy experimentation and avant-garde music passages unusual even for them. After the punk rock revolution of the late '70s put simplicity back in style, and as openly 'progressive' bands drifted toward the mainstream with hit singles and more commercial productions, their 'art rock' designation fell away, and a new breed of artists took their place on the cutting edge of 'art rock'. From wikipedia.
|
