Art Rock

If you turn on the radio these days - if you even listen to the radio - you hear really strange sounds. And it is even more obvious if you listen to streaming services. You hear R&B that sounds like indie rock (and indie rock that sounds like R&B), top 40 pop that sounds like hard rock, hip hop that samples prog, and country artists that rap.

But none of this sounds weird to us. And that's because, as Steven Hyden has said, we live in a "post genre" era. There are no more musical boundaries. And so the definitive quality of any and all new popular music is idiosyncrasy: whatever the artist, or band, or producer wants to do, they do.

The state of music today is due, in no small part, the result of various forms of music we might call Art Rock. Art Rock is best generally conceived as rock music mixed with art, whether art music or non-musical art forms. Obviously that means a lot of different things.

What is Art Music?

Art Music itself can be divided into four separate traditions, the most famous of which is "Classical."

"Classical" aka Western Art Music

"Classical" is the colloquial name we give the European musical tradition. That tradition has been existence since the Middle Ages and can be divided into different genres, primarily by chronology: Plain Song Renaissance Baroque Classical Romantic Modernist including Impressionism Post Tonal Serialism Indeterminate Musique Concrete Minimalism Modern Creative

Jazz

Jazz is known as "America's Art Music". It emerged out of a confluence of African music brought over through the slave trade and European musical instruments that slaves learned to play to entertain their masters. (This is obviously a very simplistic version.) Jazz can be divided into a number of genres, again mostly differentiated by chronology: Original jazz or Dixieland: teens to twenties, small groups of 5-10, featuring horns, normally without drums and relying on guitar for percussion - improvisation became a part of jazz late during the Dixieland era; Big Band Jazz or Swing: late twenties to mid-forties, large "orchestras" playing dances, with short solos; Be Bop: mid-forties to the present, small groups of 4-7, playing long solos and absolutely not for dancing; Afro-Cuban or Latin: late forties to the present, influenced by African and Caribbean rhythms and also by South American music; Cool Jazz: late forties to the present, focus on tone and aesthetic over improvisational ability (often wrongly used to describe jazz pop); Hard Bop: mid fifties to the present, Bop influenced by soul and other contemporary forms of African American music, such as gospel; Third Stream Jazz or Orchestrated Jazz or Progressive Big Band: late fifties to present, jazz that aspires to some level of "Classical" sophistication, through the use of orchestras and / or orchestrated parts of music, with much less emphasis on improvisation; Free: late fifties to present, Bop freed from conventional tonality (though at first it was a lot more traditional) Indo Jazz or [[Ethnic Jazz] Post Bop: sixties to present, a catchall for various forms of jazz not readily identifiable as any of the above or below; Fusion: late sixties to present, jazz influenced by rock (though often wrongly used to describe rock influenced by jazz, and even things like jazz pop and new age); Electric Jazz: late sixties to present, usually the same as fusion, but refers to the use of electric amplification and obvious studio editing; ECM: early seventies to present, European form of post-Free Cool jazz, primarily recorded for the ECM label; Klezmer jazz: early eighties to present, jazz that uses Klezmer instead of Blues as its base Post Free: catchall for Bop and other forms influenced by Free [what else? Like what do we call Zorn's metal stuff? Jazz Metal?]

Indian Classical Music

India has also had a Classical tradition, dating back far longer than Europe's. I don't know very much about it.

Chinese Classical Music

I know nothing about this and need to find a quote.

We can divide Art Rock into four separate super genres, Art Rock proper, Progressive Rock, Avant Rock and Post Rock. There is some overlap between these four groups, but we can differentiate a number of core conventions and influences among each.

Art Rock, proper

Art Rock proper is the most conventional and traditional of Art Rock genres, it is the most popular and the genre you are most likely familiar with. Art Rock music is usually distinguished by conventional songs (in length if not in structure) and a desire on the part of the artist to remain at least somewhat commercial or popular, while making music influenced by art. Art Rock is so common and there are so many forms that you probably hear it regularly but have no idea. Much Art Rock is cleverly disguised as something else, and lots of genres might produce Art Rock without the genre itself being an Art Rock genre.

Western Art Music

Art Rock is the least obviously influenced by western art music, what we call classical. In fact, the only really obvious influence comes from lieder, or "art songs." Lieder emerged in the Romantic Era as a way of expressing shorter musical ideas, and setting poetry to music. Normally lieder are just voice and piano pieces, though there are variations. And it is the rather freewheeling nature of lieder that has been an influence on (some) art rock artists, allowing them to move away from conventional popular song structure.

The only other major influence that western art music has had on (some) art rock artists is in the use of "chamber" instruments, especially in later art rock genres, not surprisingly known as "chamber pop" and "chamber rock." Otherwise the influence has not been pronounced.

[Impressionism?]

Jazz

Jazz played an incredibly important part in the creation of the first popular art rock genre, psychedelia. Specifically, indo or ethno jazz (mainstream jazz influenced by world music, primarily Indian) and free jazz had a massive influence on the very first psychedelic band, the Byrds. Outside of psychedelia, art rock has been less influenced by jazz. There has been a massive influence of jazz instruments - particularly the saxophone - but less so an influenced from the music itself. [Is this really true?]

Other Art Music

The Indian classical tradition obviously played a massive role in shaping the very first wave of psychedelia (both directly and through jazz) - though we can say that most later psychedelic bands were more influenced by other psychedelic bands than by northern Indian classical music. Otherwise, Indian classical music has had about zero influence on later generations of art rock musicians. Chinese classical music has barely had an influence on art rock, except via some art rock artists' interest in world music.

Non-art musical influences

Despite characterizing Art Rock as a genre influenced by art music, the genre has also been massively influenced by non-art music, and I don't just mean the obvious influence of contemporary and past rock music. The most obvious "non-art" musical influence is the pre-rock popular music traditions of western Europe and the United States, particularly cabaret, vaudeville and musicals. All of these traditions have been massively influential on art rock musicians, particularly the first waves of them in the '60s and '70s who were, in part, defined as something unique by their theatricality.

World music has also played a big influence, both on psychedelic bands who weren't as influenced by Indian classical music, and on a number of art rock artists in the late '70s and early '80s. World music has, in fact, been perhaps the most pronounced of "art rock" influences since the mid-'70s despite the fact that most of these genres are not "art genres" in the proper sense of the term.

Art Influences

The most obvious art influence is theatre, which was very important to the first wave of non-psychedelic art rock bands and artists. But, though it may seem odd to some, other genres of art have had an influence: movies, literature, poetry, photography, architecture, fashion and so forth.

How can non-musical forms of art have an influence on musicians? Well, it should be obvious in terms of literature and poetry - popular music lyrics were once not at all influenced by literature, but now some can be extraordinarily literary. And movies have an obvious influence on behaviour. But the deep influence of these genres lies at the theory level. Perhaps more than any one media, art rock artists have been influenced by art theory and art history as well. The way people conceive of and understand art has been applied to rock music by art rock musicians, and that has led to some of the more idiosyncratic ideas.

[Philosophy]

Art Rock Genres

Here is a not completely definitive list of art rock genres, by rough chronology: Art Pop Psychedelia "First Wave" Art Rock (roughly contemporaneous) some Glam Rock New Wave and ppPost Punk]] Neo Psychedelia Post Hardcore, Post No Wave, Shoegaze some forms of Alternative Rock, such as some Grunge, some Brit Pop, Alt Metal, some Math Rock (though there is much debate) many forms of Indie Rock and Indie Pop such as Chamber Pop, Chamber Rock, Chamber Folk, New New Wave, Post Post Punk, Nugaze, Chill Wave and much music labeled "Indie"

Progressive Rock aka Prog Rock aka Prog

Progressive Rock is the most famous, most maligned and probably the most easy to define of the four categories of Art Rock. Unlike Art Rock proper, Prog is mostly defined by its rejection of traditional popular song structures and its ambition or obsession to be more like art music. Also, more often than in Art Rock proper, Prog musicians often came from a musically educated background.

Western Art Music

"Classical" has had the biggest effect on Prog. Though Medieval music, such as Plainsong, hasn't had much of an influence, practically every other "Classical" genre has: Renaissance music has been an influence on many Prog bands, particularly the Progressive Folk bands; Baroque music has been less influential if only because it's the most difficult; Romantic music is the biggest influence, with most major original Prog bands being heavily influenced by Romantic music; Impressionism has been less influential but Modernism as a whole has been fairly influential though Post-Tonal, Serial and Minimalist music has not been particularly influential, at least on the first wave of Prog Rockers. Musique Concrete has been particularly influential on the biggest Prog band of all time, but nobody else. Prog artists have sought to attempt to create rock "operas", "symphonies" and many other forms.

The use of "classical" instruments is also very common, particularly the use of the piano (and its variations) as a lead melodic instrument, and the use of flutes.

Jazz

Jazz has also been a massive influence, particularly mainstream jazz (i.e. Bop) and so-called Third Stream, or orchestrated jazz, which was itself heavily influenced by Romantic and Modern western art music.

As with Art Rock, jazz instruments are prominent in Prog.

Wee are classifying Jazz Rock as Prog (somewhat contentiously) and so obviously Jazz, in all of its forms, is a massive influence on Jazz Rock.

Indian and Chinese Classical Music

The other Classical Music traditions have had about zero influence on Progressive Rock.

Non-Art Musical Influences

As with Art Rock, there has been a massive influence of popular music on Prog Rock, the biggest influence being Psychedelic Rock itself. Folk Rock is influential, mostly for the Progressive Folk bands. The Blues influenced the biggest Prog band. Some Prog bands have been influenced by the same pre-rock popular music as Art Rock bands. World music influences have been less pronounced.

Art Influences

As with Art Rock, poetry and literature have had huge influences on Prog Rock lyrics. And the theatre greatly influenced a few Prog lead singers. Believe it or not, Architecture has played a massive influence with the world's most successful Progressive Rock band.

Progressive Rock Genres

Unlike Art Rock, Prog has mostly been a relatively singular thing divided up into scenes. We can Breakdown the bands as follows: First wave Progressive Rock, from the late sixties to the late seventies, including Early Progressive Rock the Big Six: the six most commercially successful Prog bands who otherwise have little in common; major Progressive Rock bands not otherwise in major scenes: other commercially successful Prog bands too big for the below scenes but not big enough for the Big Six; American Progressive Rock Canterbury Scene French Progressive Rock Italian Progressive Rock Krautrock Pop Progressive Rock Jazz Rock, from the early sixties on, including Rock music influenced by jazz improvisation, including Jam Bands; Rock music influenced by jazz composition, chords, arrangements and aesthetics; a brief underground revival of Prog in the early 1980s Progressive New Wave, in the early eighties Progressive Metal, in the late eighties Neo Prog, in the late eighties some Math Rock, in the early nineties a Prog revival in the aughts a revival of Rock Opera in the aughts

So the Progressive Rock tradition has been much more restricted to a certain sound and aesthetic than Art Rock.

== Avant Rock or Experimental Rock ==

Avant Rock was the third genre to emerge with Art Rock and Progressive Rock in the late sixties. At least at some level, to easiest way to classify Avant Rock is to point it out as not Art Rock and not Progressive Rock. And unlike these genres, there isn't much commonality between Avant Rock artists of different eras. This makes it tough to define, but there are two things we can focus on: the influence of contemporary Avant Garde Art Music on most if not all Avant Rock, and the drastic rejection of popular song structures.

Western Art Music

The most important influence on the first Avant Rock artists was Musique Conrete, the genre of "tape music" that emerged in Austria and France after World War II, where composers constructed their compositions using tapes of musical instruments and then tapes of non-musical sounds. Other, slightly older Modernist music was also very important. Later Avant Rock artists have been influenced by these forms to varying degrees.

Jazz

Jazz instrumentation again plays a huge role in Avant Rock, but the actual music of jazz has been less directly influential, for the most part.

Indian and Chinese Classical Musics

Again, these traditions have had very little influence on most Avant Rock artists, in part due to a lack of exposure to the artists themselves at foundational ages and, likely, due to too much exposure on the part of Indian Music in the late sixties.

Non-Art Musical Influences

Avant Rock is the artsiest of Art Rocks and the influence of these genres is less pronounced. The most obvious is the "genre" of so-called "Downtown Music," the music made throughout the 20the century by people - rarely schooled musicians - in downtown New York that has run the gamut from Modernist to Minimalist to Noise and beyond. This tradition is technically not a form of Art Music because it has mostly been played outside the Western Art Music establishment. Other musical influences pretty much depend on the era and the band, and its difficult to catalogue them here with any sense of purpose.

Non-musical Art Influences

For Avant Rock, the most obvious Art influence is film, particularly the French New Wave's introduction of jump cuts - obvious edits in film - and other disruptions of conventional narratives. Art Theory again plays a massive role in Avant Rock, and some genres that we will label Avant Rock were actually initially performed by non-musicians as performance art.

Genres of Avant Rock

Avant Rock is tough to define, but we can point out a few: initial Avant Rock, mostly influenced by Musique Concrete, in the late sixties Avant Rock in the early and mid seventies defined by its lack of similarity to Art Rock and Prog Rock Avant Rock in the mid and late seventies, defined by its punk similarities, including Industrial Music Rock in Opposition No Wave Noise Music made by non-schooled musicians: Noise Pop and Noise Rock and much early "Lo Fi" Post No Wave a revival of Avant Rock in the mid eighties including a genre eventually known as Rock Against Rock This list omits a number of unclassifiable bands, among other things.

Post Rock

Perhaps even more difficult to categorize than Avant Rock is Post Rock, one of the most horribly named genres of music out there. You've heard of Post Rock, but you probably are not sure what it is and that is, in part, because most people have no idea what it is, and because the term is used to refer to multiple different genres of music that emerged since the late eighties.

It is the newest form of Art Rock and, in many ways, the least understood. Though it's kind of hard to group all post rock bands together, we can pick up on two major trends for most (though not all) Post Rock bands: a near-complete lack of vocals with lyrics and a corresponding rejection of popular song structures; the creation of music that fits in to the "Modern Creative" notion of contemporary music much of the time, though it is made by non-schooled musicians who often play rock instruments at rock music volumes. And that's kind of where the similarities end.

Western Art Music

Though we may liken Post Rock to the popular form of Modern Creative, Modern Creative itself has only been an influence on some later Post Rock bands, if it has been an influence at all. Post Rock bands are (usually) defined in part by their use of chamber instruments in addition to rock instruments, but much of their music bears little obvious, direct influence from the "Classical" tradition. Rather they have usually been influenced by popular music in turn influenced by that tradition.

Jazz

ECM, the European version of Cool Jazz, played an absolutely massive role in the creation of the first Post-Rock, in Britain in the late eighties. Beyond that, other forms of jazz have mostly been influential here and there, though jazz instrumentation has, as usual with Art Rock, played a massively important role. Again, Post Rock has been more influenced by jazz-influenced popular music, on the whole.

Indian and Chinese Classical Music

Once again, these traditions have had very little impact on most Post Rock.

Non-art Music Influences

Far and away the biggest influence on Post Rock has probably been Progressive Rock itself. Post Rock is distinguished from Progressive Rock by many things, including a lack of lyrics, a lack of showy instrumental technique, a lack of adherence to traditional popular song conventions, and other things, but the influenced of Prog is all over much (but not all) Post Rock, especially what we might call "Chamber" Post Rock. Another massive influence is electronic music, both the way it is made - with electronic instruments and with an emphasis on studio production - and the ensuing sounds. (Some Post Rock bands try to make electronic-sounding music with rock instruments, for example.) And, as with Avant Rock, there are a host of other influences depending on the sub-genre and band.

Non-musical Art Influences

These influences are far less prominent in Post Rock - in fact, with the exception of the "Lo Fi" strand of Post Rock, you might say that Post Rock is the least influenced by Art Theory and non-musical Art forms of all the Art Rock genres. (Though Prog is also not very influenced by Art Theory.) Post Rock is definitely musicians' music first - much like jazz.

Genres of Post Rock

This is where things get difficult. Trying to differentiate between different types of Post Rock is nearly impossible. First Wave Post Rock, that emerged in England in the late eighties as a combination of Post Punk, ECM and chamber music; Lo-Fi Post Rock, that emerged from First Wave Post Rock as a deliberately difficult variation, in England and Canada in the very early nineties; Electronica-influenced Post Rock, that merged the emerging Post Rock genre with electronica production in the United States in the early nineties Chamber Post Rock, which took the chamber music influences of early Post Rock to their logical extreme and which emerged in the United States and Canada in the late nineties and which has since become the most common and popular form of Post Rock; Math Rock and Jam Band influenced Post Rock: this last category is difficult because there is a substantial group of people who believe Math Rock, which I have classified as both Art Rock and Prog Rock, is actually Post Rock. Also, to make matters worse, forms of Alternative and Indie Rock have also been referred to, at times, as Post Rock. In one case this is simply because nobody knows what Post Rock actually sounds like, in the other prominent case it was because the Indie Rock bands were in fact heavily influenced by Post Rock bands and so it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time.