Art rock is asubgenre ofrock music that generally reflects a challenging oravant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use ofmodernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement,^[7] opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music.^[3] Influences may be drawn from genres such asexperimental music,avant-garde music,classical music, andjazz.^[1]

Art rock was created with the intention of listening and contemplation rather than fordancing,^[3] and is often distinguished by the use of electronic effects andeasy listening textures far removed from the propulsive rhythms of early rock.^[7] The term may sometimes be used interchangeably with "progressive rock", though the latter is instead characterised in particular by its employment ofclassically trained instrumental technique andsymphonic textures.

The music, as well as the theatrical nature of performances associated with the genre, was able to appeal to artistically inclined adolescents and younger adults, especially due to its virtuosity and musical/lyrical complexity.^[3] Art rock is most associated with a certain period of rock music, beginning in 1966–67 and ending with the arrival ofpunk rock in the mid-1970s.^[8] After, the genre would be infused within later popular music genres of the 1970s–90s.^[3]

CriticJohn Rockwell says that art rock is one of rock's most wide-ranging and eclectic genres with its overt sense of creative detachment,classical music pretensions, and experimental,avant-garde proclivities.^[9] In the rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive".^[10] "Art rock" is often used synonymously withprogressive rock.^{[11][9][1][3]} Historically, the term has been used to describe at least two related, but distinct, types of rock music.^[12] The first is progressive rock, while the second usage refers to groups who rejectedpsychedelia and thehippie counterculture in favour of amodernist, avant-garde approach defined bythe Velvet Underground.^[12] EssayistEllen Willis compared these two types:

From the early sixties … there was a counter-tradition in rock and roll that had much more in common with high art—in particular avant-garde art—than the ballyhooed art-rock synthesis [progressive rock]; it involved more or less consciously using the basic formal canons of rock and roll as material (much as pop artists used mass art in general) and refining, elaborating, playing off that material to produce … rockand-roll art. While art rock was implicitly based on the claim that rock and roll was or could be as worthy as more established art forms, rock-and-roll art came out of an obsessive commitment to the language of rock and roll and an equally obsessive disdain for those who rejected that language or wanted it watered down, made easier … the new wave has inherited the counter-tradition.^[13]

Art rock emphasisesRomantic and autonomous traditions, in distinction to the aesthetic of the everyday and the disposable embodied byart pop.^[14] Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman'sAmerican Popular Music defines art rock as a "form of rock music that blended elements of rock and European classical music", citing the English rock bandsKing Crimson,Emerson, Lake & Palmer, andPink Floyd as examples.^[15] Common characteristics include album-oriented music divided into compositions rather than songs, with usually complicated and long instrumental sections and symphonic orchestration.^[3] Its music was traditionally used within the context ofconcept records, and its lyrical themes tended to be "imaginative" and politically oriented.^[3]

Differences have been identified between art rock and progressive rock, with art rock emphasising avant-garde orexperimental influences and "novel sonic structure", while progressive rock has been characterised as putting a greater emphasis on classically trained instrumental technique, literary content, andsymphonic features.^[1] Compared to progressive rock, art rock is "more challenging, noisy and unconventional" and "less classically influenced", with more of an emphasis onavant-garde music.^[1] Similarities are that they both describe a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility,^[1] and became the instrumental analogue to concept albums androck operas, which were typically more vocal oriented.^[16]

Art rock can also refer to either classically driven rock, or to a progressive rock-folk fusion.^[3] Bruce Eder's essayThe Early History of Art-Rock/Prog Rock states that"'progressive rock,' also sometimes known as 'art rock,' or 'classical rock'" is music in which the "bands [are] playing suites, not songs; borrowing riffs from Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner instead ofChuck Berry andBo Diddley; and using language closer toWilliam Blake orT. S. Eliot than toCarl Perkins orWillie Dixon."^[17]

The boundaries between art and pop music became increasingly blurred throughout the second half of the 20th century.^[18] The first usage of the term "art rock", according toMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968.^[4] As pop music's dominant formattransitioned from singles to albums,^{[nb 1]} many rock bands created works that aspired to make grand artistic statements, where art rock would flourish.^[20] As it progressed in the late 1960s – in tandem with the development of progressive rock – art rock acquired notoriety alongside experimental rock.^[21]

The earliest figure of art rock has been assumed to be record producer and songwriterPhil Spector, who became known as anauteur for hisWall of Sound productions that aspired to a "classical grandiosity".^[22] According to biographerRichard Williams: "[Spector] created a new concept: the producer as the overall director of the creative process, from beginning to end. He took control of everything, he picked the artists, wrote or chose the material, supervised the arrangements, told the singers how to phrase, masterminded all phases of the recording process with the most painful attention to detail, and released the result on his own label."^[23] Williams also says that Spector transformed rock music from a performing art into an art that could only exist in the recording studio, which "paved the way for art rock".^[24]

The Beach Boys' leaderBrian Wilson is also cited as one of the first examples of the auteur music producer.^{[25][nb 2]} Like Spector, Wilson was known as a reclusive studio obsessive who laboriously produced fantastical soundscapes through his mastery of recording technology.^[27] BiographerPeter Ames Carlin wrote that Wilson was the forerunner of "a new kind of art-rock that would combine the transcendent possibilities of art with the mainstream accessibility of pop music".^[28] Drawing from the influence of Wilson's work and the work ofthe Beatles' producerGeorge Martin, music producers after the mid 1960s began to view the recording studio as a musical instrument used to aid the process of composition.^[25] CriticStephen Holden says that mid-1960s recordings by the Beatles, Spector and Wilson are often identified as marking the start of art pop, which preceded the "bombastic, classically inflected" art rock that started in the late 1960s.^[20]

Many of the top British groups during the 1960s – including members of the Beatles,the Rolling Stones,the Kinks,the Who,10cc,the Move,the Yardbirds and Pink Floyd – came to music viaart school.^[29][30] This institution differed from its US counterpart in terms of having a less industry-applicable syllabus and in its focus on furthering eccentric talent.^[31] By the mid-1960s, several of these acts espoused an approach based on art and originality, where previously they had been absorbed solely in authentic interpretation of US-derived musical styles, such asrock 'n' roll andR&B.^[32]

According to journalistRichard Goldstein, many popular musicians from California (like Wilson) desired to be acknowledged as artists, and struggled with this aspiration. Goldstein says that the line between violating musical conventions and making "truly popular music" caused those who did not have "strong enough egos" (in contrast toBob Dylan and the Beatles) to be "doomed to a respectful rejection, and a few albums with disappointing sales usually meant silence. ... They yearned for fame, as only needy people can, but they also wanted to make art, and when both of those impulses couldn't be achieved they recoiled in a ball of frantic confusion."^[33]

Author Matthew Bannister traces "the more self-conscious, camp aesthetic of art rock" to pop artistAndy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, who emulated Warhol's art/pop synthesis.^[34] Accordingly: "Warhol took Spector's combination of the disembodiment, 'distance' and refinement of high culture with the 'immediacy' of mass cultural forms like rock and roll several stages further ... But Warhol's aesthetic was more thoroughly worked out than Spector's, which represented a transitional phase between old-fashioned auteurism and the thoroughly postmodern, detached tenets of pop art. ... Warhol's approach reverberates throughout art rock, most obviously in his stance of distance and disengagement."^[35] In 1969,the Doors also explored art rock genre on their fourth album,The Soft Parade.^[36]

The December 1965 release of the Beatles'Rubber Soul signified a watershed for the pop album,^[37] transforming it in scope from a collection of singles with lesser-quality tracks to a distinct art form, filled with high-quality original compositions.^[38] The album garnered recognition for the Beatles as artists from the American mainstream press,^[39] anticipating rock music's cultural legitimisation as an art form.^[40] Writing in 1968,Gene Sculatti ofJazz & Pop recognisedRubber Soul as "the definitive 'rock as art' album" and "the necessary prototype" that major artists such as the Rolling Stones (withAftermath) and the Beach Boys had felt compelled to follow.^[41]

The period when rock music became most closely aligned with art began in 1966 and continued until the mid 1970s.^[42] Academic Michael Johnson associates "the first documented moments of ascension in rock music" to the Beach Boys'Pet Sounds and the Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Released in May 1966,Pet Sounds came from Wilson's desire to make a "complete statement", as he believed the Beatles had previously done withRubber Soul.^{[43][nb 3]} In 1978, biographerDavid Leaf wrote that the album heralded art rock,^[45] while according toThe New York Observer, "Pet Sounds proved that a pop group could make an album-length piece comparable with the greatest long-form works ofBernstein,Copland,Ives, andRodgers and Hammerstein."^[46]Pet Sounds is also noted as the first rock concept album.^{[47][48][nb 4]} In 1971,Cue magazine described the Beach Boys as having been "among the vanguard" with regard to art rock, among many other aspects relating to the counterculture, over the period up to late 1967.^[49]

Jacqueline Edmondson's 2013 encyclopaediaMusic in American Life states that, although it was preceded by earlier examples,Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's debut albumFreak Out! (June 1966) came to be seen as "the first successful incorporation of art music in a pop context". With Los Angeles as his base since the early 1960s, Zappa was able to work in an environment where student radicalism was closely aligned with an active avant-garde scene, a setting that placed the city ahead of other countercultural centres at the time and would continue to inform his music.^[18] Writer and pianist Michael Campbell comments that the album "contains a long noncategorical list of Zappa's influences, from classical avant-garde composers to obscure folk musicians".^[11]

The Beatles'Revolver (August 1966) furthered the album-as-art perspective^[50] and continued pop music's evolution.^[51] Led by the art-rock single "Eleanor Rigby",^[52] it expanded the genre's scope in terms of the range of musical styles, which included Indian, avant-garde and classical, and the lyrical content of the album,^[53] and also in its departure from previous notions of melody and structure in pop songwriting.^[54] According toRolling Stone, "Revolver signaled that in popular music, anything – any theme, any musical idea – could now be realized."^[55] As withRubber Soul, the album inspired many of the progressive rock artists of the 1970s,^[56] and each of its songs has been recognised as anticipating a new subgenre or style.^[57]

Clash Music names the Velvet Underground's debut March 1967 albumThe Velvet Underground & Nico "the original art-rock record".^{[58][nb 5]} Bannister writes of the Velvet Underground: "no other band exerted the same grip on the minds of 1970s/1980s art/alternative rock artists, writers and audiences."^[60] Their influence would recur from the 1970s onwards to various worldwideindie scenes,^{[60][nb 6]} and in 2006,The Velvet Underground & Nico was inducted into theLibrary of Congress'National Recording Registry, who commented: "For decades [it] has cast a huge shadow over nearly every sub-variety ofavant-garde rock, from 70s art-rock tono-wave,new-wave, andpunk."^[61] However, when the Velvet Underground first appeared in the mid 1960s, they faced rejection and were commonly dismissed as a "fag" band.^[62] In 1982, musicianBrian Eno famously stated that whileThe Velvet Underground & Nico initially sold just 30,000 copies, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band."^[63]

The Beatles'Paul McCartney deemedPet Sounds "the record of the time", and in June 1967, the band responded with their own album:Sgt. Pepper's,^{[64][nb 7]} which was also influenced byFreak Out!^[65]AllMusic states that the first wave of art rock musicians were inspired bySgt. Pepper's and believed that for rock music to grow artistically, they should incorporate elements ofEuropean and classical music to the genre.^{[1][nb 8]} Many British groups flowered in the album's wake; those who are listed inMusic in American Life includethe Moody Blues,the Strawbs,Genesis, and "most notably", Pink Floyd.^{[67][nb 9]} The band's bassist,Roger Waters later stated that bothSgt. Pepper andPet Sounds "completely changed everything about records" for him.^[69]

Art rock's greatest level of popularity was in the early 1970s through British artists includingKing Crimson andQueen.^[3]

Early in the decade, Pink Floyd releasedAtom Heart Mother, with the 23-minute title track taking up the entire first side of the LP. This experiment with collaboratorRon Geesin yielded the longest unbroken Pink Floyd song on record, a suite divided into six parts, which required the band at times to utilise a choir and brass section on tour. The album was a commercial success, giving the band to its first number one record in the UK. It signalled a shift in their music from the psychedelic forays of their late '60s albums and into a period of renewed creativity in the form of longer and more progressive rock music.

Enthusiasm for art rock explorations waned in the mid 1970s.^[11] From then to the 1990s, art rock was infused within various popular music genres.^[3]Encyclopædia Britannica states that its genre's tendencies were continued by some British and Americanhard rock andpop rock artists, and thatBrian Eno's late 1970s and early 1980s collaborations withDavid Bowie andTalking Heads are exemplary of "the successful infusion of art rock tendencies into other popular music genres".^[3] Bowie and Eno collaborated on a series of consecutive albums called the "Berlin Trilogy", characterised as an "art rock trifecta" byConsequence of Sound, who noted that at the time of their release, "The experimental records weren't connecting with audiences on the scale Bowie was used to. ...New Wave had exploded, and a generation of Bowie descendants had taken the stage."^[70]

In the 1980s, a new generation of English art rockers took the place of 1970s bands such asRoxy Music,^[71]Yes,Genesis,Jethro Tull andEmerson, Lake & Palmer. Journalist Roy Trakin said in 1981: "Of course, these stalwarts can still fillMadison Square Garden and sell a great many records, as they always have, but their days of adventurous risk-taking and musical innovation are long gone – replaced by the smug satisfaction of commercial success."^[72]

In the early 1980s, the art rock genre influenced the emerging post-punk and new wave movements, as bands incorporated experimental and avant-garde elements that were hallmarks of art rock. Groups such as Talking Heads and Roxy Music utilized art rock’s emphasis on artistic expression and experimental sounds to push boundaries within popular music. Notably, Roxy Music's use of synthesizers and visual aesthetics, influenced by art rock, became central to their identity and inspired later genres, including synth-pop and new wave.^[73]

• Gendron, Bernard (2002).Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde. University of Chicago Press.ISBN 978-0-226-28735-5.