Experimental rock
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics (or instrumentals), unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations.
From its inception, rock music was experimental, but it was not until the late 1960s that rock artists began creating extended and complex compositions through advancements in multitrack recording. In 1967, the genre was as commercially viable as pop music, but by 1970, most of its leading players had incapacitated themselves in some form. In Germany, the krautrock subgenre merged elements of improvisation and psychedelic rock with electronic music, avant-garde and contemporary classical pieces. Later in the 1970s, significant musical crossbreeding took place in tandem with the developments of punk and new wave, DIY experimentation, and electronic music. Funk, jazz-rock, and fusion rhythms also became integrated into experimental rock music.
Early 1980s experimental rock groups had few direct precedents for their sound. Later in the decade, avant-rock pursued a psychedelic aesthetic that differed from the self-consciousness and vigilance of earlier post-punk. During the 1990s, a loose movement known as post-rock became the dominant form of experimental rock. As of the 2010s, the term "experimental rock" has fallen to indiscriminate use, with many modern rock bands being categorized under prefixes such as "post-", "kraut-", "psych-", "art-", "prog-", "avant-" and "noise-".
History
The mid- to late 60s was an era of explosive growth and experimentation in rock music. Bands drew influences from free jazz artists such as John Coltrane and Sun Ra and avant-garde composers like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Notable experimental bands in this period include The Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, and The Mothers of Invention.
Influenced by the experiments of these groups came another wave experimental rock bands in the early 1970's. There was, for instance, the so-called Krautrock scene in Germany, which included psychedelic bands like Amon Düül II, sound-collage artists like Faust, and the extremely improvisational and almost unclassifiable Can. Brian Eno was another important figure, especially after his departure from Roxy Music in order to pursue his own ideas (which ultimately led to his invention of the term "ambient music"). Some other artists in this period, such as David Bowie and Scott Walker, also departing from more pop-oriented styles in order to experiment with songwriting and production. At the same time, there was the experimental wing of the already somewhat experimental progressive rock scene, including a number of bands who were influenced by contemporary classical music -- Magma, Henry Cow, Area, Univers Zero, and so on.
In the late 70s, punk rock developed a number of experimental offshoots, most notably post-punk. This genre includes everything from arty punk rockers like Pere Ubu and Suicide to the noise-rock of Public Image Ltd.. Other punk offshoots included Industrial music (bands such as Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle) and No Wave (bands such as James Chance and the Contortions and DNA). These scenes are all still active in the 00s, as evidenced by bands like Life Without Buildings and Chicks on Speed.
The late 80s alternative scene saw the rise of a number of bands influenced by the Velvet Underground, including Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and Big Black. Many indie rock bands became experimental and diverged into a style called Post-rock; major influences on this style include Slint, who were influenced by Hardcore punk, and Talk Talk's later works, which were influenced by Miles Davis and ambient music. By now "post-rock" can refer to almost any complex instrumental rock coming out of the indie scene, such as the massive, forbidding sonic landscapes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
As the 90s progressed, non-instrumental forms of indie rock also became increasingly experimental.
See also
- 3rd bridge guitar
- List of experimental musicians
- Experimental music
- Progressive metal
- Progressive rock
- Avant-progressive rock
- Post-metal
- Post-punk
- Post-rock
- Noise rock
- No wave
- Freak folk
- Free jazz
