Art Rock
tagStarted 1967Peak 1970-1976Last big hit still active
Located in 1 route
Rock pursued as high-concept art: avant-garde studio experimentation, classical and minimalist influence, conceptual album themes and self-conscious sophistication. Less about virtuoso flash than ideas, texture and challenge - art-school sensibility, unusual song forms, theatrical or literary ambition. The intellectual, gallery-adjacent wing of progressive rock.
History
Emerged from late-1960s studio innovation and art-school culture, with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and the Velvet Underground signaling rock as a serious medium. Roxy Music, early Brian Eno, Van der Graaf Generator and 10cc carried it through the 1970s, prizing concept and texture; the lineage later fed post-punk and experimental pop.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_rock
- https://www.allmusic.com/style/art-rock-experimental-ma0000002799
- https://www.progarchives.com/