Editing Art rock (section)

==Definitions==
{{See also|Progressive rock|Art pop}}
{{Further|Art music}}

[[File:Velvet Underground 1968 by Billy Name.png|thumb|right|[[The Velvet Underground]], 1968]]

Critic [[John 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.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=146}}  In the rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive".<ref name="ArtPunkMurray">{{cite web|last1=Murray|first1=Noel|title=60 minutes of music that sum up art-punk pioneers Wire|url=http://www.avclub.com/article/60-minutes-music-sum-art-punk-pioneers-wire-219113|website=[[The A.V. Club]]|date=28 May 2015}}</ref> "Art rock" is often used synonymously with [[progressive rock]].{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=251}}{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=146}}<ref name="prog-rock">{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/prog-rock-ma0000002798|website=[[AllMusic]]|title=Pop/Rock » Art-Rock/Experimental » Prog-Rock}}</ref><ref name=britannica/> Historically, the term has been used to describe at least two related, but distinct, types of rock music.{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=37}} The first is progressive rock, while the second usage refers to groups who rejected [[psychedelia]] and the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|hippie counterculture]] in favour of a [[modernist]], avant-garde approach defined by [[the Velvet Underground]].{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=37}} Essayist [[Ellen Willis]] compared these two types:

{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Bannister|2007|pp=37–38}}}}

[[File:DarkSideOfTheMoon1973.jpg|thumb|right|[[Pink Floyd]] performing their [[concept album]] ''[[The Dark Side of the Moon]]'' (1973)]]

Art rock emphasises [[Romantic music|Romantic]] and autonomous traditions, in distinction to the aesthetic of the everyday and the disposable embodied by [[art pop]].{{sfn|Frith|Horne|2016|p=98}} Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman's ''American Popular Music'' defines art rock as a "form of rock music that blended elements of rock and European classical music", citing the English rock bands [[King Crimson]], [[Emerson, Lake & Palmer]], and [[Pink Floyd]] as examples.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.us.oup.com/us/companion.websites/019530053X/studentresources/chapter11/key_terms/ |title=Key Terms and Definitions |access-date=16 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080503032559/http://www.us.oup.com/us/companion.websites/019530053X/studentresources/chapter11/key_terms/ |archive-date=3 May 2008 }}</ref> Common characteristics include album-oriented music divided into compositions rather than songs, with usually complicated and long instrumental sections and symphonic orchestration.<ref name=britannica/> Its music was traditionally used within the context of [[concept album|concept record]]s, and its lyrical themes tended to be "imaginative" and politically oriented.<ref name=britannica/>

Differences have been identified between art rock and progressive rock, with art rock emphasising avant-garde or [[experimental music|experimental]] influences and "novel sonic structure", while progressive rock has been characterised as putting a greater emphasis on classically trained instrumental technique, literary content, and [[Symphony|symphonic]] features.<ref name="prog-rock"/> Compared to progressive rock, art rock is "more challenging, noisy and unconventional" and "less classically influenced", with more of an emphasis on [[avant-garde music]].<ref name="prog-rock"/> Similarities are that they both describe a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility,<ref name="prog-rock"/> and became the instrumental analogue to concept albums and [[rock opera]]s, which were typically more vocal oriented.{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=845}}

Art rock can also refer to either classically driven rock, or to a progressive rock-[[folk music|folk]] fusion.<ref name=britannica/> Bruce Eder's essay ''The 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 of [[Chuck Berry]] and [[Bo Diddley]]; and using language closer to [[William Blake]] or [[T. S. Eliot]] than to [[Carl Perkins]] or [[Willie Dixon]]."<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.vanguardchurch.com/the_history_of_art_rock.htm |contribution=The Early History of Art-Rock/Prog Rock |first=Bruce |last=Eder |title=All-Music Guide Essay |publisher=Vanguar Church |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124125424/http://www.vanguardchurch.com/the_history_of_art_rock.htm |archive-date=24 January 2008 }}.</ref>