Editing Art rock

{{Short description|Subgenre of rock music}}
{{distinguish|Rock art}}
{{redirect|Art metal}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Art rock
| other_names       = [[progressive rock]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/art/art-rock | title=Art rock &#124; Genres, Influences & History &#124; Britannica }}</ref>
| stylistic_origins = * [[Experimental rock]]<ref name="prog-rock"/>
* [[Avant-garde music|avant-garde]]<ref name="prog-rock"/>
* [[psychedelic rock]]<ref name="Brit2">{{cite web|last1=O'Brien|first1=Lucy M.|title=Psychedelic rock|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/psychedelic-rock|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=3 December 2016}}</ref>
* [[folk music|folk]]<ref name=britannica/>
* [[jazz]]<ref name="prog-rock"/>
* [[classical music|classical]]<ref name=webster>[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art-rock "Art-Rock"]. Merriam Webster. Retrieved 15 December 2011.</ref>
| cultural_origins  = 1960s, United States and United Kingdom
| derivatives       = 
* [[Post-progressive]]{{sfn|Hegarty|Halliwell|2011|p=224}}
* [[post-punk]]{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=4}}
| other_topics      =
* [[Art music]]
* [[art pop]]
* [[art punk]]
* [[avant-garde metal]]
* [[avant-pop]]
* [[concept album]]
* [[jazz rock]]
* [[no wave]]
* [[post-metal]]
* [[post-rock]]
* [[progressive metal]]
* [[progressive pop]]
* [[progressive soul]]
* [[rock opera]]
* [[rockism]]
}}
'''Art rock''' is a [[subgenre]] of [[rock music]] that generally reflects a challenging or [[avant-garde]] approach to rock, or which makes use of [[modernist]], experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement,{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=393}} opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music.<ref name=britannica>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36651/art-rock "Art Rock"]. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 December 2011.</ref> Influences may be drawn from genres such as [[experimental music]], [[avant-garde music]], [[classical music]], and [[jazz]].<ref name="prog-rock"/>

Art rock was created with the intention of listening and contemplation rather than for [[dance music|dancing]],<ref name=britannica/> and is often distinguished by the use of electronic effects and [[easy listening]] textures far removed from the propulsive rhythms of early rock.{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=393}} The term may sometimes be used interchangeably with "[[progressive rock]]", though the latter is instead characterised in particular by its employment of [[classically trained]] instrumental technique and [[symphonic]] 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.<ref name=britannica/> Art rock is most associated with a certain period of rock music, beginning in 1966–67 and ending with the arrival of [[punk rock]] in the mid-1970s.{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=49}}  After, the genre would be infused within later popular music genres of the 1970s–90s.<ref name=britannica/>

{{TOC limit|4}}

==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>

==History==
===1960s{{anchor|Origins}}===

====Background====
{{See also|Experimental rock|Album Era}}

{{quote box|
 |quote=In the late sixties and early seventies, rock both co-opted and challenged the prevailing view of musical art, often at the same time. This is evident in a diverse body of music that includes [[the Beach Boys]]' ''[[Pet Sounds]]'' and [[the Beatles]]' ''[[Sgt. Pepper]]''; [[Frank Zappa]]'s ''[[Freak Out!|Freak Out]]'' ... [[the Who]]'s [[rock opera]] ''[[Tommy (The Who album)|Tommy]]''; [[Pink Floyd]]'s technologically advanced concept album ''[[The Dark Side of the Moon|Dark Side of the Moon]]''; and [[Miles Davis]]'s [[jazz fusion|jazz/rock fusion]].
 |source=—[[Michael Campbell (pianist and author)|Michael Campbell]], ''Popular Music in America'', 2012{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=251}}
 |width = 25%
 |salign = right
 |align = right
}}

The boundaries between art and pop music became increasingly blurred throughout the second half of the 20th century.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=1233}} The first usage of the term "art rock", according to [[Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary]], was in 1968.<ref name=webster/> As pop music's dominant format [[Album Era|transitioned from singles to albums]],{{refn|group=nb|[[The Beatles]], [[the Beach Boys]], [[Phil Spector]], and [[Frank Zappa]] all indicated a direction that transformed long-playing records into a creative format while variously reciprocating each others' creative developments throughout the 1960s.{{sfn|Julien|2008|pp=30, 160}}}} many rock bands created works that aspired to make grand artistic statements, where art rock would flourish.<ref name="Holden">{{cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Holden|date=28 February 1999|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/28/arts/music-they-re-recording-but-are-they-artists.html|title=MUSIC; They're Recording, but Are They Artists?|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=17 July 2013}}</ref> As it progressed in the late 1960s – in tandem with the development of progressive rock – art rock acquired notoriety alongside experimental rock.{{sfn|Rosenberg|2009|p=179}}

====Proponents====
[[File:Phil Spector with MFQ 1965.png|thumb|right|[[Phil Spector]] (center) in the studio with [[folk rock]] band [[Modern Folk Quartet]], 1966]]

The earliest figure of art rock has been assumed to be record producer and songwriter [[Phil Spector]], who became known as an [[auteur]] for his [[Wall of Sound]] productions that aspired to a "classical grandiosity".{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=48}} According to biographer [[Richard Williams (journalist)|Richard 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."{{sfn|Williams|2003|pp=15–16}} 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".{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=38}}
[[File:Brian Wilson Pet Sounds 2.jpg|left|thumb|[[Brian Wilson]] in the studio, 1966]]
[[The Beach Boys]]' leader [[Brian Wilson]] is also cited as one of the first examples of the auteur music producer.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=890}}{{refn|group=nb|For an early example of the rock album format being used to make a cohesive artistic statement, author Scott Schinder refers to the album ''[[The Beach Boys Today!]]'' (1965) and its "[[suite (music)|suite-like structure]]", consisting of one side of uptempo songs and the other of [[ballad]]s.{{sfn|Schinder|2007|p=111}}}} Like Spector, Wilson was known as a reclusive studio obsessive who laboriously produced fantastical soundscapes through his mastery of recording technology.{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=39}} Biographer [[Peter 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".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Carlin |first1=Peter Ames |author-link=Peter Ames Carlin|title=MUSIC; A Rock Utopian Still Chasing An American Dream|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/25/arts/music-a-rock-utopian-still-chasing-an-american-dream.html|date=25 March 2001|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Drawing from the influence of Wilson's work and the work of [[the Beatles]]' producer [[George Martin]], music producers after the mid 1960s began to view the recording studio as a musical instrument used to aid the process of composition.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=890}} Critic [[Stephen 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.<ref name="Holden"/>

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 via [[art school]].{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=xiv}}{{sfn|Frith|1989|p=208}} This institution differed from its US counterpart in terms of having a less industry-applicable syllabus and in its focus on furthering eccentric talent.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=xiii–xiv}} 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 as [[Rock and roll|rock 'n' roll]] and [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]].{{sfn|Lindberg et al.|2005|pp=104–06}}

According to journalist [[Richard Goldstein (writer born 1944)|Richard 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 to [[Bob 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."<ref name=GoldsteinSalon>{{cite web|last1=Goldstein|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Goldstein (writer born 1944)|title=I got high with the Beach Boys: "If I survive this I promise never to do drugs again"|url=http://www.salon.com/2015/04/26/i_got_high_with_the_beach_boys_if_i_survive_this_i_promise_never_to_do_drugs_again/|work=[[salon (website)|Salon]]|date=26 April 2015}}</ref>

Author Matthew Bannister traces "the more self-conscious, camp aesthetic of art rock" to pop artist [[Andy Warhol]] and the Velvet Underground, who emulated Warhol's art/pop synthesis.{{sfn|Bannister|2007|pp=26, 45}} 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."{{sfn|Bannister|2007|pp=40, 44}} 

====Influential albums====
=====1965–66=====
The December 1965 release of the Beatles' ''[[Rubber Soul]]'' signified a watershed for the pop album,{{sfn|Howard|2004|p=64}} transforming it in scope from a collection of singles with lesser-quality tracks to a distinct art form, filled with high-quality original compositions.{{sfn|Perone|2004|p=23}} The album garnered recognition for the Beatles as artists from the American mainstream press,{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=595}} anticipating rock music's cultural legitimisation as an art form.{{sfn|Frontani|2007|p=122}} Writing in 1968, [[Gene Sculatti]] of ''[[Jazz & Pop]]'' recognised ''Rubber Soul'' as "the definitive 'rock as art' album" and "the necessary prototype" that major artists such as the Rolling Stones (with ''[[Aftermath (The Rolling Stones album)|Aftermath]]'') and the Beach Boys had felt compelled to follow.<ref name="Sculatti">{{cite web|last=Sculatti|first=Gene|author-link=Gene Sculatti|url=http://www.teachrock.org/resources/article/villains-and-heroes-in-defense-of-the-beach-boys/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714191639/http://teachrock.org/resources/article/villains-and-heroes-in-defense-of-the-beach-boys/ |title=Villains and Heroes: In Defense of the Beach Boys|magazine=[[Jazz & Pop]]|date=September 1968|publisher=teachrock.org|archive-date=14 July 2014|access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref>

The period when rock music became most closely aligned with art began in 1966 and continued until the mid 1970s.{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=250}} 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 with ''Rubber Soul''.{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=56}}{{refn|group=nb|In March 1966, Wilson called ''Pet Sounds'' "a more conscious, arty production ... it's like I'm right in the golden age of what it's all about. ... The folk thing has been important. I think it has opened up a whole new intellectual bag for the kids. They're making "thinking" records now. That's really what it is."<ref name="MelodyMakerBlast">{{cite journal|last=Grevatt|first=Ron|title=Beach Boys' Blast|journal=[[Melody Maker]]|date=19 March 1966|url=http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd420/kwan_dk/MMMarch191966.jpg}}</ref>}} In 1978, biographer [[David Leaf]] wrote that the album heralded art rock,{{sfn|Leaf|1985|p=74}} while according to ''[[The New York Observer]]'', "''Pet Sounds'' proved that a pop group could make an album-length piece comparable with the greatest long-form works of [[Leonard Bernstein|Bernstein]], [[Aaron Copland|Copland]], [[Charles Ives|Ives]], and [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]."<ref name=Sommer2015>{{cite news|last1=Sommer|first1=Tim|title=Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the 'Lesser' Beach Boys|url=http://observer.com/2015/07/beyond-the-life-of-brian-the-myth-of-the-lesser-beach-boys/|work=[[The New York Observer]]|date=21 July 2015}}</ref> ''Pet Sounds'' is also noted as the first rock concept album.{{sfn|Kent|2009|pp=23–24}}<ref name="Davis1972">{{cite magazine|author-link=Stephen Davis (music journalist)|first=Stephen|last=Davis |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/pet-sounds-19720622 |title=Pet Sounds |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=22 June 1972 }}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Carys Wyn Jones observes that ''Pet Sounds'', the Beatles' ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'' (1966) and ''Sgt. Pepper'', and [[the Who]]'s ''[[Tommy (The Who album)|Tommy]]'' (1969) are variously cited as "the first concept album", usually for their "uniform excellence rather than some lyrical theme or underlying musical motif".{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=49}}}} In 1971, ''[[New York (magazine)|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.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Pet Sounds|journal=Cue|date=1971|volume=40|issue=27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwgwAQAAIAAJ}}</ref>

[[File:Frank Zappa Mothers of Invention 1971.JPG|right|thumb|[[Frank Zappa]] and [[the Mothers of Invention]], 1971]]

Jacqueline Edmondson's 2013 encyclopaedia ''Music in American Life'' states that, although it was preceded by earlier examples, [[Frank Zappa]] and the Mothers of Invention's debut album ''[[Freak 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.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=1233}} 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".{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=251}}

The Beatles' ''[[Revolver (Beatles album)|Revolver]]'' (August 1966) furthered the album-as-art perspective{{sfn|Perone|2004|pp=118–19}} and continued pop music's evolution.{{sfn|Howard|2004|p=2}} Led by the art-rock single "[[Eleanor Rigby]]",{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=138}} 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,{{sfn|Greene|2016|pp=9, 21–22}} and also in its departure from previous notions of melody and structure in pop songwriting.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=67}} According to ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', "''Revolver'' signaled that in popular music, anything – any theme, any musical idea – could now be realized."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-beatles-revolver-20120524 |author=Rolling Stone staff|title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 3. The Beatles, 'Revolver'|magazine=[[Rolling Stone|rollingstone.com]]|date=31 May 2012|access-date=22 July 2017}}</ref> As with ''Rubber Soul'', the album inspired many of the progressive rock artists of the 1970s,{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=95}} and each of its songs has been recognised as anticipating a new subgenre or style.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=xiii}}

=====1967=====
{{Main|The Velvet Underground & Nico|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band}}

''[[Clash Music]]'' names the Velvet Underground's debut March 1967 album ''[[The Velvet Underground & Nico]]'' "the original art-rock record".<ref>{{cite news|date=11 December 2009|url=http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/classic-albums-the-velvet-undergrond-and-nico|title=Classic Albums: The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico|newspaper=[[Clash Music]]|access-date=28 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112235/http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/classic-albums-the-velvet-undergrond-and-nico|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|In late 1966, the Velvet Underground's principal songwriter [[Lou Reed]] praised Spector, crowning his "[[You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin']]" (1964) "the best record ever made". In addition, he wrote: "There is no God and Brian Wilson is his son."{{sfn|Unterberger|2009|p=122}} }} 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."{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=44}} Their influence would recur from the 1970s onwards to various worldwide [[indie music|indie]] scenes,{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=44}}{{refn|group=nb|Bannister adds that [[indie rock]] musicians would be significantly influenced by the "pop" offshoots of psychedelia that includes the later Beatles, the later Beach Boys, [[the Byrds]], early Pink Floyd, and [[Love (band)|Love]].{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=37}} }} and in 2006, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' was inducted into the [[Library of Congress]]' [[National Recording Registry]], who commented: "For decades [it] has cast a huge shadow over nearly every sub-variety of [[avant-garde rock]], from 70s art-rock to [[no wave|no-wave]], [[new wave music|new-wave]], and [[punk rock|punk]]."{{sfn|Unterberger|2009|pp=6, 358}} However, when the Velvet Underground first appeared in the mid 1960s, they faced rejection and were commonly dismissed as a "fag" band.{{sfn|Bannister|2007|p=45}} In 1982, musician [[Brian Eno]] famously stated that while ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' initially sold just 30,000 copies, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band."<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Gensler|first1=Andy|title=Lou Reed RIP: What If Everyone Who Bought The First Velvet Underground Album Did Start A Band?|url=http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/5770584/lou-reed-rip-what-if-everyone-who-bought-the-first|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|location=New York|date=28 October 2013}}</ref>

The Beatles' [[Paul McCartney]] deemed ''Pet Sounds'' "the record of the time", and in June 1967, the band responded with their own album: ''Sgt. Pepper's'',{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=50}}{{refn|group=nb|It is frequently cited for its ''Pet Sounds'' influence, as McCartney explains: "If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed ''Pepper'' ... and my influence was basically the ''Pet Sounds'' album."{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=50}} The interplay between the Beach Boys and the Beatles' creative work thus inextricably links the two albums together.{{sfn|Jones|2008|p=50}}}} which was also influenced by ''Freak Out!''{{sfn|Julien|2008|pp=158–160}} [[AllMusic]] states that the first wave of art rock musicians were inspired by ''Sgt. Pepper's'' and believed that for rock music to grow artistically, they should incorporate elements of [[European music|European]] and classical music to the genre.<ref name="prog-rock"/>{{refn|group=nb|In the ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]'', [[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]] wrote of ''Sgt. Pepper'': "[It] turned out to be no mere pop album but a cultural icon, embracing the constituent elements of the 60s' youth culture: pop art, garish fashion, drugs, instant mysticism and freedom from parental control."<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2006|publisher=[[Muze]]|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|volume=1|pages=487–489|isbn=0-19-531373-9}}</ref>}} Many British groups flowered in the album's wake; those who are listed in ''Music in American Life'' include [[the Moody Blues]], [[the Strawbs]], [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]], and "most notably", Pink Floyd.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=184}}{{refn|group=nb|Pink Floyd recorded their 1967 debut album ''[[The Piper at the Gates of Dawn|Piper at the Gates of Dawn]]'' next door to the ''Sgt. Pepper's'' sessions at London's [[EMI Studios]]. Fans believe that the ''Piper'' track "[[Pow R. Toc H.]]" would derive from ''Pepper's'' "[[Lovely Rita]]", whose sessions Pink Floyd were witness to.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Geslani|first1=Michelle|title=Nick Mason details Pink Floyd and The Beatles' first encounter in 1967|url=https://consequence.net/2014/11/nick-mason-details-pink-floyd-and-the-beatles-first-encounter-in-1967/|magazine=[[Consequence of Sound]]|date=14 November 2014}}</ref>}} The band's bassist, [[Roger Waters]] later stated that both ''Sgt. Pepper'' and ''Pet Sounds'' "completely changed everything about records" for him.<ref>{{citation |title= Roger Waters Interview|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date= 12 March 2003}}</ref>

===1970s–1990s===
{{See also|New wave music}}
{{expand section|date=March 2016}}

Art rock's greatest level of popularity was in the early 1970s through British artists including [[King Crimson]] and [[Queen (band)|Queen]].<ref name=britannica/>

[[File:David Bowie 1975.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|[[David Bowie]] photographed in 1974]]
Early in the decade, Pink Floyd released ''[[Atom Heart Mother]]'', with the 23-minute title track taking up the entire first side of the LP. This experiment with collaborator [[Ron 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.{{sfn|Campbell|2012|p=251}} From then to the 1990s, art rock was infused within various popular music genres.<ref name=britannica/> ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that its genre's tendencies were continued by some British and American [[hard rock]] and [[pop rock]] artists, and that [[Brian Eno]]'s late 1970s and early 1980s collaborations with [[David Bowie]] and [[Talking Heads]] are exemplary of "the successful infusion of art rock tendencies into other popular music genres".<ref name=britannica/> Bowie and Eno collaborated on a series of consecutive albums called the "[[Berlin Trilogy]]", characterised as an "art rock trifecta" by ''[[Consequence 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 music|New Wave]] had exploded, and a generation of Bowie descendants had taken the stage."<ref>{{cite web |website=[[Consequence of Sound]]|title=Ranking: Every David Bowie Album From Worst to Best|date=8 January 2018|url=https://consequence.net/2018/01/ranking-dissected-david-bowie/ | first1=Blake | last1=Goble | first2=Cap | last2=Blackard | first3=Pat | last3=Levy | first4=Lior | last4=Phillips | first5=David | last5=Sackllah | access-date=21 October 2018}}</ref>

In the 1980s, a new generation of English art rockers took the place of 1970s bands such as [[Roxy Music]],<ref name="AM">[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p108518|pure_url=yes}} "Roxy Music > Biography"]. Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Allmusic. Accessed 12 February 2020.</ref> [[Yes (band)|Yes]], [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]], [[Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull]] and [[Emerson, Lake & Palmer]]. Journalist Roy Trakin said in 1981: "Of course, these stalwarts can still fill [[Madison 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."<ref name="Trakin1981">{{Cite journal|last1=Trakin|first1=Roy|title=The New English Art Rock|journal=[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]|date=February 1981|issue=30|url=http://chalkhills.org/articles/Musician198102.html}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rathbone |first=Oregano |date=2024-06-09 |title=What Is Art Rock? A History Of Music's Most Progressive Minds |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/in-depth-features/rock-for-arts-sake/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=uDiscover Music |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=nb|30em}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Gendron|first=Bernard|title=Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jtQAElFVUcC|year=2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-28735-5}}

{{rock}}
{{Progressive music}}
{{Electronic rock}}
{{Experimental music genres}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Art rock}}
[[Category:Art rock| ]]
[[Category:British styles of music]]
[[Category:Experimental rock]]
[[Category:American styles of music]]
[[Category:Rock music genres]]
[[Category:20th-century music genres]]
[[Category:Pop art]]
[[Category:Progressive rock]]
[[Category:Progressive music]]
[[Category:1960s in music]]
[[Category:1970s in music]]
[[Category:1980s in music]]
[[Category:1990s in music]]