Art rock
Art rock (English: art rock , German actually: Art Rock ) is a style of rock music , which works closely with the progressive rock is related. The boundaries between these two styles are fluid and controversial. A distinguishing feature is that progressive rock is more oriented towards the compositional styles of classical music, while artrock represents the approach towards sophisticated production methods, large forms and new visual representations. Even bands that, strictly speaking, do not play progressive rock, but have incorporated progressive elements into their musical and textual concept, can be counted as art rock.
Artrock is a genre of music to which numerous bands between 1969 and 1977 can be assigned. Complex songwriting, often very long pieces with a playing time of up to 40 minutes, extensive instrumental or solo parts, acoustic effects of all kinds and the pronounced tendency towards concept albums characterize this style of music.
Art rock can be seen as an attempt to develop the pop and rock music of the 1960s into art music comparable to classical music. Artrock has its roots in the late 1960s. Concept albums by the Beach Boys and Beatles were just as influential as the baroque and blues-inspired music by Procol Harum , inspiration from the psychedelic rock of the early Pink Floyd , the combination of rock and classical music through The Moody Blues , and instrumental virtuosity from Cream and Jimi Hendrix .
A variant of Artrock developed in West Germany is called Krautrock . The main characteristic of this, compared to British art rock, is that it is almost completely free from the influences of blues and classical music and that the musicians worked early and intensively with the means of electronic music. Important representatives of this style include Amon Düül , Can , Faust , Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream . Krautrock also had a lasting influence on the music scene in the late 1980s and 1990s, for example with drum and bass or techno .
Art rock was also popular in the GDR in the second half of the 1970s. The most important groups and styles are discussed in the article on prog rock .
Important representatives of art rock are: