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Post-rock

Post-rock is a form of experimental rock[3] characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbres, as well as non-rock styles, with less emphasis on conventional song structures or riffs.[4] Post-rock artists typically combine rock instrumentation with electronics.[5][6][3] The genre emerged within the indie and underground music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, due to its abandonment of rock conventions, it began to increasingly show little resemblance musically to conventional indie rock at the time,[6] borrowing instead from diverse sources including ambient, electronica, jazz, krautrock, dub, and minimalist classical,[3] with these influences also being pivotal for the style of ambient pop.[7]

"Post rock" redirects here. For other uses, see Post Rock (disambiguation).

While being from separate scenes in the United Kingdom and the United States, artists such as Talk Talk and Slint have been credited with producing foundational works in the style in the early 1990s.[3][6] The term "post-rock" was notably employed by journalist Simon Reynolds in a review of the 1994 Bark Psychosis album Hex, with it being regarded as stylistically solidifying with the acclaimed release of Tortoise's 1996 album Millions Now Living Will Never Die.[3] The term has since been used to describe bands which differ widely in style, making the term controversial among listeners and artists alike.[8]

History[edit]

Precedents[edit]

A precedent to post-rock is the late 1960s U.S. group The Velvet Underground and their "dronology"—"a term that loosely describes fifty percent of today's post rock activity".[26] A 2004 article from Stylus Magazine also noted that David Bowie's 1977 album Low would have been considered post-rock if released twenty years later.[27]


British group Public Image Ltd (PiL) were also pioneers, described by the NME[28] as "arguably the first post-rock group". Their second album Metal Box (1979) almost completely abandoned traditional rock and roll structures in favor of dense, repetitive dub and krautrock inspired soundscapes and John Lydon's cryptic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The year before Metal Box was released, PiL bassist Jah Wobble declared that "rock is obsolete".[29] Dean McFarlane of AllMusic describes Alternative TV's Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One) (1979) as "a door opening on multi-faceted post-rock music," citing its drawing on avant-garde, noise and jazz.[30]


This Heat are regarded as having predated the genre, while also being credited as an influence on bands in the first wave of post-rock.[31][32][33] Their music has been compared directly to Slint, Swans and Stereolab.[31] Stump were referred to as "a significant precursor to post-rock" due to the "strictness" of the band's avant-garde approach, and their musical characteristics of uncertainty and unevenness.[34]

List of post-rock bands

Post-metal

Electronic music