Experimental rock
Encyclopedia
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments
with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique.
Performers may also attempt to individualize their music with unconventional time signature
s, instrumental tunings
, unusual harmony and key signatures, compositional styles, lyrical techniques, elements of other musical genres, singing styles, instrumental effects or custom-made experimental musical instruments.
artists such as John Coltrane
and Sun Ra
and avant-garde
composers like John Cage
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
. The Velvet Underground
, which at one point counted Lou Reed
, John Cale
, and Angus Maclise
among its members and was associated with Andy Warhol
and LaMonte Young, fused elements of minimalism
and avant-garde music with standard rock song structures. The sounds of Indian
and Arabic music were also widely admired and adapted. Even such popularly successful bands as The Beatles
, The Beach Boys
and The Rolling Stones
were able to incorporate outside and foreign influences into their songs without sacrificing their broad fanbase.
In the television program Howard Goodall
's 20th-Century Greats, Goodall says that in mixing pop and classical techniques, and cross-fertilising them with Indian and electronic music, The Beatles refreshed and revitalised western harmony. They also transformed the recording studio from a dull box where you recaptured your live sound, into a musical laboratory, of exciting and completely new sounds.
Other important experimental bands in this period include The Monks
, The Fugs
, The Godz, Red Crayola, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
and The Mothers of Invention. These bands were also the inspiration for Plastic People of the Universe, which emerged in the 1970s behind the Iron Curtain
.
scene in Germany
, which included psychedelic bands like Amon Düül II
and Popol Vuh
, sound-collage artists like Faust
, and the extremely improvisational and almost unclassifiable Can
. Brian Eno
was another important figure, especially after his departure from Roxy Music
in order to pursue his own ideas (which ultimately led to his invention of the term "ambient music
"). Some other artists in this period, such as David Bowie
and Scott Walker
, also departing from more pop-oriented styles in order to experiment with songwriting and production. Some of Miles Davis
' early-70s work such as On the Corner
or A Tribute to Jack Johnson
straddles or even defies the line between jazz fusion
, funk
and rock. At the same time, there was the experimental wing of the already somewhat experimental progressive rock
scene, including a number of bands who were influenced by contemporary classical music
-- Magma
, Zao
, Henry Cow
, Samla Mammas Manna
, Area
, Univers Zero
, Frank Zappa
, and so on.
In the late 70s, punk rock
developed a number of experimental offshoots, most notably post-punk
. This genre includes everything from arty punk rockers like Pere Ubu
, The Electric Eels and Suicide
to the dub-influenced Public Image Ltd.
Other punk offshoots included industrial music
(bands such as Cabaret Voltaire
, Einstürzende Neubauten
and Throbbing Gristle
) and No Wave
(bands such as James Chance and the Contortions
and DNA
).
and underground music
scene in the 1980s. Influenced by their punk and post-punk predecessors, bands like Sonic Youth
, Band of Susans
, and Live Skull
who all originated in New York's No Wave scene, The Scene Is Now
, Negativland
, Butthole Surfers
, Swans
, Beme Seed
and Dinosaur Jr. further expanded the boundaries of rock by introducing influences from minimalism
and conceptualism
, as well as pop art
, situationism and fluxus
and influences from the new media culture of the 1980s. The late 80s underground scene saw the rise of a number of bands influenced by the Velvet Underground and 1960s psychedelia, including Agitpop
, Opal
, Pixies, Treatment
, Yo La Tengo
, and Big Black
. Hardcore punk
, with its DIY ethic
, was also a big influence on many of the experimental rock bands of the day. Toward the end of the 1980s rap emerged into a mature, experimental phase exploring the possibilities of sampling
and dealing with social and racial issues. Sampling technology had been present within pop music for a large portion of the decade, however, artists such as Kate Bush
, Brian Eno
and so forth innovated an experimental pop music take on the use of sampling technology. The influences of this form of sampling also aided as an influence on modern electronica
. Rap's impact on experimental rock was huge, as many rock bands were impressed by the power and innovation of rap artists such as Public Enemy, Dream Warriors
and Digital Underground
and sought to incorporate aspects of rap and hip hop into their music, with Sonic Youth
's 1990 "Kool Thing
" featuring an appearance by Chuck D. of Public Enemy. Beginning in 1988 Oxbow
's music has blended elements including noise rock
, avant-garde jazz
, musique concrète
, blues
, non-Western music
and contemporary classical music
, among others.
" style which featured multiple, layered distorted guitars and overwrought male vocals. The experimentalism that had characterized the 1980s declined as grunge
took hold as the dominant style in rock music. Originated in the Pacific Northwest
in the 1980s by metal
, psychedelia and punk
influenced bands such as Mudhoney
, and Mother Love Bone
, Nirvana
was the genre's breakout artist. Soon follow up bands like Pearl Jam
, Stone Temple Pilots
, Soundgarden
were dominating the charts while hewing close to the accepted list of influences on their genre and even adding elements of arena rock
such as extended guitar solos and intricate time signatures to what had been a stripped-down, nonvirtuosic style. Bands such as the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth discarded many unconventional and abrasive elements and began working within traditional structures. Artists such as Ween
and Redd Kross
continued their predecessors inventiveness with less impact, as did some bands referring to 1970s funk
such as Praxis
. North California's Mr. Bungle
combined the skillful musicianship of progressive rock
with a confrontational, absurdist
approach more often associated with No Wave
, by switching genres in between whole songs, and getting rid of traditional song structures.
Half way through the nineties the lo-fi movement became a prominent factor in exploring new recording techniques at home with direct plugged in guitars as well as heavily pre amps channels for acoustic instruments raising the noise in the music. Experimental lo-fi rock bands are Sebadoh
, Guided by Voices
, Half Japanese
, Slicing Grandpa
, and Eric's Trip
.
In the later 1990s, many indie rock
bands diverged into a style called post-rock
, which has been described as "using rock instrumentation to make non-rock music." Although post-rock can often be traced back to the late-80s/early-90s works of Slint
(influenced by hardcore punk
) and late-era Talk Talk
(influenced by Miles Davis
and ambient music
), the term did not become prevalent until the late-90s/early-00s to describe the mostly-instrumental music of bands such as Mogwai
, Tortoise
and Godspeed You! Black Emperor
. By now "post-rock" can refer to almost any complex instrumental rock coming out of the indie scene, from the delicate, classical-influenced chamber rock of Rachel's
to the massive, forbidding sonic landscapes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Other experimental rock styles of this period are math rock
and post-hardcore
, with bands like Shellac
, Fugazi, Les Savy Fav
. Noise rock took a more radical course and speedy with bands like Melt-Banana
and Lightning Bolt
. At the end of the nineties some indie rock bands like The Notwist
and Enon
went into a more electronic way of music making to explore new textures.
In the latin american music, one rock band that was pioneering of the experimentation was Soda Stereo
, leaving sample particularly in his albums Dynamo of 1992 and Sueño Stereo
of 1995. This set a precedent for the Latin American music.
and Elephant 6 collectives, such as Comets on Fire
, Josephine Foster
, Neutral Milk Hotel
, The Olivia Tremor Control
and Six Organs of Admittance
. Later experimental indie bands include Circus Devils
, Deerhoof
, Deerhunter
, The Fiery Furnaces
, Kling Klang
, Liars
, Man Man
, TV on the Radio
, U.S. Maple
and Xiu Xiu
. British band Radiohead
, who became popular in the 1990s playing alternative rock
, began experimenting with different musical styles at the turn of the millennium, with the album Kid A
, and then in 2001 with Amnesiac
. These albums took influence from electronica
and Krautrock
, as well as jazz
and classical music
, creating a radical shift in direction for the group, polarizing critics and fans.
Experimental luthier
Yuri Landman
created several experimental musical instruments for notable experimental rock acts like Enon
, Jad Fair
, Liars
, Lou Barlow
, Mauro Pawlowski
and Sonic Youth
. The band Neptune
also built several similar electric instruments. With multi-layered sound over sound delay tracks Liam Finn
incorporated noise rock sound structures in his singer songwriter songs.
The New Weird America
movement with bands like Animal Collective
emerged as a distinct presence both harkening back to an imagined 1960s heyday and pointing the way forward for rock music in the era of online distribution. Bands like Chicks on Speed
draw on the No Wave
sounds of the early 1980s. A collection of second wave post-hardcore
and new prog
bands have dabbled in experimentalism, notably Circa Survive
, Coheed and Cambria
, Glassjaw
, The Mars Volta
, The Sound of Animals Fighting
, Thrice
and commercially successful band Muse
. Other experimental rock acts founded after 2000 are Kellermensch
, Warpaint
, Yeasayer
, Health
, Ponytail
, Pre
, The Luyas
, These Are Powers
and Women
.
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique.
Performers may also attempt to individualize their music with unconventional time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s, instrumental tunings
Scordatura
A scordatura , also called cross-tuning, is an alternative tuning used for the open strings of a string instrument, in which the notes indicated in the score would represent the finger position as if played in regular tuning, while the actual pitch is altered...
, unusual harmony and key signatures, compositional styles, lyrical techniques, elements of other musical genres, singing styles, instrumental effects or custom-made experimental musical instruments.
1960s
The mid- to late 60s was an era of explosive growth and experimentation in rock music. Bands drew influences from free jazzFree jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
artists such as John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
and Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
and avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
composers like John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
, which at one point counted Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, and Angus Maclise
Angus MacLise
Angus MacLise was an American percussionist, composer, poet, occultist and calligrapher probably best known as the first drummer for the Velvet Underground.-Biography:...
among its members and was associated with Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and LaMonte Young, fused elements of minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
and avant-garde music with standard rock song structures. The sounds of Indian
Music of India
The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...
and Arabic music were also widely admired and adapted. Even such popularly successful bands as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
were able to incorporate outside and foreign influences into their songs without sacrificing their broad fanbase.
In the television program Howard Goodall
Howard Goodall
210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
's 20th-Century Greats, Goodall says that in mixing pop and classical techniques, and cross-fertilising them with Indian and electronic music, The Beatles refreshed and revitalised western harmony. They also transformed the recording studio from a dull box where you recaptured your live sound, into a musical laboratory, of exciting and completely new sounds.
Other important experimental bands in this period include The Monks
The Monks
Monks are a garage rock band, formed by American GIs who were based in Germany in the mid to late 1960s. They reunited in 1999 and have continued to play concerts, although no new studio recordings have been made...
, The Fugs
The Fugs
The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...
, The Godz, Red Crayola, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
and The Mothers of Invention. These bands were also the inspiration for Plastic People of the Universe, which emerged in the 1970s behind the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
.
1970s
Influenced by the experiments of these groups came another wave of experimental rock bands in the early 1970s. There was, for instance, the so-called KrautrockKrautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
scene in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which included psychedelic bands like Amon Düül II
Amon Düül II
-Studio Albums:-Live Albums:-Compilations:-Singles:-External links:*...
and Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh (German band)
Popol Vuh was a German electronic avantgarde band, in the mainstream-media so called Krautrock, founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969 together with Holger Trülzsch and Frank Fiedler...
, sound-collage artists like Faust
Faust (band)
Faust are a German krautrock band. Formed in 1971 in Wümme, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron, Rudolf Sosna and Gunther Wüsthoff, working with record producer Uwe Nettelbeck and engineer Kurt Graupner.-History:Faust...
, and the extremely improvisational and almost unclassifiable Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
. Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
was another important figure, especially after his departure from Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
in order to pursue his own ideas (which ultimately led to his invention of the term "ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
"). Some other artists in this period, such as David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and Scott Walker
Scott Walker (singer)
Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel on January 9, 1943 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and the former lead singer of The Walker Brothers. Despite being American born, Walker's chart success has largely come in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums...
, also departing from more pop-oriented styles in order to experiment with songwriting and production. Some of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
' early-70s work such as On the Corner
On the Corner
On the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. It was scorned by critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings...
or A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released February 24, 1971 on Columbia Records. It also serves as the soundtrack for a documentary by Bill Cayton about the heavyweight world champion boxer Jack Johnson....
straddles or even defies the line between jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and rock. At the same time, there was the experimental wing of the already somewhat experimental progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
scene, including a number of bands who were influenced by contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
-- Magma
Magma (band)
Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a...
, Zao
Zao
Zao may refer to:* Zao, a character in the James Bond film Die Another Day* Zao , a metalcore band from Pennsylvania* Zao * Mount Zaō, a mountain in northern Japan* Zaō, Miyagi, a town in Japan* 5751 Zao, an asteroid...
, Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
, Samla Mammas Manna
Samla Mammas Manna
Samla Mammas Manna was a Swedish progressive rock band, often characterized by its virtuoso musicianship, circus references and silly humour, similar in many ways to the song-writing styles of Frank Zappa. They were one of the founding members of the Rock in Opposition movement in the late 1970s....
, Area
Area (band)
Area - International POPular Group, most commonly known as Area or AreA, is an Italian progressive rock, jazz fusion, electronic, experimental groupb) “It was the mid-1970s and live events roused enthusiasm as never before; they fulfilled the need to be together and the illusion of continuing as a...
, Univers Zero
Univers Zéro
Univers Zero are an instrumental Belgian band known for playing dark music heavily influenced by 20th century chamber music. The group's name has had three variant spellings, the others being Univers Zéro and Univers-Zero....
, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, and so on.
In the late 70s, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
developed a number of experimental offshoots, most notably post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
. This genre includes everything from arty punk rockers like Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...
, The Electric Eels and Suicide
Suicide (band)
Suicide is an American electronic protopunk musical duo, intermittently active since 1970 and composed of vocalist Alan Vega and Martin Rev on synthesizers and drum machines. They are an early synthesizer/vocal musical duo....
to the dub-influenced Public Image Ltd.
Public Image Ltd.
Public Image Ltd are an English post-punk band formed by vocalist John Lydon , guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, with frequent subsequent personnel changes. Lydon is the sole constant member of the band....
Other punk offshoots included industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
(bands such as Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
, Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
and Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
) and No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
(bands such as James Chance and the Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions, led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, were one of the original punk jazz groups of the New York No Wave music scene. Their first recording, credited solely as Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York, produced by Brain Eno...
and DNA
DNA (band)
DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
).
1980s
Experimentalism was a large part of the college rockCollege rock
College rock is a term that was used in the United States to describe 1980s alternative rock before the term "alternative" came into common usage. The term's use of the word "college" refers to campus radio stations located at institutions of higher education in Canada and the United States, where...
and underground music
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
scene in the 1980s. Influenced by their punk and post-punk predecessors, bands like Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Band of Susans
Band of Susans
Band of Susans was a noise rock band formed in New York City in 1986. It originally consisted of Robert Poss , Susan Stenger , Ron Spitzer , with Susan Lyall , Susan Tallman , and Alva Rogers . However, the band would undergo several permutations over the years, usually involving guitarists...
, and Live Skull
Live Skull
-Overview:Live Skull created abrasive no wave music not unlike their 1980s contemporaries Sonic Youth, Swans, Rat at Rat R, The Chameleons, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Band of Susans. Their music featured angular guitar parts interspersed with bleak, quieter passages, for a haunting...
who all originated in New York's No Wave scene, The Scene Is Now
The Scene Is Now
The Scene is Now is a New York City-based avant-garde jug band from the 1980s. Their songs, most of which are compiled on the album The Oily Years, tend to be somewhat rough, lo-fi recordings...
, Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
, Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
, Swans
Swans (band)
Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...
, Beme Seed
Beme Seed
Beme Seed was a New York based psychedelic noise rock band led by Kathleen Lynch, known for her collaboration with the Butthole Surfers. The band utilized guitar feedback and chanting to invoke a droning atmosphere in their music described as "panic inducing", and "supernatural"...
and Dinosaur Jr. further expanded the boundaries of rock by introducing influences from minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
and conceptualism
Conceptualism
Conceptualism is a philosophical theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between Nominalism and Realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies...
, as well as pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
, situationism and fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
and influences from the new media culture of the 1980s. The late 80s underground scene saw the rise of a number of bands influenced by the Velvet Underground and 1960s psychedelia, including Agitpop
Agitpop
Agitpop is an art punk band from Poughkeepsie, New York. The band was formed in 1981 and began touring widely in 1983. They released four records on the Comm3, Twintone and Rough Trade labels. Its members include Mark LaFalce, John deVries and Rick Crescini...
, Opal
Opal (band)
Opal were an American alternative/psychedelic band in the 1980s. They were part of the Paisley Underground musical style.The group formed in the mid-'80s under the name Clay Allison, featuring guitarist David Roback , bassist Kendra Smith and drummer Keith Mitchell...
, Pixies, Treatment
Treatment
Treatment may refer to:* Treatment, therapy used to remedy a health problem* Treatment, a process or intervention in the design of experiments* Treatment group, a collection of items or individuals given the same treatment in an experiment* Water treatment...
, Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
, and Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...
. Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
, with its DIY ethic
DIY ethic
The DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...
, was also a big influence on many of the experimental rock bands of the day. Toward the end of the 1980s rap emerged into a mature, experimental phase exploring the possibilities of sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and dealing with social and racial issues. Sampling technology had been present within pop music for a large portion of the decade, however, artists such as Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and so forth innovated an experimental pop music take on the use of sampling technology. The influences of this form of sampling also aided as an influence on modern electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
. Rap's impact on experimental rock was huge, as many rock bands were impressed by the power and innovation of rap artists such as Public Enemy, Dream Warriors
Dream Warriors
Dream Warriors were a Canadian hip hop duo from Toronto, Ontario, comprising King Lou and Capital Q. Described as "a pair of deft, intelligent rappers" by Allmusic, they were major contributors to the jazz rap movement of the early 1990s. Their 1991 debut album, And Now the Legacy Begins, is...
and Digital Underground
Digital Underground
Digital Underground was an alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. It could have been considered a music "family" rather than a group, as its personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour....
and sought to incorporate aspects of rap and hip hop into their music, with Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
's 1990 "Kool Thing
Kool Thing
"Kool Thing" was the first major label single from Sonic Youth's 1990 album Goo. It was released in June 1990 on DGC. The song was inspired by an interview bassist/singer Kim Gordon conducted with LL Cool J for Spin in which the two artists clashed. Although he is never mentioned by name, the...
" featuring an appearance by Chuck D. of Public Enemy. Beginning in 1988 Oxbow
Oxbow (band)
Oxbow is a long-lived Avant-Garde band out of San Francisco, California notable for a unique sound. Oxbow plays a blend of Noise rock, Avant-garde jazz, Musique concrète , and Blues, creating soundscapes caustic, or plangent, with overtones of paranoia, revulsion, exaltation.-Current line-up:*Dan...
's music has blended elements including noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
, avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
, musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, non-Western music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
and contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, among others.
1990s
The commercialization of underground music in the first part of the 1990s led to the rise of a representative "AlternativeAlternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
" style which featured multiple, layered distorted guitars and overwrought male vocals. The experimentalism that had characterized the 1980s declined as grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
took hold as the dominant style in rock music. Originated in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
in the 1980s by metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, psychedelia and punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
influenced bands such as Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...
, and Mother Love Bone
Mother Love Bone
Mother Love Bone was an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1988. The band was active from 1988 to 1990. Frontman Andrew Wood's personality and compositions helped to catapult the group to the top of the burgeoning late 1980s/early 1990s Seattle music scene...
, Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
was the genre's breakout artist. Soon follow up bands like Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots is an American rock band from San Diego, California that consists of Scott Weiland , brothers Robert DeLeo and Dean DeLeo , and Eric Kretz ....
, Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
were dominating the charts while hewing close to the accepted list of influences on their genre and even adding elements of arena rock
Arena rock
Arena rock is a term used to describe rock music that utilised large arena venues, particularly sports venues, for concerts or series of concerts linked in tours...
such as extended guitar solos and intricate time signatures to what had been a stripped-down, nonvirtuosic style. Bands such as the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth discarded many unconventional and abrasive elements and began working within traditional structures. Artists such as Ween
Ween
Ween is an American alternative rock group. They formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when central members Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large cult underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music...
and Redd Kross
Redd Kross
Redd Kross, a rock band from Hawthorne, California had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by Jeff and Steve McDonald while the brothers were still in middle school...
continued their predecessors inventiveness with less impact, as did some bands referring to 1970s funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
such as Praxis
Praxis (band)
Praxis was the name of an ever-changing musical project, led by prolific producer Bill Laswell. Praxis combine elements of different musical genres such as funk, jazz, hip-hop and heavy metal into highly improvised music...
. North California's Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle was an experimental band from Northern California. The band was formed in 1985 while the members were still in high school and was named after a children's educational film. Mr. Bungle released four demo tapes in the mid to late 1980s before being signed to Warner Bros. Records and...
combined the skillful musicianship of progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
with a confrontational, absurdist
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
approach more often associated with No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, by switching genres in between whole songs, and getting rid of traditional song structures.
Half way through the nineties the lo-fi movement became a prominent factor in exploring new recording techniques at home with direct plugged in guitars as well as heavily pre amps channels for acoustic instruments raising the noise in the music. Experimental lo-fi rock bands are Sebadoh
Sebadoh
Sebadoh is an American indie rock band, formed in 1986 in Westfield, Massachusetts by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr bass player Lou Barlow. Along with such bands as Pavement and Guided by Voices, Sebadoh helped pioneer lo-fi music, a style of indie rock characterized by low-fidelity recording...
, Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the band's formation in 1983, it made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard...
, Half Japanese
Half Japanese
Half Japanese is a punk rock band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in their Coldwater, Michigan bedroom around 1975. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playing; vocals; and an out of tune guitar...
, Slicing Grandpa
Slicing Grandpa
Slicing Grandpa is an experimental music/noise rock band based in Seattle, Washington. The group formed in the spring of 1993 in Elmira, New York, by John Laux and Lance Tarr. The group's sound is minimalistic, repetitive and harsh, with recordings tending to be produced at high volume on...
, and Eric's Trip
Eric's Trip
Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s...
.
In the later 1990s, many indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
bands diverged into a style called post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
, which has been described as "using rock instrumentation to make non-rock music." Although post-rock can often be traced back to the late-80s/early-90s works of Slint
Slint
Slint was an American rock band consisting of Brian McMahan , David Pajo , Britt Walford , Todd Brashear and Ethan Buckler...
(influenced by hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
) and late-era Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
(influenced by Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
and ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
), the term did not become prevalent until the late-90s/early-00s to describe the mostly-instrumental music of bands such as Mogwai
Mogwai
The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".-Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture:...
, Tortoise
Tortoise (band)
Tortoise is an American post-rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1990.-Music:Tortoise's almost entirely instrumental music defies easy categorization, and the group gained significant attention from their early career. The members have roots in Chicago's fertile music scene, playing in...
and Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band which originated from Montreal, Quebec in 1994...
. By now "post-rock" can refer to almost any complex instrumental rock coming out of the indie scene, from the delicate, classical-influenced chamber rock of Rachel's
Rachel's
Rachel's is an American chamber music group that formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1991. Former Rodan guitarist, Jason Noble, played music individually and referred to himself as Rachel's but then began collaborating with now core members, violist Christian Frederickson, and pianist Rachel Grimes...
to the massive, forbidding sonic landscapes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Other experimental rock styles of this period are math rock
Math rock
Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Henry Cow - and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich and John Cage...
and post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
, with bands like Shellac
Shellac
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes , which are dissolved in ethyl alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish...
, Fugazi, Les Savy Fav
Les Savy Fav
Les Savy Fav is a New York City indie rock band. Their style is influenced by art rock and post-hardcore. The group is known for the stage presence of lead singer Tim Harrington...
. Noise rock took a more radical course and speedy with bands like Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana is a Japanese punk band that is known for playing extremely fast noise music mixed with experimental electronica and pop-based song structures. They have worked with artists as diverse as Merzbow, John Zorn, Mike Patton, and Discordance Axis...
and Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt is a noise rock duo from Providence, Rhode Island, composed of Brian Chippendale on drums and vocals and Brian Gibson on bass guitar. The band met and formed in 1994, when the members of the then-trio attended the Rhode Island School of Design. The band signed to Load Records in...
. At the end of the nineties some indie rock bands like The Notwist
The Notwist
The Notwist are a German indie rock band. Formed in 1989, the band moved through several musical incarnations despite maintaining a relatively stable lineup...
and Enon
Enon
Enon was an indie rock band founded by John Schmersal, Rick Lee and Steve Calhoon. Currently, Enon is situated in Philadelphia, though the band is known for being part of the New York music scene.-Biography:...
went into a more electronic way of music making to explore new textures.
In the latin american music, one rock band that was pioneering of the experimentation was Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo were an Argentine rock band who are recognized as one of the most influential and important Latin American and Ibero-American bands of all time...
, leaving sample particularly in his albums Dynamo of 1992 and Sueño Stereo
Sueño Stereo
Sueño Stereo is the final studio album recorded by Argentine rock band Soda Stereo. It was released by Sony BMG in 1995...
of 1995. This set a precedent for the Latin American music.
2000s
As the 1990s passed, non-instrumental forms of indie rock also became increasingly experimental. Some of the innovators in this area were bands associated with the Jewelled AntlerJewelled Antler
Jewelled Antler is a musical collective created in 1999 by Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson as an extension of their work in the organic drone folk-noise group Thuja. The idea was to release handmade CD-R's of various solo and collaborative projects and one-off bands, encompassing drones, songs,...
and Elephant 6 collectives, such as Comets on Fire
Comets on Fire
Comets on Fire was an American noise rock band from Santa Cruz, California. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarist and vocalist Ethan Miller and longtime friend bassist Ben Flashman, who were seeking to create rhythmically and sonically intense music that paid no attention to categorizations.-...
, Josephine Foster
Josephine Foster
Josephine Foster is an American modern folk and psychedelic rock singer-songwriter and musician from Colorado. As an adolescent she worked as a funeral and wedding singer, and aspired to become an opera singer...
, Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie rock band formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Jeff Mangum in the early 1990s. The band was noted for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and eclectic instrumentation....
, The Olivia Tremor Control
The Olivia Tremor Control
The Olivia Tremor Control is an indie rock band prominent in the mid to late 1990s which, along with The Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, was one of the three original Elephant 6 projects...
and Six Organs of Admittance
Six Organs of Admittance
Six Organs of Admittance is the primary musical project of guitarist Ben Chasny. Chasny's music is largely guitar-based and is often considered new folk, however it includes obvious influences, marked by the use of drones, chimes, and eclectic percussive elements...
. Later experimental indie bands include Circus Devils
Circus Devils
Circus Devils is an American rock band with experimental/ psychedelic styles founded in 2001 by Robert Pollard, former lead singer and songwriter of the Dayton, Ohio band Guided by Voices. Members include Todd Tobias , and Tim Tobias...
, Deerhoof
Deerhoof
Deerhoof is a musical group consisting of Satomi Matsuzaki, John Dieterich, Ed Rodriguez and Greg Saunier.-Origins:In 1992, Greg Saunier, having recently graduated with a degree in music composition from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, joined a short-lived San Francisco quartet called Nitre Pit, on...
, Deerhunter
Deerhunter
Deerhunter is an American four-piece indie rock group originating from Atlanta, Georgia. The band, consisting of Bradford Cox, Moses Archuleta, Josh Fauver, and Lockett Pundt, have described themselves as "ambient punk," though they incorporate a wide range of genres, including noise rock, art...
, The Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces are a U.S. indie rock band formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago.- Band biography :...
, Kling Klang
Kling Klang (band)
Kling Klang are a five-piece experimental rock band from Liverpool consisting of four synth players and a drummer. The band formed in mid 1999 as a three-piece. They used cheap synths and old drum machines...
, Liars
Liars (band)
Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...
, Man Man
Man Man
Man Man is an experimental band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Man Man is known for their exuberant live performances. When performing, the members of the band sometimes coordinate their outfits, often seen in white outfits and, more commonly, war paint....
, TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio is an American art rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, whose music spans numerous diverse genres, from post-punk to electro and free jazz to soul music....
, U.S. Maple
U.S. Maple
U.S. Maple was an American noise rock band. The group formed in Chicago in 1995. The band consists of Al Johnson , Mark Shippy , Pat Samson , and Todd Rittmann — who banded together with the intent of becoming the deconstructionists of rock and roll.-Formation and first single:U.S...
and Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu is an American avant-garde group originally from San Jose, California. The band is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, who has been its only constant member since its inception in 2002. His current bandmate is Angela Seo...
. British band Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, who became popular in the 1990s playing alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, began experimenting with different musical styles at the turn of the millennium, with the album Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
, and then in 2001 with Amnesiac
Amnesiac
Amnesiac was generally well-received by critics. It was also ranked as one of the best albums of the year by several publications. The Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll ranked it number 6 on their top 10 albums of the year. Alternative Press declared it the #1 album of the year...
. These albums took influence from electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
and Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
, as well as jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, creating a radical shift in direction for the group, polarizing critics and fans.
Experimental luthier
Luthier
A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...
Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn...
created several experimental musical instruments for notable experimental rock acts like Enon
Enon
Enon was an indie rock band founded by John Schmersal, Rick Lee and Steve Calhoon. Currently, Enon is situated in Philadelphia, though the band is known for being part of the New York music scene.-Biography:...
, Jad Fair
Jad Fair
Jad Fair is an American singer, guitarist and graphic artist, most famous for being a founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.-Biography:In 1974, with his brother David, Jad Fair founded the lo-fi group Half Japanese...
, Liars
Liars (band)
Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...
, Lou Barlow
Lou Barlow
Louis Knox Barlow is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion. Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
, Mauro Pawlowski
Mauro Pawlowski
Mauro Antonio Pawlowski is one of the key figures in the Belgian contemporary music scene. He was born in Koersel and is of Italian and Polish descent....
and Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
. The band Neptune
Neptune (band)
Neptune is a noise music band from Boston, noted for having built their custom-made guitars and basses out of scrap metal. The band also plays custom-made percussion instruments and electric lamellophones.-Band history:...
also built several similar electric instruments. With multi-layered sound over sound delay tracks Liam Finn
Liam Finn
Liam Mullane Finn is a New Zealand musician and songwriter. Born in Australia, he moved to New Zealand as a child...
incorporated noise rock sound structures in his singer songwriter songs.
The New Weird America
New Weird America
New Weird America describes a subgenre of psychedelic and indie music, often psych folk, of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.-Origin of the term:...
movement with bands like Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
emerged as a distinct presence both harkening back to an imagined 1960s heyday and pointing the way forward for rock music in the era of online distribution. Bands like Chicks on Speed
Chicks on Speed
Chicks on Speed is a multi-national musical ensemble, formed in Munich in 1997, when members Melissa Logan, Kiki Moorse and Alex Murray-Leslie met at the Academy of Fine Arts....
draw on the No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
sounds of the early 1980s. A collection of second wave post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
and new prog
New prog
New prog is a term used to describe a number of recent alternative rock/experimental bands who incorporate elements from progressive rock.Most notable bands described as new prog include:...
bands have dabbled in experimentalism, notably Circa Survive
Circa Survive
Circa Survive is an American alternative rock band from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburb of Doylestown, formed in 2004. The band consists of vocalist Anthony Green, former singer of Saosin and members of the now-defunct This Day Forward....
, Coheed and Cambria
Coheed and Cambria
Coheed and Cambria is an American progressive rock band from Nyack, New York. Formed in 1995, the group incorporates aspects of progressive rock, punk rock, metal and post-hardcore....
, Glassjaw
Glassjaw
Glassjaw is a four-piece rock band from Long Island, New York. The band is fronted by vocalist Daryl Palumbo and guitarist Justin Beck, and have undergone numerous line-up changes since their inception...
, The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...
, The Sound of Animals Fighting
The Sound of Animals Fighting
The Sound of Animals Fighting was an American rock supergroup founded by Rich Balling of Rx Bandits. They released a trilogy of records between 2004 and 2008, and performed only four live shows, following their second release in 2006...
, Thrice
Thrice
Thrice is an American rock band from Irvine, California, formed in 1998. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi while they were in high school....
and commercially successful band Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
. Other experimental rock acts founded after 2000 are Kellermensch
Kellermensch
Kellermensch is a Danish band. The band was formed in Esbjerg in 2006, they started out under the name Brudevalsen , and took their name from the German translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella Notes from Underground....
, Warpaint
Warpaint (band)
Warpaint is an American art rock group from Los Angeles, formed in 2004. The band's members are Emily Kokal , Theresa Wayman , Jenny Lee Lindberg , and Stella Mozgawa . The band's membership has also included actress Shannyn Sossamon and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer...
, Yeasayer
Yeasayer
-History:The band's three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their first single consisted of a double A-side of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080"...
, Health
HEALTH (band)
Health is an American noise rock band from Los Angeles, California. The band's 2007 release with Crystal Castles charted at position nine in the UK indie singles chart.- History :...
, Ponytail
Ponytail (band)
Ponytail was a 4-piece art rock band formed in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, on the label We Are Free. Their sound has been compared to Deerhoof as well as Ecstatic Sunshine, since Dustin Wong was a founder of that band, and due to the band's experimental guitar work and unique vocal stylings...
, Pre
Pre (band)
Pre, often written as PRE, is a British noise rock band on Skin Graft Records and Lovepump United. It is based in London and was formed around 2005 with singer Akiko Matsuura, known for taking the stage in only her underwear and extensive stage diving. Pre includes former members of Todd and Seafood...
, The Luyas
The Luyas
The Luyas are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2006 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:The Luyas did their first live performance in December 2006...
, These Are Powers
These Are Powers
These Are Powers is an experimental music group from Brooklyn, New York and Chicago, Illinois. The band mixes polyrhythm with samples and other electronic sounds and noise rock.-History:...
and Women
Women (band)
Women are an art rock band from Calgary, Canada. Their debut album Women was released on VanGaalen's label Flemish Eye on July 8, 2008 in Canada and on Jagjaguwar in the United States on October 7, 2008...
.
Common elements
Some of the more common techniques include:- Extended techniqueExtended techniqueExtended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres....
s: Any of a number of methods of performing with voice or a musical instrumentMusical instrumentA musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
that are unique, innovative, and sometimes regarded as improper. - Prepared instrumentsPrepared guitarA prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques...
—ordinary instruments modified in their tuningGuitar tuningGuitar tunings almost always refers to the pitch of the open string, though some tunings may only realistically be attained by the use of a capo on an unmodified instrument....
or sound-producing characteristics. For example, guitar strings can have a weight attached at a certain point, changing their harmonicHarmonicA harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
characteristics. A different form is not hanging objects on the strings, but divide the string in two with a third bridge3rd BridgeThe 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on some string instruments , that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two bridges...
and play the inverse side, causing resonating bellBell (instrument)A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
-like harmonicHarmonicA harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
tones at the pick-up side. - Unconventional playing techniquesExtended techniqueExtended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres....
—for example, the tuning pegTuning pegA tuning peg is used to hold a string in the pegbox of a stringed instrument. It may be made of ebony, rosewood, boxwood or other material. Some tuning pegs are ornamented with shell, metal, or plastic inlays, beads or rings....
s on a guitar can be rotated while a note sounds (called a "tuner glissandoGlissandoIn music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento...
"). - Extended vocal techniques — any vocalized sounds that are not normally utiliized in classical or popular music, such as moaning, screamingScreaming (music)Screaming is a vocal technique that is most popular in subgenres of heavy metal, punk and hard rock, including metalcore, deathcore, post-hardcore, groove metal, black metal, and grindcore...
, using death growls, howling or making a clicking noise. - Incorporation of instrumentMusical instrumentA musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s, tuningMusical tuningIn music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases.-Tuning practice:...
s, rhythmRhythmRhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
s or scales from non-Western musical traditions. - Use of sound sources other than conventional musical instruments such as trash cans, telephone ringers, and doors slamming.
- Playing with deliberate disregard for the ordinary musical controls (pitch, duration, volume).
- Creating experimental musical instruments for enhancing the timbre of compositions and exploring new techniques or possibilities.
See also
- Art punkArt punkArt punk or avant punk refers to punk rock of an experimental bent, or with connections to art school, the art world, or the avant garde....
- Art rockArt rockArt rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
- Avant-garde metal
- Avant-garde musicAvant-garde musicAvant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
- Experimental musicExperimental musicExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
- Freak folkFreak folkFreak folk is a genre of folk music associated with contemporary artists such as Faun Fables, Animal Collective, Davenport, Devendra Banhart,CocoRosie, Panda Bear, Kelli Ali, Joanna Newsom, Bowerbirds, Woods, Greg Weeks, Hecuba, Akron/Family, Rio en Medio, Birdengine, Sufjan Stevens, Sean Hayes,...
- List of avant-garde artists
- List of experimental musicians
- Math rockMath rockMath rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Henry Cow - and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich and John Cage...
- No WaveNo WaveNo Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
- Post-metalPost-metalPost-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...
- Post-punkPost-punkPost-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
- Post-rockPost-rockPost-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
- Prepared guitarPrepared guitarA prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques...
- Progressive rockProgressive rockProgressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
- Punk jazzPunk jazzPunk jazz describes the amalgamation of elements of the jazz tradition with the instrumentation or conceptual heritage of punk rock...
- Rock in OppositionRock in OppositionRock in Opposition or RIO was a movement representing a collective of progressive bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music...
- PsychedelicPsychedelicThe term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...