Avant-pop

 ( 20th-century Music Genres ) 

Paul Grimstad of The Brooklyn Rail writes that avant-pop is music that "re-sequences" the elements of song structure "so that (a) none of the charm of the tune is lost, but (b) this very accessibility leads one to bump into weirder elements welded into the design." The Tribeca New Music Festival defines "avant-pop" as "music that draws its energy from both popular music and classical forms." The term has elsewhere been used by literary critic Larry McCaffery to describe "the most radical, subversive literary talents of the postmodern new wave."

In late 1960s Germany, an experimental avant-pop scene dubbed "krautrock" saw influential artists such as Kraftwerk, Can, and Tangerine Dream draw inspiration from minimalism, German academic music, and pop-rock. According to The Quietus David McNamee, the 1968 album An Electric Storm, recorded by the electronic music group White Noise (featuring members from the U.K.’s BBC Radiophonic Workshop), is an "undisputed masterpiece of early avant-pop". In the 1970s, progressive rock and post-punk music would see new avant-pop fusions, including the work of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Henry Cow, This Heat, and the Pop Group. The "avant-pop cult favorites" Slapp Happy formed in 1972, drawing variously on styles like chanson, cabaret, bossa nova, and tango while collaborating with Henry Cow. More contemporary avant-pop artists have included David Sylvian, Scott Walker, and Björk, whose vocal experimentation and innovative modes of expression have seen them move beyond norms of commercial pop music.

Others who have been credited as avant-pop's pioneers include the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed, singer Kate Bush, performance artist Laurie Anderson, art pop musician Spookey Ruben, and Black Dice's Eric Copeland.Pitchfork Staff "Eric Copeland: avant-pop pioneer", Guardian Music Blog, November 18, 2008, accessed March 22, 2011. As of 2017, contemporary artists working in avant-pop areas include Julia Holter, Holly Herndon and Oneohtrix Point Never.

In 1979, Andrew Stiller of The Buffalo News wrote of two separate strands; "avant-garde pop", he theorised, comprised new wave music and acts like Brian Eno, Devo and Talking Heads, whereas "pop avant-garde", he deemed, was "a popularization of the indeterminacy cum electronics so widespread among classical composers a decade ago". He counted recent works by Vangelis, Heldon and Bruce Ditmas as examples of the latter, and wrote that it originated in the 1960s counterculture's "notions of universal amateurism" with pieces like the Doors' "Horse Latitudes" (1967), the Beatles' "Revolution 9" (1968) and, later, the solo improvisations of Terry Riley.

• Art pop
• Experimental pop
• Outsider music
• Progressive pop
• Avant-funk
• Hyperpop
• Underground music