Experimental rock (also known as avant-rock) is a subgenre of rock music, that emerged in the mid-to late 1960s. The genre incorporates influences and ideas lifted from avant-garde into that of traditional Rock band, primarily defined by the use of unconventional song structures, Rhythm section and lyricism.
History
1930s-1950s
Background
Although not associated with the
avant-garde, during the early years of rock and roll, several artists experimented with the medium creating innovative techniques that would later become staples of the genre. In 1930,
Les Paul became an early innovator of
overdubbing, originally creating multi-track recordings by using a modified disk lathe to record several generations of sound on a single disk,
before later using tape technology, having been given one of the first
Ampex 300 series tape recorders as a gift from
Bing Crosby.
During the early 1940s–1950s, labels such as King Records,
Sun Records, and
Stax Records[Rogan, Johnny (1992) "Introduction" in The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music, Guinness Publishing, ] played a crucial role in the development of
jazz, rhythm and blues, and early rock and roll, which were initially sidelined by the major companies alongside pioneering musical and production techniques, with
Atlantic Records being the first label to make recordings in stereo, while
Sun Records's
Sam Phillips and
Chess Records introduced
slapback echo and makeshift
Echo chamber.
Additionally, independent labels were often the only platforms available for marginalized African-American musicians in the U.S. at the time.
At the time, Guitar amplifier were often High fidelity, and would often produce distortion when their volume (gain) was increased beyond their design limit or if they sustained minor damage.[Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, Present Tense, Duke University Press, 1992, p. 19. .][Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, Present Tense, Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 24-27. .]
On March 26, 1951, Les Paul released "How High The Moon", performed with his then-wife Mary Ford, and spent 25 weeks (beginning on March 26, 1951) on the Billboard chart,
Subsequently, Space Guitar by Johnny "Guitar" Watson released in April 1954, showcased over-the-top guitar playing and the heavy use of Reverb effect and Echo effect which later influenced artists such as Bo Diddley,
1960s
Origins
Although experimentation had always existed in rock music, it was not until the early to mid-1960s that the genre widely began to incorporate influences from
contemporary art, the
Avant-garde art and the wider
art world. Artists such as
Pete Townshend, attended
art school, which later led to the incorporation of avant-garde ideas such as that of auto-destructive art, that inspired his
Guitar smash in
the Who,
while others such as
Syd Barrett drew influence from avant-garde music movements like free improvisation, particularly the
prepared guitar techniques of AMM's
Keith Rowe which he incorporated into his psychedelic free-form guitar playing in
Pink Floyd through the use of a
zippo lighter as a
guitar slide.
Additionally, rock musicians drew from previous
counterculture movements such as the
Beat Generation, as well as contemporaneous developments in experimental film and music. Other early influences included
Avant-garde jazz and
free jazz, musique concrète, and the works of composers
Igor Stravinsky,
John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and
Luciano Berio. Subsequently, early attempts to merge the avant-garde with rock music were made by several underground music acts such as
the Druds,
the Fugs,
Soft Machine, the Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, Nico, Nihilist Spasm Band,
Soft Machine, the Godz,
Red Krayola, Silver Apples,
the United States of America, Cromagnon, Fifty Foot Hose,
Pekka Airaksinen, Pärson Sound and
Pink Floyd who incorporated elements of avant-garde music,
sound collage, and
poetry into their work.
In 1963, New York visual artist and film producer
Andy Warhol formed a shortlived avant-garde rock band known as
the Druds,
[[1] Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy Warhol's Workat the Frist Center for the Visual Arts by Robert Stalker] alongside local conceptual artists, Walter De Maria,
Larry Poons, La Monte Young,
Patty Mucha,
Jasper Johns, Gloria Graves
[Blake Gopnik, Warhol: A Life as Art London: Allen Lane. March 5, 2020. p. 297] and
Lucas Samaras. Subsequently, influential underground rock band
the Fugs were formed by
Ed Sanders and
Tuli Kupferberg on the Lower East Side,
who were later described as helping to "bridge the gap between the
Beat Generation and experimental rock", their songs blended
beat poetry and
folk music with rock and roll,
and they collaborated frequently with New York folk-based act the Holy Modal Rounders, originally formed in 1963 by
Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who both later briefly joined the band. The Fugs were an early influence on
Lou Reed, David Peel,
,
and several early underground and experimental rock acts such as the Godz.
By late 1965, Warhol began scouting for bands to represent the music for his
multimedia art performance series the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Fugs were briefly considered by Warhol alongside the Holy Modal Rounders,
before Warhol ultimately chose the Velvet Underground, who were first introduced to him by
Barbara Rubin, through
Gerard Malanga, at the beatnik venue Café Bizarre in December 1965.
[According to Gerard Malanga, the Bockris book's account of the introduction gets a few details wrong in regard to who was present in the Café Bizarre on which night. Also, according to Rosebud Pettet, Rubin made the introduction at Pettet's urging. All the sources seem to agree on one thing, however: It was Barbara Rubin who arranged the introduction.] These
performance art Happening aimed to bridge the gap between the avant-garde and
popular music, mixing screenings of Warhol's films, the Velvet Underground's experimental rock music, as well as dancing and performance art by regulars of Warhol's
The Factory.
Development of production techniques
During the early 1960s, guitar distortion became integral to contemporary rock music, and was further developed by musicians such as
Link Wray,
Grady Martin of
Marty Robbins's band,
of
the Kinks,
[Walser 1993, p. 9] and
Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones,
while Grady Martin and Keith Richards pioneered and popularized the use of
fuzz distortion in rock music.
Other forms of early rock music experimentation included a deliberate use of
guitar feedback which was originally pioneered by blues and rock and roll guitarists such as Willie Johnson,
Johnny Watson and Link Wray. According to
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger, the very first use of feedback on a commercial rock record is the introduction of the song "I Feel Fine" by
the Beatles, recorded in 1964.
[Richie Unterberger. " 'I Feel Fine' song review", AllMusic.com.] Jay Hodgson agrees that this feedback created by
John Lennon leaning a semi-acoustic guitar against an amplifier was "the first chart-topper" to showcase feedback distortion.
The Who's 1965 hits "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" and "
My Generation" featured feedback manipulation by Pete Townshend, with an extended solo in the former and the shaking of his guitar in front of the amplifier to create a throbbing noise in the latter. By 1965, feedback was used extensively by
the Monks,
[Shaw, Thomas Edward and Anita Klemke. Black Monk Time: A Book About the Monks. Reno: Carson Street Publishing, 1995.] Jefferson Airplane, and the Velvet Underground, and later the
Grateful Dead,
Jimi Hendrix and underground music acts like
Michael Yonkers, whose use of feedback was described by
Dazed as far more extreme than any of his contemporaries.
Additionally, members of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones,
the Kinks, the Who, 10cc,
the Move,
the Yardbirds and Pink Floyd attended and drew ideas from
art school. 's the Mothers of Invention released
Freak Out! in 1966, which inspired several experimental rock bands]]
Throughout the decade, the advancing technology of multitrack recording and inspired prominent artists to create complex and layered compositions,
Early 1970s
By the late 1960s to early 1970s, experimental rock music further proliferated across the world with the emergence of scenes that drew influence from American and British avant-garde rock bands. Germany's "
krautrock" scene, partly born out of the student movements of 1968, and originally centered around Kommune 1, took form as German youth sought a unique
countercultural identity
distinct from the country's past traditions,
which ultimately led to bands developing a form of experimental rock
that rejected formal rock conventions, and was primarily inspired by
minimalist music, avant-garde and contemporary classical composers such as Stockhausen, as well as American experimental rock artists like the Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa. Prominent acts such as Can, Faust, Neu!, Amon Düül II, Ash Ra Tempel,
Kraftwerk,
Tangerine Dream, and Popol Vuh merged elements of psychedelic rock with
electronic music,
funk, and jazz improvisation.
In England, art rock band
Roxy Music emerged during the early 1970s, singer
Bryan Ferry briefly attended art school,
while keyboardist
Brian Eno, later drew influences from Germany's krautrock scene, alongside frequent collaborator
David Bowie, with Eno releasing influential debut and sophomore albums, which were later followed by Bowie's
Berlin Trilogy in the late 1970s.
While in America, during the early 1970s, New York City artists such as Television,
Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids and
Talking Heads emerged out of the early NYC punk rock scene, centered around local venues such as
CBGB and Max's Kansas City, with their music blending the raw energy of early punk with influences from the local art and avant-garde scenes, which contributed to the development of "
art punk".
Other contemporaneous developments included the early
Cleveland punk scene spearheaded by Mirrors, Electric Eels,
the Styrenes, Rocket from the Tombs and later
Pere Ubu.
As well as
Half Japanese, formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in 1974.
Late 1970s–1990s
By the late 1970s, several developments emerged influenced by the wider
punk rock movement, in England this was represented by the burgeoning
post-punk movement. Similarly to Germany's krautrock scene, artists eschewed rock conventionality, in favor of influences indebted to music genres such as
funk,
Dub music, and
avant-garde jazz. Notable
avant-punk acts during this period included
This Heat,
Public Image Ltd, and the Fall.
In America, the New York
no wave scene consisted of experimental rock bands that rejected the commerciality of new wave, and who, according to
Village Voice writer Steve Anderson, pursued an abrasive reductionism which "undermined the power and mystique of a rock vanguard by depriving it of a tradition to react against."
Anderson claims that the no wave scene represented "New York's last stylistically cohesive avant-rock movement."
By the 1980s, notable broader experimental rock groups, included acts such as Material, the Work, Last Exit, Sonic Youth, John Zorn
2000s-2020s
In 2015,
The Quietus Bryan Brussee contemporarily noted uncertainty with the term "experimental rock", and that "it seemed like every rock band ... had some kind of post-, kraut-, psych-, or noise- prefixed to their genre."
By the late 2010s to early 2020s, the experimental rock-based Windmill scene emerged in Brixton, London, drawing from post-punk and no wave music, and centered around the venue known simply as "the Windmill."
See also
Footnotes
Bibliography
Further reading
