Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement, opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music. Influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental music, avant-garde music, classical music, and jazz.
The Old Grey Whistle Test is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. It took over the BBC2 late-night slot from Disco 2, which ran between September 1970 and July 1971, while continuing to feature non-chart music. The original producer, involved in an executive capacity throughout the show's entire history, was Michael Appleton.
Music journalism is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on what is now regarded as classical music. In the 1960s, music journalism began more prominently covering popular music like rock and pop after the breakthrough of The Beatles. With the rise of the internet in the 2000s, music criticism developed an increasingly large online presence with music bloggers, aspiring music critics, and established critics supplementing print media online. Music journalism today includes reviews of songs, albums and live concerts, profiles of recording artists, and reporting of artist news and music events.
Melody Maker was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.
Omnibus Press is a publisher of music-related books. It publishes around 30 new titles a year to add to a backlist of over 300 titles currently in print.
David Hepworth is a British music journalist, writer, television presenter, and publishing industry analyst. He was instrumental in the foundation of a number of popular magazines in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Along with the journalist, editor and broadcaster Mark Ellen, he turned the pop magazine Smash Hits into one of the most popular UK music magazines of the 1980s. A presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 1980s, he co-presented the BBC broadcast of Live Aid in 1985.
Annie Avril Nightingale was an English radio and television broadcaster. She was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 in 1970 and the first female presenter for BBC Television's The Old Grey Whistle Test where she stayed for four years.
Robert Brinley Joseph Harris, popularly known as "Whispering Bob" Harris, is an English music presenter. He was a host of the BBC2 music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1972 to 1979, and was a co-founder of the listings magazine Time Out, co-editing until the early part of 1969. He has presented The Country Show on BBC Radio 2 on Thursday nights since April 1999, and Sounds of the 70s on Sunday afternoons since November 2024, replacing Johnnie Walker.
Penelope Ann Valentine was a British music journalist, rock critic, and occasional television personality.
Bob Stanley is a British musician, journalist, author, and film producer. He is a member of the indie pop group Saint Etienne and has had a parallel career as a music journalist and author, writing for NME, Melody Maker, Mojo, The Guardian and The Times, as well as writing several books on music and football. His second publication, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Modern Pop, was published by Faber & Faber in 2013. His third publication Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History was published by Pegasus in 2022. He also has a career as a DJ and as a producer of record labels, and has collaborated on a series of films about London.
Roy Carr was an English music journalist, covering pop, rock and jazz. He joined the New Musical Express (NME) in the late 1960s, and edited NME, Vox and Melody Maker magazines.
Steve Turner is an English music journalist, biographer, and poet, who grew up in Daventry, Northamptonshire, England.
Colin Lester Irwin was a British music journalist.
Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editorial director of the online music journalism archive Rock's Backpages.
John Rhys Harris is a British journalist, writer and critic. He is the author of The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock (2003); So Now Who Do We Vote For?, which examined the 2005 UK general election; a 2006 behind-the-scenes look at the production of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon; and Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll (2009). His articles have appeared in Select, Q, Mojo, Shindig!, Rolling Stone, Classic Rock, The Independent, the New Statesman, The Times and The Guardian.
Paul Lester is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster from Elstree, Hertfordshire.
William John Gilmour Pidgeon was a British journalist, author, music historian, radio producer, comedy executive and crossword compiler.
Simon Price is a British music journalist and author. He is known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday and his books Everything and Curepedia: An A-Z of the Cure.
Progressive pop is pop music that attempts to break with the genre's standard formula, or an offshoot of the progressive rock genre that was commonly heard on AM radio in the 1970s and 1980s. It was originally termed for the early progressive rock of the 1960s. Some stylistic features of progressive pop include hooks and earworms, unorthodox or colorful instrumentation, changes in key and rhythm, experiments with larger forms, and unexpected, disruptive, or ironic treatments of past conventions.
Harvey Kubernik is an American author, journalist and music historian. From the mid 1970s, he wrote for music publications such as Melody Maker, Los Angeles Free Press, Crawdaddy! and Phonograph Record. His articles, interviews and reviews have since been published in many other music magazines, including Goldmine, Mojo, Musician, Classic Rock, DISCoveries, Uncut, Mix, Harp and Hits, and in the Los Angeles Times. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he also worked as an A&R director for MCA Records and as a record producer.
