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 rock, avant-garde music, classical music, and jazz.
Progressive rock is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the mid- to late 1960s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its "progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing.
The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, music and fashion, and was symbolised by the city's "pop and fashion exports". Among its key elements were the Beatles, as leaders of the British Invasion of musical acts; Mary Quant's miniskirt; popular fashion models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton; the mod subculture; the iconic status of popular shopping areas such as London's King's Road, Kensington and Carnaby Street; the political activism of the anti-nuclear movement; and sexual liberation. Music was a big part of the scene, with "the London sound" including the Who, the Kinks, the Small Faces and the Rolling Stones, bands that were the mainstay of pirate radio stations like Radio Caroline and Swinging Radio England. Swinging London also reached British cinema, which, according to the British Film Institute, "saw a surge in formal experimentation, freedom of expression, colour, and comedy". During this period, "creative types of all kinds gravitated to the capital, from artists and writers to magazine publishers, photographers, advertisers, film-makers and product designers".
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years at the Berklee College of Music.
This article presents a timeline of events in the history of the United Kingdom from 1950 until 1969. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related History of the British Isles.
Lorenzo "Laurel" Aitken was an influential Caribbean singer and one of the pioneers of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of Ska".
The Graham Bond Organisation (GBO) were a British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the early 1960s consisting of Graham Bond, Jack Bruce (bass), Ginger Baker (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith and John McLaughlin (guitar). They recorded several albums and further recordings were issued when the group's members achieved fame in progressive rock and jazz fusion. The spelling of the band's original name varied between releases, often depending on the intended audience. The British English spelled as "Organisation" or "ORGANisation", while in some other countries outside the UK spelled "Organization".
The Wilde Flowers were an English psychedelic rock band from Canterbury, Kent. Formed in 1964, the group originally featured lead vocalist Kevin Ayers, lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist Brian Hopper, rhythm guitarist Richard Sinclair, bassist Hugh Hopper and drummer Robert Wyatt. Despite not releasing any material during their brief three-year tenure, the band are generally considered to be the originators of the Canterbury scene. After their breakup in 1969, the group's members went on to form numerous key bands within the scene, including Soft Machine, Caravan and Camel.
James George Tomkins, known professionally as Big Jim Sullivan, was an English musician whose career started in 1958.
"Flaming" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd, featured on their 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Written and sung by Syd Barrett, the lyrics describe a childlike game with fantastical imagery, while prominent organ and driving bass guitar carry the uptempo music. The song remained in their set well into 1968, after David Gilmour joined the band and even after Barrett's departure.
This is an introductory page to timelines of artists, albums, and events in progressive rock and its subgenres. While this page shows the formation of significant bands in the genre, the detailed timeline is presented in separate articles for each decade.
Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished for their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows, and became a leading band of the progressive rock genre.
Psychedelic pop is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Elements include "trippy" effects such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, sitars, backwards recording, and Beach Boys-style harmonies blended with pop, resulting in melodic songs with tight song structures. The style lasted into the early 1970s.
This is a timeline of artists, albums, and events in progressive rock and its subgenres. This article contains the timeline for the period 1970–1979.
This is a timeline of artists, albums, and events in progressive rock and its subgenres. This article contains the timeline for the period 1980 - 1989.
This is a timeline of artists, albums, and events in progressive rock and its subgenres. This article contains the timeline for the period 1990 - 1999.
The Exhibition of eleven artists was opened at the end of 1972 in Leningrad on the Okhta district in the new Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation. It became a significant important event in the Soviet fine art of the 1970s-1980s.
Proto-prog is the earliest work associated with the first wave of progressive rock music, known then as "progressive pop". Such musicians were influenced by modern classical and other genres usually outside of traditional rock influences. They often employed longer and more complicated compositions, interconnected songs as medley, and studio composition. Some of the artists that were essential to the development of progressive rock, rather than just anticipating the movement, include the Beatles, the Who, the Beach Boys, the Doors, the Pretty Things, the Zombies, the Byrds, the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd.
101 Albums That Changed Popular Music is a musical reference book written by Chris Smith, an American journalist, author and cultural critic. It was published in July 2009 by Oxford University Press. The book tells the history of popular music from the introduction of the long-playing (LP) record in 1948. It focuses on key albums, from the Folkways compilation Anthology of American Folk Music (1952) to the White Stripes' Elephant (2003).