{{Short description|Music genre}} {{Infobox music genre | name = Experimental rock | other_names = * Avant-rock<ref name="avant-rock">{{cite news|title=EXPERIMENTAL ROCK (AVANT-ROCK)|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/ExperimentalRock%28avant-rock%29|work=The Independent|access-date=February 16, 2016|archive-date=June 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621122046/https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/ExperimentalRock(avant-rock)|url-status=dead}}</ref> * avant-garde rock * avant-garde rock and roll (early) | caption = The Velvet Underground in New York, 1968. | stylistic_origins = * Rock{{sfn|Rosenberg|2009|p=179}} * avant-garde<ref name="AllMusicExpRock"/> * experimental * free jazz * noise * musique concrète * free improvisation * tape music * sound collage | cultural_origins = 1960s; United States and United Kingdom | instruments = | derivatives = * Art rock<ref name="prog-rock-allmusic">{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/prog-rock-ma0000002798|publisher=AllMusic|title=Pop/Rock » Art-Rock/Experimental » Prog-Rock}}</ref> | subgenres = * Krautrock<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web|last1=Savage|first1=Jon|title=Elektronische musik: a guide to krautrock|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2010/mar/30/elektronische-musik-krautrock|website=The Guardian|date=30 March 2010|access-date=14 June 2016}}</ref> * art punk<ref name="Osborn2011"/> * noise rock<ref name="Osborn2011"/> * no wave{{sfn|Lawrence|2009|p=344}} * avant-prog * zeuhl * post-rock<ref name="Osborn2011">{{cite journal|last1=Osborn|first1=Brad|title=Understanding Through-Composition in Post-Rock, Math-Metal, and other Post-Millennial Rock Genres*|journal=Music Theory Online|url=http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.11.17.3/mto.11.17.3.osborn.html|date=October 2011|volume=17|issue=3|doi=10.30535/mto.17.3.4|doi-access=free|hdl=1808/12360|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="PostRockAM">{{cite web|title=Post-Rock|url=http://www.allmusic.com/style/post-rock-ma0000002790|website=AllMusic}}</ref><ref name="PostRockBrit">{{cite web|title=Post-rock|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/post-rock|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=n.d.}}</ref> * math rock<ref name="Osborn2011"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Gomez |first=Jeff |title=Math Rock |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2024 |isbn=979-8765103371}}</ref> * mathcore<ref name="Osborn2011"/> * post-progressive * brutal prog | fusiongenres = | regional_scenes = | other_topics = * Avant-garde metal * avant-pop * electronics in rock music * experimental pop * industrial music * post-punk * progressive rock * psychedelic rock * shoegaze }}
'''Experimental rock''' (originally known as '''avant-garde rock''' or '''avant-rock''') is a subgenre of rock music that emerged in the 1960s. The genre emphasizes innovation over commercial appeal, incorporating influences and ideas lifted from avant-garde music through traditional rock music instrumentation. It is primarily characterized by its use of unconventional song structures, musical techniques, rhythms and lyricism, usually deemed challenging, difficult, inaccessible or underground.
== Etymology == Experimental rock was originally referred to as "avant-garde rock and roll" by music publications throughout the mid- to late 1960s. The earliest known use of the term was in 1966, in an issue of ''Sing Out!'', which labelled New York City band the Fugs an "avant-garde rock and roll group".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_N_ZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22avant-garde+rock%22 |title=Sing Out |date=1966 |publisher=Peoples Artists |language=en}}</ref> That same year, ''Record Research'' also used the term "avant-garde rock" in an issue describing the musical catalog of radio station WPMU,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PV85AQAAIAAJ&q=%22avant-garde+rock%22 |title=Record Research |date=1966 |language=en}}</ref> while the following year Canadian publication ''Take One'' used the phrase to describe California's the Mothers of Invention and the Gas Company, as well as New York's the Velvet Underground.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5QHAQAAIAAJ&q=%22avant-garde+rock%22 |title=Take One: The Canadian Film Magazine |date=1967 |publisher=Unicorn Pub. |language=en}}</ref> By the late 1960s and 1970s,<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-ohAQAAIAAJ&q=%22avant-garde+rock%22 |title=Status & Diplomat |date=1967 |publisher=Status Magazines, Incorporated |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite book |last=LLC |first=New York Media |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-YCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22avant-garde+rock%22&pg=PA15 |title=New York Magazine |date=1973-01-01 |publisher=New York Media, LLC |language=en}}</ref> several music publications published articles using the term as well as "experimental rock".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutherland |first=Sam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ycEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22avant-garde+rock%22&pg=RA1-PA27 |title=Billboard |date=1972-05-27 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schafer |first=William John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IFcUAQAAIAAJ&q=%22experimental+rock+music%22 |title=Rock Music; where It's Been, what it Means, where It's Going |date=1972 |publisher=Augsburg Publishing House |isbn=978-0-8066-1234-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutherland |first=Sam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQkEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22avant-garde+rock%22&pg=PA64 |title=Billboard |date=1973-06-02 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |language=en}}</ref> Additionally, some experimental rock acts would be referred to as "art rock".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Art rock {{!}} Genres, Influences & History {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/art-rock |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250919002124/https://www.britannica.com/art/art-rock |archive-date=2025-09-19 |access-date=2025-12-08 |work=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>
== Characteristics == Experimental rock incorporates influences and ideas lifted from avant-garde music through traditional rock instrumentation. It is characterized by the use of unconventional song structures, techniques, rhythms, and approaches to lyricism not typically found in traditional rock music,{{sfn|Rosenberg|2009|p=179}}<ref name="AllMusicExpRock">{{cite web |title=Experimental Rock |url=http://www.allmusic.com/style/experimental-rock-ma0000002583 |access-date=February 16, 2016 |publisher=AllMusic}}</ref> often emphasizing innovation over commercial appeal, with artists frequently associated with "underground music".<ref name=":13" />{{sfn|Martin|1998|p=93}}{{sfn|Bogdanov|2001|p=10}} Artists drew influences from contemporary art movements such as dadaism, conceptual art, pop art and surrealism.
==History==
=== 1930s–1950s: Forerunners === {{See also|Overdubbing|Distortion (music)|Delay (music)}} [[File:(Portrait of Les Paul, New York, N.Y.(?), ca. Jan. 1947) (LOC) (5105151726).jpg|thumb|Les Paul released "How High The Moon" in 1951, which showcased early audio effects such as flanging, delay, phasing, and vari-speed|left]] 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 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,<ref>{{cite book |author=Mary Alice Shaughnessy |title=Les Paul: an American original |publisher=W. Morrow |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-688-08467-7 |page=140}}</ref><ref name="zager">{{cite book |author=Michael Zager |url=https://archive.org/details/musicproductionf0000zage |title=Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8108-8202-7 |url-access=registration}}</ref> before later using tape technology, having been given one of the first Ampex 300 series tape recorders as a gift from Bing Crosby.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cleveland |first1=B |date=December 2009 |title=Les paul 1915–2009: Les paul's new sound |journal=Guitar Player |issue=43 |pages=86–87}}</ref> During the early 1940s–1950s, labels such as King Records, Sun Records, and Stax<ref name="Rogan">Rogan, Johnny (1992) "Introduction" in ''The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music'', Guinness Publishing, {{ISBN|0-85112-579-4}}</ref> 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 being the first label to make recordings in stereo, while Sun's Sam Phillips and Chess introduced slapback echo and makeshift echo chambers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dom |date=2019-05-30 |title=Why were independent record labels and recording artists more likely than the majors to adopt innovative production techniques during the 1950s? |url=https://soundoutput.co.uk/articles/why-were-independent-record-labels-and-recording-artists-more-likely-than-the-majors-to-adopt-innovative-production-techniques-during-the-1950s/ |access-date=2025-06-27 |website=Sound Output}}</ref> Additionally, independent labels were often the only platforms available for marginalized African-American musicians in the U.S. at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-01-17 |title=Record labels that rocked our world |url=https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/record-labels-that-rocked-our-world-770728.html |access-date=2025-06-27 |website=The Independent}}</ref>
At the time, guitar amplifiers were often low-fidelity, and would often produce distortion when their volume (gain) was increased beyond their design limit or if they sustained minor damage.<ref name="Rubin">{{Cite book |last1=Dave |first1=Rubin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0amzAiwBmOcC |title=Inside the Blues, 1942 to 1982 |publisher=Hal Leonard |year=2007 |isbn=9781423416661 |page=61}}</ref> Between 1935 and 1945, guitarists such as Bob Dunn,<ref name="Millard 2004">{{cite book |last=McGovern |first=Charles |title=The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8018-7862-6 |editor-last=Millard |editor-first=André |pages=30–31 |chapter=Chapter 1: The Music: The Electric Guitar in the American Century |access-date=2023-12-23 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUlt7Q71_ssC&pg=PA31}}</ref> Junior Barnard,<ref name="Millard 2004" /> Elmore James and Buddy Guy experimented with early distortion-based guitar sounds.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RK-JmVbv4OIC&pg=PA80 |title=Rock and Roll: An Introduction |last2=Brody |first2=James |date=2007 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-534-64295-2 |pages=80–81}}</ref> In early rock music, Goree Carter's "Rock Awhile" (1949) and Joe Hill Louis' "Boogie in the Park" (1950) featured an over-driven electric guitar style similar to that of Chuck Berry's sound several years later.<ref name="palmer19">Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13–38 in Anthony DeCurtis, ''Present Tense'', Duke University Press, 1992, p. 19. {{ISBN|0-8223-1265-4}}.</ref><ref name="decurtis_phillips">{{cite book |last=DeCurtis |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bsT3RQ9e58kC |title=Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1992 |isbn=0822312654 |edition=4. print. |location=Durham, N.C. |quote=His first venture, the Phillips label, issued only one known release, and it was one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded, "Boogie in the Park" by Memphis one-man-band Joe Hill Louis, who cranked his guitar while sitting and banging at a rudimentary drum kit.}}</ref><ref name="rolling_memphis">{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Jim |url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneillu00mille |title=The Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock & roll |publisher=Rolling Stone |year=1980 |isbn=0394513223 |location=New York |quote=Black country bluesmen made raw, heavily amplified boogie records of their own, especially in Memphis, where guitarists like Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson (with the early Howlin' Wolf band) and Pat Hare (with Little Junior Parker) played driving rhythms and scorching, distorted solos that might be counted the distant ancestors of heavy metal. |access-date=5 July 2012 |url-access=registration}}</ref> By 1950, electric guitarists began "doctoring" amplifiers and speakers to emulate this form of distortion,<ref>{{cite web |last=Denise |first=Sullivan |title=You Really Got Me |url={{AllMusic|class=song|id=t875364|pure_url=yes}} |access-date=2008-05-24 |website=Allmusic}}</ref> which was also inspired by the accidental damage to amps, featured in popular recordings such as Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm song "Rocket 88" released in March 1951, where guitarist Willie Kizart used a vacuum tube amplifier that had a speaker cone slightly damaged in transport.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shepard |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJvzEzjahkQC&pg=PA286 |title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World |publisher=Continuum International |year=2003 |isbn=9780826463227 |series=Performance and Production |volume=II |page=286}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=15 August 2016 |title=How Sam Phillips Invented the Sound of Rock and Roll |url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/music/a22237/sam-phillips-sun-studio/ |access-date=29 April 2017 |work=popularmechanics.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Halberstadt |first=Alex |date=29 October 2001 |title=Sam Phillips, the Sun king |url=http://www.salon.com/2001/10/29/sam_phillips/ |access-date=29 April 2017 |work=salon.com}}</ref> Subsequent developments in rock music distortion were pioneered by guitarists such as Willie Johnson of Howlin' Wolf's band,<ref name="Rubin" /> Guitar Slim,<ref name="aswell_slim">{{cite book |last=Aswell |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BSHTGsnI8skC&pg=PA61 |title=Louisiana Rocks! The True Genesis of Rock & Roll |publisher=Pelican Publishing Company |year=2010 |isbn=978-1589806771 |location=Gretna, Louisiana |pages=61–5}}</ref> Chuck Berry,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Collis |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AgUAQAAIAAJ |title=Chuck Berry: The Biography |publisher=Aurum |year=2002 |isbn=9781854108739 |page=38}}</ref> Pat Hare of James Cotton's band, Paul Burlison of the Johnny Burnette Trio, and Link Wray throughout the 1950s.<ref name="palmer">Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13–38 in Anthony DeCurtis, ''Present Tense'', Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 24-27. {{ISBN|0-8223-1265-4}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Koda, Cub |title=Pat Hare |url={{AllMusic|class=artist |id=p84274/biography |pure_url=yes}} |access-date=January 25, 2010 |website=Allmusic}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hicks |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JviHtOrIlkkC&pg=PA17 |title=Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-252-06915-3 |page=17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Dahl |first=Bill |title=The Train Kept A-Rollin' |url={{AllMusic|class=song|id=t1592995|pure_url=yes}} |access-date=2008-05-24 |website=Allmusic}}</ref>
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,<ref name="Whitburn">{{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |title=Top Pop Records 1940-1955 |publisher=Record Research |year=1973 |location=Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin}}</ref> which included 9 weeks at #1. At the time, the song featured a significant amount of overdubbing, along with other studio techniques such as flanging, delay, phasing and vari-speed.<ref name="zager" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnston |first1=R |date=April 1997 |title=Gearheads: Les paul |journal=Guitar Player |volume=31 |pages=31–32}}</ref> Les Paul's advancements in recording were seen in the adoption of his techniques by artists like Buddy Holly. In 1958, Holly released "Words of Love" and "Listen to Me", which were composed with overdubbing for added instrumentation and harmonies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dahl |first1=B |date=February 1, 2008 |title=The crickets are chirping |journal=Goldmine |volume=34 |pages=20–21}}</ref>
Subsequently, the single "Space Guitar" by Johnny "Guitar" Watson, released in April 1954, showcased over-the-top guitar playing and the heavy use of reverb and echo effects, which influenced artists such as Bo Diddley,<ref name="Koda">{{Cite web |last=Koda |first=Cub |author-link=Cub Koda |title=''The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson [Rhino]''{{snd}}Review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-very-best-of-johnny-guitar-watson-rhino--mw0000236915 |access-date=March 3, 2022 |website=AllMusic}}</ref> Ike Turner,<ref name="Koda"/> Frank Zappa,{{sfn|Corcelli|2016|loc=eBook}} and Jimi Hendrix.{{sfn|Birnbaum|2013|p=277}}
=== 1960s: Origins === {{See also|Guitar feedback|Avant-garde music}}[[File:Velvet Underground & Nico publicity photo (retouched).jpg|thumb|The Velvet Underground and Nico were an influential experimental rock act in the late 1960s|313x313px]] 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, and the wider art world.{{sfn|Martin|2015|p=3}}{{sfn|Greene|2016|p=22}} English artists such as members of the Beatles, the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, 10cc, the Move, the Yardbirds, and Pink Floyd attended and drew avant-garde ideas from art school, which they incorporated into a traditional rock and roll framework.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=xiv}}{{sfn|Frith|1989|p=208}} Pete Townshend's avant-garde ideas which he learnt in art school such as that of auto-destructive art, inspired his guitar smashing in the Who,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hodgkinson |first=Will |date=2009-04-18 |title=So, what did you learn at school today? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/apr/19/art-schools |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bramesco |first=Charles |date=2023-07-19 |title='Nobody really knew what happened': tracing the life of Syd Barrett |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/19/syd-barrett-pink-floyd-documentary |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Additionally, rock musicians drew from previous counterculture movements such as the Beat Generation, as well as contemporaneous developments in experimental film, literature, and music. Other early influences included avant-garde and free jazz,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Farber |first=Jim |date=2021-09-07 |title='It didn't adhere to any of the rules': the fascinating history of free jazz |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/07/fire-music-history-free-jazz-documentary |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> musique concrète,{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=890}} and the works of composers Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luciano Berio.{{sfn|Martin|2015|p=5}} Subsequently, early attempts to merge the avant-garde with rock music were made by several underground music acts such as the Druds, the Fugs, the Daevid Allen Trio, the Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, Nico, Nihilist Spasm Band, Soft Machine, the Godz, Red Krayola,<ref>{{cite web |author=Alex Linhardt |date=2004-02-09 |title=The Red Krayola: The Parable of Arable Land / God Bless The Red Krayola and All Who Sail with It Album Review |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11813-the-parable-of-arable-land-god-bless-the-red-krayola-and-all-who-sail-with-it/ |accessdate=2022-08-08 |publisher=Pitchfork}}</ref> Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, Silver Apples,<ref name="quietusrep">{{cite web |last1=Graham |first1=Ben |date=20 July 2010 |title=Repetition, Repetition, Repetition: Moon Duo Interview |url=http://thequietus.com/articles/04655-moon-duo-interview |access-date=17 September 2016 |website=The Quietus}}</ref> the United States of America, Cromagnon, Fifty Foot Hose, the Sperm, Pärson Sound, and Pink Floyd, who incorporated elements of avant-garde music, sound collage, and poetry into their work.{{sfn|Unterberger|1998|p=174}}{{sfn|Greene|2016|p=182}}{{refn|group=nb|Author Barry Miles commented on Pink Floyd, "They were the first people I'd ever heard who were combining some kind of intellectual experimentation with rock 'n' roll". Photographer John Hopkins remembers: "The band did not play music, they were playing sounds. Waves and walls of sound, quite unlike anything anybody in rock 'n' roll had played before. It was like people in serious, nonpopular music".{{sfn|Schaffner|1992|p=10}}}}{{sfn|Martin|2015|p=75}} Commercially successful British acts such as the Rolling Stones<ref name="Psych">{{cite book |last=DeRogatis |first=Jim |author-link=Jim DeRogatis |title=Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |year=2003 |isbn=0-634-05548-8 |location=Milwaukee |pages=55–60}}</ref> and the Beatles would also incorporate avant-garde influences into their music, with the latter's songs "Carnival of Light" and "Revolution 9".{{sfn|Hicks|2000|p=63}}
==== East Coast: New York's Lower East Side Scene ==== [[File:Helix, v.4, no.8, Sep. 26, 1968 - DPLA - bd488c361fd42c539d1cd78a0e4af0c1 (page 15).jpg|left|thumb|The Fugs' promotional poster for their album ''It Crawled into My Hand, Honest'', 1968]] [[File:Velvet_Underground_WLWH_publicity_photo.jpg|alt=A black-and-white picture of the Velvet Underground, with band member Morrison's hands directing to a vinyl copy of the record|thumb|A publicity photo of the Velvet Underground holding a copy of ''White Light/White Heat'' {{circa|1968}}.|left]] In 1963, New York visual artist and underground film producer Andy Warhol formed a short-lived avant-garde band known as the Druds,<ref>[http://zoolander52.tripod.com/theartsection5.8/id21.html] Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy_Warhol's Workat the Frist Center for the Visual Arts by Robert Stalker</ref> alongside local conceptual artists, Walter De Maria, Larry Poons, La Monte Young,<ref name=":4" /> Patty Mucha, Jasper Johns, Gloria Graves<ref name=":4">Blake Gopnik, ''Warhol: A Life as Art'' London: Allen Lane. March 5, 2020. {{ISBN|978-0-241-00338-1}} p. 297</ref> and Lucas Samaras. Subsequently, influential underground rock band the Fugs were formed by Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg on the Lower East Side,<ref>{{Cite journal |author=David E. Morse |date=February 1969 |title=Avant-Rock in the Classroom |journal=English Journal |volume=58 |pages=196–200, 297 |doi=10.2307/812592 |jstor=812592 |number=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lower east side story - Record Collector Magazine |url=https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/lower-east-side-story |access-date=2025-08-26 |language=en}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Błaszczak |first=Jan |date=2019-06-21 |title=WARHOL, THE VELVETS, THE FUGS AND THE DOM |url=https://pleasekillme.com/warhol-velvets-fugs-dom/ |access-date=2025-07-30 |website=PleaseKillMe |language=en-US}}</ref> and they collaborated frequently with New York folk-based act the Holy Modal Rounders, 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,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Needs |first=Kris |date=2016-03-22 |title=The strange tale of David Peel, the dope-smoking hippy who became the King of Punk |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-tale-of-david-peel-the-dope-smoking-hippy-who-became-the-king-of-punk |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=louder |language=en}}</ref> Iggy Pop,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-29 |title=Iggy and the Stooges - The Official Iggy and the Stooges Site |url=https://iggyandthestoogesmusic.com/news/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Iggy and the Stooges |language=en-US}}</ref> and several early underground and experimental rock acts such as the Godz.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Godz |url=https://www.furious.com/perfect/godz.html |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=www.furious.com}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Burke |first=Patrick |date=Spring 2011 |title=Clamor of the Godz: Radical Incompetence in 1960s Rock |journal=American Music |publisher=University of Illinois Press |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=35–63 |doi=10.5406/americanmusic.29.1.0035 |s2cid=153519635}}</ref>
By late 1965, Warhol began scouting for bands to represent the music for his multimedia art performance series the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol briefly considered the Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Fugs |url=https://brunoceriotti.weebly.com/the-fugs.html |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Bruno Ceriotti, rock historian |language=en}}</ref> before ultimately choosing the Velvet Underground, who were first introduced to him by Barbara Rubin, through Gerard Malanga, at the beatnik venue Café Bizarre in December 1965.<ref name="bockris">{{cite book |last1=Bockris |first1=Victor |author-link=Victor Bockris |url=https://archive.org/details/transformerlour000bock/page/102 |title=Transformer: The Lou Reed Story |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1995 |isbn=0-684-80366-6 |location=New York, NY |page=[https://archive.org/details/transformerlour000bock/page/102 102]}}</ref><ref group="nb">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.</ref> They merged the influence of avant-garde artists such as La Monte Young, John Cage, and the Theatre of Eternal Music, as well as minimalism and drone music, with rock instrumentation. These performance art happenings 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, and dancing and performance art by regulars of Warhol's Factory.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-06-26 |title=White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground's monochrome obituary for the love generation - 2018 - News |url=https://www.bradford.ac.uk/news/archive/2018/white-lightwhite-heat-the-velvet-undergrounds-monochrome-obituary-for-the-love-generation.php |access-date=2025-07-30 |website=University of Bradford |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Additionally, the independent record label ESP-Disk became a pivotal force in the early New York counterculture and underground music scene, signing early avant-garde rock artists such as the Fugs, the Godz, Pearls Before Swine,<ref name=":7" /> and later Cromagnon. Other East Coast psychedelic acts that drew from experimental rock music included the Deep, the Tea Company, and Blues Magoos. In 1966, ESP released the Velvet Underground's earliest recording, an instrumental entitled "Noise", which appeared on the various-artists compilation album ''[[The East Village Other (aka Electric Newspaper)|The East Village Other [aka Electric Newspaper]]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How maverick label ESP-Disk shaped NYC counter-culture in 10 defining records — The Vinyl Factory |url=https://www.thevinylfactory.com/features/how-maverick-label-esp-disk-shaped-nyc-counter-culture-in-10-defining-records |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=www.thevinylfactory.com |language=en}}</ref> At the same time, Lou Reed taught and gave guitar lessons to Fluxus artist Henry Flynt, who later formed the short-lived avant-garde rock band the Insurrections.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry Flynt & the Insurrections - I Don't Wanna |url=https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/album-of-the-month/henry-flynt-and-the-insurrections-i-dont-wanna |access-date=2025-08-23 |website=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Henry Flynt / The Insurrections: I Don't Wanna |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3288-i-dont-wanna-with-the-insurrections/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502221553/https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3288-i-dont-wanna-with-the-insurrections/ |archive-date=2014-05-02 |access-date=2025-08-23 |work=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Adlington |first=Robert edt ctb |url=http://archive.org/details/soundcommitments00adli |title=Sound commitments : avant-garde music and the sixties |date=2009 |publisher=New York : Oxford University Press |others=The Archive of Contemporary Music |isbn=978-0-19-533664-1}}</ref> Additionally, Flynt briefly performed with the Velvet Underground, playing violin as a stand-in for John Cale at a concert in September, 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Untitled Document |url=https://henryflynt.org/overviews/henryflynt_new.htm |access-date=2025-08-23 |website=henryflynt.org}}</ref> In March 1967, the band released the influential debut album ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'', produced by Andy Warhol, which was followed by ''White Light/White Heat'' in 1968.<ref>{{cite news |last=Richman |first=Simmy |title=The Velvet Underground: The velvet revolution rocks on |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-velvet-underground-the-velvet-revolution-rocks-on-8210230.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213003013/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-velvet-underground-the-velvet-revolution-rocks-on-8210230.html |archive-date=February 13, 2017 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |newspaper=The Independent}} "On that first album alone, the Velvets invented—or at the very least inspired—art rock, punk, garage, grunge, shoegaze, goth, indie and any other alternative music you care to mention."</ref> Later that year, New York band Silver Apples, formed by Simeon Coxe and Danny Taylor, incorporated the sounds of oscillators into an early form of electronic rock on their debut album.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wray |first=Daniel Dylan |date=2019-04-09 |title=The great 60s electro-pop plane crash: how pioneers Silver Apples fell out of the sky |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/09/silver-apples-electro-stars-hendrix-stereolab-portishead-john-lennon |access-date=2025-08-23 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
==== Development of production techniques ==== {{See also|Art rock#IInfluential albums}}[[File:Beatles_and_George_Martin_in_studio_1966.JPG|left|thumb|The Beatles 1964 track "I Feel Fine" was the first commercially released rock song to feature deliberate guitar feedback]] 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,<ref name="gradymartin">{{cite web |title=How Grady Martin Discovered the First Fuzz Effect |url=http://thecountryclassics.com/jukebox/music/how-grady-martin-discovered-the-first-fuzz-effect |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129132953/http://thecountryclassics.com/jukebox/music/how-grady-martin-discovered-the-first-fuzz-effect |archive-date=2010-11-29 |access-date=2009-04-09}}</ref> Dave Davies of the Kinks,<ref>Walser 1993, p. 9</ref> and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones,<ref name="bosso06">{{Cite news |last=Bosso |first=Joe |year=2006 |title=No Stone Unturned |magazine=Guitar Legends: The Rolling Stones |publisher=Future plc |pages=12}}</ref> while Grady Martin and Keith Richards pioneered and popularized the use of fuzz distortion in rock music.<ref name="bosso06" /><ref name="gradymartin" /> Other forms of early rock music experimentation included a deliberate use of guitar feedback, which was 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 intentional feedback on a commercial rock record is the introduction of the song "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles, recorded in 1964.<ref>Richie Unterberger. "[http://www.allmusic.com/song/i-feel-fine-t4282118 'I Feel Fine' song review]", ''AllMusic.com''.</ref> 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.<ref name="Hodgson2">{{cite book |last=Hodgson |first=Jay |title=Understanding Records |date=2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4411-5607-5}}</ref> 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,<ref>Shaw, Thomas Edward and Anita Klemke. ''Black Monk Time: A Book About the Monks''. Reno: Carson Street Publishing, 1995.</ref> Frank Zappa, 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dazed |date=2014-09-21 |title=Sounding off: Michael Yonkers |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/21723/1/sounding-off-michael-yonkers |access-date=2025-07-30 |website=Dazed |language=en}}</ref> {{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=xiv}}{{sfn|Frith|1989|p=208}}
[[File:The Mothers of Invention (1968).jpg|thumb|Frank Zappa'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 mixing boards inspired prominent artists to create complex and layered compositions. Producers such as Joe Meek,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shade |first=Colette |date=2015-04-10 |title=I Hear a New World: Joe Meek Took Music to Space and Changed Production Forever |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/i-hear-a-new-world-joe-meek-producer/ |access-date=2025-07-30 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref> Phil Spector, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, Beatles producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick contributed to the pioneering of the recording studio as an instrument.{{sfn|Edmondson|2013|p=890}}{{refn|group=nb|In the popular music of the early 1960s, it was common for producers, songwriters, and engineers to freely experiment with musical form, arrangements, unnatural reverb, and other sound effects. Some of the best known examples are Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production formula and Joe Meek's use of homemade electronics for acts like the Tornados.{{sfn|Blake|2009|p=45}}}} In 1966, the release of influential albums such as the Beach Boys' ''Pet Sounds'' and Frank Zappa's ''Freak Out!''{{sfn|Greene|2016|p=23}} inspired many rock-based groups to incorporate unconventional approaches and recording studio techniques into their music. In August of the same year, the Beatles released the influential album ''Revolver'', which further advanced contemporary production techniques, particularly on its closing track, "Tomorrow Never Knows". By 1967, the innovations of ''Pet Sounds''{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=215}} and ''Freak Out!''{{sfn|Julien|2008|p=158}} influenced the Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', which contributed heavily to the wider popularization of advanced unconventional studio techniques in popular music.{{sfn|Gillett|1984|p=329}}{{refn|group=nb|The Beach Boys followed ''Pet Sounds'' several months later with the single "Good Vibrations" (1966), credited as a milestone in the development of rock music{{sfn|Stuessy|Lipscomb|2009|p=71}} and, with the Beatles' ''Revolver'', a prime proponent in revolutionizing rock music from live concert performances to studio productions which could only exist on record.{{sfn|Ashby|2004|p=282}}}}{{sfn|Lowe|2007|pp=38, 219}}{{sfn|Smith|2006|p=35}}{{sfn|Faulk|2016|p=73}}
==== West Coast: California's L.A. and San Francisco Scene ==== {{See also|Los Angeles freak scene|Psychedelic freakout}}[[Image:Frank Zappa - Capt. Beefheart - crop.jpg|thumb|right|Frank Zappa with Captain Beefheart, seated left, during a 1975 concert|306x306px]] In the opinion of Stuart Rosenberg, the first "noteworthy" experimental rock group was the Mothers of Invention, formed in 1964 by composer Frank Zappa.{{sfn|Rosenberg|2009|p=179}} Greene recognises the group's debut album, ''Freak Out!'', as marking the "emergence of the 'avant-rock' studio album." Also, Rosenberg described the Velvet Underground as "even further out of step with popular culture than the early recordings of the Mothers of Invention".{{sfn|Rosenberg|2009|p=180}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=John |first1=Mike |date=July 4, 1970 |title=Review of the Velvet Underground at Max's Kansas City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NuLY9zMAGVIC&q=the+velvet+underground+since+1965+%22experimental+rock%22&pg=PA174 |access-date=19 September 2016 |work=The New York Times |isbn=9780786736898}}</ref>{{sfn|Greene|2016|p=143}}{{refn|group=nb|According to ''Clash Music'', the group's debut March 1967 album ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' was the first art rock record.<ref>{{cite news|date=December 11, 2009|url=http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/classic-albums-the-velvet-undergrond-and-nico|title=Classic Albums: The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico|newspaper=Clash Music|access-date=March 28, 2015|archive-date=April 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112235/http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/classic-albums-the-velvet-undergrond-and-nico|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} According to author Kelly Fisher Lowe, Zappa "set the tone" for experimental rock with the way he incorporated "countertextural aspects [...] calling attention to the very recordedness of the album."{{sfn|Lowe|2007|pp=38, 219}} His 1968 album ''We're Only in It for the Money'', was praised by Barret Hansen in an April 1968 review for ''Rolling Stone'',<ref name="Fricke">{{cite AV media notes |title=Lumpy Money |others=Frank Zappa |year=2008 |author=David Fricke |author-link=David Fricke |publisher=Zappa Records}}</ref> as the most "advanced" rock album released up to that date, though not necessarily the "best".<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Barret Hansen |date=April 6, 1968 |title=1968-04 ''We're Only in It for the Money'' (review) |url=https://www.afka.net/Articles/1968-04_Rolling_Stone_2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112020517/http://www.afka.net/Articles/1968-04_Rolling_Stone_2.htm |archive-date=November 12, 2011 |access-date=January 20, 2023 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> In 1969, the release of Captain Beefheart's album ''Trout Mask Replica'', produced by and released on Frank Zappa's record label Straight Records, marked a foundational moment for experimental rock music, with ''the Guardian'' stating, "Trout Mask Replica remains the standard by which almost all experimental rock music is judged, its reputation as a fearsomely difficult listen undimmed by the passing of time or its influence."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=2010-12-18 |title=Captain Beefheart: dust blows forward and dust blows back - an appreciation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/dec/18/captain-beefheart-dust-forward-back |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> ''Pitchfork'' stated that the album "set an unmatched standard for avant-rock".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Masters |first=Marc |title=Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band-trout-mask-replica/ |access-date=2026-04-14 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref> Other West Coast underground experimental rock acts included Vito & the Hands, the Gas Company,<ref name=":6" /> the Inrhodes, the Urban Renewal Project, the United States of America, the Ethix and Fifty Foot Hose.<ref name="Brend">{{cite book |last1=Brend |first1=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJHFAgAAQBAJ&q=silver+apples+%22underground+rock%22 |title=The Sound of Tomorrow: How Electronic Music Was Smuggled into the Mainstream |date=2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=9781623561536 |page=186 |accessdate=4 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Synthedelia: Psychedelic Electronic Music in the 1960s |url=https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2018/05/synthedelia |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=daily.redbullmusicacademy.com |language=en}}</ref> Among the most influential were the Residents, formed in San Francisco in 1969.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Cult rock band The Residents to give free concert at Théâtre du Châtelet |url=https://www.artbasel.com/stories/rock-band-residents-concert-theatre-chatelet-loris-greaud |access-date=2025-08-28 |website=Art Basel |language=en}}</ref> ====Across the world==== By the mid-to late 1960s, the rise of San Francisco's psychedelic rock scene led to the wider popularization of psychedelia and psychoactive drugs like LSD, across the United States, inspiring bands to explore more experimental approaches to rock music. Subsequently, genres such as art rock, progressive rock, and later art pop would emerge during this period.{{sfn|Rosenberg|2009|p=179}}{{refn|group=nb|Martin believes: "almost everything that is interesting and creative in rock music that comes after about 1970 is influenced one way or another by progressive rock".{{sfn|Martin|2015|p=69}} Specific influences on rock musicians were: improvement in musicianship, broad eclecticism, utopianism, romanticism, and a commitment to experimentation.{{sfn|Martin|2015|p=69}}}}{{sfn|Faulk|2016|p=63}} In Canada, Nihilist Spasm Band formed as a self-described "noise" band,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weingarten |first=Christopher R. |date=2016-11-11 |title=Reconsidering Yoko Ono: Three Reissues Honor Legacy of Avant-Rock Icon |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/reconsidering-yoko-ono-three-reissues-honor-legacy-of-avant-rock-icon-111164/ |access-date=2025-10-18 |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Breznikar |first=Klemen |date=2014-11-24 |title=The Nihilist Spasm Band {{!}} Interview |url=https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/11/nihilist-spasm-band-interview.html |access-date=2025-10-18 |website=It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> while in Texas, Red Krayola emerged, with ''Pitchfork'' later retrospectively labelling them "likely the most experimental band of the 1960s".<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |last=Lindhart |first=Alex |title=The Red Krayola: The Parable of Arable Land / God Bless The Red Krayola and All Who Sail with It |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11813-the-parable-of-arable-land-god-bless-the-red-krayola-and-all-who-sail-with-it/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Bill |date=1995-01-19 |title=Long-Lived Rock |url=https://chicagoreader.com/music/long-lived-rock/ |access-date=2025-10-18 |website=Chicago Reader |language=en-US}}</ref> Commercially successful groups such as the Doors would also incorporate avant-garde influences into their music.{{sfn|Wall|2014|p=201}} In Brazil, Os Mutantes formed as part of the Tropicália movement.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Trammell |first=Matthew |date=2017-02-16 |title=Os Mutantes’s Psychedelic Subversion |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/os-mutantes-psychedelic-subversion |access-date=2026-01-26 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref>
=== Early 1970s === {{See also|Krautrock|Progressive rock|Rock in Opposition}} [[File:Can 1972 (Heinrich Klaffs Collection 102).jpg|thumb|German krautrock band CAN performing in der Musikhalle Hamburg in 1972|left]] 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 on Kommune 1, took form as German youth sought a unique countercultural identity<ref name="Sanford" />{{sfn|Unterberger|1998|p=174}} distinct from the country's past traditions,<ref name="Guardian" /> which ultimately led to bands developing a form of experimental rock<ref name="Guardian" /><ref name="Sanford">{{cite book|last1=Sanford|first1=John|title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture|date=April 2013|publisher=Routledge Press|page=353|isbn=9781136816031|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TuMsBgAAQBAJ&q=experimental+rock+krautrock}}</ref> that rejected formal rock conventions, and was primarily inspired by minimalism, avant-garde, and contemporary classical composers such as Stockhausen, as well as American experimental rock artists like the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa.{{sfn|Unterberger|1998|p=174}}{{sfn|Unterberger|1998|p=174}} Prominent acts such as Can, Faust,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-10 |title=Sandpaper souls: Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Ltd. |url=https://elhype.com/en/sandpaper-souls-suicide-throbbing-gristle-public-image-ltd/ |access-date=2026-04-04 |website=Revista cultural el Hype |language=en-US}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Reynolds1996">{{cite magazine|url=http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2013/03/krautrock-melody-maker-july-1996-by.html|title=Krautrock|first=Simon|last=Reynolds|magazine=Melody Maker|date=July 1996|author-link=Simon Reynolds}}</ref><ref name="Sanford" />{{sfn|Unterberger|1998|p=174}}
Can's 1971 album ''Tago Mago'' has been described as a "genre-defining" work of experimental rock music.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Charlie |date=September 5, 2011 |title=Can's ground-breaking album 'Tago Mago' is getting a re-release |url=https://dmy.co/news/can-tago-mago-gets-re-release |access-date=2026-04-10 |website=dmy.co |language=en-GB}}</ref> British magazine ''Uncut'' cited the album along with ''Ege Bamyasi'' (1972) and ''Future Days'' (1973) as "experimental rock touchstones".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Richards |first=Sam |date=2024-02-10 |title=An Audience With Damo Suzuki |url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/interviews/an-audience-with-damo-suzuki-145046/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250116181553/https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/interviews/an-audience-with-damo-suzuki-145046/ |archive-date=2025-01-16 |access-date=2026-04-10 |work=UNCUT |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In Czechoslovakia while under the Soviet Union, the Prague Underground led by the Plastic People of the Universe and underground samizdat writer Egon Bondy made experimental rock music as inspired by then banned US artists such as the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa. The Plastic People of the Universe were later arrested, and their trial sparked the creation of Charter 77, the movement which contributed to the later Velvet Revolution that ended the regime.<ref name="Joseph Yanosik">{{Cite web |last=Yanosik |first=Joseph |date=March 1996 |title=The Plastic People of the Universe |url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/pulnoc.html |accessdate=26 February 2007 |publisher=Perfect Sound Forever}}</ref> [[File:Brian Eno - TopPop 1974 08.png|thumb|205x205px|Brian Eno on AVRO's television program ''TopPop'', April 1974]] In England, art rock band Roxy Music<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flanigin |first=Bill |date=2019-01-18 |title=Roxy Music: Britain's Ultimate Art School Band |url=https://www.culturesonar.com/roxy-music-britains-ultimate-art-school-band/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=CultureSonar |language=en-US}}</ref> emerged. Singer Bryan Ferry briefly attended art school,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=Jon |date=2018-02-01 |title=Bryan Ferry on how Roxy Music invented art pop: 'We were game for anything' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/01/bryan-ferry-roxy-music-invented-new-pop-game-for-anything |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> while keyboardist Brian Eno drew influences from Germany's krautrock scene, alongside frequent collaborator David Bowie, with Eno releasing influential debut and sophomore albums, which were followed by Bowie's Berlin Trilogy in the late 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simpson |first=Ernest |date=2004-06-20 |title=Brian Eno : Here Come the Warm Jets {{!}} Album review |url=https://www.treblezine.com/brian-eno-here-come-the-warm-jets/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Treble |language=en-US}}</ref> According to ''Bandcamp Daily'', English group Henry Cow who spearheaded the Rock in Opposition movement are "essential to the last 60 years of avant-garde and experimental rock".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-04-09 |title=The Art of Rock |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/art-rock-album-guide |access-date=2026-04-10 |website=Bandcamp Daily}}</ref>
In America, New York City artists such as Television, Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and Talking Heads emerged from the early NYC punk rock scene, centered on 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".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |title=Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-14-303672-2 |location=London}}</ref> Other contemporaneous developments included the early Cleveland punk scene spearheaded by Mirrors, Electric Eels, the Styrenes, Rocket from the Tombs and later Pere Ubu,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=Jon |date=2013-11-14 |title=Cleveland's early punk pioneers: from cultural vacuum to creative explosion |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/14/clevelands-early-punk-pioneers-ohio |access-date=2025-07-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> as well as Half Japanese, formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in Uniontown, Maryland in 1974.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Half Japanese – FIRE RECORDS |url=https://www.firerecords.com/artists/half-japanese/ |access-date=2025-07-30 |website=www.firerecords.com}}</ref>
===Late 1970s–1990s=== {{See also|Post-punk|No wave|Art punk|Post-rock}}[[File:Glenn Branca.jpg|left|thumb|Glenn Branca performing in New York in the early 1980s]] 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, and avant-garde jazz. Experimental rock acts during this period included This Heat,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moreland |first=Quinn |date=2020-06-23 |title=This Heat to Release Discography Digitally for the First Time |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/this-heat-to-release-discography-digitally-for-the-first-time/ |access-date=2026-04-04 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref> Public Image Ltd,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-10 |title=Sandpaper souls: Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Ltd. |url=https://elhype.com/en/sandpaper-souls-suicide-throbbing-gristle-public-image-ltd/ |access-date=2026-04-04 |website=Revista cultural el Hype |language=en-US}}</ref> and the Fall.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2023-12-12 |title=The Fall's Perverted By Language Revisited 40 Years On |url=https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/the-fall-perverted-by-language-review/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref>{{sfn|Smith|2006|p=2}} In America, the New York no wave scene consisted of experimental rock bands that rejected the commerciality of new wave,{{sfn|Lawrence|2009|p=344}} 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."<ref name="anderson">{{cite book|last1=Foege|first1=Alec|title=Confusion Is Next: The Sonic Youth Story|date=October 1994|publisher=Macmillan|pages=68–9|isbn=9780312113698|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sw6GE_5XTz4C&q=New+York's+last+stylistically+cohesive+avant-rock+movement}}</ref> Anderson claims that the no wave scene represented "New York's last stylistically cohesive avant-rock movement."<ref name="anderson" /> The industrial music scene led to acts such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire, Nurse with Wound and Throbbing Gristle.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-10 |title=Sandpaper souls: Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Ltd. |url=https://elhype.com/en/sandpaper-souls-suicide-throbbing-gristle-public-image-ltd/ |access-date=2026-04-04 |website=Revista cultural el Hype |language=en-US}}</ref>
In Japan, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto and other parts of the Kansai region developed a regionalized extension of New York City no wave known as "Kansai no wave".<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=The Birth of Noise in Japan |url=https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/10/birth-of-noise-in-japan-feature |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=daily.redbullmusicacademy.com |language=en}}</ref> Artists included Aunt Sally, INU, Hide, Jojo Hiroshige and SS. This scene led to the emergence of the Japanoise scene led by artists such as Keiji Haino, Boredoms, Fushitsusha, the Gerogerigegege, Ruins and Hanatarash, which helped develop styles of contemporary noise music such as harsh noise.<ref>{{cite web |title=japanoise.net-index |url=http://Japanoise.net |website=japanoise.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Rob |title=The Wire Primers: A Guide To Modern Music |date=2009 |publisher=Verso; Original Edition |isbn=978-1844674275}}</ref>
By the 1980s, notable{{Peacock inline|date=April 2026}} broader experimental rock groups included acts such as Material, Swans, the Work, Last Exit, Sonic Youth, John Zorn<ref name="redhead">{{cite book |last1=Redhead |first1=Steve |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YsVRAQAAIAAJ&q=1980s+%22avant-rock%22 |title=The End of the Century Party: Youth and Pop Towards 2000 |date=1990 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=9780719028274 |page=66}}</ref> and Massacre.<ref name="p4k">{{cite web |last1=Leone |first1=Dominique |title=Massacre: Killing Time - Album Review |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5684-killing-time/ |access-date=17 September 2016 |website=Pitchfork Media}}</ref> ''Pitchfork'' later described acts such as the Birthday Party as "avant-rock icons."<ref name="berman">{{cite web |last1=Berman |first1=Stuart |title=The Horrors - Primary Colours |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12998-primary-colours/ |access-date=17 September 2016 |website=Pitchfork Media}}</ref> According to journalist David Stubbs, "no other major rock group [...] has done as much to try to bridge the gap between rock and the avant garde" as Sonic Youth, who drew on improvisation and noise as well as the sound of the Velvet Underground.{{sfn|Stubbs|2009|p=91}}<ref name="p4k" />[[File:U.S. Maple September 1999.jpg|thumb|U.S. Maple performing in September, 1999]] Subsequently, the innovation of the British shoegaze movement was described by ''Guardian'' writer Jude Rogers as being better received outside the United Kingdom, stating: "there wasn't a shoegazing backlash in America; the music was seen as part of an ongoing heritage of experimental rock, which fed into later genres like space-rock and post-rock."<ref name="shoe">{{cite news |last1=Rodgers |first1=Jude |date=2007 |title=Diamond Gazers: Shoegaze |url=http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/diamond-gazers-shoegaze |access-date=18 September 2016 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> During the 1990s, as a reaction against traditional rock music formula, post-rock artists combined standard rock instrumentation with electronics and influences from various styles such as ambient music, IDM, krautrock, minimalism, and jazz.<ref name="PostRockAM" /> Other developments in experimental rock included brutal prog, noise, and math rock influenced artists such as U.S. Maple, Lightning Bolt, Laddio Bolocko, Storm & Stress,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-08-17 |title=Battles, Concorde 2, Brighton, Aug 21 |url=https://www.theargus.co.uk/leisure/music/1624057.battles-concorde-2-brighton-aug-21/ |access-date=2026-04-17 |website=The Argus |language=en}}</ref> and Arab on Radar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2024-03-13 |title=The Strange World Of... U.S. Maple |url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/strange-world-of/u-s-maple-interview-guide/ |access-date=2025-08-10 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Perfect Sound Forever: Arab on Radar |url=https://www.furious.com/perfect/arabonradar.html |access-date=2025-08-11 |website=www.furious.com}}</ref> Long-lasting American avant-rock bands such as the Residents and Red Krayola continued to release music into the 21st century.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lindhart |first=Alex |title=The Red Krayola: Introduction |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9107-introduction/ |access-date=2025-08-28 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== 2000s–2020s === {{See also|Windmill scene|Crank wave}} [[File:Black Midi 2019 Festival Sideways, Helsinki (48045809667).jpg|thumb|Black Midi performing at Sideways Festival 2019 in Helsinki, Finland]] In 2015, ''The Quietus''{{'}} Bryan Brussee contemporarily noted uncertainty with the term "experimental rock", and that "it seem[ed] like every rock band [...] ha[d] some kind of post-, kraut-, psych-, or noise- prefixed to their genre."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Brussee|first1=Bryan|title=LIVE REPORT: GZA|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/18261-gza-at-the-roundhouse|website=The Quietus|date=July 8, 2015}}</ref> In 2020, the ''Tokyo Weekender'' labelled math rock "one of the most prominent pillars of progressive and experimental rock music for the best part of three decades."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cunningham |first=Ed |date=2020-02-19 |title=A Complete Guide to Japanese Math Rock |url=https://www.tokyoweekender.com/entertainment/music/brief-guide-japanese-math-rock/ |access-date=2026-04-10 |website=Tokyo Weekender |language=en}}</ref>
By the late 2010s to early 2020s, Windmill scene emerged in Brixton, London, drawing from post-punk and centered on the venue the Windmill.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Perpetua |first=Matthew |date=2021-05-06 |title=The Post-Brexit New Wave |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/993931617/new-wave-post-punk-brexit-squid-dry-cleaning-black-country-new-road |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=NPR |language=en}}</ref> Artists in the scene described as "experimental rock" include Black Midi.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-01-12 |title=‘A kind, loving man’: Tributes paid to Black Midi guitarist who died aged 26 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/culture/black-midi-guitarist-matt-kwasniewskikelvin-death-b2899104.html |access-date=2026-04-09 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Beaumont-Thomas |first=Ben |date=2026-01-12 |title=Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, guitarist for rock band Black Midi, dies aged 26 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jan/12/matt-kwasniewski-kelvin-guitarist-for-rock-band-black-midi-dies-aged-26 |access-date=2026-04-10 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
== See also ==
* Postmodern music * Experimental music * Industrial music
==Footnotes== {{Reflist|group=nb|30em}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== {{refbegin|30em}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Ashby|editor-first=Arved Mark|title=The Pleasure of Modernist Music: Listening, Meaning, Intention, Ideology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pit6yL_Few4C|year=2004|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=978-1-58046-143-6}} * {{cite book |last=Birnbaum |first=Larry |title=Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll |publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, Maryland|year=2013|isbn=978-0-8108-8638-4}} * {{cite book|last=Blake|first=Andrew|editor-last1=Cook|editor-first1=Nicholas|editor-last2=Clarke|editor-first2=Eric|editor-last3=Leech-Wilkinson|editor-first3=Daniel|title=The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music|chapter=Recording practices and the role of the producer|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb0hAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-82796-6}} * {{cite book |editor1-first=Vladimir |editor1-last=Bogdanov |title=All Music Guide to Electronica |year=2001 |publisher=Backbeat Books |isbn=0-87930-628-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/allmusicguidetoe00vlad }} * {{cite book |last=Corcelli |first=John |title=Frank Zappa FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Father of Invention |publisher=Hal Leonard |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-61713-673-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8e7aDgAAQBAJ}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Edmondson|editor-first=Jacqueline|title=Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped our Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQPXAQAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39348-8}} * {{cite book|last=Faulk|first=Barry J.|title=British Rock Modernism, 1967-1977: The Story of Music Hall in Rock|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oG43DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-17152-2}} * {{cite book|last=Gillett|first=Charlie|author-link=Charlie Gillett|title=The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzmhhXUwyt4C&pg=PA329|year=1984|publisher=Perseus Books Group|isbn=978-0-306-80683-4}} * {{cite book|last=Greene|first=Doyle|title=Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELeaCwAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2403-7}} * {{cite book|last=Lowe|first=Kelly Fisher|title=The Words and Music of Frank Zappa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uAYfqgGf4yYC&pg=PA219|year=2007|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-6005-4}} * {{citation|last1=Hegarty|first1=Paul|last2=Halliwell|first2=Martin|title=Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock Since the 1960s|year=2011|publisher=The Continuum International Publishing Group|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8264-2332-0|author-link1=Paul Hegarty (musician)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=taA2AqdCAJ0C}} * {{cite book|last=Julien|first=Olivier |year=2008 |chapter= 'A lucky man who made the grade': ''Sgt. Pepper'' and the rise of a phonographic tradition in twentieth-century popular music |title= Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today|editor-last=Julien |editor-first=Olivier|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-0-7546-6708-7|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=vZ-SB57WBo8C}}}} * {{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Tim|title=Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992|url=https://archive.org/details/holdontoyourdrea00lawr|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/holdontoyourdrea00lawr/page/344 344]|year=2009|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-9085-5}} * {{cite book|last=MacDonald |first=Ian |year=2005|author-link=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |edition=2nd rev. |publisher=Chicago Review Press|location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-55652-733-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJUWJhIbkccC }} * {{cite book|last=Martin|first=Bill|author-link=Bill Martin (philosophy)|title=Listening to the Future: The Time of Progressive Rock, 1968–1978|year=1998|publisher=Open Court|isbn=0-8126-9368-X}} * {{cite book|last=Martin|first=Bill|title=Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Bjork|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CCLyCgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Open Court Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8126-9939-5}} * {{cite book|last=Morse|first=Erik|author-link=Erik Morse|title=Spacemen 3 And The Birth Of Spiritualized|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWI6keyMDxQC&pg=PT144|year=2009|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-0-85712-104-2}} * {{cite book |first=Mick |last=Wall |date=October 30, 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGPaAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT201 |publisher=Hachette |location=UK |title=Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre |isbn=978-1409151258}} * {{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |year=2005 |title=Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 |location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=978-0-571-21570-6 }} * {{cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Stuart|title=Rock and Roll and the American Landscape: The Birth of an Industry and the Expansion of the Popular Culture, 1955-1969|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=736Mu91q_fcC&pg=PA179|year=2009|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-1-4401-6458-3}} * {{cite book|last=Schaffner|first=Nicholas|author-link=Nicholas Schaffner|title=Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey|url=https://archive.org/details/saucerfulofsecre00scha|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/saucerfulofsecre00scha/page/223 223]|year=1992|publisher=Dell|isbn=978-0-385-30684-3}} * {{cite book|last=Simonelli|first=David|title=Working Class Heroes: Rock Music and British Society in the 1960s and 1970s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mnrwy7P3KvQC&q=%22jack+Kroll%22+%22A+Day+in+the+Life%22|year=2013|publisher=Lexington Books|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0-7391-7051-9}} * {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Chris|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History: From arenas to the underground, 1974-1980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QiIKAQAAMAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-33611-9}} * {{cite book|last=Stubbs|first=David|title=Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JB5l4uKJknUC&pg=PA86|year=2009|publisher=John Hunt Publishing|isbn=978-1-84694-179-5}} * {{cite book|last1=Stuessy|first1=Joe|last2=Lipscomb|first2=Scott David|title=Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1UUYAQAAIAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Prentice Hall Higher Education|isbn=978-0-13-601068-5}} * {{cite book|last=Unterberger|first=Richie|author-link=Richie Unterberger|title=Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll|year=1998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzabxWx_vCYC&pg=PA174|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-1-61774-469-3}} {{refend}} * {{Cite book|last=Frith|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Frith|year=1989|title=Facing the Music: A Pantheon Guide to Popular Culture|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn=0-394-55849-9|url=https://archive.org/details/facingmusicpanth00frit}} * {{cite book|last=Gittins|first=Ian|title=Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime : the Stories Behind Every Song|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZvhoZyTzspYC&pg=PA5|year=2004|publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn=978-0-634-08033-3}} * {{cite book|last=MacDonald| first=Ian| year=1998| title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties| publisher=Pimlico|location=London| isbn=978-0-7126-6697-8}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book|last=Gendron|first=Bernard|title=Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jtQAElFVUcC|year=2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-28735-5}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Holm-Hudson|editor-first=Kevin|title=Progressive Rock Reconsidered|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQCPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA275|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-71022-4}}
{{rock}} {{Experimental music genres}} {{Avant-garde}}
Category:Experimental rock Category:Rock music genres Category:Experimental music genres Category:20th-century music genres Category:Progressive music