almauro

Aladdin Sane, for sure. The pianist Bowie used on that album was absolutely phenomenal, and delivered a highly stylized classical performance within a rock context. When I think of art-rock, I think of unique performances like this guy's...I should look up his name...here its...Mike Garson.

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Dotoar

Narrowing down the definition just a little bit we have one of the pioneers in art rock in Roy Wood and whatever he was involved in during the 60/70's, beginning with The Move...



...and continuing with Electric Light Orchestra:




Same goes for Rod Argent and his Zombies...




...as well as his eponymous successor:

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TockTockTock

A Whisper in the Noise, Animal Collective, and Tune-Yards are a few excellent examples of modern art rock acts.








Then, of course, my favorite art rock band (and possibly the creators of the genre... along with Frank Zappa).

Guybrush

Here's a video of the brilliant band National Health - the only time they were on TV, actually. Unfortunately, John Greaves who plays bass is drunk as a skunk and messes up stuff a bit, but it's still pretty awesome.



Also, the sync is off!

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TockTockTock

I've been meaning to get into National Health. That video was a good motivator (even with drunk bassist).

Guybrush

As you probably know (but maybe someone else don't), it's a Canterbury supergroup with Pip Pyle, Dave Stewart and Phil Miller from Hatfield and the North along with Alan Gowen from Gilgamesh and, in this song which is from their second album, John Greaves from Henry Cow on bass. Peter Blegvad from Henry Cow also makes an appearance on their second album.

The Hatfield and the North and Gilgamesh ancestry is appearant, but the music is a little more demanding on the listener. It is highly composed and very complex, but also very rewarding to get into. Their uncompromising style is interesting also because the band came quite late at a time when people in the UK generally hated anything with a whiff of prog and so they would definetly have popular opinion against them. Still, they're all bringing their A game in this band. Dave Stewart's compositions are brilliant and Pip Pyle's drumming on their second album, Of Queues and Cures (which is the world's fourth greatest album ever according to the Gnosis website), may be the best he ever did on record.

It fizzled out a bit after Alan Gowen sadly died from leukemia in 1981, but what they did is brilliant with my favourite song being Tenemos Roads from the debut and my favourite album being their second one.

Tenemos Roads is a bit long (over 20 minutes), but here's another favourite, the Bryden 2-Step (for amphibians) from "Of Queues and Cures"

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starrynight

Virtually all music is in a sense art as very little of it is actually used for a specific practical purpose beyond enjoyment of it on its own.

Art rock sounds like popular music that dips its toes a little bit in experimental or classical music.

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Howard the Duck

it doesn't get any more "art" than this:-



Russian band Auktyon (Auction), and sorry, I dunno what's the title of the song, I can't read Cyrillic

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.