It's Art Rock Week! Art, or arty: that is the question
 

ART ROCK!!! What the hell is that?

If there is a weekly theme so broad that you can put very different kinds of rock music in, probably every one of your favorite bands, it's this one. You're already thinking: *Isn't all rock music art?* It's obvious it has to be narrowed down a bit, since the term points to some art outside of popular music, and a big question is: What kind of art does Art Rock refer to? Your definition of Art Rock depends on how you answer this question. Needless to say, there isn't one definition, hmmm...I might say there is no real definition at all. But, there are some guidelines, like going back when this term was first used, what it meant then and what it means now.

What every music usually labeled Art Rock has in common is the strive and the ambition to go beyond the limits of rock. The term goes all the way back to late 60s when it was almost synonymous with Progressive Rock. Here's what allmusic says:
Relation of Art Rock to Experimental Rock (allmusic)
Wikipedia page tries to cover many definitions, but here's one that has some relation to Glam Rock.
Art rock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can read here what else Art Rock may refer to, its relation to New Wave and especially New Romanticism and what it means today. (Check out the interesting talk page that will persuade you that you actually have no idea what the hell is art rock)

For early history:
The Early History of Art-Rock/Prog Rock

So enough of this talk, let's listen to some music. This is what first comes to my mind:
Brian Eno (Before and After Science, 1977)


David Bowie (Low, 1977)


What is it that you immediately think of when you hear "Art Rock"?

Personally, I think the Residents are epitome of what Art Rock should be:

Absolutely.

Absolutely!

Personally, I feel art-rock is essentially an umbrella moniker, referring to anything that occupies a happy nexus between progressive rock and more avant-garde stuff stylistically yet still incorporates commercially viable hooks.

For example-

Eno's first band Roxy Music. Great guitar by Manzanera and Brian Ferry's unique vocal stylings. This one's without Eno and is a change towards a more commercial direction for Roxy.

Art rock, wow! That's something for the linguists to chew on! As is the case of indie, art rock itself won't give much clue of the actual sound (and I've already put forth a proposition that indie is the modern day extension of art rock), but rather the approach to music altogether. One could argue for instance that all progressive rock is art rock, but not all art rock is progressive rock. I'd even go as far as claiming that art rock has been around even way before what seems to be the common notion of its birth with the more ambitious glam rock acts like Roxy Music and Bowie, i.e. the 60's with psychedelia, baroque pop, folk rock and so on.

I'd say that if anything, art rock is 'music for the mind' as opposed to classic rock'n roll being 'music for the body', which is to say it's more profound and self-sufficient and carries a grander message than just rock'n roll all nite and party every day and in the process getting laid. It aims at being, well, art in its own rights and calls for artistic ambition to push the envelope, with little care for chart success and critical acclaim. You're welcome to prove me wrong, but the first true example of a band that stuck to this approach from the very beginning was The Who, not least because their debut consisted almost entirely of self-penned songs (bar the two James Brown covers) which for 1965 was something revolutionary and itself speaks tons of The Who's (read: Townsend's) artistic ideal. Even the Beatles' first albums couldn't boast that. And the artsy ambitions didn't exactly cease thereafter either; In albums like "The Who sell out", "Tommy", "Who's next" and "Quadrophenia" you will find some of the finest and most ambitious yet perfectly adequate art rock ever recorded.

So, even if I had other more obvious bands in mind, I just have to practice what I preach and prove my point:

The first time I heard the term art rock it was directed at Tool. Whether that's a valid label or not for them, is hard to say. But I believe that it is correct.

Especially taking into account your definition of art rock, I feel like Third Eye, Lateralus, 46 & 2 really are the epitome of what I mean. Adam Jones guitar work is majorly in setting tones. His guitar work is a great supplement to the song at whole. The time signatures, spiraling

I would definitely consider Zappa an overlooked early influence on art rock:

Surely the Residents and Zappa were early art rock, but what about maybe Ziggy Stardust stuff?

Bowie's already been mentioned, and I feel it'd be a tad redundant because, and rightfully so, he is the name most associated with the genre.

To me, though, anything that's based off of art is sort of art rock, or at least anything abstracted to the point to where it stands as inspiration for a mood/feeling/thought, rather than directly translating to meaning. Freakout was said to be an attempt to create music in the nature of surrealistic painting(apparently as stated in liner notes), and Residents have vehemently stated that their main intention is to be an art group first, and a rock group second.

Here are some other good examples, though:

Velvet Underground:


Captain Beefheart:


John Oswald:


Phillip Glass:


AMM:


Bruce Haack:


Just for favorites of mine I'd consider artistic. I mean, it's really a broad category. One could argue that even things like Boredoms, and Ween have some roots in artistic expression. Just felt that I'd include things that I know that I would particularly consider as artistic.

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.

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:

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).

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. :D



Also, the sync is off!

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

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" :)

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.

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