Post-rock
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox music genre with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| alt | caption | cultural_origins | current_year | current_year_override | current_year_title | derivatives | etymology | footnotes | fusiongenres | image | image_size | instruments | local_scenes | name | native_name | native_name_lang | other_names | other_topics | regional_scenes | stylistic_origins | subgenrelist | subgenres |showblankpositional=1}}
Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings with electronics and digital production as a means of enabling the exploration of textures, timbres and different styles. Vocals, when present, are often used as an instrumental layer, with many bands opting for entirely instrumental compositions. The genre began in indie and underground music scenes, but deviated.
The term post-rock was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds, being popularized in a review of Bark Psychosis' 1994 album Hex, and he later expanded the concept as music "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes". The term has since developed to refer to bands oriented around dramatic and suspense-driven instrumental rock, making the term controversial among listeners and artists alike.
Groups such as Talk Talk and Slint were credited with producing foundational works in the style in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the release of Tortoise's 1996 album Millions Now Living Will Never Die, post-rock became an accepted term for the associated scene of artists. Over time, post-rock diversified, spawning fusion subgenres like post-metal and blackgaze, and influencing indie rock, electronica, and forms of metal.
CharacteristicsEdit
{{#invoke:Listen|main}} Post-rock emphasizes the use of textures, timbres, and non-rock influences, often featuring little or no vocals. Rather than relying on traditional song structures or riffs, it—as a musical aesthetic—focuses on atmosphere and mood to create a musically evocative experience.<ref name="allmusic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Post-rock incorporates stylings and traits from a variety of musical genres and scenes, including krautrock, ambient, psychedelia, progressive rock, space rock, math rock, tape music, minimalist classical, British IDM, jazz (including avant-garde jazz and cool jazz), and dub,<ref name="allmusic" /> as well as post-punk, free jazz, contemporary classical, avant-garde electronica,<ref name="avclub">Template:Cite news</ref> and slowcore.Template:Sfn
First wave post-rock groups often exhibited strong influence from the krautrock of the 1970s, particularly the motorik, the characteristic krautrock rhythm, and its one- or two-chord melodicism.<ref name="allmusic" /><ref name="Aural Innovations">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Net Net">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Post-rock artists frequently blend traditional rock instrumentation and stylistic elements with electronic and digital production, using this combination to explore a wider range of textures, timbres, and musical styles.<ref name="allmusic" /><ref name="The Wire May 1994">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Pitchfork" /> The first wave of post-rock derives inspiration from diverse sources including krautrock, psychedelia, dub, minimalist classical, ambient, electronica, and jazz,<ref name="allmusic" /> with these influences also being pivotal for the substyle of ambient pop.<ref name="ambientpop">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The genre originated in the indie and underground music scenes of the 1980s and 1990s, but as it moved away from traditional rock elements, it became increasingly distinct from the conventions of indie rock of that era.<ref name="Pitchfork" /><ref name="allmusic" />
InstrumentationEdit
Though typically performed using standard rock instrumentation—guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards—post-rock compositions often subvert the expected uses of these instruments, for example by employing guitars as noise generators or focusing on sonic texture rather than melody.<ref name=":0" /> However, instruments were often used in non-traditional ways, acting as a "palette of textures" rather than for their conventional rock roles.Template:Sfn It can be lengthy and instrumental,Template:Sfn containing repetitive build-ups of timbres, dynamics and textures, <ref name="The Wire May 1994" /> often making use of repetition of musical motifs and subtle changes with an extremely wide range of dynamics. In some respects, this is similar to the music of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Brian Eno, pioneers of minimalism who were acknowledged influences on bands in the first wave of post-rock.<ref name="Aural Innovations" />
Guitars, rather than serving melodic or riff-driven purposes, are often employed as tools for texture and atmosphere.<ref name="The Wire May 1994" /> Artists manipulate timbre through alternate tunings, effects like delay and distortion, EBows, and looping, sometimes processing guitars to the point of becoming unrecognizable.Template:Sfn Drums and percussion in post-rock frequently defy traditional roles,Template:Sfn drawing inspiration from krautrock's hypnotic "motorik" beatsTemplate:Sfn and dub's spacious, bass-heavy rhythms.Template:Sfn It can feature, as is prominently the case in the first wave, multiple drum kits, irregular tempos, or minimalist patterns that prioritize mood over groove.Template:Sfn The bass guitar often assumes a central role in shaping post-rock's atmospheric depth, diverging from standard rock's rhythmic lock with the bass drum, extending from post-punk.Template:Sfn Influenced by dub and ambient music in addition, basslines may consist of sustained drones, pulsating loops, or sparse, resonant notes that anchor the composition's harmonic framework.Template:Sfn
With the increasing accessibility of samplers in the late 1980s, bands gained tools for restructuring their compositions with sampling.Template:Sfn Samplers, along with sequencers and MIDI setups, allowed for both ordered and chaotic elements to coexist within a single piece.<ref name="The Wire May 1994" /> The recording studio is regarded as an essential component of the creative process in post-rock.Template:Sfn Bands such as Seefeel, Disco Inferno and Insides made the recording studio an active component of composition, employing hardware for live processing, and software like Cubase to—in the case of Seefeel—fragment and reassemble guitar sounds, or process vocals as abstract sonic material.<ref name="The Wire May 1994" />
VocalsEdit
Vocals are often de-emphasized or entirely absent. When vocals are included, the use is typically non-traditional: some post-rock bands employ vocals as purely instrumental efforts and incidental to the sound, rather than a more traditional use where clean, comprehensible vocals are used for poetic and lyrical meaning.<ref name="allmusic" /> When present, vocals may appear in unconventional forms, including spoken word, found audio samples, or stylized delivery such as murmured or shouted passages.<ref name=":1" /> Bands often treat the voice as an additional instrument.Template:Sfn Lyrics, if included, are often non-narrative, poetic, or opaque,Template:Sfn reflecting themes of alienation, ambiguity, or abstraction, such as in Stereolab's didactic lyrics which are sung with simplistic melodies.Template:Sfn
While the verse-chorus form is not exempt from the ethos of post-rock, in lieu of typical rock structures, groups make greater use of soundscapes and abstraction.Template:Sfn<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Reynolds states in his essay "Post-Rock" from Audio Culture that "a band's journey through rock to post-rock usually involves a trajectory from narrative lyrics to stream-of-consciousness to voice-as-texture to purely instrumental music". Reynolds' conclusion defines the sporadic progression from rock, with its field of sound and lyrics to post-rock, where samples are manipulated, stretched and looped.Template:Sfn Many instrumental pieces of the genre include climactic endings, used to provide closure in otherwise linear compositions. This structural trope became a hallmark of second wave post-rock,<ref name=":0" /> where bands focused on dramatic, suspenseful instrumental rock; this usage of the term became controversial among both listeners and musicians.<ref name="Under the Radar">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="warp">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EtymologyEdit
_(2).jpg){kind=link}
The term post-rock was initially used by English music journalist Simon Reynolds in a Melody Maker article in late 1993, which he remembers as the first time he wrote of post-rock.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He later employed it in a review of the 1994 album Hex by Bark Psychosis, which appeared in that year's March issue of Mojo magazine.<ref name="Mojo">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Reynolds further developed the concept in the May 1994 issue of The Wire defining post-rock as music "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords". He further expounded on the term that: Template:Quote
Reynolds, in a July 2005 entry in his blog, said he later found the term not to be of his own coinage, writing in his blog "I discovered many years later it had been floating around for over a decade".<ref name="blissblog">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2021, Reynolds reflected on the evolution of the style, saying that the term had developed in meaning during the 21st century, no longer referring to "left-field UK guitar groups engaged in a gradual process of abandoning songs [and exploring] texture, effects processing, and space", but instead coming to signify "epic and dramatic instrumental rock, not nearly as post- as it likes to think it is".<ref name="warp" />
Earlier uses of the term include its employment in a 1975 article by American journalist James Wolcott about musician Todd Rundgren, although with a different meaning.<ref name="Wolcott">Template:Cite magazine</ref> It was also used in the Rolling Stone Album Guide to name a style roughly corresponding to "avant-rock" or "out-rock".<ref name="blissblog" /> The earliest use of the term cited by Reynolds dates back as far as September 1967. In a Time cover story feature on the Beatles, writer Christopher Porterfield hails the band and producer George Martin's creative use of the recording studio, declaring that this is "leading an evolution in which the best of current post-rock sounds are becoming something that pop music has never been before an art form".<ref name="blissblog" /> Another example of the term in use can be found in an April 1992 review of the single "Stacey's Cupboard" by 1990s noise pop band the Earthmen by Steven Walker in Melbourne music publication Juke, where he describes a "post-rock noisefest".<ref name="Juke">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HistoryEdit
1970s–1980s: influences and precursorsEdit
The "dronology" of The Velvet Underground, most apparent on their 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico, was referred to by Reynolds in 1994 as having significantly influenced much "of today's post rock activity" in the first wave, especially with regards to the 1990s space rock revival.Template:Sfn In addition, the 1970s krautrock bands Can, Neu!, Faust and Cluster influenced post-rock acts, including Stereolab<ref name="Klein (2001)">Template:Cite news</ref> and Mogwai.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The no wave and post-punk movements—via artists like Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca, and Ut—experimented with dissonance, non-linear structures, and noise, challenging rock's expressive norms.Template:Sfn Similarly, This Heat, which formed in 1976, are regarded as having predated the genre with their significantly unconventional musical stylings and repetitive structures, and were an influence on bands in the first wave of post-rock.<ref name="m.pitchfork.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Stylus Magazine observed that David Bowie's 1977 album Low, produced by Brian Eno, would have been considered post-rock if released twenty years later.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Louder also described the English post-punk band Wire as "the genre's godfathers", highlighting their 1979 studio album 154 as an early precursor that signposted the beginning of post-rock.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
British post-punk band Public Image Ltd have been seen as pivotal for post-rock, with the NME describing them as "arguably the first post-rock group" when referring to their first few albums.<ref name="Plastic Box">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Their 1979 album Metal Box almost completely abandoned traditional rock structures in favor of dense, repetitive dub- and krautrock-inspired soundscapes and John Lydon's cryptic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The year before Metal Box was released, PiL bassist Jah Wobble declared that "rock is obsolete".<ref name="Frieze">Template:Cite journal</ref>
1990s: first waveEdit
Critics have retroactively regarded the Louisville, Kentucky-based rock band Slint's 1991 album Spiderland as a foundational work that anticipated and inspired the indie rock-derived area of the genre;<ref name="consequence">Template:Cite magazine</ref> the album is characterized by its dramatic shifts in dynamics both instrumentally and vocally, as well as its deliberate, bass-driven grooves.<ref name="allmusic" /><ref name=":1" /> The English art rock band Talk Talk's album Laughing Stock, released in the same year, has been identified as influential on post-rock by critics for its drawn out song structures, relying on influences from jazz, contemporary classical music and space rock.<ref name="allmusic" /><ref name="Pitchfork" />
Post-rock was initially applied to a wave of primarily English bands in the early 1990s who drew from genres such as psychedelia, electronica, hip-hop, free improvisation, and the avant-garde.<ref name="The Wire May 1994" /> Examples include Stereolab,<ref name="Epitonic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Moonshake,<ref name="Dusted Reviews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Laika,<ref name="VH1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Disco Inferno,<ref name="Epitonic_DI">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Seefeel,<ref name="Pitchfork">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bark Psychosis, Pram and Insides,<ref name="The Wire May 1994" /> many of which began in post-punk and shoegaze roots; these were largely deemed post-rock as such in Reynolds' music journalism,<ref name="The Wire May 1994" /> and they were also pivotal for the substyle of ambient pop.<ref name="ambientpop" /> In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bristol, England, emerged as a notable hub for post-rock, characterized by a loosely connected group of musicians working with home-recording setups and a distinctly lo-fi aesthetic. Trip hop, which began as a scene in the same city, influenced Bristol post-rock in the turn of the millennium. Bands such as Flying Saucer Attack, Third Eye Foundation, and Movietone were central to this movement, initially releasing music on the local Planet label and gathering around Recreational Records before later partnering with Domino Records.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
North American post-rock tended to maintain the traditional rock band format, drawing on earlier experimental and avant-rock traditions.Template:Sfn Influences include krautrock, minimalism, the Canterbury scene, and no wave, as well as the work of composers such as John Cage and Alvin Lucier.Template:Sfn Groups in Chicago, United States such as Cul de Sac as well as more ambient-oriented bands from the Kranky label like Labradford, Bowery Electric, and Stars of the Lid, are often cited as foundational to the American first wave of post-rock.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The second Tortoise album Millions Now Living Will Never Die made the band a post-rock icon according to music critics,<ref name="Pitchfork" /><ref name="Splendid">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn with bands such as Do Make Say Think beginning to record music inspired by the Chicago school.<ref name="Textura">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> John McEntire of Tortoise and Jim O'Rourke of Gastr del Sol were prominent figures in the post-rock movement. Both musicians also contributed as producers on multiple albums by Stereolab throughout the 1990s and 2000s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 2000, Radiohead released the studio album Kid A, marking a significant turning point in their musical style. Reynolds described it and the 2001 follow-up album Amnesiac as major examples of post-rock in the style that had been established by the first wave, incorporating influences from electronica, krautrock, jazz and space rock into the band's indie rock music; he noted that the success of the albums showed that the style had made a mainstream breakthrough.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="SPIN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2000s–present: second and third wavesEdit
In the early 2000s, the term became divisive with both music critics and musicians, with it being seen at the time as falling out of favor.<ref name="Stylus">Template:Cite magazine</ref> It became increasingly controversial as more critics outwardly condemned its use.<ref name="allmusic"/> Some of the bands for whom the term was most frequently assigned, including Cul de Sac,<ref name="Cul de Sac Interview">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Cul de Sac Interview 2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tortoise,<ref name="Stylus"/> Mogwai,<ref name="Under the Radar" /> and Godspeed You! Black EmperorTemplate:Sfn rejected the label. The wide range of styles covered by the term, they and others have claimed, robbed it of its individuality.<ref name="SFGate">Template:Cite news</ref> Kenny Bringelson, writing for Consequence, commented that the bands' music is "rife with creative recontextualization and categorically fresh sounds, but rarely does it transcend what's defined as, and cool about, rock music."<ref name="consequence" />
An eminent post-rock locale was Montreal, Canada, where Godspeed You! Black Emperor and related groups, including Silver Mt. Zion and Fly Pan Am, released music on Constellation Records;<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> these groups are generally characterized by a melancholy and crescendo-driven style rooted in, among other genres, chamber music, musique concrète techniques and free jazz influences.<ref name="Aural Innovations" /> Notable albums from Montrealer bands include F♯ A♯ ∞ (1997) and Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven (2000), both by Godspeed You! Black Emperor,Template:Sfn and Set Fire to Flames's Sings Reign Rebuilder (2001).<ref name=":1" />
As part of the second wave of post-rock, the bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, This Will Destroy You, Do Make Say Think, and Mono became some of the more popular post-rock acts of the new millennium.<ref name="Gigwise">Template:Cite news</ref> Sigur Rós, a band known for their distinctive vocals, fabricated a language they called "Hopelandic" (Template:Langx), which they described as "a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> With the release of their album Ágætis byrjun in 1999, they became among the most well known post-rock bands of the 2000s due to the use of many of their tracks, particularly their 2005 single "Hoppípolla", in TV soundtracks and film trailers. These bands' popularity was attributed to a move towards a more conventional rock-oriented sound with simpler song structures and increasing utilization of pop hooks, also being regarded as a new atmospheric style of indie rock.<ref>[{{#ifeq: yes | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/album/r1397505{{
#if:
| /{{{tab}}}
}}
| {{#if: r1397505
| {{#if:
| {{#if: |[[{{{author-link}}}|{{#if: |, {{{first}}} }}]]|{{#if: |, {{{first}}} }}}}.
}}[https://www.allmusic.com/album/r1397505{{
#if:
| /{{{tab}}}
}} {{
#if:
| {{{title}}}
| Template:PAGENAMEBASE
}}] at AllMusic{{
#if:
| . Retrieved .
}}
| {{#if: {{#property:P1728}}
| Template:First word {{#if: | {{{title}}} | Template:PAGENAMEBASE }} at AllMusicTemplate:EditAtWikidata
| {{#if: {{#property:P1729}}
| Template:First word {{#if: | {{{title}}} | Template:PAGENAMEBASE }} at AllMusicTemplate:EditAtWikidata
| {{#if: {{#property:P1730}}
| Template:First word {{#if: | {{{title}}} | Template:PAGENAMEBASE }} at AllMusicTemplate:EditAtWikidata
| {{#if: {{#property:P1994}}
| Template:First word {{#if: | {{{title}}} | Template:PAGENAMEBASE }} at AllMusicTemplate:EditAtWikidata
| {{AllMusic}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.Template:Main other
}}
}}
}}
}}
}}
}} Allmusic review: Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust]</ref> Following a 13-year hiatus, experimental rock band Swans, who had been regarded as influencing post-rock, began releasing a number of albums that were described as post-rock, most notably To Be Kind, which was acclaimed by AllMusic at the end of 2014.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Wider experimentation and blending of other genres took hold in post-rock. For instance, bands such as Cult of Luna, Isis, Russian Circles, Palms, Deftones, and Pelican fused metal with second wave post-rock, with the resulting sound being termed post-metal. Sludge metal grew and evolved to include (and in some cases fuse completely with) some elements of post-rock, with this second wave of sludge metal being pioneered by bands such as Giant Squid and Battle of Mice. The label Neurot Recordings has released music by bands in this genre.<ref name="postmetalnyt">Template:Cite news</ref> Similarly, bands such as Altar of Plagues, Lantlôs and Agalloch blend second wave post-rock and black metal, incorporating elements of the former while primarily using the latter.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In some cases, post-rock experimentation has extended beyond blending with a single genre—such as in post-metal—to embrace a wider range of influences. A notable example is blackgaze, a fusion of black metal and shoegaze, post-rock and post-hardcore, exemplified by bands like Deafheaven that combine intense metal elements with the atmospheric textures of post-rock.<ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Experimental music genres Template:Electronic rock Template:Avant-garde {{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Authority control Template:Sister project