Avant-pop

Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles[1] while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener.[2] The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular music in the service of novel or idiosyncratic artistic visions.[3]

This article is about a class of popular music that includes genres not limited to pop music. It is not to be confused with Experimental pop, Art pop, or Progressive pop. For other uses, see Avant-pop (disambiguation).
Popular music
Timeline of musical events
List of popular music genres

Definition

"Avant-pop" has been used to label music which balances experimental or avant-garde approaches with stylistic elements from popular music, and which probes mainstream conventions of structure or form.[3] Writer Tejumola Olaniyan describes "avant-pop music" as transgressing "the boundaries of established styles, the meanings those styles reference, and the social norms they support or imply."[1] Author David Horn describes "avant-pop" as identifying idiosyncratic artists working in "a liminal space between contemporary classical music and the many popular music genres that developed in the second half of the twentieth century."[3] He noted avant-pop's basis in experimentalism, as well its postmodern and non-hierarchical incorporation of varied genres such as pop, electronica, rock, classical, and jazz.[3]

Paul Grimstad of The Brooklyn Rail writes that avant-pop is music that "re-sequences" the elements of song structure "so that (a) none of the charm of the tune is lost, but (b) this very accessibility leads one to bump into weirder elements welded into the design."[2] The Tribeca New Music Festival defines "avant-pop" as "music that draws its energy from both popular music and classical forms."[4] The term has elsewhere been used by literary critic Larry McCaffery to describe "the most radical, subversive literary talents of the postmodern new wave."[5]

History

In the 1960s, as popular music began to gain cultural importance and question its status as commercial entertainment, musicians began to look to the post-war avant-garde for inspiration.[3] In 1959, music producer Joe Meek recorded I Hear a New World (1960), which Tiny Mix Tapes' Jonathan Patrick calls a "seminal moment in both electronic music and avant-pop history [...] a collection of dreamy pop vignettes, adorned with dubby echoes and tape-warped sonic tendrils" which would be largely ignored at the time.[6] Other early avant-pop productions included the Beatles's 1966 song "Tomorrow Never Knows", which incorporated techniques from musique concrète, avant-garde composition, Indian music, and electro-acoustic sound manipulation into a 3-minute pop format, and the Velvet Underground's integration of La Monte Young's minimalist and drone music ideas, beat poetry, and 1960s pop art.[3]

In late 1960s Germany, an experimental avant-pop scene dubbed "krautrock" saw influential artists such as Kraftwerk, Can, and Tangerine Dream draw inspiration from free jazz, German academic music, and Anglo-American pop-rock.[3] According to The Quietus' David McNamee, the 1968 album An Electric Storm, recorded by the electronic music group White Noise (featuring members from the U.K.’s BBC Radiophonic Workshop), is an "undisputed masterpiece of early avant-pop".[7] In the 1970s, progressive rock and post-punk music would see new avant-pop fusions, including the work of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Henry Cow, This Heat, and the Pop Group.[3] More contemporary avant-pop artists have included David Sylvian, Scott Walker, and Björk, whose vocal experimentation and innovative modes of expression have seen them move beyond norms of commercial pop music.[3]

Others who have been credited as avant-pop's pioneers include the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed,[8] singer Kate Bush,[3] performance artist Laurie Anderson,[9] art pop musician Spookey Ruben,[10] and Black Dice's Eric Copeland.[11] As of 2017, contemporary artists working in avant-pop areas include Julia Holter, Holly Herndon, and Oneohtrix Point Never.[3]

List of artists
Further information: List of avant-pop artists
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See also

References
  1. Olaniyan, Tejumola (2004). Arrest the Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics. Indiana University Press. p. 7.
  2. Paul Grimstad (September 4, 2007). "What Is Avant-Pop?". Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  3. Horn, David. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 11: Genres: Europe, Volumes 8-14. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 36. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  4. Kozinn, Alann (May 11, 2006). "'Emerging Avant-Pop': From Charles Ives to Frank Zappa". The New York Times.
  5. McCaffery, Larry (1993). Avant-Pop: Fiction for a Daydream Nation. University of Alabama Press. pp. 12, back cover. ISBN 978-0-932511-72-0.
  6. Patrick, Jonathan (March 8, 2013). "Joe Meek's pop masterpiece I Hear a New World gets the chance to haunt a whole new generation of audiophile geeks". Tiny Mix Tapes.
  7. McNamee, David (January 19, 2009). "The Best Of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop On One Side Of A C90". The Quietus.
  8. Marmer, Jake (October 29, 2012). "Lou Reed's Rabbi". Tablet Mag.
  9. Michael Anthony (March 22, 2016). "Laurie Anderson, More Than 'Just a Storyteller'". Star Tribune.
  10. Siegel, Evan (February 10, 2016). "Avant-Pop Pioneer Spookey Ruben Conducts a Synth Symphony on 'Granma Faye'". Spin.
  11. Pitchfork Staff "Eric Copeland: avant-pop pioneer", Guardian Music Blog, November 18, 2008, accessed March 22, 2011.
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