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Post-rock is a music genre which, unlike regular rock music, does not focus as much on riffs, lyrics and melody, but much more on drones, harmonies, sound texture and most importantly song structure. Bands often have long names and even longer songs with dark, apocalyptic, and cathartic moods. This genre of music typically does have lyrics, but lyrics are absent more often than in traditional rock music.
History[]
Post-rock as a musical genre has its roots in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with bands such as The Velvet Underground being highly influential to the sound. Krautrock in particular, also had a profound impact on the development of the genre.
The sound did not develop in earnest until 1988, with the release of Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden being the earliest album to be described as "post-rock" by music critics. The releases of Laughing Stock by Talk Talk, and Spiderland by Slint in 1991 laid the foundation for the genre as we know it today, and continue to be massively influential to bands in the scene.
Post-rock as a label is hard to define, and in common usage it contains a very wide variety of bands. Three separate usages of the word are most common, with the first usage being used to describe English electronic rock acts from the late 1990s, such as Stereolab, Laika, and Seefeel, and the second usage being a broader term containing those bands as well as sounds more influenced by Slint and Talk Talk, The third and most commonly used definition describes acts influenced by Swans' 1996 double album Soundtracks for the Blind and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Aesthetic[]
Post-rock aesthetics are strongly rooted in Punk and counter-culture aesthetics. As an Avant-garde music style, it is fundamentally opposed to the mainstream. Post-rock is also strongly tied to left-wing politics, perhaps most notably with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who routinely states their anarchist & anti-Zionist views on press releases and liner notes. Since 2022, the collective has also attached pink duct tape on one of their speakers reading "TRANSPHOBES EAT SHIT AND DIE ALONE" at concerts. The post-rock aesthetic is low-key, with the musicians and the audience preferring to let the music speak for itself.
Post-rock's visual and musical aesthetic often focuses on apocalyptic themes.
Notable artists[]
Artists in this genre include
- Slint
- Talk Talk
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor
- Tortoise
- Bark Psychosis
- Stereolab
- Seefeel
- Laika
- Swans
- Sigur Rós
- Mogwai
- Silver Mt. Zion
- Set Fire To Flames
- Black Country, New Road
- Explosions in the Sky
- 65daysofstatic
- This Will Destroy You
- Do Make Say Think
- Mono
- Bowery Electric
- God Is an Astronaut
- Lift to Experience
- Boris
- Esmerine
- Jeniferever
Selected Tracks[]
- Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky
- Good Morning, Captain by Slint
- Viðrar vel til loftárása by Sigur Rós
- Take Me Somewhere Nice by Mogwai
- Swimming Eyes by Jeniferever
- Helpless Child by Swans
- Blaise Bailey Finnegan III by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Gallery[]
