Baroque pop

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Baroque pop as a style originated in the mid 1960s as the flipside of sunshine pop. It used similar orchestrations but was infused with a melodramatic edge which differed.

[edit] Archetypal and seminal Baroque pop performers

Much of The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds would fall into this category, as would a lot of the later work of Phil Spector. Scott Walker is another important figure in the genre. Others include:

• The Association, particularly owing to Curt Boettcher
• Burt Bacharach
• The Cake
• Serge Gainsbourg
• The Left Banke
• Love
• Nirvana - the original UK-based band
• Harry Nilsson
• Van Dyke Parks
• Judee Sill
• The Zombies
• Emitt Rhodes

[edit] Modern baroque pop

Modern baroque pop, characterized by an infusion of orchestral arrangements or classical type composition within an indie or indie pop setting, is usually referred to as chamber pop, and sometimes chamber rock.

Popular baroque pop artists today include:

• Fiona Apple
• Arcade Fire
• The Dears
• Badly Drawn Boy
• Richard Barone
• Belle & Sebastian
• Andrew Bird
• Jon Brion
• Broken Social Scene
• The Decemberists
• Destroyer
• The Divine Comedy
• Jeremy Enigk
• Feist
• Final Fantasy
• The Green Fields
• Kevin Tihista
• Kings of Convenience
• Jens Lekman
• Sondre Lerche
• Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
• Mean Red Spiders
• Mercury Rev
• Millbrook
• Naked Raven
• Neutral Milk Hotel (now defunct)
• Joanna Newsom
• Okkervil River
• The Shins
• Duncan Sheik
• The Sleepy Jackson
• Elliott Smith (now deceased)
• Peter Bjorn and John
• Stars
• Sufjan Stevens
• Rufus Wainwright
• The Velvet Teen
• The Visible Men
• The Now People
• Strange Talking Animals
• The Unicorns (now defunct)
• The Hidden Cameras
• The Sharp Things