Art pop

This article is about the music genre. For the Lady Gaga album, see Artpop. For the Githead album, see Art Pop.

Art pop is a loosely defined[2] subgenre of pop music which developed as pop musicians drew inspiration from their art school studies, or by such non-musical sources as the pop art movement, cinema, avant-garde literature, fine art, and fashion, while dispensing with traditional aspects of rock music.[3][4][5]

Characteristics

Art pop has been characterized by its emphasis on the manipulation of signs over personal expression, in distinction to art rock.[3] Central to particular purveyors of the style were notions of the self as a work of construction and artifice,[5] as well as a preoccupation with the invention of terms, imagery, process, and affect.[6] Cultural theorist Mark Fisher wrote that the development of art pop evolved out of the triangulation of pop, art, and fashion.

According to critic Stephen Holden, the genre often refers to any pop style which deliberately aspires to the formal values of classical music and poetry, though these works are often marketed by commercial interests rather than respected cultural institutions.[2] Several sources have noted the attempts of art pop music to distance its audiences from the public at large.[7][8]

Roxy Music in 1973

History

Art pop developed in the 1960s as pop musicians, such as John Lennon, Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, and Bryan Ferry, began to take inspiration from their previous art school studies.[3] Writer Stephen Holden located art pop's origins in the mid 1960s, when producers such as Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys incorporated pseudo-symphonic textures to their pop recordings, and when the Beatles first recorded with a string quartet. Journalist Peter Doggett characterized the Beatles' 1966 single "Strawberry Fields Forever" as art pop, noting its attempt to "self-consciously exclude [..] the mass audience."[8] In North America, art pop was influenced by Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, and became more literary through folk music's singer-songwriter movement.[2]

In the opinion of Jason Heller from The A.V. Club, English musician Brian Eno was a pioneer of art pop and explored the genre on a series of experimental solo albums he recorded after leaving Roxy Music,[9] a group cited by British sociomusicologist Simon Frith as the "archetypical art pop band".[10] Music theorist Mark Fisher said Roxy Music and David Bowie pioneered an English style of art pop in the early 1970s that "culminated" with the early 1980s music of the band Japan.[4] Fisher also characterized artists such as Kraftwerk,[11] Grace Jones, Róisín Murphy, and the New Romantic groups of the 1980s as a part of an art pop lineage.[5] He noted that the development of art pop involved the rejection of conventional rock instrumentation and structure in favor of dance styles and the synthesizer.[5]

List of art pop artists

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fisher, Mark. "You Remind Me of Gold: Dialogue with Simon Reynolds." Kaleidoscope: Issue 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Holden, Stephen (February 28, 1999). "MUSIC; They're Recording, but Are They Artists?". The New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Buckley, David (2012). Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story. Random House. p. 21. ISBN 1448132479.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fisher, Mark (2014). "'Just When I Think I'm Winning'". Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Zero Books. ISBN 978-1-78099-226-6. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Fisher, Mark (November 7, 2007). "Glam's Exiled Princess: Roisin Murphy". Fact (London). Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  6. ↑ StrausMedia
  7. ↑ The Independent
  8. 1 2 Aspden, Peter. "The Sound and Fury of Pop Music." Financial Times. 14 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Heller, Jason (June 14, 2012). "Getting started with Brian Eno, glam icon and art-pop pioneer". The A.V. Club (Chicago). Retrieved July 17, 2013.
  10. ↑ Frith, Simon (1989). Facing the Music: A Pantheon Guide to Popular Culture. Pantheon Books. p. 208. ISBN 0394558499.
  11. ↑ BFI
  12. ↑ "Björk's Been ARTPOP Since Before Gaga Was Born This Way". The Huffington Post. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  13. ↑ Simon Reynolds. "Kate Bush, the queen of art-pop who defied her critics". the Guardian.
  14. ↑ Aston, Martin. "Devo: Where Are They Now?" Q, October 1995.
  15. ↑ "Grime's Star Shines Online". Montreal Gazette.
  16. ↑ BFI
  17. ↑ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/album-reviews/in-an-age-of-manufactured-artists-lorde-is-a-refreshing-change/article14678181/
  18. ↑ Hodges, Taylor (2015-04-02). "A Guide to Moloko Star Róisín Murphy's 10 Best Songs". Electronic Beats. Retrieved 2015-07-17.

Further reading


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