Tuesday, 21 January 2014

The History Of Ambient Rock

Ambient rock had its cultural origin in 1970's Britain. Also known as Post-Rock it is a genre that is influenced by the use of musical instruments and beats found in common rock songs. Post-Rock bands tend to go without vocals. Tortoise was one of the bigger Post-Rock bands in the 1990's. The term is instrumental but the focused on guitars and drums. It was popularly seen on the 'Indie' or 'Underground' scenes in the 1990's.
The term Post-Rock is believed to have originated from critic 'Simon Reynolds' even though the term had been around for almost a decade it became well known when he published it in a magazine called 'MOJO' back in 1994 when he commented on the album 'Hex' by 'Bark Psychosis' even though a personal belief that he created the term, it is actually believed that James Wolcott' coined it back in 1975 but with a different meaning. The rolling stones magazine gave it a different name. 'Avant-Rock'.
The album 'Spiderland' by 'Slint' and 'Spirit Of Eden' by 'Talk Talk' are credited as giving birth to Post-Rock back in 1988. Even though the two band both have a different sound 'Talk Talk' coming from 'Art Rock' while 'Slint' come from post-hardcore, they both had a massive influence on how Post-Rock moved forward through the 90's.
In the 2000's The term 'Post-Rock' had become more controversial and discredited. The original band 'Tortoise' along with a few other major Post-Rock bands started to reject the label. It was claimed to have too many different types of styles and was in fact 'Robbed of its usefulness'.
In the modern day, despite its rejection by the creators, the term Post-Rock still remains in today's society. This is thanks to the use of it in TV shows and films. The popularity is that it moves towards rock sounds, simpler song structures and utilization of pop hooks. The move into the 21st century has generally eliminated vocals from its repertoire.

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