Art Rock
Art rock is rock music that treats the form as an art project, borrowing ideas from classical music, jazz, the avant-garde and visual art.
It appeared in the mid to late 1960s, when bands began making albums meant for close listening rather than dancing. Songs may use unusual structures, studio experiments, odd instruments or theatrical presentation. It overlaps with progressive rock, but art rock cares less about technical display and more about concept and experiment. Later bands carried the approach into punk, new wave and alternative rock.
Artists it is known for: The Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Talking Heads.
- Family
- Alternative & Indie
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom and United States, 1960s
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 25%
About 21,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have art rock among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Art Rock artists
Radiohead
Pink Floyd
Jeff Buckley
Cocteau Twins
David Bowie
TOOL
Geese
The Police
Paul McCartney
John LennonThe art rock artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.