Baroque pop
Encyclopedia
Baroque pop, Baroque rock, or English baroque, often used interchangeably with chamber pop/rock, is a pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 music subgenre which originated in the mid-1960s in the United Kingdom and United States. It originated as a fusion of early pop and rock music, specifically rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, with classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

, most specifically that of the baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 and classical
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...

 eras.

Baroque pop reached the height of its popularity in the mid to late-1960s, with several prominent groups and artists both emerging or incorporating the genre into their work, such as The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

, Left Banke, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

, Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...

 and Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...

, amongst others. Whilst baroque pop's mainstream popularity faded by the 1970s, as other rock and pop genres such as punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, disco and hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 took over, music was still produced within the genre's tradition, and it exerted an influence on several pop and rock music subgenres. Chamber pop, for instance, a 1990s genre which contested the alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 and grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...

 aesthetic of much music at the time, has similar characteristics to 1960s baroque pop, especially with regard to ornate production and classical influences. Since the 1990s, baroque pop has seen a revival, with several prominent artists, such as Belle and Sebastian, Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.-Early life:...

 and The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (band)
The Divine Comedy are a chamber pop band from Ireland, fronted by Neil Hannon. Formed in 1989, Hannon has been the only constant member of the group, playing, in some instances, all of the non-orchestral instrumentation bar drums. To date, ten studio albums have been released under the Divine...

, performing in the genre or incorporating elements of it in their music.

Terminology

The term "baroque rock" has been used since about 1966 to describe harder edged and less commercial music with similar influences. "English baroque" is also used to describe British pop and rock music that made use of this style of instrumentation. "Chamber pop" or "chamber rock" are usually used to refer specifically to music that utilises the string instruments of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 and so can be seen as a sub-set of baroque pop and rock.

In classical music the term "Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

" is used to describe the art music of Europe approximately between the years 1600 and 1750, with some of its most prominent composers including J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 and Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...

. Much of the instrumentation of baroque pop is akin to that of the late Baroque period or the early Classical period
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...

, chronologically defined as the period of European music from 1690 to 1820 and stylistically defined by balanced phrases, clarity and beauty, using instrumentation similar to modern orchestras. When applied to popular music the term has been used without much regard to these boundaries to describe the use of musical forms and instrumentation from a wider range of eras.

Characteristics

The genre was intended to be less "wild" than rock music at the time, and a less commercial, more serious and "mature" offshoot of the genre. Baroque pop may be distinguished from progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

, which also uses classical instrumentation, by its generally simpler song structures closer to standard pop song writing, and also by its more mainstream lyrical content as opposed to the generally conceptual lyrics associated with later progressive rock.

Baroque pop, stylistically, fuses elements of pop and rock with classical music, often incorporating instruments not common to rock and roll such as harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

s, clavichord
Clavichord
The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...

s, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

s, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

s and other strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

, oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s and French horns. It is also generally characterised by highly orchestral, lush instrumentation. Common elements of baroque pop also include layered melodies, sophisticated productions and prominent harmonies. Traditionally, baroque pop is also generally quite melancholic and dramatic music, which contrasts it from its more cheerful counterpart, sunshine pop
Sunshine pop
Sunshine pop is a subgenre of pop music originating in the United States, mainly the state of California, in the mid-1960s. Sunshine pop, by nature, is cheerful and upbeat music which is characterised by warm sounds, prominent vocal harmonies, as well as sophisticated productions...

.

Origins: early to mid 1960s

The exact origins of baroque pop are difficult to determine with certainty. In the early 1960s Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...

 had experimented with unusual instrumentation, like the use of flugelhorn
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...

 on songs including "Walk On By" (1963), and Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....

's Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...

 production had made use of diverse and unusual instrumentation, including many associated with classical music. The British group The Zombies
The Zombies
The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1961 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent, on piano and keyboards, and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group scored a UK and US hit in 1964 with "She's Not There"...

, with their single "She's Not There
She's Not There
"She's Not There" is the debut single by the British pop band The Zombies. It reached number twelve in the UK Singles Chart in August 1964, and became a top-ten hit in the United States...

" released in 1964, are often cited as an early example of the sub-genre, but, although the song had many of the harmonic qualities of later baroque pop, it did not use classical instrumentation.

In 1965 The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 benefited from the classical music skills of George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...

, who used a string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 in the production of "Yesterday
Yesterday (song)
"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover versions, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded...

," and for "In My Life
In My Life
"In My Life" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney . The song originated with Lennon, and while Paul McCartney contributed to the final version, the extent of his contribution is in dispute. George Martin contributed the instrumental bridge...

" recorded the piano solo at a twice slower tempo and then sped it up, effectively giving off a more Renaissance-Baroque era harpsichord sound. Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

 began to use orchestral arrangements, melodies and harmonies on The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

' 1965 albums Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
- Singles :* "Help Me, Rhonda" b/w "Kiss Me Baby" , 5 April 1965 US #1; UK #27* "California Girls" b/w "Let Him Run Wild" , 12 July 1965 US #3; UK #26- References :...

with harpsichord and zither, among other instruments. The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

 first single "Mr Tambourine Man" (1965), opens with a distinctive, Bach-inspired guitar introduction played by Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...

.
The abovementioned single by the Zombies inspired New York musician Michael Brown
Michael Brown (rock musician)
Michael Brown , is an American keyboardist-songwriter. The son of violinist and arranger Harry Lookofsky, he is best known as the principal songwriter for the 1960s baroque-pop outfit The Left Banke and for writing their two hits "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina".After internal band...

 to form The Left Banke
The Left Banke
The Left Banke is an American baroque pop band that formed in New York City in 1965 and disbanded in 1969. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina"...

, whose 1966 single "Walk Away Renée
Walk Away Renee
"Walk Away Renée" is a song made popular by the band The Left Banke in 1966 , composed by the group's then 16-year-old keyboard player Michael Brown and Tony Sansone...

" used harpsichord and a string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

, and is usually considered the first recognizable baroque pop single. In 1966 The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 released "Lady Jane
Lady Jane
"Lady Jane" is a Rolling Stones' song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards featured on their 1966 album Aftermath.In America Lady Jane was the B-side to "Mother's Little Helper", but "Lady Jane" reached #24 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart...

", featuring Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....

 on dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...

 in a very baroque-sounding song. The Beatles' 1966 album Revolver
Revolver (album)
Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber...

featured baroque instrumentation on songs such as "For No One
For No One
"For No One" is a song written by Paul McCartney that originally appeared on The Beatles' seventh album, Revolver. A baroque pop song about the end of a relationship, it was one of McCartney's most mature and poignant works upon its release...

" and "Eleanor Rigby
Eleanor Rigby
"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by The Beatles, simultaneously released on the 1966 album Revolver and on a 45 rpm single. The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney...

"; which both featured idiosyncratic and lonely lyrics. Perhaps the most influential work in the sub-genre was the use of revolutionary and symphonic compositions on The Beach Boys' 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...

with "God Only Knows
God Only Knows
"God Only Knows" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys. It is the eighth track on the group's 11th studio album, Pet Sounds , and one of their most widely recognized songs. "God Only Knows" was composed and produced by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Tony Asher and lead vocal by Carl...

" and "Caroline No"; both featured surreal and melodramatic lyrics and arrangements. The single "Wouldn't It Be Nice
Wouldn't It Be Nice
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the opening track on the 1966 album Pet Sounds and one of the most widely recognized songs by the American rock band The Beach Boys...

", contained baroque instrumentation that was light years ahead of their past efforts. In Britain The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

, with Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

 as their guitarist, also began to find unconventional musical tastes such as jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and baroque, along with their Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...

 and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

 influences.

Peak years: late 1960s

Baroque-influenced music reached a brief peak in popularity between the beginnings of the decline of psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...

 from about 1967 and the rise, particularly in Britain, of progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

, which absorbed wider classical influences, growing in popularity from the early 1970s. Classical influence can be seen on The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...

with "A Day in the Life
A Day in the Life
"A Day in the Life" is a song by The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions...

" and "She's Leaving Home
She's Leaving Home
"She's Leaving Home" is a song credited to Lennon–McCartney and released in 1967 on The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. McCartney wrote and sang the verse and Lennon the chorus...

" and the White Album
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...

(1968) with the parody "Piggies
Piggies
"Piggies" is a Beatles song from their double-disc album The Beatles . It was written by George Harrison as social commentary on class and corporate greed.-Instrumentation:...

". Led by Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee may refer to:*Arthur Lee , U.S. envoy to France*Arthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham , British soldier and diplomat*Arthur Lee , American psychedelic-rock musician...

, with a little help from Bryan MacLean
Bryan MacLean
Bryan MacLean was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, most known for his work with the influential rock band Love. His famous compositions for Love include "Alone Again Or" and "Old Man".-Early life:...

, Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...

 began playing around with baroque influences in their second album Da Capo
Da Capo (Love album)
Da Capo is the second album by American rock group Love, released in January 1967 by Elektra Records. The bulk of Da Capo was recorded between September 27 and October 2, 1966. "7 and 7 Is" was recorded on June 20, and had been released as a single in July of 1966 backed with "No. Fourteen", an...

(1967) but were overshadowed by their louder and punky
Protopunk
Protopunk is a term used retrospectively to describe a number of musicians who were important precursors of punk rock in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, or who have been cited by early punk musicians as influential...

 recordings. Love's early work started to give way for a more gentle, contemplative, and organic orchestral sound on their third album Forever Changes
Forever Changes
Forever Changes is the third album by American rock band Love, released by Elektra Records in November 1967. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time...

(1967) with "Andmoreagain" and "Alone Again Or".

These influences can be heard on The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....

' Days of Future Passed
Days of Future Passed
Days of Future Passed is the second album and first concept album by The Moody Blues, released in 1967. It was also their first album to feature Justin Hayward and John Lodge, who would play a very strong role in directing the band's sound in the decades to come...

(1967), The Zombies
The Zombies
The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1961 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent, on piano and keyboards, and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group scored a UK and US hit in 1964 with "She's Not There"...

' Odessey and Oracle
Odessey and Oracle
Odessey and Oracle is the third studio album by British pop rock band The Zombies, released on 19 April 1968 by Date Records. It is among the most critically acclaimed albums of popular music.-Album information:...

(1968), The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...

' The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Kinks, released in November 1968. It was the last album by the original quartet, as bassist Pete Quaife left the group in early 1969...

(1968) and the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...

' Odessa
Odessa (album)
Odessa is the sixth studio album by the Bee Gees, released in 1969. It was the group's fourth album released internationally, and their first released as a double LP. Odessa is noted in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die....

(1969); in singles like Honeybus
Honeybus
Honeybus were a 1960s pop group formed in April 1967, in London. They were best known for their 1968 UK Top 10 hit single, "I Can't Let Maggie Go".-Line-up:The best known line-up consisted of:...

' "I Can't Let Maggie Go" (1968). Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...

's "A Whiter Shade of Pale
A Whiter Shade of Pale
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached #5 on the US charts, as well...

" (1967) became a progressive rock standard with its baroque styled introduction, influenced by Bach pieces such as "Sleepers, Wake!" and "Air on the G String
Air on the G String
The "Air on the G String" is an adaptation by August Wilhelmj of the Air, the second movement from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No...

". But contrary to popular belief, the song is not a direct copy or paraphrase of any music by Bach, although it makes clear references to both pieces. In this period a number of folk artists incorporated Baroque influences and classical orchestration into their albums, most notably Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...

 on In My Life
In My Life (Judy Collins album)
In My Life is an album by American folk singer Judy Collins, released in 1966. It peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts in 1967....

(1966) and Wildflowers
Wildflowers (Judy Collins album)
Wildflowers is an album by Judy Collins, released in 1967. It was her highest charting album so far, reaching No 5 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts. It included her hit version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now"....

(1967), and Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

 on Joan
Joan (album)
Joan was a 1967 album by Joan Baez. Having exhausted the standard voice/guitar folksong format by 1967, Baez collaborated with composer Peter Schickele , on an album of orchestrated covers of mostly then-current pop and rock and roll songs...

(1967) and Baptism
Baptism: A Journey Through Our Time
Baptism: A Journey Through Our Time was a 1968 album of poetry spoken and sung by Joan Baez. Peter Schickele did the orchestration, as he did on 1967's Joan....

(1968).

Decline and revival

Baroque pop and rock subsided in the 1970s as punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 and electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 dominated, but began to be revived during the 1980s in the work of bands like R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...

 Modern baroque pop, characterized by an infusion of orchestral arrangements or classical style composition, is generally within an indie
Indie (music)
In music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie" is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....

 setting, and can be seen as a reaction to the lo-fi production that dominated in the 1990s. Sometimes traditional pop instrumentation is discarded entirely. Many baroque pop artists of the past two decades can also be classified under several different genres, including indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

, alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

, Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...

, psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...

 and dream pop
Dream pop
Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, when bands like The Passions, Dif Juz, Lowlife and A.R. Kane began fusing post-punk and ethereal experiments with bittersweet pop melodies into dreamy, sensual soundscapes. The term was almost...

.

Chamber pop

Chamber pop, also known as chamber rock, originated in the United Kingdom in the 1990s as a "reaction" against much of the alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 and grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...

-based music of the time. Chamber pop grew out of a growing distaste in the popular music trends of the period, especially the low fidelity
Low fidelity
Low fidelity or lo-fi describes a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response...

 and raw aesthetic of the alternative rock-based genres, which were highly popular at the time. It desired to return to the elegance and classically-based style of the Baroque pop music of the 1960s. By refusing any form of coarseness, aggressiveness or kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...

 tendencies, chamber pop refuted the styles associated with alternative rock and electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 music. Chamber pop and rock music has a lot in common with 60s Baroque pop, including its evident classical influences, sophisticated productions and refined aesthetic. Whilst electronic and synthesized instruments were commonly available in the 90s, chamber pop put an emphasis on live instrumentation and orchestration over synthesized backgrounds. Common characteristics of chamber pop include lush instrumentation created by horns and stringed instruments, as well as intricate and complex melodies. In part, chamber pop was also influenced by the lounge
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...

revivalism which swept throughout the decade.
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