Key facts
- Stylistic origins
- Psychedelia progressive rock psychedelic rock acid rock space music
- Cultural origins
- Late 1960s and early 1970s, United Kingdom
- Derivative forms
- Post-rock shoegaze
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- EdWynne5 (cropped2).jpg
Show 2 more facts
- inception
- 1968-01-01
- Commons category
- Space rock
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Article
Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drumming, languid vocals, synthesizers, and lyrical themes of outer space and science fiction.
The genre emerged in late 1960s psychedelia and progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, and Gong who explored a "cosmic" sound. Similar sounds were pursued in the early 1970s' West German kosmische Musik ("cosmic music") scene. By the 1980s and 1990s, the "drone-heavy" sound of Spacemen 3, spearheaded a revival of the genre which later influenced shoegaze and post-rock.