What Exactly is Post-Rock? Part 1

2026-01-21

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What exactly is "Post‑Rock"? In this first installment of a two‑part deep dive, we unpack one of the most misunderstood labels in modern music. From its origins in the 1960s to its evolving relationship with rock, ambient, jazz, and experimental traditions...Post-Rock has come to mean different things to different listeners. In part 1, we focus on where the term came from and what it was originally trying to describe. We explore ideas like: The cultural and musical context that gave rise to post‑...

What exactly is "Post‑Rock"?

In this first installment of a two‑part deep dive, we unpack one of the most misunderstood labels in modern music. From its origins in the 1960s to its evolving relationship with rock, ambient, jazz, and experimental traditions...Post-Rock has come to mean different things to different listeners.

In part 1, we focus on where the term came from and what it was originally trying to describe. We explore ideas like:

The cultural and musical context that gave rise to post‑rock
Why the genre resists simple definitions
Early artists and scenes that shaped its sound and philosophy
How “using rock instruments for non‑rock purposes” became both a manifesto and a limitation

Rather than treating post‑rock as a fixed style, we look at it as an idea...one that reflects broader shifts in how music moved away from verse‑chorus structures and toward texture, atmosphere, and long‑form composition.

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