165-647: Wilco is an American rock band based in Chicago . The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo after singer Jay Farrar 's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently during its first decade, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. Since early 2004 the lineup has been unchanged, consisting of Tweedy, Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline , multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone , keyboard player Mikael Jorgensen , and drummer Glenn Kotche . Wilco has released thirteen studio albums,
330-459: A 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance
495-405: A Peter Sellers film of the same name . The band went through some personnel changes during the recording sessions. Max Johnston left the band because he felt that his role in the band had diminished in favor of Bennett; he had also been replaced by violinist Jesse Greene on one track because the band felt that Johnston was unable to play the part. Bob Egan of Freakwater briefly joined the band in
660-401: A 1990s country rock sound to a current "eclectic indie rock collective that touches on many eras and genres". Wilco received media attention for their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001), and the controversy surrounding it. After the recording sessions were complete, Reprise Records rejected the album and dismissed Wilco from the label. As part of a buy-out deal, Reprise gave Wilco
825-416: A Fulbright scholarship. The band announced an end to their performing hiatus and the release of the album Ode to Joy on July 16, 2019. The album was released on October 4, 2019 and received generally positive reviews with Will Hermes of Rolling Stone calling it their "best in years" and delivers "something like love shines through, and it winds up sounding joyful indeed, in a hard-won way." The album won
990-513: A capacity crowd at Cicero's Basement Bar in St. Louis , Missouri (the band was billed for the occasion as " Black Shampoo "). During the two hundred-date tour supporting A.M. , Tweedy began to write songs for a second album. The lyrical theme of the songs reflected a relationship between musical artist and a listener; Tweedy chose this topic because he sought to eschew the alternative country fan base. Ken Coomer elaborated: The whole No Depression thing
1155-509: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1320-482: A contract. Although Tweedy said that he wanted a more collaborative project than Uncle Tupelo, only his name appeared on the Reprise contract. Tweedy requested songwriting submissions from other members, but only one submission—John Stirratt's "It's Just That Simple"—appeared on A.M. . It was the last song Wilco ever released that was lyrically solely written by a member besides Tweedy. Stylistically similar to Uncle Tupelo,
1485-684: A cover version of the Ernest Tubb song "The T.B. is Whipping Me" (released in September 1994 on the Red Hot + Country compilation produced by the Red Hot Organization ), Wilco began recording tracks for A.M. , their first studio album, at Easley studio in June 1994. A demo tape from the recordings was sent to executives at Reprise Records , a subsidiary of Warner Brothers , and the label signed Tweedy to
1650-463: A double album at a single album price ($ 17.98 or less). Reprise agreed to this on the terms that they received Wilco's share of the album royalties. It was estimated in 2003 that the band lost almost $ 600,000 on the deal, but Tweedy was satisfied. Being There was well received by critics from several major media outlets, including Rolling Stone . The album reached No. 73 on the Billboard album charts,
1815-849: A downloadable version of Bob Dylan 's " I Shall Be Released " that they performed with Fleet Foxes . The MP3 was available as a free download from the band's website in exchange for a promise to vote in the election. The band also made an appearance on The Colbert Report to support presidential candidate Barack Obama . Wilco released a live performance DVD, Ashes of American Flags , on April 18, 2009, to celebrate Record Store Day . In December 2008, Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, Glenn Kotche, and John Stirratt traveled to Auckland , New Zealand to participate in Neil Finn 's 7 Worlds Collide sequel project, The Sun Came Out , joined by Ed O'Brien , Phil Selway , Johnny Marr , KT Tunstall , Liam Finn , and Lisa Germano . They wrote and recorded several new tracks for
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#17328522862791980-514: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
2145-477: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
2310-609: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
2475-612: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
2640-623: A live double album, and four collaborations: three with Billy Bragg and one with the Minus 5 . Wilco's music has been inspired by a wide variety of artists and styles including Bill Fay , the Beatles , and Television ; in turn the band has influenced music by many modern alternative rock acts. The band continued in the alternative country style of Uncle Tupelo on its debut album A.M. (1995), but has since introduced more experimental aspects to their music, including elements of alternative rock and classic pop. Wilco's musical style has evolved from
2805-519: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
2970-572: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
3135-485: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
3300-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
3465-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
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#17328522862793630-481: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
3795-570: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
3960-754: A positive score of 79 on Metacritic, while reviewer Josh Modell said that the album is "Wilco's most musically simple and emotionally resonant record in a decade." On Monday, August 14, 2017, Wilco released a single, "All Lives You Say" on their Bandcamp page to benefit the SPLC in memory of Tweedy's father Robert, who died on August 4. Sharing the news Tweedy said, "My dad was named after a Civil War general, and he voted for Barack Obama twice. He used to say 'If you know better, you can do better.' America-we know better, we can do better." Wilco took 2018 off from touring while Glenn Kotche lived in Finland after his wife Miiri received
4125-456: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
4290-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
4455-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
4620-695: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
4785-637: A significant improvement from A.M. , and placed fourteenth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1996. The album's single "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" became the group's first song to enter the Billboard charts, reaching No. 39 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 22 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In November 1997, Wilco entered Willie Nelson 's recording studio in Spicewood , Texas to record
4950-478: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
5115-564: A third studio album. The album was lyrically inspired by the marital problems of Tweedy and his wife, as well as by twentieth-century literature . Tweedy relied heavily on Bennett to provide music for the singer's "bold, but depressing" lyrics. Wilco recorded several songs, including "Via Chicago" and "She's a Jar", but began working on another project before assembling the tracks into an album. Nora Guthrie contacted singer-songwriter Billy Bragg in spring 1995 about recording some unreleased songs by her father, folk singer Woody Guthrie . Most of
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5280-532: A two disc live album recorded at The Vic Theater in Chicago. Released on November 15, 2005, the album received high accolades from Spin , Billboard , and Entertainment Weekly . As of 2007 it has sold over 114,000 copies. Wilco returned to their loft in Chicago to record a sixth studio album in 2006. Influenced by The Byrds and Fairport Convention , the band considered Sky Blue Sky to be less experimental than previous releases. Also unlike on previous albums,
5445-460: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
5610-522: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
5775-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
5940-536: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
6105-464: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
6270-600: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
6435-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
6600-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
6765-590: Is the Band." Red Hot %2B Country Red Hot + Country (or RH+C ) was the follow-up to No Alternative in the Red Hot Benefit series of compilation albums , a series produced to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV as well as other related health and social issues. This compilation featured music from the classic country and classic rock genres performed by an assortment of seasoned old and new country music artists. RH+C received two Grammy nominations following its release. A live show
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6930-528: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
7095-510: The Village Voice ' s 1995 Pazz & Jop critics poll. Critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt's album, the Wilco members perceived A.M. to be a failure. Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing the band with a keyboardist and another guitarist. Wilco made its live debut on November 17, 1994 to
7260-519: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
7425-573: The Oxfam -benefiting album including "You Never Know," "What Could Have Been," "Over and Done," and "Don't Forget Me." Jeff Tweedy co-wrote "Too Blue" with Johnny Marr, and Glenn, John, and Pat play on most tracks on the album. The band stayed in Auckland through January recording for their next album at Finn's own Roundhead Studios . Jim Scott, who was the engineer and mixer for the Neil Finn project, stayed on in
7590-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
7755-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
7920-443: The "piece to the puzzle" towards the creation of their fourth studio album. The album was released on May 30, 2000, and was the last release from the sessions. The remainder of the sessions were released in 2012 as Mermaid Avenue Vol. III , also part of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions . Shortly after the recording sessions for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II , Wilco purchased a studio on Irving Park Road in Chicago, which they named
8085-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
8250-461: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
8415-472: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
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#17328522862798580-609: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
8745-877: The Books , and Vetiver . It also featured non-musical media, such as the Bread and Puppet Theater and comedians Todd Barry , Kristen Schaal , John Mulaney , and Hannibal Buress as well as interactive musical installations by Cline and Kotche. In November 2016, the band also curated their own program during the tenth Anniversary Edition of Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands. This curated program includes performances by amongst others Tortoise , Bassekou Kouyaté , Lee Ranaldo , Fennesz , Steve Gunn , William Tyler , and The Cairo Gang . Wilco's contract with Nonesuch ended in 2010 and they formed their own label. Wilco announced via their web site and Twitter page on January 27, 2011 that
8910-521: The Bottle Rockets to perform, who appears on many of the tracks for Wilco's debut album, A.M. . The group considered retaining the Uncle Tupelo name but decided to call themselves "Wilco" after the military and commercial aviation radio voice abbreviation for "will comply", a choice which Tweedy has said is "fairly ironic for a rock band to name themselves." After collaborating with Syd Straw on
9075-596: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
9240-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
9405-578: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
9570-499: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
9735-520: The Grammy Award for best Special Limited Edition Package. Rock music Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from
9900-464: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
10065-498: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
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#173285228627910230-643: The Last Persecution , The Minus 5's Down with Wilco was released in 2003. Keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen , who had engineered Down with Wilco , joined Wilco in 2002 as they toured in support of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot . In November 2003, Wilco traveled to New York City to record their fifth album. The album was produced by Jim O'Rourke, who mixed Foxtrot and was a member of Wilco side project Loose Fur. Unlike Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , A Ghost Is Born featured songs that were created with Pro Tools before ever performing them live. The album featured
10395-499: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
10560-477: The Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1998. After the album was released, Bob Egan was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach . After the completion of the Mermaid Avenue sessions, Wilco returned to Spicewood to complete their third studio album, Summerteeth . Unlike previous Wilco and Uncle Tupelo recordings, the album featured a lot of overdubbing with Pro Tools . Stirratt and Coomer were concerned with
10725-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
10890-573: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
11055-650: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
11220-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
11385-604: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
11550-722: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
11715-478: The Wilco Loft. The band recorded tracks in the studio in early 2000 for a fourth studio album. In May 2000, Jeff Tweedy requested to perform with Jim O'Rourke at a festival in Chicago; Tweedy was a fan of O'Rourke's Bad Timing . O'Rourke introduced Tweedy to drummer Glenn Kotche , and the trio enjoyed working together so much that they decided to record an album as a side project named Loose Fur . Wilco had recorded an entire album of music at this point, but Tweedy
11880-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
12045-549: The album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to
12210-470: The album could not be properly judged just on the first listening. The NPR review also had a positive take on the record. While the NPR reviewer stated that the recording "isn't groundbreaking," they praised its "coherent musical expression" and emphasis on "solid songcraft without pretense" which created a "satisfying and melodically sound album." In anticipation of the 2008 US presidential election , Wilco released
12375-418: The album placed eighth on the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1999. After the release of Summerteeth , the band resumed the Mermaid Avenue sessions. Although they had recorded enough material for a second release in 1998, Wilco recorded a few new songs for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II . "Someday Some Morning Sometime," featuring a vibraphone filtered through a space echo , was identified by Tweedy as being
12540-408: The album should be accessible to a general listener, or attempt to cover new musical ground. Unbeknownst to Bennett, Tweedy invited O'Rourke to remix "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", and the results impressed the other band members—even Bennett. Tensions grew between Bennett and O'Rourke because Bennett wanted to mix every song on the album. O'Rourke cut the contributions of other members on several of
12705-450: The album was released in the spring of 2002. When it was released, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200 , Wilco's highest chart position to that date. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sold over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco's best-selling album. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was met with extensive critical acclaim: it topped 2002's Pazz & Jop critics' poll and
12870-476: The album's "breezy atmosphere and pacing," and noted that it is not "easily judged upon first listen." Overall, Hernandez mentioned that it "may be no masterpiece, but at worst it's a more than worthy entry into Wilco's laudable catalogue." Reviewer Greg Locke praised the record as "one of the best albums of the year," calling it a "timeless record, full of sweet, hopeful sophistication and class" and "a lean, mean, soulful album." Like Hernandez, Locke acknowledged that
13035-484: The album. In December 2015, Star Wars was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album . On July 14, 2016, the band released a new single, titled "Locator", as a free download. Four days later, the band released another new single, titled "If I Ever Was a Child", and announced that their tenth album, Schmilco , would be released on September 9. Schmilco earned generally favourable reviews, earning
13200-483: The band as they wrote and produced the record. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is Wilco's most successful release to date, selling over 670,000 copies. Wilco won two Grammy Awards for their fifth studio album, 2004's A Ghost Is Born , including Best Alternative Music Album . Wilco released their thirteenth studio album, Cousin , in September 2023. Wilco was formed following the breakup of the influential alternative country music group Uncle Tupelo . Singer Jay Farrar quit
13365-622: The band freely distributed a cover of Woody Guthrie's " The Jolly Banker ", downloadable from their website. It was recorded at the Wilco loft in February of that year, at the suggestion of Guthrie's daughter, Nora . Those downloading the album were encouraged to donate to the Woody Guthrie Foundation . Feist returned to accompany on the track, playing the Garden Weasel . The track eventually became unavailable for download. In October 2011,
13530-439: The band in 1994 because of a soured relationship with co-singer Jeff Tweedy . Both Tweedy and Farrar immediately sought to form bands after the breakup, with Farrar organizing Son Volt . Tweedy's new band included all current members of Uncle Tupelo lineup sans Farrar, including bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer , and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston . He even enlisted Uncle Tupelo guest guitarist Brian Henneman of
13695-490: The band streamed it in MPEG-4 form on Apple 's website. Wilco decided to substantially change their lineup after Bach's departure adding Pat Sansone of The Autumn Defense , and avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline to the lineup. Just as the band was about to tour to promote the album, Tweedy checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic in Chicago for an addiction to opioids . As a result, tour plans for Europe were canceled, and
13860-575: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
14025-456: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
14190-432: The commercial release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , Wilco agreed to support R.E.M. collaborator Scott McCaughey for an album release by The Minus 5 . They scheduled a recording session for September 11, 2001, but were distraught about the 9/11 terrorist attacks that day. Later that day, Wilco and McCaughey agreed to "create something good in the world right now" and record some material. Influenced by Bill Fay 's Time of
14355-426: The creation of A Ghost Is Born . The book also contains writings and drawings from band members, as well as a CD with demos from the A Ghost Is Born recording sessions. Also that year, Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot released a biography of the band entitled Wilco: Learning How to Die . The new six-piece Wilco lineup, which has remained intact ever since, debuted on Kicking Television: Live in Chicago ,
14520-443: The creative process for the purpose of exploration or redemption, or whatever it is you're looking for. During 1999, Warner Brothers was looking to help repay a $ 16 billion debt acquired during the recent merger of parent company Warner Communications with Time Inc. As a result, Warner's imprints were under pressure to produce musical acts that would yield hit records. The head of Reprise, Howie Klein , who had previously authorized
14685-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
14850-443: The development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk
15015-451: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
15180-455: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
15345-457: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
15510-510: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
15675-635: The entirety of the album on its website prior to release. The album hit the charts at a career-high No. 4 with sales of 99,000 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart as well as the No. 2 spot on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart. It marked Wilco's third top 10 album on the U.S. pop chart. The album's first single "You Never Know" reached the No. 1 spot on the AAA Chart, their first No. 1 in twelve years. Beginning in April 2009,
15840-568: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
16005-491: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
16170-451: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
16335-503: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
16500-400: The genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with
16665-453: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
16830-460: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
16995-511: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
17160-523: The label's regret over Wilco. We are living in the golden age of that being such a public mistake. The people on Warners said, "we'll never have a band like Wilco feel we don't believe in them again." They'd tell me that it would never happen to us. And what a great day for me! As the band searched for a new label to release the album, they decided to stream it on their official website to discourage illegal trading of low-quality MP3s . The band signed with Nonesuch Records , another Time Warner subsidiary, and
17325-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
17490-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
17655-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
17820-401: The masters for a reported $ 50,000" after Wilco was "unwilling to change the album to make it more 'commercially viable'." In a last-minute decision, the label freed Wilco from their contract and gave them the album at no charge. Curbing the negative publicity, Warner Music Group began to invest more in bands including The Flaming Lips . Lead singer Wayne Coyne remarked: We are benefiting from
17985-669: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
18150-603: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
18315-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
18480-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
18645-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
18810-466: The music on A.M. was considered to be straightforward alternative country rock in what Tweedy later described as "trying to tread some water with a perceived audience." A.M. peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, considerably lower than the debut album of Jay Farrar's new band, Son Volt . The album was met with modest reviews though it would rank thirty-fourth in
18975-459: The new label will be called dBpm Records (Decibels per Minute) and will be run out of the offices of their manager, Tony Margherita, in Easthampton, Massachusetts . Wilco's released their eighth studio album, The Whole Love , on September 27, 2011. The first single of the album is titled "Art of Almost". The B-Side to "I Might" is a cover of Nick Lowe's 1977 song " I Love My Label ". The single
19140-412: The new mixes on the album. The two parties were unable to establish a promotional tour and quarreled over royalties and guest musician fees. Despite these conflicts, the album was released on June 23, 1998, and sold over 277,000 copies. The album received rave reviews from Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone , and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album . It also placed fourth on
19305-461: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
19470-591: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
19635-407: The president of Reprise Records. David Kahne became the interim head of Reprise. Kahne assigned Mio Vukovic to monitor the progress of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and to offer suggestions. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that Vukovic disliked the album and was unhappy that Wilco ignored his suggestions. He brought the album to Kahne, who felt that there was no single on the album. In June 2001, the album
19800-409: The production, since it reduced their involvement in the music. According to Stirratt: The story of Summerteeth is Jay bought a Mellotron and he was going to use it, no matter what. It was lovely, but it was overdone. Once they got going on the overdubs, they didn't stop. And nobody in the band stepped up to stop the madness ... It reminds me of Heart of Darkness , where you knowingly extend
19965-465: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
20130-400: The record comes off at times as dull, and forced." A review in allaboutjazz also had mixed comments. While praising the album as "deceptively insinuating, almost intoxicating to listen to" and noting its "impeccable sound quality," the review said that " Sky Blue Sky becomes the first Wilco album that sounds too careful for its own good." Pabs Hernandez, a reviewer for Lost at Sea , praised
20295-465: The record if I didn't think it was great ... I wanted to make an album about identity, and within that is the idea of a higher power, the idea of randomness, and that anything can happen, and that we can't control it. Leroy Bach left the band immediately after the album's completion to join a music theatre operation in Chicago. Like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , Wilco streamed the album online before its commercial release. Instead of using their own web page,
20460-628: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
20625-409: The release date for the album was set back several weeks. A Ghost Is Born was released on June 22, 2004, and became Wilco's first top ten album in the U.S. The album earned Wilco Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005. It also placed thirteenth on 2004's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. In 2004, the band released The Wilco Book , a picture book detailing
20790-662: The release of Being There as a double album, was willing to let Wilco produce Summerteeth without label input. When Klein played the album for Reprise's A&R department, however, they demanded a radio single for the album. Wilco agreed to do this "once and once only" and recorded a radio-friendly version of "Can't Stand It" at the request of David Kahne , the head of the A&;R department. The single version of "Can't Stand It" failed to cross over from Triple-A radio to alternative rock stations. The album sold only 200,000 copies, significantly less than Being There despite critical acclaim;
20955-416: The rights to the album for free. After streaming Foxtrot on its website, Wilco sold the album to Nonesuch Records in 2002. Both record labels are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group , leading a critic to say the album showed "how screwed up the music business is in the early twenty-first century." The event was immortalized in the documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart ; director Sam Jones followed
21120-445: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
21285-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
21450-404: The same capacity for the Wilco sessions. Nels Cline and Mikael Jorgensen later added overdubs to the tracks at the band's Chicago Loft. Wilco released their seventh album, Wilco (The Album) , on June 30, 2009. In March 2009, it was announced that singer-songwriter Feist would make a guest appearance on the new album, on the track "You and I". As with their previous three albums, Wilco streamed
21615-517: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
21780-543: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
21945-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
22110-520: The song "Less Than You Think", which included a fifteen-minute track of electronic noises and synthesizers, which Tweedy called "the track that everyone will hate". Tweedy justified the inclusion of the song: I know ninety-nine percent of our fans won't like that song, they'll say it's a ridiculous indulgence. Even I don't want to listen to it every time I play through the album. But the times I do calm myself down and pay attention to it, I think it's valuable and moving and cathartic. I wouldn't have put it on
22275-549: The songs were created as collaborations. Wilco streamed the album online on March 3, 2007, and offered the song "What Light" as a free MP3 download. Further publicizing the album, Wilco licensed several songs from the Sky Blue Sky recording sessions for use in a Volkswagen advertising campaign. The move was criticized by both critics and fans; Wilco responded by noting that they had previously done advertising campaigns with Apple Inc. and Telefónica Móviles (Movistar) . The album
22440-466: The songs were written by Guthrie when he performed them on tour, so he decided to record the album with another band. Bragg contacted Tweedy and Bennett about co-recording the album while Wilco was on the European segment of their Being There tour. Bragg was particularly fond of Being There because their influences extended farther back than the 1950s. Although Tweedy was indifferent to the offer, Bennett
22605-512: The songs were written late in Guthrie's life when he was unable to record due to the motor impairments of Huntington's disease . By the 1990s, Woody Guthrie had become a "relic" to the MTV generation , and Nora sought to establish a different legacy for the musician. To Nora, Bragg was "the only singer I knew taking on the same issues as Woody." Bragg was concerned, however, that his fans would not realize that
22770-603: The songs; some songs, such as "Poor Places", only featured the Loose Fur trio. The album was completed in 2001, and Bennett was dismissed from the band immediately afterwards. The recording of the album was documented by Sam Jones and released in 2002 as the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco . Time Warner, which owned Warner Bros. Records, merged with America Online in 2001, leading to more pressure on Warner's record labels to cut costs. Over 600 employees of Warner Music Group were fired, including Howie Klein,
22935-843: The studio to take part in Beck's Record Club project, covering Skip Spence 's Oar album. The first song "Little Hands" was posted on Beck's website on November 12, 2009. On April 6, 2010, Wilco announced during their Boston performance that they would be headlining and curating a festival in North Adams , Massachusetts , dubbed Solid Sound Festival. The event ran at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art from August 13–15, and featured various Wilco side projects, including The Autumn Defense, Pronto, The Nels Cline Singers , and Jeff Tweedy solo. Other bands who appeared included Mavis Staples , Avi Buffalo , Outrageous Cherry , Richard Bishop ,
23100-539: The studio, playing pedal steel guitar on "Far, Far Away" and "Dreamer in My Dreams", and then became an official member in September 1996. Unlike the A.M. recording sessions, the band had no desire to produce a hit song from their second effort. The recording sessions produced nineteen songs, too many for a single album release. Tweedy was concerned about the high retail price that a double album would be sold for (at least $ 30), so he asked Reprise Records to release it as
23265-610: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
23430-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
23595-484: The website began streaming the track via a plugin . On May 25, 2009, former band member Jay Bennett died in his home in Urbana, Illinois . In a prepared statement, Jeff Tweedy said that he was "deeply saddened" by Bennett's death. Feist and Wilco performed "You and I" on Late Show with David Letterman on July 14, 2009. In June during their West Coast tour, Wilco joined Beck , Feist, Jamie Lidell and James Gadson in
23760-473: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
23925-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
24090-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
24255-570: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
24420-676: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " (1960) and " Kon-Tiki " (1961), while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
24585-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
24750-430: Was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
24915-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
25080-441: Was enthused about recording songs with one of his idols—Bennett's previous band Titanic Love Affair was named after a Billy Bragg lyric. A recording contract between Bragg and Wilco was signed after a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire . Bragg mostly recorded the politically charged lyrics, while Tweedy preferred to record lyrics that showcased Guthrie as a "freak weirdo." The recording of Mermaid Avenue began on December 12, 1997, and
25245-561: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
25410-406: Was funny to us because people seemed to forget that Jeff was a bigger punk-rock fan than a country fan. It led to things like us all switching instruments on "Misunderstood," where I'm playing guitar. Wilco recorded a number of songs with this theme, including "Sunken Treasure" and "Hotel Arizona." Wilco also recorded a number of songs in the style of A.M. Wilco named the album Being There after
25575-749: Was held at the Ryman Auditorium — home to the Grand Ole Opry . A recording of the live show was eventually released on home video . Wilco , which had formed earlier in 1994, made their recorded debut on the compilation with their cover of Ernest Tubb 's "The T.B. is Whipping Me", a duet with Syd Straw . The song would later appear on the band's 2014 rarities collection Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994–2014 . The rendition of "Teach Your Children" from this album, credited to The Red Hots, charted at number 75 on Hot Country Songs in October 1994. Although it
25740-461: Was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by Q Magazine . Rolling Stone rated it at 493 of their 500 Greatest Albums of all Time, in May 2012. In the 2020 reboot of the list, its ranking was raised to #225. In September 2022 the band released a variety of reissues of the album, including an 11-LP "Super Deluxe" version. The reissue won a Grammy for Best Historical Album. While waiting for
25905-463: Was rejected by Reprise and Wilco was asked to leave the label. Wilco managed to negotiate a buy-out from Reprise. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that instead of financial compensation, the band agreed to leave the label with the master tapes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot . The label was already receiving bad publicity for its treatment of the band and were willing to accommodate Wilco's request. However, AllMusic claims "Warner/ Reprise agreed to sell them
26070-435: Was released on May 15, 2007, and was a commercial success: it sold over 87,000 copies in its first week and peaked in the top five in the U.S. album charts. It was a top forty hit in seven other countries. Reviewer James Brubaker says that Wilco "shine[s] on a handful of the songs" on Sky Blue Sky , such as the "light, and straightforward" songs. While he calls it a "great traditional rock and folk album at times,...the rest of
26235-423: Was shown at the Wilco's 2011 Solid Sound Festival at MassMoca and was met by positive reviews. The entire album was streamed live on Wilco's official website for 24 hours between September 3 and 4, 2011. Wilco's released their ninth studio album, Star Wars , on July 16, 2015 as a surprise free download . In October 2015, Wilco announced that they would embark on a U.S. tour beginning in early 2016 in support of
26400-515: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
26565-606: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
26730-493: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
26895-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
27060-535: Was the topic of BBC 's Man in the Sand documentary film. Tempers flared between Bragg and Wilco after the album was completed. Bennett believed that Bragg was overproducing his songs, a sharp contrast to Wilco's sparser contributions. Bennett called Bragg about the possibility of remixing Bragg's songs, to which Bragg responded "you make your record, and I'll make mine..." Eventually Bragg sent copies of his recordings to Chicago for Bennett to remix, but Bragg refused to use
27225-534: Was unhappy with the drum parts. He enjoyed Kotche's contributions to Loose Fur so much that Tweedy brought him into the studio to re-record some demos. Some believe that Tweedy sought to make Wilco sound like Loose Fur after officially replacing Ken Coomer with Kotche in January 2001. Although Bennett sought to be the mixer and engineer for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , Tweedy was unsure of Bennett's abilities compared to O'Rourke. Tweedy and Bennett frequently argued over whether
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