Avant-Garde is taken from the French for "vanguard," which is the part of the armed forces that always stands at the front of the rest of the army. In the case of music, the avant-garde are those individuals who take music to the next step in development or at least take music on a divergent path. The term was first applied only after World War II. In popular idioms it is a term used to describe or refer to free jazz movements but the meaning remains the same: techniques of expression that are new, innovative and radically different from the tradition or the mainstream. Wagner and Debussy can easily be classified as avant-garde relevant to their time but the term did not enter familiar usage until the advent of Stockhausen.

Top Avant-Garde Albums:

Top Avant-Garde Artists:

Fred Frith Harry Partch Eugene Chadbourne Harold Budd Merzbow Pierre Schaeffer John Zorn Marc Ribot Bill Laswell Mark Dresser

Pierre Henry Henryk Mikolaj Górecki Lee Hyla Diamanda Galás Anthony Coleman AMM Pauline Oliveros Mats Gustafsson Naked City Zeena Parkins

Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin) Erik Friedlander Otomo Yoshihide Elliott Carter Mikel Rouse Mark Trayle Anne LeBaron Ground Zero Meredith Monk Jacques Bekaert

Featured Style: Experimental Electronic

Top Experimental Electronic Artists:

Harold Budd Pierre Henry Tod Dockstader Edgard Varèse Paul Dresher Pauline Oliveros Pierre Schaeffer Jay Cloidt "Blue" Gene Tyranny Carl Stone

Larry Austin Bernard Parmegiani Luc Ferrari Marika Piiri David Borden Anatoly Pereselegin Robert Levin Bob Ostertag Bernard Szajner Rob Byrd

Daphne Oram Jerry Hunt Attilio Mineo David Lang Ossatura Erkki Kurenniemi Ticklish Jim Fox Fabrizio Spera Bebe Barron

More Styles Of Avant-Garde :

Experimental Electronic Minimalism Modern Composition Experimental

Computer Music Musique Concrète Microtonal Tape Music

Post-Minimalism Musique Actuelle

Browse More Music:
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z