Baroque pop

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Baroque pop (or baroque rock)[3] is a pop rock music subgenre[1] that fuses classical music, orchestral pop, rock, and Baroque music. It is identifiable for its use of contrapuntal melodies, functional harmony patterns, and dramatic or melancholic gestures.[2] The genre emerged in the 1960s after pop musicians and record producers began placing the harpsichord in the foreground of their arrangements. Other typical baroque pop instrumentation includes string sections, French horns, and oboes.

Baroque pop's mainstream popularity faded by the 1970s, partially because punk rock, disco and hard rock took over; nonetheless, music was still produced within the genre's tradition.[4] Philadelphia soul in the 1970s and chamber pop in the 1990s both incorporated the spirit of baroque pop[1] while the latter contested much of the time's low fidelity musical aesthetic.[5]


Writer Matthew Guerriri named "Walk Away Renée" the "quintessence" of baroque pop, citing its "elegantly jangling harpsichord".[6]

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Baroque pop, stylistically, fuses elements of rock with classical music, often incorporating layered harmonies, strings, and horns to achieve a majestic, orchestral sound.[1] Its prominent characteristics are the use of contrapuntal melodies and functional harmony patterns.[2] It was intended to be a more serious and mature outgrowth of rock music.[1] "English baroque" is also used by journalist Bob Stanley to describe British pop and rock music that made use of this style of instrumentation.[4][not in citation given]


Precursors (early 1960s)[edit]

Starting in the 1960s, pop musicians and record producers like Phil Spector and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson began placing the harpsichord in the foreground of their arrangements.[6] Harpsichords were widely available in recording studios, and had been used in popular music since as early as the 1940s, but it would not gain prominence until the 1960s.[6] One of the first pop rock hits to use a harpsichord was the Jamies' "Summertime, Summertime" (1958).[9] Later examples range from the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" (1964) and "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" (1965) to the Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (1964) and the Mamas & the Papas' "Monday, Monday" (1966).[6] The Boston Globe's Matthew Guerriri speculates that the harpsichord may have been desirable for its buzzing, stinging timbre, which suited "the treble-heavy pop soundscape" of the time.[6][nb 1]


Slate's Forrest Wickman credits Wilson and the Beatles' George Martin as some of the men "most responsible" for the move into baroque pop.[10] Along with Burt Bacharach, Spector had melded pop music with classical elements before they were melded with rock.[11] Writer Andrew Jackson suggests that "the era of baroque pop" in which "rock melded with classical elements" was prefaced by the Rolling Stones ("Play with Fire", February 1965) and Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys Today!, March 1965).[11] Author Bob Gendron argues that, rather than assuming that the Beatles themselves instigated the link between their music and its classical components, it is more plausible that they were responding to various classical and baroque readings of their work, such as the 1965 album The Baroque Beatles Book, which reimagines their songs in a tongue-in-cheek Baroque setting.[12] The Beatles benefited from the classical music skills of Martin, who played a baroque harpsichord solo on the song "In My Life", released on their December 1965 album Rubber Soul.[13][nb 2] Author Joe Harrington noted that after its release, many "baroque-rock" works would soon appear.[13] Producer Tommy LiPuma believed: "Once the Beatles featured that harpsichord sound on 'In My Life,' pop producers began working it in."[9]

Emergence (mid to late 1960s)[edit]

The genre is traced to the United States and United Kingdom.[2] By early 1966, various groups began using baroque and classical instrumentation, described as a "baroque rock" movement by Gendron.[14] The Zombies' single "She's Not There" (1964) marked a starting point for British baroque pop. Stanley explains that the song "didn't feature any oboes but stuck out rather dramatically in 1964, the year of 'You Really Got Me' and 'Little Red Rooster'".[4] "She's Not There" would inspire New York musician Michael Brown to form the Left Banke, whose song "Walk Away Renée" (1966) is considered by Stanley to be the first recognizable baroque pop single.[4] Guerriri says that, in Britain, it "bridged the passage from rock into psychedelica for numerous groups: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Zombies, [and] the Kinks."[6]

Gendron's "baroque rock" examples include "Walk Away Renée" with Spanky and Our Gang's "Sunday Will Never Be the Same" (1967), and the Stone Poneys' "Different Drum" (1967) – all of which used harpsichord and strings.[15][nb 3] Among the orchestral arrangements appearing on the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds (1966), "God Only Knows" is considered "exquisite baroque pop" by The Sydney Morning Herald,[16] whereas The Record's Jim Beckerman called the song "baroque rock" in the same "retro instrumentation and elegant harmonies" vein as Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (1967) and the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" (1966).[17][nb 4]


Dissipation and revival (1970s–present)[edit]

The Irish band the Divine Comedy contributed to a baroque pop revival beginning in the 1990s[2]

Baroque pop soon declined after the 1960s.[citation needed] The quaintness of baroque pop and the use of violins and classical guitar became the target of parody at the end of the psychedelic era.[19] In the 1990s, chamber pop would derive from the "spirit" of baroque pop, characterized by an infusion of orchestral arrangements or classical style composition. It is generally within an indie setting, and can be seen as a reaction to the lo-fi production that dominated in the 1990s.[5]


  1. ^ In the 1960s, most recordings were monaural, and AM radio was the dominant form of musical consumption.[6]
  2. ^ The instrument used was actually a piano recorded on tape at half speed.[9]
  4. ^ "A Whiter Shade of Pale" has a baroque-style organ melody influenced by Bach pieces such as "Sleepers, Wake!" and "Air on the G String". Contrary to popular belief, however, the song is not a direct copy or paraphrase of any music by Bach, although it makes clear references to both pieces.[18][self-published source?]


  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Hawkins 2015, p. 193.
  3. ^ Perný 2014, p. 37.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Stanley, Bob (September 21, 2007). "Baroque and a soft place". The Guardian. 
  5. ^ a b "Chamber pop", Allmusic, retrieved 7 September 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Guerrieri, Matthew (January 22, 2016). "Via Spector and serendipity, the harpsichord invaded pop". The Boston Globe. 
  7. ^ Essentials of music: Baroque composers.
  8. ^ Oxford Music Online 2[dead link]
  11. ^ a b Jackson 2015, p. 22.
  12. ^ Gendron 2002, p. 173.
  13. ^ a b Harrington 2002, p. 191.
  14. ^ Gendron 2002, pp. 174, 343.
  15. ^ a b Gendron 2002, p. 343.
  18. ^ "What Bach Piece is "A Whiter Shade of Pale?"". Archived from the original on 2001-06-16. Retrieved 2006-09-21. 
  19. ^ White 2015, p. 190.