Avant-Pop

Avant-pop is popular music that applies experimental and avant-garde techniques while keeping the hooks, song forms and immediacy of pop. Critics use the term for work that is formally adventurous yet accessible: *Lou Reed* and *The Velvet Underground*, *Kate Bush*, *Laurie Anderson* and *David Bowie* are its historical anchors, and *Björk* its most visible modern figure. Avant-pop artists borrow from minimalism, electronic music, art rock and sound collage without leaving song behind; the tension between strangeness and memorability is the point, distinguishing it from both mainstream pop and purely experimental music.