What is Space Rock?

This episode of "Is it Prog?" goes through the history of space rock, its close ties to progressive rock, and how it spawned various other genres over time, into the modern-day.

You can find this episode's accompanying Spotify Playlist here:

On the playlist, you can hear every song referenced in the video, as well as some more choice classics from the genre that I forgot to mention, and some modern groups that are carrying on the tradition in one way or another.

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Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy the video!

[steveerickson]

Although he wasn't a rock musician, Sun Ra clearly inspired the genre too.

[clouddog]

A Kraut Rock band who could be described as" Space Rock " were Ash Ra Tempel similar in sound to early 70's Floyd, the debut Hawkwind album and Tangerine Dream electronics . Their early 70's albums are worth checking out .

[AnthonyMonaghan]

Honourable mentions...Ash Ra Tempel, Silver Apples, Spacemen 3 and Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.

[curtc]

Hawkwind was my amazing exposure to space rock...decades later In Search of Space sounds amazing!

[erichobbs]

Two groups I would add to this list, although their overall catalogue goes beyond space rock.
First, pre Steve Perry Journey, especially the first album are pretty much space rock. Check out the track "Of a lifetime" from the first album.
Second, Rush, especially 2112 and Cygnus X-1.

[_]

Good video. Some other space rock groups I would include would definitely be some of the late '60s-early '70s German bands like Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul II, and Guru Guru, and some of the more interesting late '80s-'90s groups like The Orb, KLF (their first couple of albums), and Alien Planetscapes. And of course, I would also include the Grateful Dead's various live versions of "Dark Star" from 1968-74 and 1989-94.

[prelude]

I would love to see a video dedicated to Hawkwind, one of my favorite bands of all time, they need more attention

[dimitrispapadimitriou]

One of the pioneering albums that had already in 1968 all the elements of the space rock genre in its sound was "Cauldron" by the band Fifty foot Hose. Fantastic album.
It's a pity that they didn't released anything else after that...

[tristanmills]

There were also the punk influenced side in the late 70s, early 80s - Inner City Unit, New York Gong/Material. You could do a super deep dive into Gong and Daevid Allen's various side projects and offshoots (Invisible Opera Company, University of Errors etc)

Then you can go beyond stoner metal to cosmic black metal or to the death metal of Blood Incantation, which at times sounds like early Porcupine Tree but then brings in the extreme metal.

The crossover with jazz gets quite strong too, with Sun Ra bringing inspiration, and bands like Spaceways Inc. and some of the bands I associate with Acoustic Ladyland and the F-IRE collective, especially The Comet Is Coming and Heliocentrics

[thevfxmancolorizationvfxex]

I'd love to see you do a separate video on Pyschedelic Funk and Progressive Soul at some point

[timacann]

Ahhhh I’m so glad you picked up Ozric Tentacles. I’ve seen them play many times, often by accident. Enjoyed them as a kid.

[sillylittlemonkey]

I'm 19 and I love space rock and feel like it's coming back in a different form/theme

Saw Ozric Tentacles (Big up Coleford) and Gong recently, still going strong!

[KurodaKyousuke]

Excellent video. I think you covered the genre pretty thoroughly, I just wanted to mention the fantastic album Journey by Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come which is notable as the first album to use a drum machine. The music is some excellent sounding classic space rock.

My only nitpick (which you acknowledged) was not touching on some of the early German Krautrock and electronic influences which were instrumental in shaping the sound of space rock. Overall though, excellent job! Yeah✌🏻

[Ben]

Hawkwind, Gong, Ozrics, King Gizz... My favourite bands ever!!!

[tymime]

No mention of The Rolling Stones' "2000 Light Years From Home"?

[realobama]

Welcome back! I love the high quality video essays!

[torchbearer]

Really cool! I was lucky when I was young and had older friends who were into 70's rock, Space rock, goa trance, psy trance and so on. Man the amount of music people threw on me was amazing! I am forever gratefull for that.

[LONEEAGLE_space_rock]

the Jimi Hendrix Experience; also UFO, Robert Calvert, captain Lockheed and the starfighters, and lots more

[DaysofProg]

Yes! Another video finally! I was really worried that you ceased making these...
And what a topic this is!

[metalandautism]

Your videos are awesome 😁 I would love to see you tackle italian prog which doesn't get talked about enough