post-rock

noun

A genre of music which uses rock instrumentation for songs with gradually unfolding structures that depend more on ambience and timbre than melody.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounpost-rock (uncountable)

alternative post rock · alternative postrock

  1. uncountableentertainmentA genre of music which uses rock instrumentation for songs with gradually unfolding structures that depend more on ambience and timbre than melody.

Origin

From post- + rock. Coined by Simon Reynolds in issue 123 of The Wire (May 1994).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

post-rock. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/post-rock

MLA

“post-rock.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/post-rock. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “post-rock,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/post-rock.

Source: post-rock on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.