Oxford Dictionaries defines Pomp Rock as: “A genre of rock music, especially prevalent in the late 1970s and early 1980s, typically characterized by prominent keyboards and drums and heavy use of guitar effects, often regarded as bombastic or grandiose in its delivery.” Earliest use is attributed to British weekly pop/rock music newspaper Melody Maker in the 1970s.
The term was used mainly by the British music press to identify Symphonic/Progressive Rock played by American bands. In the US these bands usually were labeled as AOR.
Thus Pomp Rock is a sub genre of Symphonic/Progressive Rock. Kansas and Styx are the best known representatives, but there are a lot of more obscure bands that are also well worth checking out.
Missing link beween Symphonic Rock and Adult Oriented Rock
Before we elaborate on that, it’s interesting to note that Pomp Rock in a way is a missing link between Symphonic/Progressive Rock and AOR.… Read the rest