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rock opera

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work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections

Wikidata facts

Instance of
theatrical genre
Subclass of
rock music
Named after
rock music
Country of origin
United States
Image
The Who's Tommy (5171688334).jpg
Show 4 more facts
topic's main category
Category:Rock operas
Commons category
Rock operas
inception
1967-01-01
native label
rock opera
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Stage adaptation of The Who's album Tommy; rock operas may be produced by recording artists, in which case they may be released as concept albums, or by theatre-oriented songwriters for staged production

A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs, especially a concept album, with lyrics that relate to a common story. The use of various character roles within the song lyrics is a common storytelling device. The success of rock opera has inspired similar works in other musical styles, such as rap opera.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “rock opera” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.