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Space rock is a style of music; the term originally referred to a group of early mostly British 1970s progressive rock and psychedelic bands like Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, though it now tends to refer to a series of late 1980s British alternative rock bands. This style is characterized by shimmering, melodic sounds, often with copious drug and science fiction references (such as pioneers Spacemen 3's legendary quotation: "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to").

The science fiction author Michael Moorcock collaborated with Hawkwind on many occasions: the Hawkwind track "The Black Corridor", for example, included verbatim quotes from Moorcock's novel of the same name. An album The New Worlds Fair by "Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix" was released in 1975, which included a number of Hawkwind regulars in the credits. ("The Deep Fix" was the title story of an obscure collection of short stories by "James Colvin" published in the 1960s). Moorcock wrote the lyrics to an album track entitled "Black Blade", referring to the sword Stormbringer in the Elric books, by the American band Blue Öyster CultBlue Oyster Cult is a psychedelic/ heavy metal band probably best known for their 1976 single "Don't Fear The Reaper" from Agents Of Fortune 1981 single "Burning For You" from Fire of Unknown Origin and appearing on the "Heavy Metal" movie soundtrack with: Moorcock has even performed this song live with BÖC.

By the early 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn, mainly British alternative rock genres like space rock, twee pop, shoegazingShoegazing is a style of music that emerged in Britain in the late 1980s. The defining opener of the genre is said to be Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine, released in 1988 (see 1988 in music). Shoegazing is characterized by the use of distortion and and noise popThe genre commonly known as noise pop developed in the 1990s as an experimental outgrowth of ska. Fusing punk rock's attitude and anger with the atonal noise and free song structures of noise music, the raucous rockers introduced a new kind of avant-garde emerged into the mainstream with the explosion of BritpopBritpop is the common term used for a variety of popular British bands from the mid to late 90s. Britpop followed the "indie" scene of the eighties, characterised by bands such as The Smiths, and its successors: "baggy", typified by Manchester's (or shoul bands like BlurBlur refers to the appearance of an unfocused image. See eyeglass prescription, lens or the eye. Blur is a British rock band, consisting of Damon Albarn (vocals/keyboard), Alex James (bass), Dave Rowntree (drums) and, until 2002, Graham Coxon (guitar)., SuedeSuede is a Britpop band, formed in the 1990s by bassist Mat Osman and singer Brett Anderson. They soon added guitarist Bernard Butler recruited through an advert in NME and Justine Frischmann, signing to RML Records, an indie label from Brighton. With Mik and Oasis. By 1991 (see 1991 in music), though, the original space rock bands had mostly fallen apart, and the musicians had moved on to new bands or new styles.