Mathematical rock styles are mostly mixed with noise rock, post rock, progressive rock, minimalist music and electronic music. One of its characteristics is that the arrangement is complicated, and irregular pauses or starts, odd time signs, angular melodies, counterpoint, extended chords, dissonance chords and atypical chords are often used. Rock music generally takes 4/4 beat as the song structure, while mathematical rock frequently uses asymmetric beats, such as 7/8 beat, 1 1/8 beat and 13/8 beat. In the song, the beat is alternately changed, such as a short section of 9/8 beat, then switched to 8/8 beat and then switched to 6/8 beat. Another example is the use of drums, guitars and bass guitars with 3/4 beats in the same piece of music, but each instrument is skillfully "paired together" on different tracks, which sounds smooth and does not harm the ears. Because of its complex structure such as mathematical operation, it is called "mathematical rock".

Mathematical rock has something to do with post-rock, and it is also called indie rock style, which has a similar musical orientation to indie rock. Where post-rock has obvious jazz influence, mathematical rock is like the reverse of a coin-its music is heavy and complicated, full of incomprehensible beat marks and tangled paragraphs. And this kind of music is more rock than post-rock, because it is usually played by a small band with guitar as the main instrument. Mathematical rock reached its peak in the mid-1990s, when bands like Polva and Chá vez had independent rock musicians on university campuses who specialized in this kind of music.