it's the music that beethoven, mozart and many other classical composers would have played with electricity
Bands who were brought up with basic rock and folk as well as jazz and classical music. They naturally came up with catchy, complex melodies. It wasn't really about inventing, this music came natural to them. I think so called prog bands starting after 1985 have it wrong. They tried to invent rather than naturally invent and they didn't have the same basic influences on their own. They had other influences also. I like a good even influence of rock, folk, jazz, classical. When these are influences are reduced and other modern influences included then you just don’t get the same quality as the 70s prog bands
Rather it's if My Generation is a longer song due to featuring a part with odd times signatures, a bassoon and (or) Mellotron.
Prog magazine didn't appear until 2009 and will put the biggest names in the industry on the cover who will grant them an interview. Anyway, there is unsurprisingly plenty of fan crossover with prog fans and Rush, due to Rush's progressive rock influences.
As time goes on, distinctions between things become more apparent and that's where the classifications come in.
I am not a particular Rush fan, but I consider albums like A Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres to be prog rock albums, albeit a somewhat leaner, second generation model. They moved on and adapted their sound in the 80s, but it remained one component of their musical DNA.
Yes, similar to Jethro Tull, who had two full-blown progressive rock albums with other progressive songs later in their '70s output (Baker Street Muse, Songs From The Wood, etc.). In the 80s and 90s they, like Rush, moved on to other influences.
Nice detailed opinion.....well researched....and i love the avatar.....from great special release Europe 72!!!!
I agree, I was just being nostalgic and commenting about how these bands were originally perceived by me and my friends back in the 70s.
I would challenge anyone to listen to Fleetwood Mac's 1971 Future Games album and explain how that isn't a Prog album, but ultimately it doesn't mean anything if it closes off ears to something as "not" whatever label... as long as people are willing to listen. Also that it be open to everyone... you don't have to be a hippie to listen to hippie music and you don't have to be male to listen to or make Prog. Also, maybe I'm less well-travelled than some, but can't think of a record shop with a Prog section. They often do have 'world music' sections which can be problematic enough... would a shop in Africa for example file The Eagles there?
“It is music that does progress. It takes an idea and developes it, rather than just repeat it. Pop songs are about repetition and riffs and simplicity. Progressive music takes a riff, turns it inside out, plays it upside down and the other way around, and explores its potential.” Keith Emerson
A lot of their music.. So many different kinds of rhythms -- The Doors And Their Many Different Rhythms Music-wise, lots of influences beyond rock - jazz, classical, eastern, blues, latin, etc., and probably the first disco song "Peace Frog".... Also had a theater, take "The Unknown Soldier" for example. Even their covers - "Alabama Song" for example.
A perfect example of the pompous attitude that gave Prog a bad name. I could think of more than a thousand pop songs that I'd rather listen to than endure the unspeakable rubbish that ELP could churn out.
I equally recall a time when the idea of women in metal was laughable. I think a lot of men quite like the idea that "the wife" won't like it, it's like disappearing to their man-cave or something. Times are changing, apparently - though there were a few more women in prog back in the day than there were heavy metal probably; Curved Air, Savage Rose, Renaissance, Gong ... A farewell to kings: How women are rejuvenating prog rock | Louder
Yeah, I couldn't find a word that would also include the white Southern/rural element. I agree that should be a factor, and as you note -- -- it's a can of worms indeed: when people apply words like "authenticity" and (its near-opposite) "pretentiousness" to music, it often seems to correlate with their perception of the musician's class and race. Is some people's objection to prog not really the music, but the fact that they perceive it as white, upper-class, posh, and/or academic? In general people can only speak for themselves, but given the volume of his writings, I'd say that is true of someone like a Robert Christgau -- his tolerance of perceived self-indulgence can reliably be predicted based on the biography and identity of the musician. Provocative question, relating to roots music: are we more forgiving of a Scottish or Irish folk song that talks about elves and fairies, vs. a prog song that does? If so, interesting to think about why that is: do we maybe see the folk song as somehow more sincere or authentic? (And if so, is there an element of condescension there? "Oh, the country people, it's natural for them to think such things, but for a properly educated person to sing about them is absurd.") I think they're progressive, but the progressive element in their music is decidedly un-rock! I've thought for a while that the quality we call "progressive" should be decoupled from "rock", in that there's a genre-crossing quality present in all music that consciously avoids the predictable, symmetrical, and/or conventional structures characteristic of well-codified musical forms and vocabularies. I sometimes think of that period in the Moodies' work as progressive pop with rock elements, where the "progressive" quality is mainly in their use of longer, multi-part forms (and to some extent their use of orchestral instruments).
If you'd bolded any other part of that quote, I could consider agreeing with you, but "pop songs are about repetition and riffs and simplicity" is just plain true! Do you really have a problem with the observation, or is your problem more with the fact that Keith Emerson is the one making it? If someone like Lou Reed or Paul McCartney said the exact same thing, and meant it as an affirmation of why pop is so great, would you see it as pompous?
