Progressive rock bands pushed "rock's technical and compositional boundaries" by going beyond the standard rock or popular verse-chorus A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the villanelle, the virelay, and the sestina-based song structures The structures or musical forms of songs in popular music are typically sectional, repeating forms, such as strophic form. Other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and the twelve bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics. The Oxford Companion to Music states that progressive rock bands "...explored extended musical structures which involved intricate instrumental patterns and textures and often esoteric subject matter."[3] Additionally, the arrangements The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic structure& often incorporated elements drawn from classical Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period, jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree, and world music World music is a general categorical term for global music, such as the traditional music or folk music of a culture that is created and played by indigenous musicians and is closely related to the music of the regions of their origin. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used "concept albums In popular music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical". Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing to a single overall theme or that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme." [2] Progressive rock developed from late 1960s psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in United States and Britain. It often used new recording techniques and effects and drew on, as part of a wide-ranging tendency in rock music of this era to draw inspiration from ever more diverse influences. The term was initially applied to the music of bands such as King Crimson King Crimson is a rock band founded in 1969. Although typically categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band has incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during its history . The band has been influential on many contemporary musical artists and gained a large cult following despite garnering little radio or music, Yes Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968, generally regarded as one of the archetypal bands and pioneers of the genre. Despite many lineup changes, occasional splits within the group and the ever-changing trends in popular music, the band has continued for over forty years and still retains a large following, Genesis Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Phil Collins , Mike Rutherford (guitar and bass guitar), and Tony Banks (keyboards). Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett also played major roles in the band in its early days. Genesis are among the top 30 highest-selling, Jethro Tull Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969, Pink Floyd Pink Floyd were an English rock band who earned recognition for their psychedelic music in the late 1960s, and as they evolved in the 1970s, for their progressive rock music. Pink Floyd's work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music's most, Soft Machine Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer were an English progressive rock supergroup. In the 1970s, the band was extremely popular, selling over 35 million albums and headlining huge concerts. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (guitar, bass guitar, vocals) and Carl Palmer (drums, percussion),[2] reaching its peak of popularity in the mid 1970s.

Contents

Characteristics

Musical characteristics

Form The term musical form is often loosely used to refer to particular musical genres or styles , which may be determined by factors such as harmonic language, typical rhythms, types of musical instrument used as well as historical and geographical origins. In the vocabulary of art-music, however, it has a more extended meaning, referring to the type: Progressive rock music either avoids common popular music song structures of verse-chorus-bridge In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section. The bridge may be the third eight-bar phrase in a thirty-two-bar form , or it may be used more loosely in verse-chorus form, or, in a compound AABA form, used as a contrast to a full AABA section, or blurs the formal distinctions by extending sections or inserting musical interludes, often with exaggerated dynamics to heighten contrast between sections. Classical forms are often inserted or substituted, sometimes yielding entire suites, building on the traditional medleys In music, a medley is a piece composed from parts of existing pieces, played one after another, sometimes overlapping. They are common in popular music, and most medleys are songs rather than instrumental. A medley which is a remixed series is called a megamix, often done with tracks for a single artist, or for popular songs from a given year or of earlier rock bands. Progressive rock music also often has extended instrumental passages, marrying the classical solo tradition with the improvisational Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians. Thus, musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on chord changes in classical traditions of jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree and psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in United States and Britain. It often used new recording techniques and effects and drew on. All of these tend to add length to progressive rock music pieces, which may last longer than twenty minutes and are usually not "songs" per se, but musical works that have a lot more in common with more established musical concepts.[clarification needed]

Timbre In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that mediate the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. Timbre is also known in psychoacoustics as tone quality or tone color: (instrumentation and tone color): Early progressive rock groups expanded the timbral palette of traditional rock instrumentation of guitar, organ, bass, and drums by adding instruments more typical of jazz or folk music Traditional music is the term now used in the terminology of Grammy Awards for what used to be called "folk music". Full details of this change can be found in the terminology section of the World music article. Other organizations have made similar changes, though in non-academic circles, and on many CD sales websites, the phrase ", such as flute, saxophone, and violin, and more often than not used electronic keyboards An electronic keyboard or digital keyboard is a type of keyboard instrument. Its sound is generated or amplified by one or more electronic devices, synthesizers A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that uses one or more sound generators to create waveforms which are then processed and combined in order to generate musical sounds, and electronic effects units Effects units are electronic devices that affect the sound of an electric or electronic instrument or other audio source. Effects can be used in "real time", during a live performance , or in post-production, with recorded vocals and instruments. To use an effect in a live performance, the effect is plugged in to the electrical signal. Some instruments – most notably the Moog synthesizer Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for analog and digital music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled analog synthesizer systems in the early 1950s. The, the Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard. The heart of the instrument is a bank of parallel linear magnetic audio tapes, which have approximately eight seconds of playing and the Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, rock music, church and gospel – have become closely associated with the genre.

Rhythm The study of rhythm, stress, and pitch in speech is called prosody; it is a topic in linguistics. Narmour describes three categories of prosodic rules which create rhythmic successions which are additive , cumulative (short-long), or countercumulative (long-short). Cumulation is associated with closure or relaxation, countercumulation with: Drawing on their classical Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period, jazz, folk and experimental Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-twentieth century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage . More loosely, the term "experimental" is influences, progressive rock artists are more likely to explore time signatures The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat other than 4/4 The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat and tempo In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. It is a crucial element of composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece changes. Progressive rock generally tends to be freer in its rhythmic approach than other forms of rock music. The approach taken varies across different works but may range from regular beats, such as 4/4, to unusual compound time signatures, such as 9/8.

Melody A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a sequence of pitches and durations, while, more figuratively, the term has occasionally been extended to include successions of other musical elements such as tone color and harmony In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic line, or the "horizontal" aspect: In progressive rock, the blues inflections of mainstream rock are often supplanted by jazz and classical influences. Melodies are more likely to be modal In addition, from the end of the eighteenth century, the term began to be used in ethnomusicological contexts to describe pitch structures in non-European musical cultures, sometimes with doubtful compatibility than based on the pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world, including Celtic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, Jazz, American blues music and rock music, Sami joik, and are more likely to comprise longer, developing passages than short, catchy ones. Chords and chord progressions A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing (or contradicting) a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. Chords and chord theory are generally known as harmony may be augmented with 6th, 7th, 9th, and compound intervals; and the I-IV-V is much less common. Allusions to, or even direct quotes from, well-known classical themes are common. Some bands (notably King Crimson) have used atonal Atonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another . More narrowly, or dissonant In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance (Latin dis-, "apart" + sonare, "to sound") — considered unstable (or temporary, transitional). The strictest definition of consonance may be only those sounds that are pleasant, while the most general definition includes any harmonies, and a few, such as Henry Cow Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members alongside Frith and Hodgkinson, Shub-Niggurath, and 5uu's, have even worked with rudimentary serialism In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of post-tonal thinking (Whittall 2008, 1). Twelve-tone.

Texture In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece. Texture is often described in regards to the density, or thickness, and range, or width between lowest and highest pitches, in relative terms as well as more specifically distinguished and imagery An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person: Ambient Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality soundscapes A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology. The idea of soundscape refers to both the natural acoustic environment, consisting of natural sounds, including animal vocalizations and, for instance, the sounds of weather and other and theatrical elements may be used to describe scenes, events or other aspects of the concept. For example, leitmotif A leitmotif (from the German leitmotiv, lit. "leading motif", or perhaps more accurately "guiding motif") is a recurring musical theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. In particular such a theme should be 'clearly identified so as to retain its identity if modified on subsequent appearances' whether such is used to represent the various characters in Genesis' "Harold the Barrel" (from Nursery Cryme) and "Robbery, Assault and Battery" (from A Trick of the Tail), and more literally, the sounds of clocks and cash registers are used to represent time and money in Pink Floyd Pink Floyd were an English rock band who earned recognition for their psychedelic music in the late 1960s, and as they evolved in the 1970s, for their progressive rock music. Pink Floyd's work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music's most's The Dark Side of the Moon.

Other characteristics

Technology: To aid timbral exploration, progressive rock bands were often early adopters of new electronic musical instruments and technologies. The analog synthesizer is the instrument best associated with progressive rock – for example, the modular Moog used by ELP, the Minimoog by Yes, the ARP Pro Soloist by Genesis, and the Oberheim by Styx. The mellotron, particularly, was a signature sound of early progressive bands. Pink Floyd utilized an EMS Synthi A synthesizer equipped with a sequencer on their track "On the Run" from their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. In the late 1970s, Robert Fripp, of King Crimson, and Brian Eno developed an analog tape loops effect (Frippertronics). In the 1980s, Frank Zappa used the Synclavier for composing and recording, and King Crimson utilized MIDI-enabled guitars, a Chapman Stick, and electronic percussion.

Concept albums: Collections of songs unified by an elaborate, overarching theme or story are common to progressive rock. As songs by progressive rock acts tend to be quite long, such collections have frequently exceeded the maximum length of recorded media, resulting in packages that require multiple vinyl discs, cassettes, or compact discs in order to present a single album. Concepts have included the historical, fantastical and metaphysical, and even, in the case of Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, poked fun at concept albums. One very well-known example is Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, an album about a boy named Rael who undergoes different adventures in search of his brother John.

Lyrical themes: Progressive rock typically has lyrical ambition similar to its musical ambition, tending to avoid typical rock/pop subjects such as love, dancing, etc., rather inclining towards the kinds of themes found in classical literature, fantasy, folklore, social commentary or all of these. Peter Gabriel (Genesis) often wrote surreal stories to base his lyrics around, sometimes including theatrical elements with several characters, while Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) combined social criticism with personal struggles with greed, madness, and death.

Presentation: Album art and packaging is often an important part of the artistic concept. This trend can be seen to have begun with The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and played a major part in the marketing of progressive rock. Some bands became as well known for the art direction of their albums as for their sound, with the "look" integrated into the band's overall musical identity. This led to fame for particular artists and design studios, most notably Roger Dean for his work with Yes, and Hipgnosis for their work with Pink Floyd and several other progressive rock groups.

Stage theatrics: Beginning in the early 1970s, some progressive rock bands began incorporating elaborate and sometimes flamboyant stage theatrics into their concerts. Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel wore many different colourful and exotic costumes within each show and frequently acted out the lyrical narrative of the songs, Pink Floyd would utilize burning gongs and crashing airplanes and inflatables, Yes incorporated futuristic stage sets designed by Roger Dean, performing 'in-the-round', and one of ELP's many stage antics include Emerson's "flying piano" at the California Jam concert, in which a Steinway grand piano would be spun from a hoist.

History

Precursors

Allmusic cites Bob Dylan's poetry, The Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! (1966) and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) as showing the "earliest rumblings of progressive and art rock",[2] while progressiverock.com cites the latter as its "starting point",[4] although earlier albums such as Rubber Soul and Revolver had begun incorporating Eastern music and instruments not common in rock music. This would later be followed by progressive-rock acts such as Yes and King Crimson.

Freak Out!, released in 1966, had been a mixture of progressive rock, garage rock and avant-garde layered sounds. In the same year, the band "1-2-3", later renamed Clouds, began experimenting with song structures, improvisation, and multi-layered arrangements.[5][6] In March of that year, The Byrds released "Eight Miles High", a pioneering psychedelic rock single with lead guitar heavily influenced by the jazz soloing style of John Coltrane. Later that year, The Who released "A Quick One While He's Away", the first example of the rock opera form, and considered by some to have been the first prog epic.[7]

In 1967, Jeff Beck released the single "Beck's Bolero", inspired by Maurice Ravel's Bolero, and, later that year, Procol Harum released the Bach-influenced single "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Also in 1967, the Moody Blues released Days of Future Passed, combining classical-inspired orchestral music with traditional rock instrumentation and song structures. Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, contained the nearly ten-minute improvisational psychedelic instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive".

By the late 1960s, many rock bands had begun incorporating instruments from classical and Eastern music, as well as experimenting with improvisation and lengthier compositions. Some, such as the UK's Soft Machine, began to experiment with blends of rock and jazz. By the end of the decade, other bands, such as Deep Purple and The Nice, had also recorded classical-influenced albums with full orchestras: Concerto for Group and Orchestra and Five Bridges, respectively.

Early bands

Pink Floyd playing "Dark Side of the Moon" at Earls Court, 1973

Music critic Piero Scaruffi states that the "bands that nurtured prog-rock through its early stages were Traffic, Jeff Beck, Family, Jethro Tull, and Genesis; while King Crimson, Yes, and Van der Graaf Generator represent the genre at its apex".[8] Bands had formed by the end of the 1960s, including The Moody Blues (1964), Pink Floyd (1965), Soft Machine (1966), Barclay James Harvest (1966), Gong (1967), Genesis (1967), Jethro Tull (1967), The Nice (1967), Yes (1968), Caravan (1968), King Crimson (1969), Supertramp (1969) and Gentle Giant (1969).

Although almost all of these bands were from the UK, the genre was growing popular elsewhere in continental Europe. Triumvirat led Germany's significant progressive rock movement, while Tangerine Dream, Faust, Can and Neu! led the related Berlin School and Krautrock movements.

Focus and Trace formed in the Netherlands, France produced Ange, Gong, and Magma, and Greece saw the debut of Aphrodite's Child led by electronic music pioneer Vangelis. Spain produced numerous prog groups, including Canarios and Triana. Scandinavia was represented by: Norwegian band Popol Vuh, Swedish band Kaipa and Finnish band Wigwam. Italian progressive rock is sometimes considered a genre unto itself, highlighted by bands like PFM, Banco, New Trolls, Area, Le Orme, Goblin, Museo Rosenbach, Il Balletto di Bronzo, and Locanda Delle Fate.

Peak in popularity and decline

Yes performing in Indianapolis in 1977

Progressive rock's popularity peaked in the mid-1970s, when prog artists regularly topped reader polls in mainstream popular music magazines in Britain and America, and albums like Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells topped the charts. By this time, several North American progressive rock bands had been formed. Kansas, which had actually existed in one form or another since 1971, became one of the most commercially successful of all progressive rock bands.

Likewise, Electric Light Orchestra, who formed in 1970 as a progressive offshoot of "The Beatles sound", saw their greatest success during the mid-1970s. Pop star Todd Rundgren moved into prog with his new band, Utopia. Toronto's Rush became a major band, with a string of hit albums extending from the mid-1970s to the present.

Music critic Piero Scaruffi opines that Emerson Lake & Palmer "pushed progressive-rock towards technical excesses that, basically, obliterated whatever merit their jazz-classical fusion had." Scaruffi claims that ELP's music, which became "ever more pretentious and magniloquent, was founded on a fundamental misunderstanding of what 'virtuoso' means."[8] Bruce Eder claims that "the rot" in progressive rock "started to set in during 1976, the year ELP released their live album Welcome Back My Friends".[9] Eder claims that this album was "suffering from poor sound and uninspired playing" which "stretched the devotion of fans and critics even thinner." He claims that "the end [of progressive rock] came quickly: by 1977, the new generation of listeners was even more interested in a good time than the audiences of the early 1970s, and they had no patience for 30 minute prog-rock suites or concept albums based on Tolkien-esque stories." He asserts that by the late 1970s and early 1980s, "ELP was barely functioning as a unit, and not producing music with any energy; Genesis was redefining themselves ... as a pop-rock band; and Yes was back to doing songs running four minutes ... and even releasing singles." [10]

In 1974, four of progressive rock's biggest bands – Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis and King Crimson – all went on indefinite hiatus or experienced personnel changes. Members of Yes and ELP left to pursue solo work, as did Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel, who left his band (though Genesis would continue with Phil Collins as lead vocalist), and Robert Fripp announced the end of King Crimson after the release of their Red album. When, in 1977, Yes and ELP reformed, they had some success, but were unable to capture their previous dominance . According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, from "1975 to 1982 ... when Rush co-produced its music with Terry Brown, the trio often fused elements of progressive rock (such as complex time signatures and virtuosity) with its early emphasis on heavy metal".[11] In 1978, the English singer songwriter Kate Bush recorded progressive rock on several tracks from her debut album The Kick Inside, including "The Saxophone Song", which features whale-like noises and a combination of rock and jazz and "Strange Phenomena" has an unexpectedly discordant chorus and chanting. "The Ninth Wave" side of her Hounds of Love album tells the story of someone lost at sea and tried as a witch, using distorted and delayed vocals.[citation needed]

Drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson Lake and Palmer performing at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Feb. 3, 1978

The advent of punk rock and disco music in the late 1970s helped move critical opinion and popular support in the UK towards a simpler and more aggressive style of rock, with progressive bands increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown, ending progressive rock's reign as a leading style in rock.[12][13] However, established progressive bands still had a strong fan base; Rush, Genesis, ELP, Yes, Queen, and Pink Floyd all regularly scored Top Ten albums with massive accompanying tours, the largest yet for some of them.

Many bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cabaret Voltaire, Ultravox, Simple Minds, and Wire, all showed the influence of prog, as well as their more usually recognised punk influences.[14]

1980s revival

Main article: Neo-progressive rock Marillion performing in 2007

The early 1980s saw a revival of the genre, led by artists such as Marillion, UK, Twelfth Night, IQ, Pendragon, Quasar, Mach One and Pallas. The groups that arose during this time are sometimes termed neo-progressive or neo-prog. Bands of this style were influenced by 1970s progressive rock groups like Genesis, Yes and Camel, but incorporated some elements that were reflective of the New Wave and other rock elements found in the 1980s. The digital synthesiser became a prominent instrument in the style. Neo-prog continued to remain viable into the 1990s and beyond with bands like Arena and Jadis.

Some progressive rock stalwarts changed musical direction, simplifying their music and making it more commercially viable. In 1981, King Crimson made a comeback that incorporated a more techno-rhythmic sound and Asia released a pop-oriented debut album. This demonstrated a market for more commercialised British progressive rock – a style very similar to that played by North American Top 40 stalwarts such as Styx and Journey. Genesis changed to a more commercial direction during the 1980s, and Yes had a comeback with 90125, featuring their only US number one single, "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Likewise, Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987 was a departure from their former concept albums, featuring much shorter songs and a more electronic sound.

1990s and 2000s

Main article: Progressive metal Porcupine Tree performing in 2007

The progressive rock genre enjoyed another revival in the 1990s. A notable impetus to this revival was the 1991 foundation of the Swedish Art Rock Society, an association created to rescue the values of classic progressive rock, with Pär Lindh as chairman.[15] This society was a catalyst for new Swedish bands such as Anekdoten, Änglagård, Landberk and Pär Lindh Project, which joined the scene between 1992 and 1994. These bands became part of progressive rock's "Third Wave," spearheaded by Sweden's The Flower Kings, the UK's Porcupine Tree, Norway's White Willow, and from the United States, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Echolyn, Proto-Kaw,(a reincarnation of an early lineup of Kansas), and Glass Hammer. Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Ayreon project, featuring the backing of an array of talent from the progressive rock genre, produced a series of innovative prog-metal concept albums starting from 1995.

Several of the bands in the prog-metal genre – U.S. bands Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater, as well as Sweden's Opeth – cite pioneer progressive hard-rockers Rush as a primary influence, although their music also exhibits influences from more traditional metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Tool (U.S.) have cited pioneers King Crimson as an influence on their work.[16] King Crimson opened for Tool on their 2001 tour and expressed admiration for the group while continuing to deny the "prog" label.[17]

Progressive rock has also served as a key inspiration for genres such as post-rock, avant-garde metal, power metal, neo-classical metal and symphonic metal. Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has acknowledged[18] that the prominent use of progressive elements and qualities in metal is not confined to bands conventionally classified as "progressive metal". Many underground metal styles[19] (especially extreme metal styles, which are characterised by extremely fast or slow speed, high levels of distortion, a technical or atmospheric, epic orientation and often highly unusual melodies, scales, vocal styles, song structures and, especially in death metal, abrupt tempo, key and time signature changes; folk metal is known for often employing uncommon instruments and other unusual elements) and some seminal bands such as Watchtower, Death, Celtic Frost[20] (a band having pioneered several styles) or The 3rd and the Mortal remain poorly known even to genre fans.

Former members of the pioneering post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez went on to form The Mars Volta, a successful progressive band that incorporates jazz, funk, punk rock, Latin music, and ambient noise into songs that range in length from a few minutes to more than thirty. They achieved some crossover success with their 2005 album Frances the Mute, which reached #4 on the Billboard 200 chart after the single "The Widow" became a hit on modern rock radio. Coheed and Cambria are another band known for their lengthy solos and off-the-beaten-path songwriting direction, in which each song corresponds to an important event in the graphic novel and novel series, The Amory Wars, which was written by lead singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez. Other successful mainstream rock bands, including Radiohead and Muse,[21] have been cited as inheritors of the progressive rock mantle, along with Oceansize, Pure Reason Revolution, xRx, and Mew[22].

The first decade of the 2000s saw progressive rock gain popularity in eastern Europe, especially in Russia, where the InProg festival was founded in 2001 and bands like Little Tragedies, EXIT project, Kostarev Group and Disen Gage achieved relative success in the Russian rock scene and were also noted outside Russia. Other notable north and eastern European bands are the Latvian band Olive Mess and the Polish band Riverside.

In the late 2000s the genre was revitalised by the sub-genre Prog Pop which emerged from the Folktronica scene in the UK[citation needed]. Typified by the British band The Yellow Moon Band and their debut album Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, this movement rejected the lengthy forms of the traditional progressive movement in favour of the familiar bombastic themes and virtuoso musicianship packaged in a three to four minute form typical of pop music[citation needed]. This sub-movement is most often credited to Geoffery Dolman, the founder of Static Caravan, a record label based in the West Midlands in the UK.

Festivals

Renewed interest in progressive rock in the 1990s led to the development of festivals. ProgFest began in 1993 in UCLA's Royce Hall, and featured Sweden's Änglagård, the UK's IQ, Quill and Citadel. ProgDay, held at Storybook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, began in 1995 and was still being held as of 2009.[23] A Southern California festival called CalProg is held every year at Whittier, California in Los Angeles.[24] NEARfest held its first event in 1999 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and has held annual concerts ever since. NEARfest is a gateway for reunions and helps bring international acts back to the US. An international festival called InProg has been held in Moscow since 2001. Most of the performers at this festival are from Russia, but there are also bands from other countries.

Gouveia Art Rock[25] in Portugal is one of the most successful of all.[citation needed] Since 2003, many historic artists from the progressive scene have appeared in the lineup: Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Focus, Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM), Richard Sinclair, Ange, Amon Düül II, Present, Univers Zero, Daevid Allen, Mike Keneally, Isildurs Bane, California Guitar Trio and Miriodor.

Other festivals include the annual Rites of Spring Festival (RoSfest)[26] in Glenside, Pennsylvania, Three Rivers Progressive Rock Festival (3RP)[27] in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Rogue Independent Music Festival (or Rogue Fest) in Atlanta, Georgia, Baja Prog in Mexicali, Mexico, Prog In The Park in Rochester, New York, Prog Sud in Marseille, France, Tiana in Barcelona, Spain, Peralta in Navarra, Spain, Progfarm in Holland, Rio Art Rock Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ProgPower USA in Atlanta, Georgia, BalticProgFest in Lithuania, Sinfo Prog La Plata[28] near Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Summer's End[29] in the UK. Progressive Nation was held in 2008, featuring progressive metal bands Dream Theater, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and Three. Progressive Nation 2009 was held the following year featuring Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa, Bigelf, and Scale the Summit touring across America and Canada, as well as an additional international tour.[30]

See also

Progressive rock portal

Notes

  1. ^ Listening to the future: the time of progressive rock, 1968-1978, pp. 71-75
  2. ^ a b c d "Prog-Rock/Art Rock". AllMusic. AllMusic. 2007. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:374. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  3. ^ Popular music. Oxford Companion to Music. Subscription required for online access. Accessed online on March 29, 2010.
  4. ^ Progressive Rock Timeline (progressiverock.com)
  5. ^ Brian Hogg, The History of Scottish Rock and Pop. (BBC/Guinness Publishing)
  6. ^ '1-2-3 and the Birth of Prog,' Mojo, Nov. 1994
  7. ^ The Who at progarchives.com
  8. ^ a b B Piero Scaruffi
  9. ^ The album had actually been released in 1974
  10. ^ "The Early History of Art-Rock/Prog Rock" by Bruce Eder (All-Music Guide Essay). Available at: http://www.vanguardchurch.com/the_history_of_art_rock.htm
  11. ^ "Rush - The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0003064. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  12. ^ Holm-Hudson, K. (October 2001). Progressive Rock Reconsidered. Routledge. ISBN 0-8153-3714-0.
  13. ^ Brian L. Knight. "Rock in the Name of Progress (Part VI -"Thelonius Punk")". http://members.tripod.com/vermontreview/essays/progressif6.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
  14. ^ Tommy Udo (September 2006). "Did Punk kill prog?". Classic Rock Magazine Issue 97.
  15. ^ http://www.parlindh.com/history/index.htm
  16. ^ Blair Blake (2001). "Augustember 2001 E.V.". Tool Newsletter. http://www.toolband.com/news/letter/2001_09.php. Retrieved 2006-04-28.
  17. ^ Eyes Wide Open
  18. ^ Mike Portnoy Pledges Alliance to One Nation Under Prog
  19. ^ An Overview of Metal Genres on GEPR
  20. ^ Interview with Christofer Johnsson, leader of symphonic metal pioneers Therion
  21. ^ Petridis, Alexis (September 7, 2001). "My journey into sound". London: Guardian Unlimited. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4251589,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  22. ^ Campling, Chris (January 28, 2006). "Prog rock? Just say yes". London: Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22875-2007511,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  23. ^ http://www.progday.net/ ProgDay home page
  24. ^ http://www.calprog.com
  25. ^ http://www.gaudela.net/gar
  26. ^ http://rosfest.com RoSfest home page
  27. ^ http://www.3rprogfest.com 3RP home page
  28. ^ http://www.myspace.com/sinfoproglaplata
  29. ^ http://www.summersend.co.uk
  30. ^ http://www.progressivenation2009.com/europe.html

References

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Q. Would a classical guitar be a odd feature in Progressive rock music?
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