# What is 'Progressive Rock' Music?



## haydnguy (Oct 13, 2008)

I have always wondered what differentiates progressive rock music with other forms of rock music.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The main site dedicated to prog offers this definition.


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## haydnguy (Oct 13, 2008)

Art Rock said:


> The main site dedicated to prog offers this definition.


Thank you for that link. I had listened to a few bands and didn't know it.

I have watched several of the Tchaikovsky piano competitions and have always been interested in watching their hands. Rick Wakeman is considered one of rocks great keyboard players. I have read where he is classically trained. However, I have watched his hand on a few of his videos and I must say that his hands appear to be very simple in his rock videos. He seems to have more talent than he is showing.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2019)

haydnguy said:


> I have always wondered what differentiates progressive rock music with other forms of rock music.


Prog rock is rock for people who don't really like rock, and who believe that overstaying your welcome is perfectly fine. They are the type of people who will hang out at a party for hours after it has ended, ignoring the yawns of the hosts who just want to go to bed. Hence, most prog rock drones on and on, pretending that endless repetition is some indicator of sheer musical talent.

It would make a perfect soundtrack for getting stuck in a roundabout for hours on end.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Progressive rock is a rather broad definition and refers to what happened starting early in the 70s and continuing into the early 80s, with some influence from the output of bands in the latter 60s including bands such as The Beatles and Moody Blues. The term is not typically used for rock music after that period. In fact, starting in the 70s and on, rock started to be defined by multiple, sometimes obscure definitions.

Some of the groups listed under the progressive rock definition:
Strawbs, ELO, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Supertramp, 10cc, Alan Parsons Project, King Crimson, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull.

These were influential and popular bands of the time, to some extent, iconic of the 70s along with a few other rock forms. Progressive rock was a particular influence that gave rise to the rock anthems of the 80s.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2019)

DrMike said:


> Prog rock is rock for people who don't really like rock, and who believe that overstaying your welcome is perfectly fine. They are the type of people who will hang out at a party for hours after it has ended, ignoring the yawns of the hosts who just want to go to bed. Hence, most prog rock drones on and on, pretending that endless repetition is some indicator of sheer musical talent.
> 
> It would make a perfect soundtrack for getting stuck in a roundabout for hours on end.


Hohoho. But not actually true. Prog rock is for people who like prog rock. Any other assertion about their musical tastes would be a wild generalisation, or falsehood.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

It's great for infantiles to argue about.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

Good background music while getting stoned.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

DrMike said:


> Good background music while getting stoned.


I wouldn't know - are you speaking from experience?


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

philoctetes said:


> It's great for infantiles to argue about.


Whatever they are. Are you making up a new English word?


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

MacLeod said:


> I wouldn't know - are you speaking from experience?


I don't listen to prog rock, if that answers your question.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

DrMike said:


> I don't listen to prog rock, if that answers your question.


You don't know it, but you have an opinion. How very 2019.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

Art Rock said:


> You don't know it, but you have an opinion. How very 2019.


I don't currently listen to it. Doesn't mean I never have. I learned my lesson. Never said I don't know it.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

DaveM said:


> Whatever they are. Are you making up a new English word?


He's borrowing it from Spanish, inspired by the DNC debates.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

DrMike said:


> I don't listen to prog rock, if that answers your question.


So, you've not got stoned while prog was in the background - which was my question.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

MacLeod said:


> So, you've not got stoned while prog was in the background - which was my question.


Nope. Made me wish I had - might have made it more interesting.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

DrMike said:


> Nope. Made me wish I had - might have made it more interesting.


Ah, now we're getting somewhere. So in what way is prog rock suited to having in the background while getting stoned?

Never mind. Is there any particular reason why you came by to express negative opinions about a music that you're not interested in listening to?


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

MacLeod said:


> Ah, now we're getting somewhere. So in what way is prog rock suited to having in the background while getting stoned?
> 
> Never mind. Is there any particular reason why you came by to express negative opinions about a music that you're not interested in listening to?


If you have followed me at all on here - or really ANYBODY - you will find no shortage of people weighing in negatively against music for which they have negative opinions and are not interested in listening to. Look at many threads on modern works. Or any thread about 4'33". This is a forum where people come to express their opinions about music. You are surprised that someone with a negative opinion about a particular genre might express it? That seems like a bizarre question, given what this forum is.

P.S. I don't particularly like opera - and I really don't like Tristan - and have regularly expressed that opinion.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

DrMike said:


> If you have followed me at all on here - or really ANYBODY - you will find no shortage of people weighing in negatively against music for which they have negative opinions and are not interested in listening to. Look at many threads on modern works. Or any thread about 4'33". This is a forum where people come to express their opinions about music. You are surprised that someone with a negative opinion about a particular genre might express it? That seems like a bizarre question, given what this forum is.
> 
> P.S. I don't particularly like opera - and I really don't like Tristan - and have regularly expressed that opinion.


I don't like opera either - I just don't go in to the opera threads and say so.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

MacLeod said:


> Ah, now we're getting somewhere. So in what way is prog rock suited to having in the background while getting stoned?


That is something you just have to try for yourself - trust me its very suited


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

Bwv 1080 said:


> That is something you just have to try for yourself - trust me its very suited


I have no wish to get stoned. It's not something I have to try at all. What I'm asking is, in what way is prog in particular suited to this activity?


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Loved/love progressive rock. One of the great works that went with black light posters and whatever one chose to associate with them.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

MacLeod said:


> I have no wish to get stoned. It's not something I have to try at all. What I'm asking is, in what way is prog in particular suited to this activity?


So its like explaining why something is great sex music to a virgin?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Knocking somebody else's taste in music is a way of proving (to one's self, certainly) how intellectually honest and fearless one is; able to speak truth to power, rip away the masks, the lies, etc, etc., hoping others are watching.......

I don't practice it myself, beyond saying that I am not the audience to whom some musics are directed. I am on record as saying that I am ill-equipped to fully appreciate vast, gaseous, portentous, interminable late 19th-early 20th-century symphonies, but have never named any. I certainly love some (early) Prog: Genesis, Yes, others, and can understand that other people like it more, and some, less.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

MacLeod said:


> *I have no wish to get stoned.* It's not something I have to try at all. What I'm asking is, in what way is prog in particular suited to this activity?







I recommend you skip to the 1:00 mark!


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

I like prog (except for Genesis, who sucks), but if you cant make fun of its pretensions and excesses along with people who take it too seriously then might as well listen to buttrock


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

Bwv 1080 said:


> I like prog (except for Genesis, who sucks), but if you cant make fun of its pretensions and excesses along with people who take it too seriously then might as well listen to buttrock


Don't knock buttrock! Even Warrant and Great White have their place!


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

DrMike said:


> Don't knock buttrock! Even Warrant and Great White have their place!


80s is OK, but dont go to the late 90s early 00s, when rock met its final death in a great sucking cataclysm of yarling


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

This is prog rock, right?


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2019)

Bwv 1080 said:


> So its like explaining why something is great sex music to a virgin?


That's another thing that passes me by.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

philoctetes said:


> It's great for infantiles to argue about.


But you showed up to make a comment oh masterful one.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Someone said that showing up is 99% of living... not arguing.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

DrMike said:


> Prog rock is rock for people who don't really like rock, and who believe that overstaying your welcome is perfectly fine.


And how is this any different from 30 minute jams by Cream, Grateful Dead, or the Allman Brothers? Or Miles Davis for that matter?


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Taking the bait, ha.

Where's the popcorn?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

philoctetes said:


> Someone said that showing up is 99% of living... not arguing.


The OP was in the form of a question. Others chose to argue.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

philoctetes said:


> Taking the bait, ha.
> 
> Where's the popcorn?


I'm curious to hear the wisdom of the all knowing doctor.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

starthrower said:


> The OP was in the form of a question. Others chose to argue.


We are making the same point then... o masterful brother


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

philoctetes said:


> We are making the same point then... o masterful brother


I wouldn't go that far. I haven't come up with a solution to climate change, abortion, or population control.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

starthrower said:


> I wouldn't go that far. I haven't come up with a solution to climate change, abortion, or population control.


Don't feel bad. I doubt that rock music, no matter how prog, is up to it either...


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I associate progressive rock with song structures that differ from the standard radio format, and more complex use of rhythm, quirky time signatures. If the music has these features and doesn't sound like heavy metal, classical or jazz, it is most likely prog rock.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

philoctetes said:


> Don't feel bad. I doubt that rock music, no matter how prog, is up to it either...


I hope not. It's a harmless diversion. Although Jon Anderson reminded us not to kill the whales.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

philoctetes said:


> Don't feel bad. I doubt that rock music, no matter how prog, is up to it either...


Death metal has the solutions, but no one wants to hear them...


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Death metal has the solutions, but no one wants to hear them...


I couldn't blame anyone that has a sensitive nervous system or hearing.


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2019)

starthrower said:


> And how is this any different from 30 minute jams by Cream, Grateful Dead, or the Allman Brothers? Or Miles Davis for that matter?


Don't really much care for Miles Davis after A Kind of Blue. I listen to At Fillmore East maybe once a year, and that suffices. Never had much use for the Dead.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I would go with the Dead if I have to listen to extended jams. At least they take the music to interesting places as opposed to the endless blues jamming. But hey, everybody's got their favorites.


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