Progressive Rock is a genre which began developing in the late 60’s. It is a style of music which exploded into a fully fledged genre of it’s own from what began as musical experimentation and improvisation.
The evolution of progressive rock can be traced back to many places and different fans of the music have different opinions on how the genre formed, though most logically it can be traced back to the bands of the 1960’s who were really exploring the boundaries of popular music. It is cited that bands such as Cream and The Nice, bands which began experimenting with improvisational sections during songs to increase song length, something which later progressive rock would feature heavily, were the beginnings of what became widely known as progressive rock.[1]
Inspired by this new style of experimental and improvised ”off the cuff” playing, a new wave of bands started to emerge. These new bands brought features which hadn’t been widely seen in rock music before, writing longer, more complex songs often with influences from not only earlier rock bands but other styles of music too, such as classical and folk. Bands such as Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull came to be the first wave of progressive rock music. [2]
By the mid 1970’s Progressive Rock had reached an all time high in popularity and with the arrival of two of the most well known progressive rock bands, the genre was well and truly established. Yes were an English progressive rock band formed in London who released many critically acclaimed albums during the peak of prog’s popularity. The band pushed the limits of the genre utilising the technology available to them at the time (digital samplers and synthesisers) combined with a virtuostic style of playing inspired by influences from jazz and classical music. The Band’s most widely re-knowned work is perhaps the song “Roundabout” taken from 1971’s “Fragile”, although they also saw a later success with their 1983 song “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. The album “Tales from Topographic Oceans” gave the band a number one album in 1973, though it was criticised by the music press and fans alike.[3]
The evolution of progressive rock can be traced back to many places and different fans of the music have different opinions on how the genre formed, though most logically it can be traced back to the bands of the 1960’s who were really exploring the boundaries of popular music. It is cited that bands such as Cream and The Nice, bands which began experimenting with improvisational sections during songs to increase song length, something which later progressive rock would feature heavily, were the beginnings of what became widely known as progressive rock.[1]
Inspired by this new style of experimental and improvised ”off the cuff” playing, a new wave of bands started to emerge. These new bands brought features which hadn’t been widely seen in rock music before, writing longer, more complex songs often with influences from not only earlier rock bands but other styles of music too, such as classical and folk. Bands such as Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull came to be the first wave of progressive rock music. [2]
By the mid 1970’s Progressive Rock had reached an all time high in popularity and with the arrival of two of the most well known progressive rock bands, the genre was well and truly established. Yes were an English progressive rock band formed in London who released many critically acclaimed albums during the peak of prog’s popularity. The band pushed the limits of the genre utilising the technology available to them at the time (digital samplers and synthesisers) combined with a virtuostic style of playing inspired by influences from jazz and classical music. The Band’s most widely re-knowned work is perhaps the song “Roundabout” taken from 1971’s “Fragile”, although they also saw a later success with their 1983 song “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. The album “Tales from Topographic Oceans” gave the band a number one album in 1973, though it was criticised by the music press and fans alike.[3]
(Image taken from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/yes%20progressive/washedpa/PROGRESSIVE%20METAL/yes1a1.jpg?o=1)Emerson, Lake and Palmer were a British prog rock trio. Formed by Keith Emerson formerly of The Nice and ex King Crimson bassist Greg Lake, the two were later joined by Carl Palmer on drums to form one of the most recognised progressive rock bands in the genre.[4] The band’s 1973 album “Brain Salad Surgery” is perhaps their most widely known and throughout the 70’s the band toured the world including a sold out show at Wembley Arena in the summer of 1974. The band went on to work with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and produced the 1977 album “Works Vol. 1”. One of the bands most well known songs “Fanfare for the Common Man” was taken from this album. The band were criticised as being pretentious and self serving by some prog-rock critics; an accusation many prog bands face, though most did not take seriously.
(Image taken from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/elp%20live/myeyes33/ELP/madsq2.jpg?o=1)
Elsewhere in the world Canadian band Rush were drawing on influences from the U.K. to hone a style of technical, heavy, and progressive rock, utilising ideas from the band’s literary influences to write their famous album 2112. This is a concept album about a futuristic dystopia where music is forbidden, which was released in 1976. The band went on to experiment with recording techniques such as recording outside and different lyrical themes which often touch on political topics or themes about humanity, and began to experiment with more electronic instruments as they became available towards the end of the decade. The band continued on throughout the 80’s 90’s and 2000’s to have U.S. top 40 hits and headline several succsessful world tours. [5]
(Image taken from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/2112/atticthought/2112.jpg?o=16)Progressive rock has many musical features; the music often contains long solo’s and very long song structures, some progressive rock is exclusively instrument and the bands do not have a vocalist. Progressive rock is a complex style of music to play, it often contains a lot of changes in key, time signature and tempo, and requires a high standard of musicianship to be able to confidently play and perform the songs. The genre draws it’s influence from rock music and ties in elements of classical, jazz and often folk, with some bands even making use of woodwind or string instruments or even performing with orchestras. Being a style of music based on rock with influences of classical music, progressive rock bands usually employ a high degree of changes in dynamics, with passages of quiet music or instrumental sections going back to riff driven sections or sometimes quite heavy sections. Bands also often make use of the idea of a concept album. A concept album is a themed album which usually tells a story, each song on the album furthers the concept or tells another chapter of the story. This often draws on prog’s use of fantasy and science fiction within it’s lyrics.
Besides the influence of fantasy and science fiction within its lyrical content, the lyrics of progressive rock often talk about history, human life, or sometimes simply experiences of band members or events in their personal lives. Progressive rock differs from most styles of music due to the fact that often the focus of the song is the musicianship and playing as opposed to the vocals and lyrics.
Often criticised as a pretentious style of music, progressive rock was a genre of music which was perhaps not to be taken quite as seriously as the critics took it, during the time period; a time of a changing music scene and the punk movement. Though progressive rock was often overlooked as overcomplicated or too challenging to be enjoyed by casual music listeners, it still had a great deal of fans, and the influence of 70’s progressive rock is clear, with many new progressive bands such as Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Tool and Neal Morse all citing prog bands as influences and pledging to continue with a new wave of Progressive Rock music.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock
[3] http://www.last.fm/music/Yes/+wiki
[4] http://www.emersonlakepalmer.com/bio.html
[5] http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/rush/bio.jhtml
