Progressive rock is an ambitious, eclectic, and often grandiose style of rock music which arose in the late 1960s principally in England, reaching the peak of its popularity in the early 1970s, but continuing as a musical form to this day. Progressive rock was largely a European movement, and drew most of its influences from classical music and jazz fusion, in contrast to American rock, which was historically influenced by rhythm & blues and country. Over the years various sub-genres of progressive rock — or "prog" — have emerged, such as symphonic rock, art rock and progressive metal.

Progressive rock artists sought to move away from the limitations of radio formatted rock and pop, and "progress" rock to the point that it could achieve the musical sophistication of jazz or classical. Progressive rock is admired by its fans for its complexity, requiring a high level of musical virtuosity to perform. Critics have often derided the genre as pompous and self-indulgent. This is because, unlike such stylistically consistent genres as country or hip hop, progressive rock is difficult to define in a single conclusive way. Outspoken King Crimson leader Robert Fripp has openly voiced his disdain for the term. Very few bands commonly known as progressive rock bands (Yes, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Rush and King Crimson, to name the usual suspects) could be said to sound anything alike. By the same token, a number of bands generally considered mainstream or, today, classic rock bands as opposed to progressive bands undeniably played the kinds of songs associated with prog — long, elaborate, experimental and virtuosic. (e.g.: David Bowie's 10-minute "Station to Station".) Even The Beatles would have to be included in this.

Some common, though not universal, elements of progressive rock include:

• Long compositions, sometimes running over 20 minutes, with intricate melodies and harmonies that require repeated listening to grasp. These are often described as epics and are the genre's clearest nod to classical music. An early example is the 23-minute "Echoes" by Pink Floyd. Other famous examples include Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" (43 minutes), Yes' "Close to the Edge" (18 minutes) and Genesis' "Supper's Ready" (23 minutes). More recent extreme examples are the 60-minute "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" by Green Carnation and "Garden of Dreams" by The Flower Kings, running about 64 minutes (though broken up into 18 sections).

• Lyrics that convey intricate and sometimes impenetrable narratives, covering such themes as science fiction, fantasy, religion, war, love, madness and history. Besides, as regards many early 1970's progressive rock bands (notably German ones) lyrics are very often concerned with politics (left-wing) and social issues.

• Concept albums, in which a theme or storyline is explored throughout an entire album in a manner similar to a film or a play. In the days of vinyl, these were usually two-record sets with strikingly designed gatefold sleeves. (Read more about sleeve art below.) Famous examples include The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis; Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes; Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall by Pink Floyd; and the more recent Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater or Snow by Spock's Beard. Aqualung, perhaps the best-known record by Jethro Tull, is often regarded as a concept album due to its recurring themes, although songwriter Ian Anderson has always claimed that the album was just "a bunch of songs".

• Unusual vocal styles and use of multi-part vocal harmonies. See Magma, Robert Wyatt, and Gentle Giant.

• Prominent use of electronic instrumentation—particularly keyboard instruments such as the organ, piano, Mellotron, and Moog synthesizer, in addition to the usual rock combination of electric guitar, bass and drums.

• Use of syncopation, unusual time signatures, scales or tunings. Some pieces use multiple time signatures and/or tempos, sometimes overlaid. King Crimson often combined several of these elements in the same song. Many of Rush's favorites are partly or wholly in 7/8 meter. Dream Theater's fiendishly difficult to play "Dance of Eternity" features changes of time signature in a sequence 5/8-5/8-7/8, 5/8-7/8, 5/8-5/8-7/8.

• Solo passages for virtually every instrument, expressly designed to showcase the virtuosity of the player. This is the sort of thing that contributed to the fame of such performers as keyboardist Rick Wakeman and drummer Neil Peart.

• Inclusion of classical pieces on albums. For example, Yes start their concerts with a taped extract of Stravinsky's Firebird suite, and Emerson Lake and Palmer have performed arrangements of pieces by Copland, Bartók, Moussorgsky, Prokofiev, Janacek, Alberto Ginastera, and often interpolate extensive quotes from J. S. Bach in lead breaks. Jethro Tull recorded a famous cover of J. S. Bach's "Bouree", in which they turned the classical piece into a "sleazy jazzy night-club song", according to Ian Anderson. Marillion once started concerts with Rossini's La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), and named their third live album the same. Symphony X has included parts by, or inspired by, Beethoven, Holst and Mozart. Emerson Lake and Palmer have even gone as far as interpreting classical pieces: Pictures at an Exhibition is the prime example, being a Mussorgsky composition to which lyrics were added. Other examples are "The Barbarian" (an arrangement of Bartók's piano piece "Allegro Barbaro") and "Knife Edge" (an arrangement with lyrics of Janacek's Sinfonietta, with the Allemande from J. S. Bach's French Suite in D minor serving as the second half of the lead break).

• An aesthetic linking the music with visual art, a trend begun by the Beatles with Sgt. Pepper's and enthusiastically embraced during the prog heyday. 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, whose paintings and logo design for Yes are so essential to the band's identity they could be said to serve the same function as corporate branding. Hipgnosis became equally famous for their unusual sleeves for Pink Floyd, often featuring experimental photography quite innovative for the time (two men shaking hands, one of whom is in flames, on the cover of Wish You Were Here). And though he only designed one cover for them, H.R. Giger's painting for Emerson Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery is one of the most famous album sleeves ever produced.

Progressive rock compositions sometimes take the following forms:

• A piece that is subdivided into movements in the manner of a classical suite. Examples are the four-part "Close to the Edge" by Yes and the seven-part "A Change of Seasons" by Dream Theater. All of TransAtlantic's epics are multipart.

• A piece that is composed of a patchwork of musical themes that could conceivably stand as individual songs, but together serve to relate a complete narrative through music. These need not be epic compositions, and are often songs of more conventional length. Examples are "Supper's Ready" on Genesis' Foxtrot (one section of which, "Willow Farm," was played as a single), or "A Day in the Life" on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and "Paranoid Android" on OK Computer by Radiohead.

• A piece that allows the development of musical ideas via progressions or variations in the manner of a bolero or a canon. "King Kong" on Frank Zappa's Uncle Meat is an example.

Progressive rock's popularity peaked in the mid-1970s, when prog artists regularly topped readers' votes in mainstream popular music magazines. With the advent of punk rock in the late 1970s, and its earlier precursor pub rock, popular and critical opinion moved toward a simpler and more aggressive style of rock, with progressive rock increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. This attitude has remained in place to the present day, particularly among mainstream music writers.

The early 1980s saw something of a revival of the genre, led by artists such as Marillion, Saga and Kate Bush. Groups that arose during this time are sometimes termed neo-progressive. At the same time, some progressive rock stalwarts changed musical direction with the times, simplifying their music and including more obviously electronic elements. In 1983, Genesis achieved international success with the song "Mama", with its heavy emphasis on a drum machine riff. In 1984, Yes had a surprise number one hit with the song "Owner of a Lonely Heart", which contained modern (for the time) electronic effects and was accessible enough to be played at discos.

The genre enjoyed another minor revival in the 1990s with the so-called "Third Wave", spearheaded by such bands as Sweden's The Flower Kings, the UK's Porcupine Tree and Spock's Beard from the USA. One of the most important bands of the alternative rock movement, The Smashing Pumpkins, incorporated progressive rock into their unique, eclectic style, going so far as to release two albums dealing with the same concept.

In recent years, the most commercially viable category of prog has been progressive metal. These bands are usually happy to be known as progressive, and produce very long pieces and concept albums, a resurgence of the 1970s prog ethic. Several of the leading bands in the prog-metal genre (particularly Dream Theater) cite pioneer progressive hard rockers Rush as a prime influence. The most well-known progressive metal band is Tool, who enjoyed mainstream popularity in the 90's and 00's. Meanwhile, other heavy metal bands not considered prog-metal, such as System of a Down, have been incorporating such prog-influenced elements in their music as bizarre shifts in time signatures and tempo.

The work of contemporary artists such as Radiohead and post-rock bands like Sigur Rós and Godspeed You! Black Emperor could be said to incorporate some of the more experimental elements of progressive rock, sometimes combined with the aesthetic sensibilities of punk rock, to produce music which many find at once challenging, innovative and imaginative. The Mars Volta is notable for intentionally fusing punk with progressive rock, two elements once polar opposites. Among more experimental and avant garde musicians, the Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu publicly cites progressive rock bands as a prime influence on his work.

See also

• List of progressive rock musicians, List of popular songs based on classical music
• The Canterbury Scene

External links

• Manticornio http://manticornio.com/ (in Spanish)
• Ground and Sky progressive rock reviews http://www.progreviews.com/
• Prog Archives http://www.progarchives.com/
• MusicMoz Directory - Progressive Rock http://musicmoz.org/Styles/Rock/Progressive/
• Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock http://www.gepr.net/
• Tommy's Forest of Progressive Rock http://home.online.no/~schoenen/
• Dutch Progressive Rock Page http://www.dprp.net/
• Somethingprog http://www.somethingprog.com
• Babyblaue Seiten: Prog-Reviews http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de (in German)
• Axiom of Choice http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/jur/progrock.html
• BajaProg festival http://www.bajaprog.org/
• Proggnosis http://www.silverdb.com/Main.asp

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