Progressive rock

Progressive rock (prog for short) is a BROAD AS FUCK term for a style of rock that developed in the United States and United Kingdom in the mid-late 60s. 
== Protoprog ==
In the beginning, the rockers who were to form the earliest prog groups wanted to elevate rock, which was still then regarded as bubblegum pop noise, to high art on the level of jazz or classical music. These mfers mostly rejected the typical blues based origins of rock n roll, as well as the psychedelia that was popular at the time (although there are COUNTLESS bands that combined the two), in favor of more out there influences to create songs not yet heard before in a rock context at the time.
The Beach Boys, who were then still seen as that silly fun time band that sang about girls and surfing, released Pet Sounds in 1966, considered one of the first examples of what became progressive pop. When prog began, it was originally called progressive pop, with the "progressive" prefix to indicate that it was deviating from the usual verse chorus structure common in pop music. That same year, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention released Freak Out!, by far the ABSOLUTE CRAZIEST thing ever committed to a recording studio at the time. In 1967, the Beatles released the seminal Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which for the most part, completely kicked off the prog movement and set it in motion.
== Prog actually begins ==
In 1965 London, a band called Sigma 6, consisting of Roger Waters on bass, Nick Mason on drums, Rick Wright on keyboard, and Syd Barrett on guitar and vocals, changed their name to "The Pink Floyd", later shortened to just Pink Floyd, by far the one prog band the average person can name. Floyd released their debut, The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, in 1967, followed by A Saucerful of Secrets in 1968, by which point Syd had left because he took too much acid and was replaced by David Gilmour. Both records were pretty much pure psychedelic rock, but by Atom Heart Mother (1970) they began building their prog sound, which continued on Meddle in '71, and fully completed on The Dark Side of The Moon in 1973, which stayed on the charts for 741 GODDAMN WEEKS, from 1973 to 1988. FIFTEEN GODDAMN YEARS.
Throughout the late 60s to early 70s, several other influential prog groups began forming, one of these was King Crimson, formed in 1968 by guitarist Robert Fripp, drummer Michael Giles, lyricist Peter Sinfield, bassist and singer Greg Lake, and saxophonist Ian McDonald. They released their debut, In The Court of The Crimson King, in 1969, and it opens with the seminal 21st Century Schizoid Man, which is not only one of the all time prog classics, but considered one of the first heavy metal songs. The fact the album came out in 1969 at all, which was 10 years after 1959, when everyone was uptight and rock still sounded like Elvis, is flat out inconceivable.
Crimson followed up with In The Wake of Poseidon in 1970, which would basically be sides C and D of Court of The Crimson King if it were a double album, and Lizard in the same year, containing the 20 minute title track (surprisingly the only song of this length Crimson would ever do) which ends with a guitar solo by Fripp that sounds so ahead of it's time it's unbelievable.
By Lizard, Greg Lake had quit Crimson and had joined up with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer to form the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who were notable for being based around keyboard, bass and drums (with occasional guitar work by Lake) and being one of the first bands to make use of synthersisers as a lead instrument.
In West Germany, several bands would form out of the psychedelic scene, including Can, Faust, Neu!, Amon Duul II, Kraftwerk (who later became full on electronic), and several others that brought their own spin on the prog sound, which was named Krautrock by the tastemaking British music journalists at the time, although most people will argue with you that Krautrock is not even a real genre and that it's more a collection of bands who have very little in common with eachother.
In France, a band known as Magma formed, led by cult drumming legend Christian Vander, who created an entirely new sub genre, Zeuhl, which is "Celestial" in their constructed language, Kobaian, which their fans have actually learned to speak and converse with eachother the way Trekkies learn to speak Klingon. Zeuhl can basically be seen as the French equivalent of Krautrock, albeit much smaller as when you go on Wikipedia, they list notable bands and there are only 5 bands in the list (including Magma), 3 of which are Japanese.
Some other notable prog groups who came in during this time included Yes, Jethro Tull, who mixed prog with folk music, Camel, Gong, by far the most hippie of any prog band EVER formed, period, Genesis, Soft Machine, Kansas, Mike Oldfield, Rush, Procol Harum, Hawkwind, Gentle Giant, Van Der Graaf Generator, and many MANY more.
== Prog has been on a DOWNWARD SPIRAL and now has lost it completely ==
By the mid-late 70s, prog was beginning to wear out it's welcome, and many bands were forming who's only conception of prog was 10+ minute songs with keyboards and hammy lyrics and tunes. In Robert Fripp's words, "Once progressive rock had ceased to cover new ground - becoming a set of conventions to be repeated and imitated - the genre's premise had ceased to be progressive". King Crimson disbanded for the first of many times in 1974, a moment that Edward Macan noted as the point where all English prog bands should have immediately ceased being active musical entities. Gentle Giant attempted going pop rock in the late 70s and failed HARD and ultimately disbanded in 1980. ELP released Love Beach in 1979, which they made SOLELY to fill out contractual obligations because they owed their label another album, and it is considered one of the ULTIMATE Trainwreckords (Todd In The Shadows reference for the EPIC GAMER WIN). Prog began getting simpler as the decade went on, with bands such as Supertramp being significant examples of this. One of the biggest blows to prog's dominance was the rise of punk, which was the exact opposite of what prog was, it forewent technicality and complexity in favor of 3 chords and the truth (TV Tropes reference, Peter Griffin laugh).
Prog unofficially """died""" on August 1, 1981, the day MTV launched, which from that point music became way more flashy and image driven, and prog was simplified to almost nauseating levels, with the supergroup Asia (consisting of former members of Yes and King Crimson) being one of the big examples of what prog became in the 80s. Rush became far more new wave influenced and made way more prominent use of synths, and Genesis became flat out pop stars under Phil Collins. One band, Marillion, emerged out of the 80s prog scene and were labeled under a new sub genre, neo-prog, which was basically bands trying to emulate the 70s prog sound but with 80s production, and Marillion still possess a massive following to this day.
Flat out serious prog still possessed a huge cult following in the underground, mainly among 30 year old British dudes (who today would be called boomers by lil shitz on the mysterious 4chan) who were around during the OG prog movement and became regular attendees at all the big British psychedelic festivals, and several of the less popular bands, such as Gong and Hawkwind, were kept alive and well by the festival scene. One band to emerge out of this scene was the all instrumental Ozric Tentacles, who were primarily a psychedelic band but had strong prog leanings, who released several cassettes from 1985 to 1989 when they began releasing LPs.
King Crimson reformed in 1981 with Adrian Belew as the singer, Bill Bruford on drums from the previous lineup, and Tony Levin on the Chapman Stick, with some evident new wave influence but still grappling on hard to their prog roots.
== Prog is back ==
From the late 80s to the 2000s, prog experienced a huge resurgence, first with the formation of the progressive metal outfit Dream Theater, who released their debut, When Dream and Day Unite, in 1989, followed up in 1992 by Images and Words, which is considered a modern prog classic. In 1987, a band called Porcupine Tree was sprung up by a guy called Steven Wilson, who started the project as a one man band and eventually hired a full band.
PT went on to become one of the all time modern prog legends until disbanding in 2010. In 2001, a post-hardcore outfit, At The Drive-In, a band that still possesses a following today, unexpectedly disbanded at the height of their popularity, and out of the ashes, emerged the Mars Volta (who ARE prog despite what a certain Wikipedia rip off will tell you), a band that took prog and all of it's sub genres, completely destroyed them, and then rebuilt them for the 21st century. The partnership of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala released 6 albums between 2003 and 2012, before disbanding due to band conflicts. Another new prog band, Coheed and Cambria, came about in the 2000s, who are notable for having all their albums connect into an overarching science fiction narrative written by frontman Claudio Sanchez. Whether or not Coheed count as """true""" prog is a point of contention, as they take a lot of influence from emo and alternative, but they are doing something not many, if any, other band has done with the science fiction theme, which is exactly prog's definition, being progressive. As of now, the prog scene is in an amazing state.
Category:Genres