What makes prog. rock progessive?

[omfgzit3htrolls]

Eh?

[Scuba_Steve]

Eh?


key boards....duh.



Kidding, it usually means the closer they progress to become as complex as classical or jazz.

[omfgzit3htrolls]

Alright, thank you, that is all.

[robo2448]

Here's Med's article on prog. It should help:
http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=406837

[Otherside]

Long, boring songs with pretentious lyrics, and talent for talents sake.

Progressive in a nutshell.

[Seafroggys]

Progressive is actually regressive....the rock bands go back in time, using jazz and classical influences and ideas, to make their sound. Almost should be called Regressive Rock if you look at it that way.

[Mailman]

Prog Metal doesn't progress anywhere. Listen to dream theater from Images and Words to Octavarium. A lot of progression, eh boys?

Same with Tool etc. The same sound for 10 years.

However some prog rock did truly progress, the main band being the almighty Pink Floyd imo.

But for the most part, "prog" doesn't mean progressive anymore.

[rockinbass17]

Classical/jazz influence, odd time signatures (somtimes), unusual chord progressions, noises, very artsy, usually a spacey feel....

[guitarded_chuck]

Prog Metal doesn't progress anywhere. Listen to dream theater from Images and Words to Octavarium. A lot of progression, eh boys?

Same with Tool etc. The same sound for 10 years.

However some prog rock did truly progress, the main band being the almighty Pink Floyd imo.

But for the most part, "prog" doesn't mean progressive anymore.
Agreed.

Prog is like art rock, with jazz and blues influences.

[Scuba_Steve]

Prog is like art rock, with jazz and blues influences.


blues?


Dontcha mean classical?

[guitarded_chuck]

blues?


Dontcha mean classical?
I was thinking about Pink Floyd. More specifically, David Gilmour, who is a self proclaimed blues guitarist.

[King_Of_Terrors]

Classical/jazz influence, odd time signatures (somtimes), unusual chord progressions, noises, very artsy, usually a spacey feel....

You've got it down.

[Killtacular]

Same with Tool etc. The same sound for 10 years.
That's all well and good, except that Tool has a different sound on each album.

[lionelhutz88]

Would you guys consider the Dillinger Escape Plan to be Prog? They don't have keyboards, their songs are pretty short, and there really isn't guitar solos. But they are one of the most complex bands out there today. They can be pretty jazzy too.

[Mr Herb]

Sober aint nothing like The Patient or Thrid Eye. hard to say they havnt progressed in the last 10 years or so

[lionelhutz2.0]

yeah they are. I recently have really gotten into Calculating Infinity, and it is amazing after repeat listens. It's a challenging album though.

[Stoic]

I think there's a difference between progressive and technical.

[IAJP]

To progress means to improve, so I guess that you could say Progressive Rock's aim was to improve Rock music.

It failed though didn't it? :p

[thunderzstruck]

Progressive music is the exachange of many old ideas/chords/key signatures for new ones within a song. (Explained really crappily)

[3rdplanet]

Mullets.

I've always seen Prog. Rock as having two teirs, they crazy technical stuff, then the people trying new stuff (or new stuff by blending old stuff together), not always exclusive.

http://www.progarchives.com has a cool article on what is Prog. Rock somewhere.

[Dr. Jake Destructo]

Prog Metal doesn't progress anywhere. Listen to dream theater from Images and Words to Octavarium. A lot of progression, eh boys?

Same with Tool etc. The same sound for 10 years.

However some prog rock did truly progress, the main band being the almighty Pink Floyd imo.

But for the most part, "prog" doesn't mean progressive anymore.

1. The "progressive" isn't referring to a band over the span of a career. It refers to the style of their songs- Typically longer than normal, complex song structures, odd time signatures, varying tempos, a variety of influences...The list goes on.

2. About Tool: Even if you only look at the length of the songs when comparing Opiate to Lateralus, you can tell that they are progressively polar opposites. Then, if you were to actaully listen to them, you would realize how stupid you sound.

///

Oh, and mullets too. :p Definitely a defining feature of a prog band.

[Tarquin1986]

In a very real way th Sex Pistols were prog in their day, as they had a sound never done before.

[shamed-angel]

That's not progressiveness, that's originality.

[halfdeadhippo]

As far as I'm concerned, the "progressive" in progressive rock is referring to the song structure. The song progresses to different parts of the song, rather than repeating the same stuff over, such as a verse/chorus/verse/chorus type thing.

edit: It can also refer to the progress over an album. Rather than having an album simply be a collection of independent songs, the album would progress from one feeling to another, and even have reprises of earlier themes from other songs. A prime example of this would be Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. It progresses from one theme to another (from life in general, to time, to a reprise of life, to death, to money, etc).

[Nostalgia]

Many are filled with jazz "ish" beats and fills. Take Opeth for example, their drumming, though they get speedy through their songs, you can tell their jazz influences in their drums. They place many Hi-hat beats along with snare fills, and different sized toms for a higher pitched sound. Even a lot of their guitar work is jazz and slightly blues influenced. Another expample is off their new album Ghost reveries, in the song "hours of wealth" their is deap blues riff towards the end of the song.

This is why IMO Opeth aren't really "death metal" because aside from the vocals, they are just prog.

[repcak]

Everything you always wanted to know about progressive music :thumb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_music

[Dr. Jake Destructo]

Many are filled with jazz "ish" beats and fills. Take Opeth for example, their drumming, though they get speedy through their songs, you can tell their jazz influences in their drums. They place many Hi-hat beats along with snare fills, and different sized toms for a higher pitched sound. Even a lot of their guitar work is jazz and slightly blues influenced. Another expample is off their new album Ghost reveries, in the song "hours of wealth" their is deap blues riff towards the end of the song.

This is why IMO Opeth aren't really "death metal" because aside from the vocals, they are just prog.

The guitar-work is very folk-influenced as well. A lot more chord progressions than straight-up riffs, the solos tend to favor melody to shred, etc...In other words, Opeth are just too darn hard to classify. :p

[Darth Sidious]

would you consider Meshuggah prog? THey have a very distinctive sound of their own though.

[pep]

Long, boring songs with pretentious lyrics, and talent for talents sake.



I think you have the right definition.

[TojesDolan]

I <3 Wikipedia for being such a cool page:

Characteristics of progressive rock

There is probably no single element that is shared by all music that has been considered to be progressive rock. Still, there are certainly noticeable trends; these common, though not universal, features are:

* Long compositions, sometimes running over 20 minutes, with intricate melodies and harmonies. These are often described as epics and are the genre's clearest nod to classical music.

* Related to and overlapping with these lengthy compositions, many progressive rock songs are made up of shorter parts (often, but not always, explicitly called out on the track list of the album on which they appear) that in some cases could be songs in their own right. Often, pieces are divided into movements in the manner of classical suites.

* Lyrics that convey intricate and sometimes impenetrable narratives, covering such themes as science fiction, fantasy, history, religion, war, and madness. Progressive rock songs are rarely about love or sex and practically never about other staple subjects of popular music, such as dancing or cars.
o Most progressive rock bands have also avoided direct political commentary, preferring to couch their views in fictional or allegorical settings.

* Concept albums, in which a theme or storyline is explored throughout an entire album in a manner similar to a film or a play, often termed a "rock opera". (While not usually considered a progressive rock act, The Who's Pete Townshend created early rock operas, facetiously in "A Quick One While He's Away" and more seriously in the Tommy double album.) In the days of vinyl, concept albums were usually two-record sets with strikingly designed gatefold sleeves.

* Prominent use of instruments unusual in rock music, including electronic instrumentation, as well as Unusual vocal styles. Perhaps the most famous example of such instrumentation is the extensive use of the flute by Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson. Keyboard instruments including the synthesizer, organ, piano, Mini Moog, and Mellotron are very common in progressive rock, much less so (though by no means unheard-of) in other rock genres. Other examples include the use of nonwestern instruments, particularly ethnic percussion.
o Perhaps surprisingly, in the progressive heyday, the use of outright orchestras and choirs was quite rare among the most well-known progressive rock bands; the most famous examples from the late 60s and early 70s are probably the title suite from Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother and Yes' second album Time and a Word, both of which predate those bands' most successful, and arguably most progressive, period. More usually, the aforementioned Mellotron was used to simulate strings or a choir.

o Related to this is the prominence of multi-instrumentalists such as Mike Oldfield, Ian Anderson, and Neal Morse.
* Use of unusual time signatures, rhythmic techniques, scales, or tunings. Many pieces use multiple time signatures and/or tempi, sometimes concurrently (King Crimson's "Thela Hun Ginjeet", for example, contains passages in which some band members play in 7/8 and others in 4/4 to create an "off-balance" effect).
* An extremely wide dynamic range, with very quiet and very loud passages often occurring in the same piece of music. Use of compression to reduce this effect is much less common than in other forms of rock music. This is characteristic of music that is meant to be listened to relatively closely and for its own sake, as opposed to relatively casually or as background noise.
* Solo passages for virtually every instrument. This contributed to the fame of such performers as guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardists Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson, and drummer Neil Peart.
* Inclusion of classical pieces on albums. For example, Emerson, Lake and Palmer have performed arrangements of pieces by Copland, Bartók, Moussorgsky and others, and often feature quotes from J. S. Bach in lead breaks. Sometimes these pieces are significantly reinterpreted; Jethro Tull recorded a version of a Bourrée by Bach in which they turned the piece into a "sleazy jazzy night-club song" (in Ian Anderson's own words).
* An aesthetic linking the music with visual art, a trend started by The Beatles with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 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 for his work with Yes and Storm Thorgerson and his studio Hipgnosis for their work with Pink Floyd and others.
* The use of sound effects in compositions. This is a particular trademark of Pink Floyd with examples including the entirety of "Speak to Me", the opening track from Dark Side of the Moon, but other bands did this too; for example, sounds of warfare can be heard throughout Jethro Tull's single "Warchild".
* Exchanging of members. Like jazz ensembles, members of progressive rock bands often move between bands and create side projects. For instance, Steve Howe of Yes and Steve Hackett of Genesis recorded an album under the name GTR (for "guitar"). Drummer Bill Bruford has worked with Yes, Genesis (briefly), and King Crimson. In the 1990s, a touring version of Yes that included almost everyone who had ever been a member included two full lineups who played in various combinations "in the round" during concerts. Still more recently.


The last one is sketchy, but that's basically it. :)

[mr black]

well basicly a guitarest that does a whole lot of solos, a drummer with a kit as big as humanly possible( mike portnoy from dream theater has a kit so big he has to get up and move around it ) a singer that does basicly nothing but ruin the experience of the music and a bassist usally with a 5 to 12 string for the fun of it and yeah..go for about 8 mins or so and here we are proggresive rock :hammer:

[Det_Nosnip]

I was thinking about Pink Floyd. More specifically, David Gilmour, who is a self proclaimed blues guitarist.

Well, contrary to popular myth, Pink Floyd are/were not the only Progressive rock band, and the blues influences of Gilmour were a unique trait of PF. As far as Prog as a whole goes, it's pretty much antithetical to the blues.

[Moondog]

Progressive music to me is always a new mixture or hybrid of one or more known genres to create someting new. Experimentation and eclectic artsiness are what make a progressive band. The term progressive may not work, I just call it music for intellects.

[RideTheSpiral]

In a very real way th Sex Pistols were prog in their day, as they had a sound never done before.



Yeah you nailed it there...

[RideTheSpiral]

I <3 Wikipedia for being such a cool page:



The last one is sketchy, but that's basically it. :)




The last one is pretty much spot on...

[Artemician]

There seems to be a central division in Prog. Mainly, it started with bands trying to progress Rock into a complex and respectable genre (often taking influences from Jazz and Classical music). The songs usually had multiple parts and time signature changes along with all the other characteristics of Prog. The next group of bands, however, just went along with the characteristics of the songs and didn't try to go for the meaning behind it (progressing Rock). And thus the split was formed.