m C L U B – i n s p i r e d b y

m u s i c

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: Pages

About mCLUB
Long compositions, sometimes running over 20 minutes, with intricate melodies and
Featured Artists
harmonies. These are often described as epics and are the genre's clearest nod to
Music Styles
classical music. A very early example (perhaps the first multi-part suite to appear in prog Jazz
rock) is In Held Twas In I by Procol Harum, clocking in at 17:30. Classic examples Jazz History
include Pink Floyd's 23-minute Echoes, Genesis' 23-minute Supper's Ready, Jethro Latin jazz
Tull's 44 minute "Thick As a Brick", and Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans, a double- Jazz fusion
album that contains only four songs. More recent examples include the 33-minute Progressive rock
Cassandra Gemini by The Mars Volta, the 42-minute Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence by Characteristics of
Dream Theater and the 47-minute Catch 33 by Meshuggah. progressive rock
History of
Related to and overlapping with these lengthy compositions, many progressive rock progressive rock
songs are made up of shorter parts (often, but not always, explicitly called out on the The development of
track list of the album on which they appear) that in some cases could be songs in their Progressive Rock Music
own right. Often, pieces are divided into movements in the manner of classical suites. The genres of progressive
For example, Yes' Close to the Edge is divided into four parts, Rush's 2112 into seven, rock music
Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond into nine. Yes' single Soon is actually a five-
Join mClub NOW!
minute excerpt from The Gates of Delirium, which is over 20 minutes long; similarly,
parts of Jethro Tull's aforementioned Thick as a Brick have appeared as songs in their If you are so passionate in music
own right on various compilations. like me, please join us and spread
the community of true music.
Lyrics that convey intricate and sometimes impenetrable narratives, covering such Simply email me
themes as science fiction, fantasy, history, religion, war, madness, and literature. info.mclub@yahoo.co.uk
Progressive rock songs are rarely about love or sex unless dealing with them artistically, Top Posts
and are practically never about other staple subjects of popular music, such as dancing
Characteristics of progressive
or cars. o Most progressive rock bands have also avoided direct political commentary,
rock
preferring to shade their views in fictional or allegorical settings — for example, Genesis' History of progressive rock
album Selling England by the Pound is tied together by a theme of commercialism Dream Theater - 20th
versus naturalism. An exception to this rule is Pink Floyd, whose The Final Cut (1982) anniversary
unambiguously criticised Thatcherite Britain. Other notable exceptions include most of The development of
the Rock in Opposition movement, several Italian progressive rock LPs from 1970s, and Progressive Rock Music
later work by Rush. The genres of progressive rock
music
Concept albums, in which a theme or storyline is explored throughout an entire album or
series of albums, sometimes in a manner similar to a film or a play, often called "rock Recent Posts
operas " (a term popularized by The Who, though they are not generally considered a
“Kaunas Jazz 2007” EVENTS
progressive rock act). In the days of vinyl, concept albums were often two-record sets
“Kaunas Jazz” Festival
with strikingly designed gatefold sleeves. Famous examples include The Lamb Lies
“Rock Nights” invitation
Down on Broadway by Genesis, and the series of albums by Pink Floyd, starting with Visit International Kaipeda Jazz
The Dark Side of the Moon. More recent examples include Operation: Mindcrime by 2006 Festival
Queensrÿche and Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater. Cosmic Farm – Rob
Wasserman, Craig Erickson, T
Some themes of progressive concept albums include: the story of a mechanical-organic Lavitz, Jeff Sipe
chimaera, in the first half of Emerson Lake & Palmer's Tarkus; the symbolic story of two
planets where light and darkness alternates, in Le Orme's Felona e Sorona; the satyrical February 2018
and social-critic poem by a fake little genius, in Jethro Tull's Thick As a Brick; the M T W T F S S
visionary and mythological deeds of a Puerto Rico migrant, in Genesis' The Lamb Lies 1 2 3 4
Down on Broadway; the adaptation of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, in Museo Rosenbach's
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
LP with the same name, and of Darwin's The Origin of Species in Banco del Mutuo
Soccorso's Darwin. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Prominent use of instruments unusual in rock music, including electronic 26 27 28
instrumentation, as well as unusual vocal styles. Perhaps the most famous example of
« Mar
such instrumentation is the extensive use of the flute by Jethro Tull frontman Ian
Archives
Anderson. Keyboard instruments including the synthesizer, organ, piano, and Mellotron
are very common in progressive rock, much less so (though by no means unheard-of) in March 2007
other rock genres. Other examples include the use of nonwestern instruments, August 2006
particularly ethnic percussion. Gentle Giant are the progressive rock band best known for May 2006
their vocal style, though many progressive rock singers such as Peter Hammill of Van April 2006
der Graaf Generator take highly unusual approaches as well.
Categories
Related to this is the prominence of multi-instrumentalists such as Mike Oldfield, Ian
Anderson, and Neal Morse. CP radio
Dream Theater
Perhaps surprisingly, in the progressive heyday, the use of orchestras and choirs was
Meta
quite rare among the best-known progressive rock bands; the most famous examples Register
from the late 60s and early 1970s are probably the title suite from Pink Floyd's Atom Log in
Heart Mother, The Nice's Five Bridges Suite and Yes' second album Time and a Word, Entries RSS
all of which predate those bands' most successful, and arguably most progressive, Comments RSS
period. More usually, the aforementioned Mellotron was used to simulate strings or a WordPress.com
choir. Less well-known bands such as Renaissance did make extensive use of an actual
orchestra. Such instrumental choices, particularly the use of orchestras, have become
much more common in recent progressive rock.

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 (as are several of the features on this list, in fact).

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 Bourée 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. H.R. Giger's painting for Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery is one
of the most famous album sleeves ever produced, although it was censored to remove a
phallus. By way of contrast, Charisma Records allowed Paul Whitehead to produce
evocative gatefold album covers and sleeves for Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator
without interference from the record label.

The use of sound effects in compositions, otherwise known as Musique concrète. 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". The
Mars Volta make heavy use of ambient noise on their album Frances the Mute.

Exchanging of members. Though not nearly to the degree of jazz artists, there is a
tendency for members of progressive rock groups to work between bands and create
side projects. For instance, Jon Anderson of Yes sang on a King Crimson album, and
Robert Fripp of King Crimson played on two Van der Graaf Generator albums. Drummer
Bill Bruford has worked with Yes, Genesis (very briefly), King Crimson, prog supergroup
UK, and many other projects. 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. More recently, Dream Theater side projects
have come to outnumber the band's own albums, involving nearly every current and
former member of the band working with a bewildering variety of members of other
recent prog bands.
 Report this ad

Report this ad

Loading...

Leave a Reply

Enter your comment here...

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.