Progressive Rock

[KristianJ]

Guys, can we please be a bit more tolerant of people's musical tastes, and not show any sort of disdain for members who might not like those styles we like listening to? Thanks

 

[oh_polka_me]

What is it? They have the "requirements" for that sort of genre.

Urbandictionary.com has this to say about prog rock:

"A kind of music, usually typified by very long songs with complex structures and time signatures. It started with bands like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, etc, and bands like Dream Theatre, Opeth, The Mars Volta and Tool all have strong prog influences, making the old prog stereotype of a middle-aged bearded man in a wizard outfit tediously [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] off his guitar pretty much redundant...."

The term "progressive" also implies that these bands are often changing their sounds, usually not bound to a single song style.

The reason Chevelle can be misnamed "progressive" is because people sometimes compare it to Tool, who is, well, prog influenced. Pretty much all of Chevelle's songs are very basic, they all sound basically the same, and sometimes they do sound like Tool copies. I'm not saying Chevelle is bad, just clarifying for genre's sake.


Progressive rock often crosses the boundaries into art rock, not that there are concrete boundaries....

 

[stonetoflesh]

no if something is good you dont have to give it time.its good from the first second you hear it.thats like telling your mom you dont like something and then she says "youll learn to like it".

If I had heard Yes or ELP as a 16-year-old high school student I would have laughed, ridiculed whoever had suggested listening to that, and reached for the Slayer, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, etc. Funny how things change... You'll see though that over time your musical tastes will change and mature (to one degree or another) as you do, and that things you didn't like at 16 might be really cool at 26. This isn't to say that you'll "see the light" and become a zealous prog-rock disciple; maybe you'll be drawn towards Bulgarian folk music or something random like that. (Don Ellis, anyone?) Just speaking from my own experiences, take it as you will...

 

[Gaston]

I'm on a progressive rock website called "progarchives.com" and man do we get all types there. Mostly immature 16 year olds who just started listening to prog but who don't really understand it yet and aged, bloat headed dinosaurs who were around during the original prog movement (late 60s)

I'm sort of in between. I think the progarchives forum has disintigrated over the past year into squabbling ridiculous people arguing about whether or not Greg Lake is the best looking in prog, whether Phil Collins is a sellout (of course we know the answer to that) or whether or not Radiohead is prog (obviously)

On the other hand, to be able to discuss prog here at the CF is pretty darn awesome. I don't think Jon Anderson worships the sun, though yes he is pretty new agey (whatever that means) Rick Wakeman is a Christian so right off the bat Yes is better than most just because of him. Here's some of my favourites:

Yes, Rush (obviously cuz I'm a canuck), Radiohead, ELP, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Glass Hammer, King Crimson (for that dark side of me) and speaking of dark sides, Pink Floyd, Alan Parson's Project and of course the crazy world of erm, Frank Zappa...

I don't like progmetal at all. KC and Rush are about as heavy as I can get but that's because they're more symphonic (at least the earlier KC). I was raised on classical music so I can see where my prog fixation comes from.


Cheers,
Gaston

 

[drew.dominguez]

I'm on a progressive rock website called "progarchives.com" and man do we get all types there. Mostly immature 16 year olds who just started listening to prog but who don't really understand it yet and aged, bloat headed dinosaurs who were around during the original prog movement (late 60s)

Nice...

I'm not one of those, I don't think.

Gaston, I love ProgArchives. Keep up what ever you guys are doing over there. I do the prog section of digitaldreamdoor.com and couldn't do that good of a job without progarchives.

-peace

 

[Gaston]

Nice...

I'm not one of those, I don't think.

Gaston, I love ProgArchives. Keep up what ever you guys are doing over there. I do the prog section of digitaldreamdoor.com and couldn't do that good of a job without progarchives.

-peace

Yeah well I should have been more descriptive, it's the general forum section that gets all the types. The forums are just your regular type. The site itself is amazing. I'll have to check out the digitaldreamdoor drew!

Gaston

PS what's your handle on the progarchives forum if you're even on the forums at all?

 

[cygnusx1]

although I like many styles of music and Rock covers so many styles I have to say my main enjoyment has been from prog-rock , it is bands like Yes ELP , Rush , Genesis , Pink Floyd that really I have had the best and longest P )listening experiences with ....... Prog is great if you have a liking for some classical music but are keen on ideas , sounds and lyrics ..... many prog acts are succesful because the mix styles , but invariably the musicianship is paramount , most people who dig prog -rock will also be into playing some instrument , and go see the spectacular Dream Theater live , and most of the audience are musicians


Yes , Rock is great , and prog is the cherry on the cake as far as I am concerned , just try some , but don't expect it to work like other rock , it just takes a little longer to figure out what is going on.....

greetings cygnus

 

[oh_polka_me]

most people who dig prog -rock will also be into playing some instrument

This is very a true statement.

 

[HaloRoundMyHead]

Well, Porcupine Tree or Steven Wilson the creator of it, is on the cutting edge of Rock/Prog etc. Not sure of his religion - maybe Jewish as he toured and made an album - Blackfield - with a Jew last year.

PT's new album is "Deadwing" - deadwing dot com - and you can find samples of the songs also on real tones for your cell phone here - mobile dot bannananetwork dot com/search dot asp?searchstring=porcupine+tree - They are all sold out of UK CDs so I guess you have to go to amazon preorder and wait.

I know Steven Wilson visits brainwashed dot com (the most critical of underground (UK?/US?) muzak critics) to appraise underground (atheistic?) recordings and maybe get some new ideas/sounds. For the most part, I think Porcupine Tree has their own unique sound which is very rare if you listen to the radio. Some ppl have compared them to what Pink Floyd would be if they were able to stay young and united.

 

[Gaston]

Well, Porcupine Tree or Steven Wilson the creator of it, is on the cutting edge of Rock/Prog etc. Not sure of his religion - maybe Jewish as he toured and made an album - Blackfield - with a Jew last year.

PT's new album is "Deadwing" - deadwing dot com - and you can find samples of the songs also on real tones for your cell phone here - mobile dot bannananetwork dot com/search dot asp?searchstring=porcupine+tree - They are all sold out of UK CDs so I guess you have to go to amazon preorder and wait.

I know Steven Wilson visits brainwashed dot com (the most critical of underground (UK?/US?) muzak critics) to appraise underground (atheistic?) recordings and maybe get some new ideas/sounds. For the most part, I think Porcupine Tree has their own unique sound which is very rare if you listen to the radio. Some ppl have compared them to what Pink Floyd would be if they were able to stay young and united.

I feel Radiohead is more representative of the Floyd nowadays than PT and that's because PT's not mainstream. They're both equally as experimental except compare an album like Animals to Hail to the Theif. Virtually the same type of concept.

Also, the main point. You can't forget that all those proggers back in the day were pop music!!!

While I love Porcupine Tree, I think Radiohead is a smidgeon better, both musically and conceptually.


Gaston

 

[stonetoflesh]

For the most part, I think Porcupine Tree has their own unique sound which is very rare if you listen to the radio. Some ppl have compared them to what Pink Floyd would be if they were able to stay young and united.

Haven't listened to Deadwing, but I imagine it's probably of the usual high caliber for PT. PT definitely has their own sound, IMHO the earlier PT stuff seemed much more influenced by Floyd (esp. mid-70s) than their more recent material (In Absentia, Lightbulb Sun, etc.) but it's all good...

Musically, Radiohead and Porcupine Tree would probably make for a nice shared billing... We could watch the prog snobs and the indie snobs in the audience sneer at each other all night!