Progressive rock was one of the most prominent and unique styles of the 1970s. It crossed over from psychedelic music of the late 1960s.
Guitars with many strange different effects, mythical and nonsensical lyrics, heavy use of studio effects such as delay and reverb, instruments not usually heard in rock music like wind instruments, eastern instruments like tabla drums and sitars, incorporation of genres such as jazz and classical are some of the characteristics often heard in progressive rock. Prog rock songs often avoided the typical verse chorus structure of popular music songs, by extending sections or exaggerating dynamics to increase contrast in sections.
I believe progressive rock was at its peak during the 1970s, many great albums were released in this time such as Pink Floyd’s famous ‘Dark side of the moon’, King Crimson’s ‘In the court of the crimson king’, and Yes’s ‘Close to the edge’. It was not unusual for albums to have songs over six minutes in length in fact ‘Close to the edge’s title track went for nearly twenty minutes.
Groups of songs were often joined together by a historical or mythical theme to create a concept album. Some examples of well known concept albums are: ‘The Wall’ by Pink Floyd, and ‘Thick as a Brick’ by Jethro Tull.
Many other genres have incorporated progressive elements into their music, a number of sub genres of progressive rock now exist many of which were popular during the 1970s such as: space rock, progressive folk, art rock, psychedelic rock and krautrock.
Prog rock died a painful death in the late 1970s when punk rock came along and virtually told the prog rockers with their long songs and extended guitar solos to piss off. Punk music was short, loud, fast and aggressive, and was almost the opposite of progressive rock.
For a timeline and more detailed information about prog rock, check out
http://www.progressiverock.com/timeline.php
Woah awesome, I can't believe there's actually other prog fans out there around uni. Those three albums are all absolutely amazing, as are a plethora of others which I hope you talk about in time. Check out our blog (Group 6) for many awesome references and namechecks of those classic bands, as well as their 90s inspirees.
ReplyDeleteGreat post (you might just have the first out-of-group comment in the whole course, triumphs like that are rare for us prog folk, I know how much they often mean :P)
While most agree progressive rock reached its' peak in the 70s, neo-prog in the 80s and progressive metal in the 90s kept the genre going, as well as other (non-metal) artists such as Anglagard and Flower Kings.
ReplyDeleteWith the success in recent years of The Mars Volta, post-OK Computer Radiohead and Porcupine Tree, there is in a way a prog resurgence. The internet has also played a big part, connecting listeners with likeminded artists. I've bought at least three albums in the past year I would've never known about if it weren't for the internet.
Hopefully you'll review some King Crimson soon. :D
Thanks for the comment James, yeah im a huge prog and fusion fan.
ReplyDeleteNathan, I still think prog rock died after the 70s. Like you mentioned, many metal bands tried to incorporate progressive elements, the results are terrible genres like math metal, and dull bands such as Tool.
Yeah, Radiohead and Mars Volta are two amazing bands that have succesfully revived the art of prog rock. Despite this, progressive rock has never experienced the success it did in the 1970s.
Hey Oliver..
ReplyDeleteThis would be a good post to talk about the Drugs/Trips of the 1970's.. lol..