So, I wanted to write
a joint piece on music with someone. My sidekick in the fight against bad
music, Mr Cooper, stepped up and agreed to join me in my quest to educate or
perhaps just bore people to tears with our witty and entertaining insights. The
subject of this piece is none other than, wait for it, Prog Rock. Why, I hear
you ask? Well, I'm not that overly familiar with it (as you'll see) and Mr C
has a lot of knowledge on it which makes it an interesting 2 fold account. I
hope....
Anyway, firstly me
and my side. What do I know about Prog Rock? Well, not much to be honest. When
I think of it this is what I see:
Rick Wakeman wearing
a cape and a wizard's hat playing the keyboard for around 2 hours straight. I
also see a young Peter Gabriel dressed as a flower, jumping around on the stage
in the early Genesis days. Or Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull standing on one leg
playing the flute. To me it's long winded keyboard solos, artsy presentations
and story telling with very obscure album artwork.
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| Check out my cape mofos... |
Progressive
rock, also known as prog rock or prog, is a rock music subgenre that originated
in the United Kingdom, with further developments in Germany, Italy, and France,
throughout the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970s. It developed from psychedelic pop
(rather than psychedelic rock, as is often stated) and originated, similarly to
art rock, as an attempt to give greater artistic weight and credibility to rock
music. Songs were replaced by musical suites that often stretched to 20 or 40
minutes in length and contained symphonic influences, extended musical themes,
philosophical lyrics and complex orchestrations. Music critics, who often
labelled the concepts as "pretentious" and the sounds as
"pompous" and "overblown," tended to be hostile toward the
genre or to completely ignore it.
Progressive rock saw a high level of popularity
throughout the 1970s, especially in the middle of the decade. Bands such as
Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were the genre's most influential groups and
were among the most popular acts of the era, although there were many other,
often highly influential, bands who experienced a lesser degree of commercial
success. The genre faded in popularity during the second half of the decade.
Conventional wisdom holds that the rise of punk rock caused this, although in
reality a number of factors contributed to this decline. Progressive rock bands
achieved commercial success well into the 1980s, albeit with changed lineups
and more compact song structures.
So I am more or less
correct. I am a Genesis fan, but I have to admit I don't actually like much of
their early stuff. It was too elaborate for me and I wasn't really into the
whole dressing up on stage and doing a concept piece. I have nothing against
the long instrumental solos in some of their songs at all. In fact, I like some
of them very much. I think it's the dressing as an old man and scaring the shit
out of the audience that gets me. Strangely Peter Gabriel didn't really do that
when he went solo did he? Perhaps he didn't feel the need to anymore as he'd
got over his nerves.
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| Peter Misunderstood Flower Power.... |
*Disclaimer - Mr C
talks about music a lot*
Prog Rock has never won the hearts of the masses, it’s never been at the forefront of any musical revolution, it’s often described as pretentious or unnecessary, created by self indulgent big headed musicians with a ‘look what I can do’ mentality and listened to by lonely wannabe rock stars alone in their bedrooms. So if this is true, why has it just refused to go away!
So many musical so called revolutions have arrived and made an
impression but then slowly dwindled, whether it be the ‘Grunge’ movement where
bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden dominated the rock charts, or
the Brit Pop movement where the famous grudge match between Damon and Liam was
deemed as important enough to make headlines (Blur and Oasis front men for
those of you that are too young or were living in a cave at the time).
So they were great times, everyone got on board, millions of albums were
sold, people changed the way they dressed and even the way they acted, but
always short lived and now classed as era’s to look back at in the history of
music.
But Prog Rock is not an era to look back at, it’s still alive and well,
evolving, changing and growing. It’s never been a favourite with the media, the
big music festivals seldom have a true Prog Rock band on and it’s never been
cool to admit allegiance to one of the many bands. So why is it still here? Does it contain some kind of magic ingredient
that the general public have been denied access to?
But before we go further, what is Progressive Rock? I don’t think
it can be summed up in one sentence, I have read countless articles on Prog
Rock, seen documentaries and attempted to read books on it.
There are many interesting opinions but I think that the common agreed
points are that it is created by instruments that are associated with rock
music. It breaks the commercially accepted rules of a radio friendly song, ie
time signatures, keys, subject matter and length, and that musically it is
clever in some way (what does clever mean is debatable in itself) There are
many definitions and I’m open to discuss!!
The origins again are debatable, for me some of the earliest signs of
Prog Rock were when The Beatles released ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’,
it broke all the rules and created the rule that’ there are no rules’, the
essence of Prog Rock. As it grew, bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes and
Rush took it to different places, even early Queen was looking like they may go
that way before they turned into a whole other monster of their own.
Bringing it up to date, some of the original bands are still around, the
90’s saw the birth of Spocks Beard, Porcupine Tree and the rise of (in my
opinion) the masters of Prog Rock Dream Theater.
Dream Theater have managed to combine virtuoso playing which is
impressive to any accomplished musicians standards, with well written songs
that stick in your head AND they look ‘cool’ like any rock band should. From 4 minute ballads, to 18 minute long tracks in multiple keys, many
time signatures and the exploration of genres from blues to classical they
truly are a band that break all the rules and for me are the perfect example of
unadulterated Prog Rock.
Not submitting to the industries rules means forfeiting radio airplay
and TV coverage, but this doesn’t seem to hinder Prog Rock and led by bands
such as Dream Theater who play larger venues every tour it seems that it is
going from strength to strength.
So maybe the reason for the seemingly immortality of Prog Rock is due
partially to the fact that it doesn’t get the commercial advertising of other
genres or movements? So if it’s not sold to the masses as the latest thing that
must be listened to, no one is persuaded to listen to it then I guess they
can’t be persuaded to stop listening either!!!!
Or maybe the fact that Prog Rock breaks all the rules means that it will
never get boring, there are no limits, literally none! So as one band dies another emerges, just as we think we have heard all
it has to offer someone produces something else, different, new, fresh and
exciting!
People constantly need new things, excitement, variation but the
reliability and consistency that gives us security and a place to belong. Prog Rock gives us all of these things, and that’s why it hasn’t died
and shows no signs of going anywhere yet!
So there you have it. Basically I
don't know much about it, but Mr C does and highly recommends Dream Theater. To
be fair, it is something that I need to go off and learn more about. Bearing in
mind that I claim to love all music, I really do need to do my homework and
buff up on these things. I really don't think you can use the excuse of not
being of that generation to ignore older music nowadays. Everything modern
pretty much has its roots in something from 'the olden days' so we should look
back and understand the links of where our favourite bands come from and what
inspires them. Perhaps that's a good explanation of Progressive Rock -
understanding where it comes from and how it shapes the future.
