Prog - Songs with no structure doesn't make it prog.

[WormShake]

We all know modern prog is full of wanking, but let's discuss some of the more structured stuff. If you have a prog project also share it! What are some charecteristics that make you label something as progressive? Or maybe I should say listenable progressive music. Some could say countless tempo amd time sig changes make something prog, or straight polyrhythms. I think what makes good prog for me is, interesting chord inversions, rate of how quickly or slowly chords change, sudden reharmonization of a repeated section, and actually building tension and releasing.

https://youtu.be/uEZHcQEquS8

 

[The Shadow]

I always thought one of the things that made prog rock prog rock was the fact that it was more structured and layered, having sections and movements like in classical pieces.

Unfortunately a lot of "prog" artists get lost in the technical wankery and miss out on the point that you're still supposed to produce a cohesive piece of music that's engaging to the audience.

 

[WormShake]

A piece that perfectly describes prog to me is "Close To The Edge". I think technical wankery can fit in a prog album in small aspects, putting a cacophony in between movements or songs can be interesting, but I don't think a whole song dedicated to wanking is enjoyable.

 

[ConcernedAnon]

I don't know much about modern prog, but what about Camel? I really dig their music

 

[The Shadow]

A piece that perfectly describes prog to me is "Close To The Edge". I think technical wankery can fit in a prog album in small aspects, putting a cacophony in between movements or songs can be interesting, but I don't think a whole song dedicated to wanking is enjoyable.

There are a lot of different ways one can look at prog, and different groups would have different things they'd focus on. Unfortunately a lot of people just associate the genre with long and self-indulgent soloing and overly long songs. Parts of this might be true, but a good portion of prog is intended to be listened to as whole albums rather than in "singles".

Along with that, I associate different bands with different elements of prog. Pink Floyd, for example, I think of for its strongly textured music with that thick keyboard, added sound effects, and Gilmour's effects-processed guitars. Meanwhile I think of Jethro Tull for Ian Anderson's unusual vocal phrasing and unique instrumentation (flute and otherwise).

 

[WormShake]

There are a lot of different ways one can look at prog, and different groups would have different things they'd focus on. Unfortunately a lot of people just associate the genre with long and self-indulgent soloing and overly long songs. Parts of this might be true, but a good portion of prog is intended to be listened to as whole albums rather than in "singles".

Along with that, I associate different bands with different elements of prog. Pink Floyd, for example, I think of for its strongly textured music with that thick keyboard, added sound effects, and Gilmour's effects-processed guitars. Meanwhile I think of Jethro Tull for Ian Anderson's unusual vocal phrasing and unique instrumentation (flute and otherwise).

True I guess it's called progressive for that reason lol. When everything starts sounding the same it loses the progressiveness.

 

[SakuraRose]

I don't know much about modern prog, but what about Camel? I really dig their music

Spot on - I really can't get enough of their concept album "Stationary Traveller", and "West Berlin" is always on heavy repeat in my house.

I'm a big prog fan, especially when it comes to The Alan Parsons Project or Yes. I can't really contribute about technical wankery, other to say that I am very comfortable in my appreciation of Dad Music (mostly because I am old).

For modern prog-y ish stuff, I adore The Program Initiative, but you really have to see them live to get the best experience as it's heavily tied into the visuals as well.

 

[The Shadow]

Spot on - I really can't get enough of their concept album "Stationary Traveller", and "West Berlin" is always on heavy repeat in my house.

I'm a big prog fan, especially when it comes to The Alan Parsons Project or Yes. I can't really contribute about technical wankery, other to say that I am very comfortable in my appreciation of Dad Music (mostly because I am old).

For modern prog-y ish stuff, I adore The Program Initiative, but you really have to see them live to get the best experience as it's heavily tied into the visuals as well.

I associate the technical wankery more with Prog Metal to be honest. Dream Theater is kind of insufferable to me because it just devolves into Petrucci and company seeing how fast they can play some weird scale or something. Meshuggah has weird rhythms but they just sound like a slightly off groove metal band to me. Both bands seem to be more into the technical aspects of prog rather than using it to actually create complete pieces of art.

 

[Raging Capybara]

http://www.progarchives.com/

This site has a lot of detailed subgenre categorized, you can see all of them on the top of the page. I mostly agree with their autistic definitions.

And I agree that the technical snoozfest is more prevalent in the progressive metal subgenre. I personally don't listen to any kind of metal because it's a gay style of music, but progressive metal in particular is a whole new level of faggotry.

My favorite styles are Italian prog and the good old symphonic prog. And I like some modern stuff, I'm not a 70s purist.

I posted in another thread my favorite albums, they're all prog. "Skymind - Taal" is a modernish one, from 2003. These fuckers are so obscure they don't have a wikipedia entry.