Comments on: What is Prog?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:13:16 +0000

Indeed. Most of the elves and wizard stuff has always been by metal bands rather than prog ones. And that does right back to the mid-70s with Dio-era Rainbow.

By: Dave Harris

Dave Harris — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:29:27 +0000

That line “I want to hear songs about real things” is quite a classic. All you really need to do is point at Neverland, say “listen”. Job done. The most beautiful song about mundane stuff.

By: Nick from the lovely South of....

Nick from the lovely South of.... — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:54:44 +0000

i’m prog ?

Nice writing Tim!

By: Grae

Grae — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:39:01 +0000

Thanks for the great post, it’s a discussion I’ve been having recently and have yet to come to some sort of conclusion. I doubt I ever will.

A lot of the problem now lies in the diversity of music played by bands. Consider Dream Theater, if you will, a progressive band by anyone’s measure, but prog? Definitely during the ‘Scenes…’ period, maybe not, at least not during the period of Octavarium and Systematic Chaos to my mind. And then they return ‘Black Clouds…’ which is, in my opinion, more traditional ‘prog’. Are they prog rock, or prog metal… Do they veer into experimental or towards death metal? I don’t know what it’s called, I just know I like it!

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:52:57 +0000

Yes, it’s exactly like prog, then.

No, there isn’t really a prog ‘look’. Prog is defined if anything by the absence of a particular ‘look’, except you do see a lot of band t-shirts.

By: beth

beth — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:44:41 +0000

just say “Are HIM/My Chemical Romance/The Sisters of Mercy a goth band then?”, step back and watch them argue until closing time. At the end of the day, most MUSIC fans appreciate music from more than one genre anyway, I find. I suppose goth has the added issue of having a ‘look’, do prog people have a uniform/particular style of clothes?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:22:31 +0000

Not witnessed the “what is goth” arguments; Like prog it’s a broad genre that’s very fuzzy around the edges, which offends the types who want to put everything into neat little boxes. I guess it also shares with prog the negative stereotypes assigned by certain sections of the media, which might make some bands want to distance themselves from the genre.

By: beth

beth — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:59:46 +0000

is the “what is prog?” argument as heated as the “what is goth?” argument, which I am tiredly familiar with?
Genre classifications are always problematic and although they may be useful in pointing fans towards new bands which might appeal, quite often they’re not.

I wouldn’t presume to say which bands are prog or not, but I do like Opeth a lot

By: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:56:44 +0000

Prog is really currently at its most popualor since the 70′s – who would of thought ten years ago a magazine like classic rock prog would have been succesfull?

By: Chuk

Chuk — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:08:13 +0000

That’s a good post — I’m not a prog fan in general but it’s an informative overview. I still mostly think of the genre as Rush & Yes & Dream Theater.