Are you "progressive"?

Question

ACT I: In your own words, describe some characteristics of "progressive" bands.

ACT II: Using your definition, determine if each of the following bands are "progressive". (You don't have to address all of the bands, if you aren't that familiar with them; just the ones that you know).

1. Genesis

2. Kansas

3. King Crimson

4. Uriah Heep

5. Dream Theater

6. Rush

7. Pink Floyd

8. Electric Light Orchestra

9. Deep Purple

10. Type O Negative

11. Mastodon

ACT III: (BONUS QUESTION) Should a "progressive" act employ a keyboard?

thanks

Answer 1

Genesis : i have only 1 album of theirs....selling england by the pound...i really like it...it was very keyboardish and guitar oriented music...very progressive imo (heard they went into pop stuff later on)

Dream theater : (my fav) ..i was amazed with every album that they came up with...perhaps i was expecting a bit too much on their new album...but it was not bad...abt the band...as u know...they have one of the best musicians in their business...weird time signatures...heavily progressive...

Rush : they are more art prog rock than anything...i think they were amazing untill the mid 80s..peart's amazing...lifeson comes up with good stuff every now and then...definitely progressive

Pink floyd : their 1st 6 albums were very spacey...i loved it seriously..their music was way complex (for that era) ..after dark side of the moon they started to become a lot more progressive which i liked...atleast untill the wall (which is an 'ok' album according to floydian standard)

Deep purple : they were more of hard rock than anything...they did explore the prog and pop genre...but they'll be remembered as a hard rock band...blackmore's other band 'rainbow' could be called a pioneer of prog metal

EDIT: as for keyboards....i love the sound of them in this genre...its the thing that makes it sound progressive...some prog 'metal' bands omit it....but i prefer a keyboard in it

and i think i misunderstood ur questn...i described the bands instead of the general stuff (sorry)

edit 2 : id like to add some more stuff in general...prog bands dont care abt the length of the songs...just keep jamming in the studio till they think they've had enough...n they prefer staying underground...and concept albums are very common among such bands

Answer 2

Progressive rock is characterized by the use of highly orchestrated and complex musical themes (sort of a classical music incorporation into the musical theme).  the keyboard has a prominent role because of the ability of this instrument to present such complexities in many voices.  It isn't a necessity but it facilitates the presentation of the complexities of the musical themes.

There is a tendency in many progressive songs to address mythological themes or folk tales in the lyrics or the story of the song.

I do not know your band numbers 5, 10, and 11.  I wouldn't call Deep Purple a progrssive band.  Pink Floyd is really Psychedelic and not progressive in my view.  I would add the Moody Blues, Jethro Tull (in part  of its existence), and I was going to add the Heep but I see it is already there, ELP, Renaissance.

Answer 3

wheres Queensryche man????    i refuse to anser for Geof Tate

Answer 4

Progressive bands aren't afraid to take musical chances and change up instrumentation and the feel of the music.  They  go for the non-commercial and usually have the influence of keyboard but they don't necessarily have to have it.  I think what really makes them progressive is blazing their own musical path and not following one other bands have set before them.

As for the bands listed, I would say all are Progressive  (well I'm not including Mastadon in this not because I don't think they are, only because I'm not familiar with their art).  Metal can definitely be Progressive.

As I stated above, to be Progressive you don't necessarily need to use keyboards, it's just common.