Is Pink Floyd prog rock?

"The term art rock has been employed to describe several works of Rock music developed right after the 1960s Psychedelic Rock explosion." [RYM]

Hard to put Floyd in this category since they are front and center as well as a downright canonical example of Psychedelic Rock, at least in the British version of Psychedelic Rock. This logically swoops KrautRock up in Art Rock too, btw.

"Ever since its beginnings, art rock has shared connections, musical ties and even presents apparent overlaps with Experimental Rock and Progressive Rock (eventually also bearing a relationship with styles like Art Pop, Glam Rock, Krautrock and Jazz-Rock). While art rock strives to find a level of complexity similar to the one present in these two affiliated genres, it generally features a mix of rock music that tends to follow certain Pop-based structures or patterns along with the aforementioned set of eclectic influences and certain degree of complexity and conceptuality, in contrast to the more classical/jazz-mimicking or inspired patterns of prog suites, or the more radical and angular experimental rock." [RYM].

Atom Heart Mother and Meddle are classical-inspired suites. True, there are more traditional song-based pieces the same albums. However, Harold the Barrel is on the same album as Fountain of Salmacis. Maybe Genesis isn't Prog either.





Edited by HackettFan - April 24 2020 at 15:35

HackettFan wrote: Progosopher wrote: And this is all predicated by what you mean by 'Prog.'  And by what one means by Art Rock.

True. Art Rock can by synonymous with Prog in some models, and as I said, Art Rock and Prog are not mutually exclusive terms, or I should say not necessarily depending on the definition. At the least, they overlap.

Here's the definition of Art Rock used at rateyourmusic (I would have my own elongated, verbose version, which would overlap with that, but I'm too lazy to think and type that out).

rateyourmusic wrote: The term art rock has been employed to describe several works of Rock music developed right after the 1960s Psychedelic Rock explosion. Following on the heels of this phenomenon, art rock has been the result of musicians developing an interest towards a handful of forms of music out of the boundaries of rock and, in general terms, making an attempt to break away as much as possible from the constrains imposed by Rock & Roll (or from the roots of rock itself, which, in turn, inspired genres like Blues Rock, Country Rock or U.S. Folk Rock). A non-musical factor that could explain this development is the conscious transition that certain rock (and non-rock) artists made from singles-based music towards a bigger development of the album as a cohesive lyrical and thematic whole (an important step towards the popularization of the so-called concept album) as shown by the 1966–1967 set of examples like Pet Sounds, Freak Out!, The Who Sell Out or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (which can be counted as forerunners of later art rock). The Velvet Underground & Nico, which interpolated raw Garage Rock and psychedelia with lengthy Modern Classical-inspired drone and noise passages, unorthodox guitar tunings with heavy use of feedback, and subject matter generally centered around stark lyrical topics (all tied in with elaborate pop art-inspired imagery and live performances) is considered by critics and fans as the starting point of art rock. This template of limit-breaching rock music, concept-oriented LPs and complex live performances would be the basis for many artists during the 70s that added various influences to this archetype, including Jazz, Western Classical Music, Funk, avant-garde and early Electronic and Ambient music (and even instrumentation typical of some of these styles). Examples of art rock musicians during this stage include Roxy Music (along with the solo careers of Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera, as well as the Roxy-related 801), Pink Floyd, Station to Station/Berlin trilogy-era David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Barclay James Harvest, Steve Harley/Cockney Rebel and ex-Velvet Underground members Lou Reed and John Cale. Ever since its beginnings, art rock has shared connections, musical ties and even presents apparent overlaps with Experimental Rock and Progressive Rock (eventually also bearing a relationship with styles like Art Pop, Glam Rock, Krautrock and Jazz-Rock). While art rock strives to find a level of complexity similar to the one present in these two affiliated genres, it generally features a mix of rock music that tends to follow certain Pop-based structures or patterns along with the aforementioned set of eclectic influences and certain degree of complexity and conceptuality, in contrast to the more classical/jazz-mimicking or inspired patterns of prog suites, or the more radical and angular experimental rock. After the Punk Rock explosion of the second half of the 1970s, art rock dissolved, during the following decades, into other forms of rock music, including (but not limited to): Post-Punk, New Wave, Art Punk, and Post-Hardcore. The 1990s and 2000s would then see a series of newer bands taking inspiration from the musical and conceptual leanings of 60s/70s art rock acts (along with other influences) and as such, groups like late-90s/early-00s Radiohead, The Mars Volta, TV on the Radio, dEUS, АукцЫон [Auktyon], and The Mollusk-era Ween have been commonly credited with reviving popular interest in the genre into the new millennium.

PA, by the way, for those who might remember, used to have an Art Rock category.

Edited by Logan - April 24 2020 at 14:58

Progosopher wrote: And this is all predicated by what you mean by 'Prog.'

And by what one means by Art Rock.

How can they not be ??

"Prog" maybe not, but  it is indeed "Progressive." 

The first bands I come to think of when someone says prog are Genesis, Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer. I guess for many people prog more or less means symphonic rock. In Denmark at least, the term 'symphonic rock' was used most frequently in the 70's and 80's. The word progressive at that time was mostly associated with something left wing (bands like Skousen & Ingemann, Røde Mor, Agitpop...). It must have been the same in Sweden where left wing rock of the 70's is commonly labelled "progg", or "den proggressive musikrörelsen" (the progressive music movement).


Edited by The Anders - April 24 2020 at 13:06

dougmcauliffe wrote: Can we just please obliterate the mindset that prog needs to have odd times. f**ks sake!

I believe prog does need some odd time signatures to be true prog not many but a few more than Pink Floyd demonstrate. 

Can we just please obliterate the mindset that prog needs to have odd times. f**ks sake! 

Is the Earth round?

And this is all predicated by what you mean by 'Prog.'