Defining Prog- The Eternal Question

I can't figure out how to reply properly because I'M COMPUTER ILLITERATE AND ASLEEP WITH MY EYES OPEN.Maybe we can't define what prog rock is,but we can begin by saying what it is not to a degree.It's not about the clothes,fashion ,or lifestyle.It has always been about the music foremost.And the definition is so obscure that what used to be called a prog rock band in the 70's like The Mahavishnu Orchestra is now classified as simply jazz today.The key word to try to interpret is progressive.What music from the rock genre exhibit the qualities of being progressive-advocating progress concernig creative and experimentally new,improved and advanced modern sounds which usually means adding jazz and classical musical elements to the basic rock music format.So I agree,there really is no clear cut definition,as long as the music shows elements of progressing to a more intricate or complecated form than it's prior musical state,it can be deemed progressive.The word progressive invokes an evolving,improving,changing style of music so pinning it down to an exact starting point is not a perfectly precise thing to be able to do.24 hours from now I'll probably have a completely different answer or outlook and I hope someone could please walk me through the steps on how to respond properly when I'm more mentally prepared to try and grasp it.Thank You.

rematpac wrote: There is no confusion about the definition of prog at all! Nothing could be easier to understand! It's very simple,why people try to make something confusing about it is beyond me?Prog rock is music that is about the music only.That's it....

moshkito wrote: rematpac wrote: There is no confusion about the definition of prog at all! Nothing could be easier to understand! It's very simple,why people try to make something confusing about it is beyond me?Prog rock is music that is about the music only.That's it....   Remember you said that!   ... The music is composed and played with one thing in mind-the music itself ,nothing else.The idea is to make music that is musically good and that is the ONLY consideration. ...   That would be incorrect. Not all music is "composed" and a lot of the really early stuff was actually originally designed as an improvisation that later was concluded to be "composed" because it could be played on stage again!   It's easy, if you have a tape, and now you know what you did ... wow ... how creative!   There is a nasty stigma that something that is "improvised" is not considered music ... and one of the things that were being fought in those days, were exactly that ... and a lot of things in the really early days were about complete and outright experimentations and jams, and even the Grateful Dead used to do 6 hour concerts as late as possible and create many moods and things that most bands went on to do and try themselves ... but ... this "law" concept that things have to be composed is inacurate, because once you grab a handle on what you do, ANYONE can scribble it down on paper ... but no one was sitting there and writing the notes for "In a Gadda Da Vida" on paper because we were all too stoned enjoying the trip ... but that's not to say that the musicians did not know what they were playing because the German krautrock scene quickly disproves that and so did other scenes, even in France ... not to mention the exprimental nature of the arts in France ... you obviously have never heard of Godard, and he is a total parallel to the Berlin'os and their anti-western music ideas!   Progressive music, never was music for music's sake, or art for art's sake (thank you 10CC) ... it was no different than anything else out there, for the time and place ... with the blatant exception that we continue to discuss this and totally ignore the rest of the arts, the time and the place it was happening. If you do this parallel with the arts, the continuation and study of this illuminates a lot more than it hides ... but it takes the open mindedness and studiousness of many of us here ... and I sincerely doubt that most here are willing ...

Pedro, this is Paul

rematpac wrote: when a senior member.

Hey, you're going to be a senior member in 41 posts - it's not a badge of office - it's an automatic title change after 100 posts.

Dean wrote: Pedro, this is Paul   Paul, this is Pedro    You two are going to get along real swell.

sararocksprog wrote: That's good to know about the # of posts elevating your status. I like it!

rematpac wrote: Them that do,do;them that can't do,teach;and them that can't teach ctiticize.And that's all you can do since you undoubtably can't play a note of real music.YOU are the failure.I just spent 2 hours looking through internet files on typos for Karn Eval 9 to try and solve the mystery.I found nothing to explain my paradox.I even contacted Greg Lake himself and may hopefully hear back from him someday.When I google Karn Eval 9,there are many websites with that spelling reffering to ELP.You can't tell me I got the one typo album and nobody else did.Since all you're capable of is to critisize others,you should have the solution.You are the failure and all you can do is print fail to someone else to make yourself feel like you're important.What a pathetic sick joke!

Dean wrote: Snow Dog wrote: rematpac wrote: Them that do,do;them that can't do,teach;and them that can't teach ctiticize.And that's all you can do since you undoubtably can't play a note of real music.YOU are the failure.I just spent 2 hours looking through internet files on typos for Karn Eval 9 to try and solve the mystery.I found nothing to explain my paradox.I even contacted Greg Lake himself and may hopefully hear back from him someday.When I google Karn Eval 9,there are many websites with that spelling reffering to ELP.You can't tell me I got the one typo album and nobody else did.Since all you're capable of is to critisize others,you should have the solution.You are the failure and all you can do is print fail to someone else to make yourself feel like you're important.What a pathetic sick joke! Wrong thread. Wrong planet.

Why don't you check up on just one thing I ever said to see if it's true or not?it's so little work and aren't you even curious that you might have been completely wrong about me?No ,you won't.Because then you'd have to face the truth about yourself.