So, Who Exactly is a Member of the Big Six? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

The question of who are the big six raises a lot of other questions with regards to who influenced the creation of Progressive Rock the most, which started in the late 1960s.

If you might consider that Progressive Rock started from Psychedelia in the UK, then you could perhaps name the following as amongst the most influential:

The Beatles

The Rolling Stones

The Who

The Kinks

Pink Floyd

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For early Progressive Rock, hence most influential in the creation of this genre, you then might have the following 6:

The Moody Blues

Deep Purple

Pink Floyd

Procol Harum

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The Nice

Member of the big 10 might be more appropriate as there are for sure several other names that could be added.

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote:

Very good post by Hercules.

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for me the big six are not the most influential ones but the most interesting ones

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Hercules wrote:

Why do we need a Big Six? What mythical power does the idea have over this site?

If you want to rank bands by their influence and importance - fine. Most will be inevitably be 70s bands due to that being the heyday of prog.

There's a group that were undeniably the most influential and commercially successful:

Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull and possibly ELP and Rush,

There's a small group that were extremely influential but somewhat less commercially successful, probably epitomised mainly by King Crimson.

There's a group which were below the top tier in terms of influence and sales, but still had a large fanbase and had albums in the UK and US charts, like Manfred Mann's Earthband, Camel, Strawbs, Uriah Heep, Barclay James Harvest and Focus.

Then there's the cult bands who never really achieved major sales or chart success like Gryphon, Gentle Giant, Caravan and VDGG, though the latter seem much more popular now than in the 70s, where they were a fairly minor band. (Despite being at university right through the 70s and being heavily into prog, I never met anyone who, to my knowledge, owned a VDGG album and they were never discussed as being particularly significant, having never had a top 40 UK album. Now they seem to have many more fans than then).

Each can have his/her own "Big Six" if they wish. I'm simply not bothered. I have my own favourites and which bands others think are the "biggest" is of no consequence to me.

I look at these band lists as the one's that influenced more than anything, and continue to influence today. A definitive list is tough because you get everyone's favs that are usually obscure, cult type bands that really were never global. I really like Hercules post BTW! Clap

.

I think people list these bands to be "different".....that's all. The one band not mentioned that IMO gets a lot of reference even today is CAN, to me they should be one of these big 6, but its tough to list them....For sure they are part of the Big Seven! And I agree bands like VdGG are not only obscure but also obscure as an influence to much bands past 1980.....I don't think bands like them in the 70's influenced anybody at that time.

Why does Pink Floyd always worm it's way into this discussion.

They were a Psychedelic and then a Pop rock or maybe a Symphonic rock band, not a progressive band.

I guess I equate Prog Rock more with the Classical and Jazz influenced stuff than just the freaky stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I love Floyd, but never considered then a prog rock band.

Like the Nice, maybe they did things differently in their approach than most bands at the time which might be argued that made them progressive. I find that a bit of a stretch.

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Why do we need a Big Six? What mythical power does the idea have over this site?

If you want to rank bands by their influence and importance - fine. Most will be inevitably be 70s bands due to that being the heyday of prog.

There's a group that were undeniably the most influential and commercially successful:

Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull and possibly ELP and Rush,

There's a small group that were extremely influential but somewhat less commercially successful, probably epitomised mainly by King Crimson.

There's a group which were below the top tier in terms of influence and sales, but still had a large fanbase and had albums in the UK and US charts, like Manfred Mann's Earthband, Camel, Strawbs, Renaissance, Uriah Heep, Barclay James Harvest and Focus.

Then there's the cult bands who never really achieved major sales or chart success like Gryphon, Gentle Giant, Caravan and VDGG, though the latter seem much more popular now than in the 70s, where they were a fairly minor band. (Despite being at university right through the 70s and being heavily into prog, I never met anyone who, to my knowledge, owned a VDGG album and they were never discussed as being particularly significant, having never had a top 40 UK album. Now they seem to have many more fans than then).

Each can have his/her own "Big Six" if they wish. I'm simply not bothered. I have my own favourites and which bands others think are the "biggest" is of no consequence to me.

Edited by Hercules - September 09 2020 at 11:25

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Yeah my understanding of the big 6 is that they were the biggest selling prog acts of the very first wave of prog, similar to how the big four of thrash metal are the very best selling bands bands of the first thrash wave. King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, ELP, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd. Then the only one that strikes me as odd is KC, being all super uncommercial and all, but they also inarguably kicked the whole thing right off and even opened for The Rolling Stones in their golden period, so certainly they have the clout if not the record sales to belong.

So for the purpose of trying to define what they are, I'll say this is the order of both importance and commercial success:

1. Yes

2. Pink Floyd

3. King Crimson

4. Jethro Tull

5. Genesis

6. Emerson, Lake, & Palmer

and here is a list of six which would probably make my personal big six:

1. Rush

2. Genesis

3. Pink Floyd

4. Yes

5. King Crimson

6. Premiata Forneria Marconi

Porg for short. My love of music doesn't end with prog! Feel free to discuss all sorts of music with me. Odds are I'll give it a chance if I haven't already! :)

Pink Floyd

Genesis

Yes

King Crimson

ELP

Rush