Pink Floyd's prog period

With Rush it is generally accepted that their prog period was between 1976-1981(2112 to Moving Pictures). 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - November 04 2021 at 19:33

^Yeah, I admit it's kind of a judgement call on the Wall but I just don't really hear much that I would consider epic or prog in the traditonal sense. There's a lot of strings on it so I guess that counts for something but overall it's maybe borderline at best imo. I guess everyone will have a different cut off point. Maybe the Wall is sort of like their Duke in a way. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - November 04 2021 at 19:57

Those first couple albums are pretty clearly rooted in Psych rock, plus handing them the "prog" qualification would screw up the general consensus that In The Court Of The Crimson King was pretty much prog's album length debut (Zappa would disagree of course, and he's welcome to, because he rules, but I still would call ITCOTCK ground zero for the movement). So I'm fine saying the Syd stuff's not prog. Atom Heart Mother definitely seems to fit the bill with that sidelong title track and its orchestral sweep. I'd definitely say The Wall is prog, but I'd say the same thing about Tommy and Quadrophenia from The Who. Not every song needs to fit the bill on an individual basis for the album as a unit to qualify. ELP has Lucky Man on it for example. About The Final Cut... I don't love it, but it probably qualifies. It's certainly not pop, that's for darn sure. I haven't listened to the rest enough to say one way or the other, but I know enough to say they seem to have elements remaining which fit the bill, not to mention so much neo-prog pulls from that spacey, slow, synth laden, shimmering guitar lead aesthetic that you could argue the Floyd sound itself had become prog, regardless of song structures or lyrics.

Their whole discography. Prog is a wide umbrella. Where there may be debate is when they transitioned from one subgenre to the next. 

Sacro_Porgo wrote: Those first couple albums are pretty clearly rooted in Psych rock, plus handing them the "prog" qualification would screw up the general consensus that In The Court Of The Crimson King was pretty much prog's album length debut (Zappa would disagree of course, and he's welcome to, because he rules, but I still would call ITCOTCK ground zero for the movement). So I'm fine saying the Syd stuff's not prog. Atom Heart Mother definitely seems to fit the bill with that sidelong title track and its orchestral sweep. I'd definitely say The Wall is prog, but I'd say the same thing about Tommy and Quadrophenia from The Who. Not every song needs to fit the bill on an individual basis for the album as a unit to qualify. ELP has Lucky Man on it for example. About The Final Cut... I don't love it, but it probably qualifies. It's certainly not pop, that's for darn sure. I haven't listened to the rest enough to say one way or the other, but I know enough to say they seem to have elements remaining which fit the bill, not to mention so much neo-prog pulls from that spacey, slow, synth laden, shimmering guitar lead aesthetic that you could argue the Floyd sound itself had become prog, regardless of song structures or lyrics.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - November 04 2021 at 21:05

progaardvark wrote: Their whole discography. Prog is a wide umbrella. Where there may be debate is when they transitioned from one subgenre to the next.

If Ummagumma doesn't count as prog, I don't know what does. For me personally pretty much everything would qualify, but then I'm not the best to argue genre boundaries anyway, because I don't care much about them. Still, any serious list of clearly prog PF albums must include Ummagumma.

Progishness wrote: Ummagumma ---> Animals is probably their core prog period, and possibly also including Saucerful.

Is it important? I mean, does the (sub-)genre label you stick on it alter your appreciation of the music? Not for me, anyway, but I'm curious to know more of the motivation behind this questioning... (if it is not about appreciation, there might be another reason why this differentiation has a function that I don't see...)

I would include The Wall as Prog. It functions like The Lamb Lies Down - it tells a story through shorter pieces, but in the long run, it is the sequencing that creates its progginess rather than the individual songs. A person may extract a single favorite song and enjoy it, but to get the full experience you need to listen to the entire album. The Wall has three songs that became hits, we all know what they are, and they are great by themselves, but to listen to them in context makes their quality shine that much brighter.