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Characteristics

Progressive rock is not crisply delineated from other genres, but is more likely than other types of popular music to feature characteristics such as:

Form

Progressive rock songs either avoid common popular music song structures of verse-chorus form, or blur the formal distinctions by extending sections or inserting musical interludes, often with exaggerated dynamics to heighten contrast between sections. Classical forms are often inserted or substituted, sometimes yielding entire suites, building on the traditional medleys of earlier rock bands. Progressive rock songs also often have extended instrumental passages, marrying the classical solo tradition with the improvisational traditions of jazz and psychedelic rock. All of these tend to add length to progressive rock songs, which may last longer than twenty minutes.^[5]

Timbre

Early progressive rock groups expanded the timbral palette of the then-traditional rock instrumentation of guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, and drums by adding instruments more typical of jazz or folk music, such as flute, saxophone, timpani, and violin, and more often than not used electronic keyboards, synthesizers, and electronic effects. Some instruments – most notably the Hammond organ, the Moog synthesizer, and the Mellotron – have become closely associated with the genre.^[5]

Rhythm

Drawing on their classical, jazz, folk and experimental influences, progressive rock artists are more likely to explore complex time signatures such as 5/8 and 7/8.^[6]

Tempo, key and time signature changes are very common in progressive rock.^[7] Progressive rock generally tends to be freer in its rhythmic approach than other forms of rock music. The approach taken varies, depending on the band, but may range from regular beats to complex time signatures.^[5]

Melody and harmony

In progressive rock, the blues inflections of mainstream rock are often discarded. Progressive bands drew inspiration from a wide range of genres, ranging from classical to jazz, and, in later works, world music.

The genre abandoned many of rock's traditional characteristics, including a standard verse-chorus structure, and often replaced the electric guitar with more layered and complex instrumentation to create longer compositions.^[8]

Melodies are more likely to be modal than based on the pentatonic scale, and are more likely to comprise longer, developing passages than short, catchy ones.^[5]

Concept albums

Concept albums are albums that are built around a theme or a story, and they are common to progressive rock.^[3][9]

Concept albums may have included the historical, fantastical, and metaphysical, and even, in the case of Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick (1972), for parodying concept albums.^[5]

Concept albums became popular after the releases of the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! (1966), the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Who's The Who Sell Out (1967) and The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed (1967).

Notable progressive rock concept albums include Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus (1971), Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979), Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973), Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), and Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick (1972).^{[citation needed]}

Lyrical themes

Progressive rock bands tend to avoid typical rock/pop subjects such as love, dancing, etc. Unlike other rock genres, they also deliberately avoid typical themes appealing to youth such as sex, violence, nihilism, rebellion, and the macabre., rather inclining towards the kinds of themes found in classical literature, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, social commentary or all of these.^[4][10][11]

For example, Peter Gabriel of Genesis often wrote surreal stories to base his lyrics around, sometimes including theatrical elements with several characters, while Roger Waters of Pink Floyd combined social criticism with personal struggles with greed, madness and death.^{[5][unreliable source?]}

One side epics

One side epics probably had their birth in the The Mothers of Invention album Absolutely Free, which featured one epic composition in each side of the record ("Absolutely Free" and "The M.O.I. American Pageant"), each one divided in smaller songs. Even earlier, in 1966, Freak Out! featured the multi-part song The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet occupying the whole Side four of the album. Other early examples include the 17 minute epic "In Held 'Twas in I" by Procol Harum, Ars Longa Vita Brevis by The Nice, and "Rivmic Melodies", by Soft Machine. A perfect example of the marriage of rock and classical themes is the Song of Scheherazade by Renaissance. The earliest one side epic from an already famous band, was released in 1969, when the Beatles included the 16 minute Abbey Road Medley on the Abbey Road album.

Soon later bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis began to use this technique for later compositions such as "Echoes", "Close to the Edge", "Tarkus", and "Supper's Ready", respectively. Some artists pushed the limit to the whole album, as Jethro Tull did with Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973) or Mike Oldfield did with Tubular Bells (1973).