Hello everybody!

I'm new at the forum and firstly i would like to greet you all!

My first Question : What Defines progressive music?

How do we know what is prog and what is not? Are there any boarders?

My second question : Could you suggest me some albums ? (except Dream Theater , Pain of Salvation and Fates Warning)

Thank you in advance!

I can suggest some old stuff from the seventies. These were the first "prog" albums I got into when I was a kid:

Moving Waves- Focus

Octopus- Gentle Giant

200 years After The Last War- Omega

Lark's Tongues In Aspic- King Crimson

Birds- Trace

Space Ritual- Hawkwind

The Inner Mounting Flame- The Mahavishnu Orchestra

UFO- Guru Guru

There. My beginner's Guide to "Prog- rock.

As for your first two questions I think that Peter Rideout is more qualified to respond in that area!

Don't know about a defintion ,that's tough! Keyboards tends to feature heavily and the music often contains complex instrumentation and time structures with abstract lyrics.I would rate the following albums as important in the it's development:

The Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) 

The Nice - Ars Longa Vita Brevis (1968)

King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson king (1969)/In The Wake Of Poseidon (1970)

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Tarkus (1971)

Yes - Close To The Edge (1972)

Definition of the prog-genre : a genre which has a rock( or metal) base but extends its boundaries to classical music and/or jazz.

• Recommended metal-prog albums :

          -Watchtower : "Control and resistance" (1989)

          -Queensryche : "Rage for order" (1986)

          -Ark : "Ark" (1999)

          -Ice Age : "the great divide" (1999)

          -Fates Warning : "Perfect symmetry" (1989)

          -John Arch : "A twist of fate" (2003)

          -Enchant : "Wounded" (1996)

• Recommended metal-fusion albums :

          -Spastic Ink : "Ink complete" (1997) [feat. Ron Jarzombek of Watchtower]

           -Jordan Rudess : "Feeding the wheel" [2001, current DT keyboardist,

                                       with Steve Morse, Terry Bozzio...]

          -Liquid Tension Experiment : "LTE 1" (1998) [members of DT]

          -Derek Sherinian : "Planet X" (1999) [former DT keyboardist, with

                                         drummer extraordinaire Virgil Donati]

• Recommended pomp-prog albums :

          -Rush : "Power windows" (1985)

          -Saga : "Heads or tales" (1983)

• Recommended symphonic prog-rock albums :

          -Genesis : "A trick of the tail" (1976)

          -Yes : "Close to the edge" (1972)

           -Camel : "Moonmadness" (1976, or for a more up-to-date sound : "Dust

                         and dreams", 1991)

          -Emerson, Lake & Palmer : "Tarkus" (1972, very symphonic) or "Brain

                                                     salad surgery" (1973,more experimental)

          -UK : "UK" (1978)

          -Transatlantic : "Bridge across forever" (2001)

• Recommended hard-prog albums :

          -Van Der Graaf Generator : "Pawn hearts" (1971)

          -King Crimson : "Red" (1974)

• Recommended folk-prog albums :

           -Jethro Tull : "Thick as a brick" (1972)

          -Renaissance : "Sheherazade and other stories" (1975)

• Recommended continental prog albums :

           -Le Orme : "Felona e Serona" (1973)

          -Reale accademia di musica : "Reale accademia di musica" (1972)

          -Locanda delle fate : "forse le lucciole non si amano piu" (1977)

           -Los Jaivas : "Alturas de Macchu Picchu" (1981)

          -Sagrado Coraçao da terra : "Farol da liberdade" (1991)

• Recommended neo-prog albums :

          -Marillion : "Misplaced childhood" (1985)

          -IQ : "The seventh house" (2000)

• Recommended canterbury albums :

          -Caravan : "In the land of grey and pink" (1971)

          -Happy The Man : "Crafty hands" (1978)

          -National health : "Missing pieces" (1994, tracks from 1974-1975 sessions)

• Recommended electronic/New Age albums :

          -Synergy : "Electronic realizations for rock orchestra" (1975)

           -Patrick Forgas : "Synchronicité" (2002)

          -Robert Fripp : "A blessing of tears" (1994)

          -Jon Anderson : "Olias of sunhillow" (1976)

          -Tangerine dream : "Tangram" (1980)

          -Mike Oldfield : "Ommadawn" (1975)

• Recommended space-rock albums :

          -Gong : "Angel's egg (1973)

          -Pink Floyd : "Dark side of the moon" (1973)

• Recommended fusion-jazz albums :

          -Bruford : "One of a kind" (1979)

          -Brand X : "Moroccan roll" (1977)

          -Dixie Dregs : "Unsung heroes" (1981)

          -Kenso : "Yume no oka" (1991)

• Recommended Zeuhl albums :

           -Magma : "Mekanikh destruktiw kommandoh" (1973)

          -Magma : "Köhntarkösz" (1974)

• Recommended art-pop albums :

           -Kevin Gilbert : "Thud" (1994)

          -Kate Bush : "Hounds of love" (1985)

          -Tori Amos : "Under the pink" (1994)

• Recommended new wave of american prog albums :

          -Echolyn : "Suffocating the bloom" (1992)

           -IZZ : "I move" (2002)

I won't recommend albums for other sub-genres (ambient, RIO, krautrock, art-rock) as I don't know them enough to do so.

To be honest all these sub genres confused me indeed.

The good thing is that with the disc suggested i can understand what type of music each genre includes :) and the best is that as soon as i put my aDSL line i will have  a lot of bandwidth at my dissposal :)

At first, prog music to me is smth complex, strange and unusual. It shuold involve polystilistic and innovative tendencies. But i don't like modern prog and prefer good old 69s 70s bands. Sometimes it's hard to categorize their music but usually it has lots of prog elements.

My advices

Yes - Fragile. Peter Hammill - The chameleon... Jethro Tull - Aqualung. Catapilla - S/t. There are so much good progressive in 70s

I think prog from the seventies is the best. As said before (by others), you should really try an album from Jethro Tull (aqualung or Thick As A Brick)

have fun!

Thank you all for your answers. I am aware of JT since i got to High School :)

Having listened to Dream Theater , Pain Of Salvation , Jethro Tull , Pink Floyd , Genesis, Fates warning Rush, Queensryche and some other "classic" progressive groups, i would like to get deeper and come in touch with other progressive groups that are not well-known but they have good music (ie. Van der Graaf Generator and Procol Harum ) :)

I think that the biggest problem in defining what progressive music is, is that we are really talking about two things.  There is progressive music and our ears instantly recognize it whether it comes from Gentle Giant, Rush  or from Echolyn.  The ear recognizes it whether or not we can speak to why it is progressive.

And then there is music that progresses.  From another thread The Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein" obviously progresses from what had been before, yet our ears don't necessarily tell our brains "PROG ROCK!".  Robin Trower's first three or four solo albums take that which was first done by Jimi Hendrix and progresses a heavier, even blusier, but new and pleasing direction.

Every album The Beatles put out "progressed" from what had come before. yet most of us are reluctant to flatly affirm them a "PROG ROCK" band.  The Who's "Tommy" quite obviously progressed from what they (or anyone else) had done before, including adding symphonic elements to their rock sound, yet how many of us are willing to call The Who a "PROG ROCK" band?

My point here is simply that trying to put a definitive definition as to what PROG is, isn't as easy as it looks at first glance.  I wonder if we aren't making a mistake by limiting ourselves too much.  Perhaps we should discuss whether Pink Floyd is yes "progressive" in the sub-catagory of psychedelic rock or that Robin Trower is "progressive" in the sub-catagory of blues rock.

I would go so far as to claim that The Eagles were progressive in the sub-catagory of country rock (at least until their own popularity seduced them too far to the pop (dark) side).  Can you listen to "Journey Of The Sorcerer" and then disagree just because a banjo is one of the featured instruments?

We already recognize that PROG breaks down into sub-catagories like symphonic, Canterbury, psychedelic and metal for instance.  And I have read in this forum that we ought to acknowledge prog pop.

I have no answers to the problem, but a wonderful problem it is.

Progressive is an approach to music which can be applied to several different musical genres. The term progressive implies moving straight forward, and developing changes.

In music, the term progressive, expands traditional musical structures. Also, music tends to be very melodic.

Some progressive artists which you may consider are:

Genesis, Marillion, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Yes, Rush, Emerson-Lake and Palmer, and many more...