Definitive prog band

 

Yes for making it popular

 

I don't think Robert Fripp ever embraced the idea of prog and his avant gard ramblings were an embarrasment  to prog lovers for the most part . Consider Moonchild or the second side of ITWOP . How can you explain away such crap?

 

Yes were not there at the start but I think from the first notes of The Yes Album that makes you take notice. Throw in the ethereal lyrics and Roger Dean artwork and they are through and through prog and still doing prog today.

 

Yes fully embraced the idea of prog (they were not afraid of being labelled ) and when they qere at their peak (1972 ) the music world was in awe. When they made Tales the prog enterprise began to collapse . Tales is the definitive album amongst proghaters . So Yes' peak is prog's heyday and their decline gives prog's enemies the ammunition they need. 1977 the excellent GFTO is the last year of  a great era and In 1978  the poppish Tormato  signals the death of the era.

 

They are not necessarily my favorite band but when people think prog they think  first Yes and  then 70s Genesis. Genesis identity has become murky over time but not Yes

I am a newbie as well although I have been investigating this website for some time.  I do not have a hands down answer for definitive prog.  I agree that the forerunners such as KC, Genesis, Yes, Floyd, GG, Zappa all offered something  that defines what we now call progressive music.  But whoever we nominate the father of prog was not attempting to create a new genre of music, they were attempting to embrace rock as an art form, and incorporate the best of all that was already holy within the music realm.  The took a dash of classical, and helping of jazz, the beatles layering and psychedelia, folks ability to tell a story, mixed it with a cultural dialogue and spoke to topics that had never been expressed with words and music like mythology, politics, high fantasy, environmentalism, and created a pastiche that blew everyone's mind for years to come.  It all comes down to defining prog rock, well the aforementioned bands are definitely at the roots of the system which spawned all of our favorite music, and influenced everything to come.  So as many of them started within the same time frame it comes down to who caught your attention the most.  For myself, I have to say Genesis caught my attention as soon as I heard them, and ITCOTCK was a mindblowing experience as well.  But I am a youngun so all of these bands came as a result of a retrospect.  I got to Genesis through Abacab, and King Crimson through ELP's From the Beginning, and Piper came as a result of discovering the Wall.  So for many of us, probably the definitive prog band was the first band we researched...and here I return to Genesis.