Symphonic or Progressive: What came first?

Hmmm. What came first, the chicken or the egg? God or the Big Bang? Of such questions is an entire thread made

If you are referring to symphonic PROG, then, obviously, the term progressive rock came first, given that symphonic is a sub genre of prog itself. Personally, I have never heard of symphonic rock outside of prog, but, as usual, I stand to be corrected.

Well, I agree with you, Gerinski, because I clearly remember that back in the 1970s, in Dutch-speaking countries, "symfonische rock" was the term used for bands like Yes, Genesis and ELP. i.e. bands who freely borrowed from (and who were obviously influenced by) European classical music.

The term "progressive rock" was also in use then, but its meaning was much vaguer; I suppose the term was applied to any kind of rock music which went beyond the traditional three-minute song format. In other words, the term was applied mainly to psychedelic rock, avant-garde rock, jazz-rock AND (I suppose) "symphonic rock".

As far as I know, "progressive rock" was a term coined long after the genre started, and the bands that played it were, as Gerinski said, labeled as "rock sinfónico" here in Chile too. And I dare to say that a lot of people outside prog still knows our music as "rock sinfónico", in spite of the many subgenres that this kind of music has.

and that time, the guys playing prog or symphonic wouldnt have said "hey, we play prog rock" or "look, we'll play some symphonic rock tonight"

TheOppenheimer wrote: so, those terms are just to help, they are not concepts that came first or second or whatever. go ask Rick Wakeman if he did prog or symphonic.

Rick: "don't ask me, I'm only the piano player"

Symphonic has been a genre for decades but so has prog, at least coined in the 70s so this is difficult and I do not think there is an easy answer. I say prog came first as the umbrella term. 

Edited by AtomicCrimsonRush - May 31 2010 at 03:13

Dean wrote: Genesis and Yes were late-comers to the party and didn't get "symphonic" until 72.

It seems your comments are highly subjective. Certainly "The Musical Box" and "The Fountain of Salmacis" are as "symphonic" as any rock I can think of! Length has got nothing to do with it; it's the style that counts. By the same token, The Soft Machine's "Moon in June" is unadulterated symphonic rock.

"Future Rock" was another name given to progrssive rock. actually my definition of progressive rock differs from the standard definition. in the archives Led Zeppelin, and Wishbone Ash are only prog-related, and Deep Purple are proto-prog, but for me they are full-fledged progressive rock bands

Edited by BaldJean - May 31 2010 at 05:51

As Dean stated, it depends on location, ...and time frame.

In the late 60s and early 70s in the states, we had 'progressive' radio stations that played album sides, not singles. The bands that were played on these stations were eventually called progressive rock, this could be anything from The Beatles, to Humble Pie and John Mayall to Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.

Later the term progressive rock became more exclusive and was claimed by the young post-hippie rock crowd to mean bands like Genesis, Crimson, ELP etc.

I don't recall ever hearing the term symphonic rock in the states in the early to mid 70s, although I do recall other terms such as art-rock (usually referred to Roxy, Eno, Ayers, Cale, Wyatt etc) space rock (Hawkwind, lots of German bands) and even occasionally avant-garde rock (Henry Cow etc).

Also, in the Genesis green boxset, one of the reviewers refers their music as "college rock". Why, I dunno.