Is Pink Floyd prog rock?

TexasKing wrote: Pink Floyd is one of the BIGGEST rock bands of all time and most people on ProgArchieves consider them prog? I'm really surprised. None of the big prog bands are in the same league with them popularity-wise.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - August 06 2020 at 19:32

Is the Pope Catholic?

This is why genres are so pointless, name me one big so called prog rock band that played the same type of music on every album throughout it's career.

Pink Floyd started as a space rock band.
They then produced a few good prog albums.
Then a load of mediocre rock albums, the worst of which was The Wall.
Then out of nowhere a brilliant ambient album, The Endless River.

Blacksword wrote: DarkTower wrote: Of course, Pink Floyd is prog, but not their whole discography is prog.  Exactly, just like Genesis and the Moody Blues; prog bands who didn't make exclusively prog rock. This is a surprising debate to be having a prog rock forum; whether or not the biggest prog rock band of all time is prog rock. Weird. I guess, for some, prog rock has to mean incredibly complex music with long and meandering solo's, and spacey, historical or fantasy lyrical themes. It simply doesn't. I think part of the problem is that many prog fans don't like the fact that Pink Floyd appealed to non prog fans too, which undermines their prog credibility. In reality, a band which can break so many musical rules and be progressive and cerebral, while also shifting hundreds of millions of albums, is a band with a special and unique formula.

From my recollection they were just Pink Floyd in the seventies and were not bracketed with ELP, Yes and Genesis and the like. Not sure why that was, I guess they were just more reserved and considered a bit mainstream. Also DSOTM put them in a different league along with the likes of Zep and Queen ie bands that were so big they created their own space.   

I prophesy disaster wrote: Logan wrote: An ode to the panheads: We are the panheads strong and free, We use those pans when we need to pee. Nearly two years ago, I created a poll asking which group were the proggiest, Genesis or The Residents:   https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=114818&KW=Genesis+Residents&PN=1   The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of Genesis: 28 - 8   I didn't vote in that poll, but was surprised, perhaps even disappointed that the majority had a rather narrow view of what is "prog".

I remember that topic. I wrote a very long response to it, found it overly verbose (like far too much of my stuff at this site), and didn't post it. I often write posts that I don't post, mostly because I think the attempts at humour won't go down well because it is not funny. I saved it to Notepad to work on later, but then I didn't get around to it. Basically my response boiled down to "I find Genesis more Prog generic (for the 70s period) and The Residents more progressive". It was long because I wanted to define the words as I was using them ( I did mention notions of progginess, Prog and progressive rock) and to give specific examples to better explain and justify it. I got into similar notions of Prog-by-genre and progressive music as I did in that post you took that excerpt of mine from, which also could have done with some serious editing, and would have been better had I tied it into Pink Floyd. The ode is a silly little something I thought of when showering at 1:30 am (no sleep yet again). I shower to try to get my brain to work, but I'd need more than a little brain washing.

Edited by Logan - April 25 2020 at 15:47

I noticed someone mentioning "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun" as pentatone. Now, the pentatone scale avoids semitones, and the melody in "Set the Controls..." is based on a melodic phrase that contains a semitone interval (between I and bII - as in "SET the conTROLS" and so on). Also, the descending instrumental riff between verse and chorus has a semitone interval. I'd rather say it has an Arab flavour due to the II note being a lower one (also the Phrygian mode contains a lower II note).


Edited by The Anders - April 25 2020 at 15:41

dougmcauliffe wrote: Enchant X wrote: dougmcauliffe wrote: I think these threads are so useless because nobody ever changes anyones minds. People believe what they believe and it’s just a never ending debate. I see your point but hey its a topic on peoples minds and no matter what Pink Floyd is categorized as they will always been thought of as a legend of a band. There's no doubt in my mind Pink Floyd made great music no matter what its defined as. I certainly mean no disrespect and I would pay hundreds of dollars to see Pink Floyd live and will certainly buy any new material released by them .. I love Floyd.   this topic is far too hot to shut it all down , it's just too interesting to stop now.  So long as we are all respectful for each others opinions I see no problem with it, I certainly respect each opinion given so far in this thread, it's really made me think  Ok, my question for you is this. What is more of a prog song, Dogs, or Turn it on Again by Genesis? There's a boat load of time changes in TIOA but most of Dogs is standard.

The thing is Dogs is one of my most favorite Pink Floyd songs I'm not concerned about time changes, its perfect how it is. I find Turn it on again from genesis to be a little annoying because I`m a Peter Gabriel Genesis fan and Steve hackett fan, I went right off Genesis when Steve left the band and I certainly don't like Duke, its a far cry from the classic genesis I remember and loved. 

Edited by Enchant X - April 25 2020 at 14:29

Enchant X wrote: dougmcauliffe wrote: I think these threads are so useless because nobody ever changes anyones minds. People believe what they believe and it’s just a never ending debate. I see your point but hey its a topic on peoples minds and no matter what Pink Floyd is categorized as they will always been thought of as a legend of a band. There's no doubt in my mind Pink Floyd made great music no matter what its defined as. I certainly mean no disrespect and I would pay hundreds of dollars to see Pink Floyd live and will certainly buy any new material released by them .. I love Floyd.   this topic is far too hot to shut it all down , it's just too interesting to stop now.  So long as we are all respectful for each others opinions I see no problem with it, I certainly respect each opinion given so far in this thread, it's really made me think