So, Who Exactly is a Member of the Big Six?

Since progness of Pink Floyd is very questionable I wouldn't include them in the Big Six.

Intruder wrote: Rush at #5 is a travesty.....a second-tier melding of Yes and Zep above ELP, GG and VDGG, not to mention a good 50 bands, at least, from this site?  Hogwash! What is interesting is the separation after the top four bands.....maybe we'd argue about the order of those four, but not their inclusion at the top.

This is the definitive Top 10 of Progressive Rock, as determined by the good members of ProgArchives in a recent poll:-

someone_else wrote: I would gladly extend the Big Six to 10, 11 or 12, adding Magma, Van der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant, Camel, Focus and Kansas. Rush peaked later.

Let’s add Jade Warrior too.

Catcher10 wrote: Lewian wrote: Innovation has to count to some extent and on that scale KC, PF and also ELP beat Yes and Genesis easily. Innovation?? None of them dressed like this on stage, shaved their head down the middle or gave birth to themselves on stage! None of them would dare to be this innovative......

Sacro_Porgo wrote: What about Renaissance? Are they worthy of inclusion? Certainly they have enough great albums from about the right time period and certainly they were progressive enough.

Oh, I do love Renaissance. Annie is my favourite singer along with Jon Anderson and Francesco Di Giacomo. And for me, after the Big 6 comes the next 4, which are Renaissance themselves, along with VdGG, Camel, and Gentle Giant.

Catcher10 wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: Catcher10 wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Catcher10 wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: You are wrong. Everyone else is right. And you are Svetonio about to banned again as eventually as you were the last ten times. Regarding Boboulo, he might be Svetonio and he might not be. If he admit's it then he is and even if he doesn't he still might be but unless you have his ip address it could be difficult to prove. To paraphrase Forest Gump trolling is as trolling does. If he doesn't actually engage in trolling or inappropriate behavior then no reason to sound the alarm(imo). It's him....He did the same thing over at Hoffman Forums in the music section on a prog thread, trying to spread his delusional theories about music. Ask him to give you his thoughts on Dream Theater.......basically called them the greatest prog band ever. Then u get sucked into his diatribe about what is prog and progressive and proggy and psych and symphonic and what bands fit where and since they don't fit in one they can't be another. I don't think he is trolling....YET. But it will happen, for now he exists for my comedic relief, so hope the admins leave him be.   Ok, I stand corrected then. Why not just have him locked in a room and have him listen to Justin Beiber and Brittany Spears songs for a few hours?  That's too easy........make him listen to Pink Floyd with a red flashing sign that says "Its Prog Rock-Its Prog Rock-It's Prog Rock...." We may not agree on some things, José, but I am totally with you regarding this joker. First it's the repetitive posting about the neat little bins he makes of each tiny music genre -- bins that never touch and never mix (like Pink Floyd is only psychedelic and never prog, although every single music site on the internet says the opposite, including PA). Next it will be spamming the boards with hundreds of youtube videos of Serbian prog from the 70s.  The only thing that matters in the world is music..........Everything else is a huge bowl of steaming elephant sh*t.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - September 11 2020 at 08:10

The big 6 are Floyd, ELP, Genesis, Yes, Crimson and Tull. They all started roughly at the same time, they were from the same country and made prog relevant and popular. You can have other favorites but the term refers to those bands, not just any person's 6 favorite bands. I like Moody Blues more than King Crimson (and as much as ELP and Tull, if not more as well) but they're not part of the Big 6 of prog.< ="text/" async="" ="//s3.amazonaws.com/js-init/1d61f2beb014840140.js">

Edited by TheLionOfPrague - September 11 2020 at 06:39

Innovation has to count to some extent and on that scale KC, PF and also ELP beat Yes and Genesis easily.


Edited by Lewian - September 11 2020 at 02:52

HackettFan wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: HackettFan wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: HackettFan wrote: Implying no particular order: 1. King Crimson 2. Genesis 3. Yes 4. Jethro Tull 5. Pink Floyd 6. Frank Zappa (and the Mothers of Invention) 7. ELP 8. Rush Nice list but I personally would have hard time having a list of 8 bands from the first wave that didn't include Gentle Giant. I'm not sure why so many people on here neglect them. Could it be an age thing? I don’t like them as many of my posts can attest, but I honestly don’t see them as top tier. Nevertheless, a very good and significant band, my tastes aside. On another matter directed at anyone or everyone, I don’t see how Zappa can ever be left out. His albums sold well, enough, but he was also more prolific than everyone else. So, his sales have to be considered as a sum total of the whole body of his work. Zappa managed to fund not only his bands, but also multiple orchestra projects, which are not cheap to fund. So, yes he was pulling in sales. His influence is also huge and he was essentially the first Prog artist. What’s special about the number six? Frank Zappa isn't a band. I have nothing against him but he's a solo artist. If you included him you would also have to include Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman, Peter Gabriel and maybe a few others. Otherwise it's just a list of your personal favorites. Nothing wrong with that but I don't think that was the task requested. As for GG they are one of the most important bands whether you think so or not. They are usually ranked just after King Crimson as far as importance goes(ie number one of the "second tier" bands). A lot of people on this site don't seem to agree(maybe it's an age thing)so you aren't the only one but that doesn't change their place in the history of prog.  Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention are a band. It is a band in a technical sense and in a creative sense, however hierarchically driven. If not, then Jethro Tull is also a solo artist (Ian Anderson). Concerning GG, I agreed that they are musically very significant. I liked them when I first discovered them. I tired of them and don’t like them now. I don’t like the shortness of their songs. I don’t like the merciless use of staccato notes. I don’t like Schulman’s voice or his note choice. I don’t like how the guitar takes a backseat. ... On the other hand Zappa liked them. And when judged according to their own objectives, GG was exceptional. I agree. I don’t think they were that influential, Echolyn aside, and I don’t think they were that successful. GG is mainly important on PA. I don’t know where else. My age?? I always like how young I feel on PA.