Is Prog really a genre?

Ask any metal-head how many established and recognized sub-genres of metal there are, and you will question the validity of this statement.

I Admit my offhand exaggeration. Hundreds is out of line. Rock may have up to a hundred sub genres... I don't know, Some of it is subjective. Whatever became of Math Rock?  Is that something gleaned from Discipline era Crimson? Is Zappa Avant Prog? Sun Ra Progressive Jazz? or Avant Jazz?  Is Avant Jazz a prog sub-Genre or a sub-genre of jazz?   Was Bowie Prog? 

 

Mile Davis "In a silent way" is in the top 100 prog list here... is it really prog as some define it?  So is Queensryche.  I'm confused. 

It's a tedious undertaking. 

 I had no idea there were so many sub genres of Metal, which is a sub-genre of Rock.

"hundreds of sub-genres" is definitely an exaggeration, but a lot of sub-genres, I will call "PA Prog". 

To contribute my own €0.02 to this eternal discussion, I'd say that prog is a genre, as it has its characteristic conventions, as to song structure (transcending the "radio single" format), compositional and lyrical sophistication all the way to concept albums and beyond (there are cycles of concept albums and even concept bands) and the like. Yet, it is a very wide and diverse genre with very different styles (compare Yes and Dream Theater: different styles, same genre), and as always with genres, the boundaries are fuzzy and nebulous. I have come across the term "meta-genre" somewhere, I don't know where though, and that may fit here.

At any rate, prog is not the same as music that is literally progressive, as a band that does nothing else than what the classic prog bands of the '70s do wouldn't be very progressive, but definitely within the prog genre. (At least here in Germany, we call that thing "retro-prog", which sums up its paradoxical nature aptly, I'd say.)
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