I never thought I'd fire up a topic here, but curiosity got the best of me. That, and I've been on a real Yes kick as of late, a band I discovered back in 1996-1997, and still enjoy to this day. Their music and lyrical content never ceases to capture me and keep me in until it's finished. Of course, this lead me to find other bands I've wound up enjoying. Genesis (early/Gabriel-period especially), Kansas, Pink Floyd, The Earth Band (Manfred Mann), and even newer acts that reflect on the past styles with a new edge (Spock's Beard, Neal Morse, Proto-Kaw, and others).
While on a simpler level, two other bands I like, Ambrosia and Supertramp also fall into the overall genre, even if those two acts got quite popular by the late 1970s/early '80s and their music reflected that shift...their leanings and beginnings were in prog.
Then there's just the plain silly and fun which the likes of 10cc put out there.
Some people call it 'pretentious', others 'genius'. I just like to call it all 'prog rock' It spans many sub-genres (space rock, art rock, progressive metal, symphonic rock, and so on / so forth), but it bears several generalized traits.
-- Usually long, going anywhere from 4-5 minutes up to a half hour or longer for a single song.
-- Some riffs are classically leaning.
-- Heavy use of (especially back in the early 1970s) keys (organs, synths, etc) and often containing long solos of those and guitars.
-- Bear many different musical themes and styles, from the medieval and Renaissance period, the aforementioned classical styles, and all the way into the far reaches of the galaxy with spacy environments, painted by futuristic, synthetic sounds.
-- Lyrical themes that evoke and match all the above musical themes, often telling stories or creating mental imagery that takes one away to another world and time, or explore psychology, life's struggles, and other, more serious grounded themes.
Of course, the above is for the unknowing. Those who are already fans like myself, know all of this already.
Thus, I ask if there are others who enjoy this sort of music? If you do, grab those headsets, slip them on, dim the lights and crank up your choice of medium (vinyl, CD, mp3/iPod, etc) and let's go off to another world for awhile. smile Recommend other bands to peek into as well. One I will be trying out when I get time is Dream Theatre. Their drummer worked with Neal Morse on all his 2003-present solo material and is quite technical (in a loud, drum-banging sort of way rather than 'jazzy'), so I'm tempted to see what he did with his old band. Last I heard, he's no longer with them, which is a shame.
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