Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 09:25:46 -0500 (EST)
This was posted a few months ago in Paperlate, and this should answer
your question about what prog is. :)
Mike, aka Syrinx.
On Mon, 29 Jan 1996 ipv@bway.net wrote:
I loved this reply which appeared in the Letters column in the September
1993 issue of Keyboard magazine:
To be classified as prog rock, music must adhere to the following criteria:
1. Songs can be no less than seven minutes in length, except in the case of
the prog rock/techno crossover, in which case five minutes is acceptable.
2. Anything in 4/4 is immediately disqualified.
3. The composition must contain at least three of the following
instruments: Mellotron, Hammond B-3, Moog Modular (Minimoog acceptable) or
any synth made before 1984 and weighing more than 100 lbs. Instruments must
also go out of tune after every third song.
4. Performers must be able to play in several time signatures at once, with
no one part recognizable as a singable melody.
5. A minimum of five key changes is required for each five minutes of music.
[?]
7. Try to find a beat. If you can't, it's prog rock.
8. If the composition wanders aimlessly, it's definitely either prog rock
or Dave Stewart on painkillers.
9. If anyone under the age of 30 likes it, it is not prog rock.
10. And finally, if you can dance to it, it isn't prog rock.
Steven W. Wagenheim
This response is from from the Letters column in the October 1993 issue of
Keyboard:
If a band meets five or more of the following criteria, they're prog:
1. At least one member uses Greek mythology or Zen koans as lyrics - at any
rate, nobody knows what the hell the singer is talking about.
2. A typical song lasts longer than your average shower.
3. On many songs, each musician plays in an entirely different meter and/or
key.
4. At least one member insists on including a solo rendition of a Prokofiev theme on every album.
5. The keyboardist has more synthesizers than fingers.
6. Bill Bruford was a drummer at some point.
7. Their album covers depict strange animals crawling over weird geological
formations into which blue-pigmented children have carved stairways.
8. They can sell out an arena and still have more lights on stage than
people in the audience.
9. Rolling Stone and Phil Collins would both rather burn alive than hear
this group's latest album.
10. The band got credit as consultans for 'Jurassic Park'.
Terrell Miller
And I can't forget Keith Emerson's reply: "It is music that does progress.
It takes an idea and develops it, rather than just repeat it ... Progressive
music takes a riff, turns it inside out, plays it upside down [and] the
other way around, and explores its potential."
Dave Stewart also wrote a reply to this question, but I haven't been able to
unearth it yet.
Best,
From: "blim."
To: SurlsMSU@aol.com
cc: paperlate@ansto.gov.au
Subject: Re: Prog???
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Musical Advisor/Consultant
Syrinx@astro.ocis.temple.edu
How exactly do you define progressive rock?
Roselle, New Jersey
Norcross, Georgia
Chloe