Can Pop be Prog?

 

cm's answer is right on the money. I believe that "pop" is short for popular.  If a prog band releases a song that is picked up by the masses, and played to death on one of those godawful "pop" stations, then it becomes a pop tune.

 

Who woulda thunk??

 

 

 

It was number 1 in the UK singles chart for several weeks, sold millions and a large percentage of the population can sing along word for word (if not note for note). If that isn't pop, I don't know what is.

 

I could also mention the Beach Boys here - Good Vibrations is the obvious example, but have you ever really listened to California Girls? There's a hell of a lot going on in that song - and then there's Heroes and Villains, complex as anything by most prog bands.

 

Let's face it, if Silver Machine by Hawkwind can be considered prog rock I don't see why the infinitely more sophisticated work of Brian Wilson shouldn't be thought of as prog pop.

 

Muse have prog elements, but it's not prog at all.

 

Pop music could never be prog, but could get a poppy sound (example: Marillion's Misplaced Childhood). Anyway, the sound don't define the genre. Prog music, for example, doesn't have an own unique sound (think in the different sound of bands like KC, Camel, Opeth, ELP, Mars Volta, Dream Theater, Zappa, Mr. Bungle, Triana, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd...)  but have common factors (in terms of composition, structure, etc..).