Most influential Prog Bands

Originally posted by Zombywoof Originally posted by Ambient Hurricanes Originally posted by Zombywoof Its interesting to see what everyone has to say on this subject. I still don't get why everyone comes back to The Beatles. To me, they are a rather overhyped pop group and have very little to do with prog. Or perhaps I'm listening to the wrong Beatles material. What Beatles material are you listening to? I have "Abbey Road" and a best of, both on vinyl and I don't get anything out of either.

Between The Buried and Me and The Dillinger Escape Plan(yeah, I know Calculating was in 99, but you count KC as 70s despite being in 69) count as influential 00s bands

Edited by iamathousandapples - April 02 2012 at 00:07

Originally posted by maani Influential....where?  And FROM where?  For example, there are non-English European prog bands who had quite a bit of influence on later groups.  (PFM comes to mind.)  And if we are talking influence ON non-English European bands, then Gentle Giant would have to be pretty close to the top of the list (along with Genesis, Yes, ELP and Floyd).

Actually, Gentle Giant are not  "English" either. Two of their members were born in Scotland, and one in Wales. "British" would be a better term.

60s: Beatles, Pink Floyd
70s: Kraftwerk, Gong
not sure after that

Originally posted by maani Influential....where?  And FROM where?  For example, there are non-English European prog bands who had quite a bit of influence on later groups.  (PFM comes to mind.)  And if we are talking influence ON non-English European bands, then Gentle Giant would have to be pretty close to the top of the list (along with Genesis, Yes, ELP and Floyd).   But it sounds like we are being U.S.-centric here, so...   I would question the "influence" of King Crimson: they were certainly among the progenitors of prog, and there are a few prog bands who exhibit some influence from them.  (Mars Volta is among the most obvious.)  But I would not say that their OVERALL influence was very large.  On the other hand, Rush probably influenced more neo-prog and especially prog-metal bands than almost anyone (as well as quite a few non-prog bands!).  (Though some of the most influential neo-prog bands - Marillion, Porcupine Tree, IQ, Spock's Beard et al - were influenced less by Rush than by Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, Floyd, ELP, Moody Blues et al.)   Ultimately, it is difficult to trace influence back "clearly" with any certainty in order to establish a "hierarchy" of influence, since there was quite a bit of "cross-influence" going on vis-a-vis the seminal prog bands (mid-60s to early 70s), and the supposed influence of later prog bands is itself based on the bands that influenced THEM.   However, it is clear that the Beatles, while not prog themselves, began almost all of the "experimentation" that led to prog, and influenced almost every seminal prog band to one degree or another.  (Floyd and Moody Blues are the two most direct, but Genesis, Yes, and even Gentle Giant show traces.  Interestingly, Crimson seems to have "sprung full-grown from the head of Zeus," with little if any direct Beatle influence.)   BTW, I'm surprised no one mentioned Zappa.  True, no one sounds exactly like him.  But perhaps second only to the Beatles, his influence can be heard pretty broadly throughout prog.   Peace.

Peace man ! Where have you been hiding?
I'm suprised that no one has mentioned The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Although a jazz rock hybrid Youcan't tell me that cats like Zappa weren't influenced by albums like Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire. Listen to how Zappa's ( and other guitar players ) playing changed after they heard these firebreathing frankensteins back in '72-73. Never mind guitar players everybody started playing in insane time signatures and tempos.

Yea that list just doesn't seem right. Sorry.

Originally posted by Horizons Yea that list just doesn't seem right. Sorry.

u r welcome to improve upon it.

ELP   ;70s
King Crimson   ;80s
Anglagard   ;90s

..and you're right, the 2000s are hard, Don Caballero had huge influence on Mathrock so in lieu of a better choice I'll go with them

60's/70's The Nice, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, VDGG, Magma, Camel, Caravan, Gong, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Nektar, Procol Harum, PFM, Renaissance and probably a bunch of others as well. SOme more than others of course. Any big or even moderately well known band is going to have some kind of influence on the newer bands.

80's Saga, Marillion, IQ, Peter Gabriel(he was very popular in the eighties), Kate Bush, Rush. Seriously there aren't that many from the eighties unfortunately.

90's Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead

00's Transatlantic, Neal Morse, Mars Volta, Opeth, Porcupine Tree(I'll list them in this decade as well since this is when they really broke big).

In order for a band to be influential they have to have some significant degree of popularity(at least within the specific genre in this case prog).


Edited by Prog_Traveller - April 02 2012 at 23:53

Originally posted by iamathousandapples Originally posted by OT Räihälä - leading the way to thematic rock albums Frank Sinatra did that a decade before The Beatles did