The beginning of prog

I tend to think of it hugely broadly. Once upon a time like four months ago I have even posted somewhere in the forum a long-lasting commentary including lots of old Soviet songs in Russian that I had thought were somewhat proto-proto-proto, you know. Later on I'd realize that it was probably too much...  

But, well, unexpected or unusual syncopations, untrivial time meters, surprising changes within the song, lyrics that seemed odd by the standards of the time and style - they all happened since the beginning of the XX century. 

Progressive rock is the legal, rational, true child of the twentieth century. 

you may not know but Pictures at an Exhibition was composed by Mussorgsky, Emerson, Lake and Palmer 

Hi,

Hotlegs ... and yes I need that album ... and it has some neat stuff in it too!

Mr Wilson is prog's latest genius. We'll get a new one soon, I expect, since he's moved to disco (though his poppy stuff's quite cool too).

There's no such thing as Prog, it's just a label that we apply to stuff that fits the concept for us individually or by consensus. Pink Floyd's 1967 'Piper at The Gates of Dawn' was radically different from anything else at the time, but it didn't come out of thin air The early to mid sixties was an explosion of music, unfettered by limitation, possibly for the first time in history. Any and every genre was drawn into the mix and what came out was various blends of those influences. What helped it to happen was that the cord companies would sign anyone and everyone because they thought they could make money, not realising what they were enabling and unleashing, not least because they had no understanding of the music, so couldn't judge good, bad or indifferent.

Welcome to PA!

Thanks, New to the forum but a long time user of the site. I'll try not to be too controversial