What characteristic of Prog do you most value?

Agreed. I feel Emerson Lake & Palmer, as good as they were, suffered from the lack of a mellotron.

Very easy to answer ...

•Innovation in structure/composition [...] •Innovation in time, rhythm, meter, polyrhythms...

In my opinion, this is what prog rock is really about, what it introduced to rock music, and what it still solely represents in rock music.

[QUOTE=HackettFan]There are a number of commonly held characteristics of Progressive Rock. I attempted to list them below as best and completely as I could, although I certainly could have missed something:

A commitment to:
•Innovation in timbre
•Innovation in structure/composition/juxtaposition of material in general
•Freedom from composition/free-form/improvisation
•Innovation in time, rhythm, meter, polyrhythms...
•Exceptional musicianship, well-demonstrated capability with instruments
•Incorporation of varied styles and genres
•Innovative lyrics, subject matters, themes
•...Other


Exceptional musicianship is required in prog rock music one fine set of foundation stones.

I like it when exceptional music breaks out of the narrow club member mentality e.g. Dark Side being so universal. Actually Pink Floyd are so universal that my local town civic square has the Dark Side pyramid as a centre piece. It has a moon too, looks good when lit up. Oh there's a pig as well (Roger's one). There's even a stone with a chain ("dragged down by the..."). Not sure if the local authority have realized what they've done but they have...

Of course it's good when no hard rock/ prog rock fans know that Led Zeppelin is a band and not the guy who sang that song about Stairways...

Most prog rock really is esoteric. Magma, non mainstream Genesis, Yes are worlds of their own. So many kids have not heard of Pink Floyd. (I know when someone thought I was making a death threat and all I was doing was murmuring the bridge lyrics from Run Like Hell).

I like the beauty in the music (Focus II, Spectral Mornings, And You And I). Complexity, urgency (Heart Of The Sunrise). The world of surprise delights in Univers Zero (Combat), the left of mainstream centre of Roxy Music, Bowie and the ability of King Crimson to create prog rock in any guise they see fit.

What does amuse me is the reactionary nature of fans (Yes, Crimson, Floyd) who won't accept things when their bands start playing different tunes. Progression implies change (which returns success according to Syd Barret, himself citing a bit of ancient Chinese wisdom).

The poster who commented that classical ruins prog rock... yeah. I know. Check out Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varese and a few others with that lovely weird anachic touch and the ability to push a composition and make an orchestra really work for it... after Xenakis' Kraanerg Zappa seemed (uh oh) like his work was not finished.

Prog rock is about composition, not improvisation e.g. Miles Davis' band (as a prog rock artist), Can and KC excepted. It requires great keyboardist to be on board (King Crimson excepted).

I like the harmonic variety of keyboards and orchestration. Guitar is where I strat, er, start I mean. Things like Can's Flow Motion with sweeping synths, a cool reggae rhythm and Michael Karoli's searing wah wah guitar is very me.

The endless variety and the surprise of the accessibility of Riverside's trilogy without a chorus in sight over the three albums.

Timbre in a really good voice when they turn up. I really like, prefer, instrumentals. Unless the voice is so effectively part of the number.

So structure, composition, varied styles, metre and rhythm (Magma's Attakh). Styles and lyrical adventure running a close pair of seconds...

As much as I like the "weird stuff" as Belew called it I also like a more mainstream song that has well thought out input, thinking of Bowie and Cat People for example. It's not the musicianship which is stellar but having a highly effective song.

It's about not being limited or confined to a way of thinking. An extended work or a standard length song. Creativity...

(P.s. The poster about Creativity over... everything else) with me, if you replace the over, with instead of pretty much sums me up...) Hey ho.



cheers

u

Daring. And daring. Oh, and did I mention daring?

Seriously, anything run-of-the-mill like for example Genesis quickly bores me.

Anything that is weird or extremely unusual interests me. That's why I consider "Waiting Room" to be the best track Genesis ever made.

For movies, books or any other media the same applies.


Edited by BaldFriede - November 01 2015 at 17:46

TODDLER wrote: I have the most difficult time liking Prog..so therefore I don't value too many of it's characteristics. Progressive Rock annoys me, but that's not to say by any means that it isn't good ...or...isn't good for other people in the world besides me.

This is not uncommon.  Annoys, bores, makes nervous, I've heard all these things.  I remember a friend who did not like prog but loved The Wall when it came out, particularly things like ABitW pt ll. 

Put simply, it's capacity for being "Off the beaten track". This I value most.

BaldFriede wrote: presdoug wrote: Put simply, it's capacity for being "Off the beaten track". This I value most. You probably mean the same as I do when I  speak of "daring".

Sure.

^I imagine "all" is the choice most PA-ers could naturally choose, so as to embrace the entire package. Given that, I encourage posters to reflect on what they prioritize. What do you gravitate to? "All" may still be your answer, but maybe not. (It may also be a different answer at different times in your life).