Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Hey guys, lets stop this insanity, there's nothing called Pop - Prog   Iván

a) All humans are mortals

b) Not all mortals are humans (There are animals and other forms of luife and all are also mortal)

a) All POP music is popular

b) Not all popular music is POP (You have Jazz, Salsa, Rap, hip hop and even some Prog like Dark Side of the Moon)

That's the problem with using ambiguous terms, POP is a genre of music and has it's own characteristics:

• The basic form for pop music is the song and usually a song consisting of verse and repeate chorus........
  • You have a first approach, POP music basic structure is Chorus - Verse - Chorus, a linear structure with no dramatic changes, the simplest structure possible repeating ABA (ABAB or the most challenging ABACAB with a second verse represented by C).
  • Prog music has a totally unpredictable structure, for example Symphonic Music used some times Intro - Chorus - Verse - Development (Usually a solo) - Chorus reprise - Coda, sometimes it was more complex creating 4, 5 or 6 different verses, returning from the development to the intro and then jumping to a new verse. POP REPRESENTS THE ANTITESIS OF PROG IN STRUCTURE as Keith Emerson says:

Pop songs are about repetition and riffs and simplicity. Progressive music takes a riff, turns it inside out, plays it upside down and the other way around, and explores its potential."

• Most often the songs are between 2 1/2 minutes and 5 1/2 minutes in length:  Second approach, the lenght, POP is a song (Radio hit) based song, so forget about long tracks because commercial radios won't play a 20 minutes track, not every long track is Prog but almost no longer than 3.5 minutes is POP.
• Pop is song based, Prog is album based:  Even when most Prog albums are not conceptual, they share a common atmosphere, POP albums are a random collection of songs with no relation between them, normally POP albums are only 2 or 3 hits with 10 or 12 fillers that the fans will buy  only for the hit singles, this design is very commercial because the label ensures that the album will sell a lot in the first few months and as a consequence of the album loosing popularity as afast as it gained it, they don't need to release it again for fans and the market is ready for two more singles and 10 or 12 fillers that will ensure them a new record of sales with few royalties to pay in long terms.
• POP is a conservative form of Rock, Prog is a challenging form of Rock: Both Prog and POP are oposite forms of Rock...... Lets take Classic Rock as the standart, bands as The Who, Mountain or Cream were too challenging for the easy listening market, people who want to listen what is fashion and dance with it, so POP is the simpler than than Classic Rock and designed to be easy accepted and to bore the public fast, you can see that Cream or The Who keep selling albums after 30 + years but nobody will buy lets say More More More by Andrea True Connection or Ma' Baker by Boney M..............Prog on the other hand is more challenging than Classic Rock, sometimes it takes years to get into an album but it keeps selling through decades,  people who like Classic Rock but want to be challenged listen Prog.
• Pop and Prog approach to lyrics is 180° degrees different:  Lyrics in POP are as the music easy to get, dealing with sexual love or desire and daily issues, Prog lyrics tend to be much more complex and the thematic goes from Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Bothanics, Politics, Religion to even homicide and revolutions, try to make a POP song about little Cynthia beheading Little Henry and how he is returned to live trapped in a Musical Box having sexual desires for the girl and is killed by a nurse who burns the box and Old Henry  Neither the mother of the author would buy that thing, well it's an icon of Prog.
• Pop is mainly vocal, Prog is mainly instrumental and the vocals normally are another instrument:  Pop music is designed to enhance the voice of a figure, the instruments are a company for the voice, solos are extremely rare and instrumentals much less, Prog is artistically designed FOR A BAND, despite the lyrics the human voice is just another instrument, more probably secondary in comparison with  keyboard and guitars, the solos are normal and the instrumentals are absolutely common.
• Pop is essentially commercial, Prog is artistic:  POP labels design music to be liked fast and forgotten faster after having sold several millions of copies, the artist is replaceable, Prog's main interest is music as an artistic expression, the artists tend to last longer than POP one hit wonders, with this I don't say Prog artists want to starve and labels release albums for love to art but the economic success is a consequence of the quality of the music, in POP economic success is EVERYTHING and musical quality doesn't matter as long as they sell. 

Although pop music continues to be a melting pot of styles, there is a genre of pop music that claims to be pop music in its purest form. This music, usually called pure pop or power pop, typically consists of relatively brief (not over 3 1/2 minutes) songs played on the standard electric guitar, bass and drums with vocals that have a very strong catchy chorus, or hook. Art is not a concern. Audience pleasure in listening to the song is the primary goal.  http://top40.about.com/od/popmusic101/a/popmusic.htm - http://top40.about.com/od/popmusic101/a/popmusic.htm