After the 50’s and 60’s rock and roll craze, many musicians felt as though even though
rock music had become popular, it was still not respected to the degree that jazz and classical
music were. This led to bands forming that broke genre walls to create a new brand of music -
progressive rock. Progressive music is typically characterized by more introspective, allegorical
lyrics, extremely technical displays of musicianship, and odd compositional techniques such as
uncommon time signatures and instruments not commonly used in rock music. Early examples
of prog rock include King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and Yes. These
bands were born out of a distaste for the commonly accepted notions of rock music’s boundaries
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These
types of band continue to live out the progressive rock style and bring in their own unique
influences into the genre.
In conclusion, Progressive Rock music was born out of a desire for rock music to become
as respected a medium as jazz and classical music. This lead to the formation of unconventional,
experimental bands in the 60’s and 70’s, climaxing in the 1980’s before taking a rest in
development before the resurgence seen in the 90’s. Some of the most important albums relevant
to the genre include Pet Sounds, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
In the Court of the Crimson King, The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Nursery Cryme,
Moving Pictures, and, from the second era of prog rock, Metropolis 2, Six Degrees of Inner
Turbulence, and Muse. The legacy left by the early progressive rockers is only being further
developed and melded into new styles of rock music, all of which evolved from the experimental
stylings of bands like the Beach Boys and the Beatles, both of which were interested in
expanding the artistic merit and the variety of compositional, musical and instrumental
techniques that could be seen in rock