Progressive Rock Essay

840 Words2 Pages

Introduction The textbook describes progressive rock as a form of rock music that has a complex and educated sound. Progressive rock gets its name because it is a progression of classic rock. In other words, technology, cultures, etc. progress with time and music is no different it progresses over time. The textbook describes this progression as being more complex than classic rock by having more technical skill going into the music, as well as the lyrics being more fantasy-based. In other words, progressive rock goes beyond the regular twelve-bar structure of classic rock and its lyrics are more about telling a story. The textbook refers to progressive rock as having a smarter sound than classic rock. To describe this point the textbook uses …show more content…

The textbook describes the blues as “a creation of black slaves who adapted their African musical heritage to the American environment” (p.2). Further, when listening to progressive rock you can sort of hear traces of the blues in it. The Moody Blues is a band from the 1960s that started out as a blues group, but that shifted to a classic rock group in the mid 1960s. Robin Tower is the guitarist for Procol Harum, but before them he was the guitarist in the R&B band The Paramounts. Finally, Juthro Tull was also a blues band before switching to classic rock. All three of these bands have roots in different genres of music and this could have influenced their music in the rock genre to not quite sound like all the other rock groups. This goes back to what we were discussing in class on Monday September 11th how there is a fresh new sound that all the other musicians want to sound like, but more and more artists start adopting this new sound then the sound then becomes old. However, the textbook explains progressive rock as a hybrid form of music that than influenced bands in North America such as …show more content…

This is because the textbook talks about the people who play progressive rock being educated and college graduates. Furthermore, this goes back to this rebellious attitude that we went over in class. For example, an educated individual playing rock music in their spare time and seems like that is where progressive rock is coming from. However, perhaps it goes further than that by explaining that progressive rock also has a distinct sound that classic rock does not have. The textbook describes this sound as a more educated sound, however, it may have a more educated sound because more educated people started to play music. It is also interesting that progressive rock, which seems to derived in Britain, has blues and R&B influence which is American and is derived from African

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