Intuitive Music

Also known as prog-rock, progressive rock is a genre born in the late 60’s under the influence of the experimental work by artists like The Beatles (”Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”) and The Beach Boys (”Pet Sounds”). The main characteristic of progressive rock is the free fusion of all sorts of styles and the attitude of exploration in terms of sound and structure.

Some pioneers of this genre like Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and Soft Machine reached the progressive experimentation from the fields of the early psychedelic rock during the mid 60’s. Other pioneers of the progressive sound, who started developing the rock music, further than the usual melodic and rhythmic patterns, were Procol Harum and Cream.

The mix of rock music with all shorts of music styles gave the opportunity to classical music trained musicians to find their own way of expression, in a fusion of rock, soul, blues, and jazz styles with classical and symphonic sounds and structures. Keith Emerson’s The Nice was the pioneer band fusioning classical music and rock. Some of the first bands to mix pop music with orchestral arrangements were The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Moody Blues.

The coming of progressive rock meant a big step on the contemporary pop music, which was usually produced for dancing and amusing purposes. For the very first time it was made for the pleasure of listening and conceptual epic pieces, in the same way that classical synphonies were writen. During the late 60’s a new generation of progressive artists appeared in the UK scene, including King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. During the early 70’s, these artists wrote some of the most accomplised music from 20th Century in terms of structure, harmony and execution.

During the 70’s, some of these bands were acclaimed for their perfectionism and music skills and were labelled as virtuosos instrumentalists, such as keyboardists Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, guitarists Jimmy Page, Robert Fripp and Steve Howe, and bass players Chris Squire, whom still head the list of the best musicians in the history of rock.

The evolution of progressive rock was parallel to the exploration of sound during the 70’s. The use of synthesizers and electronic devices, and the search of new musical languages, this being the time when there were some of the first artists to experiment with primitive sampling and synthesis techniques.

In the late 70’s, the progressive rock scene was hitten by the press media that decided to give way to new music styles such as punk and the style lost it’s popularity very fast. Some of the most popular artists like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rick Wakeman, and Pink Floyd went to serious money difficulties after investing huge amounts in their shows. In the early 80’s, some progressive artists developed their sound into a more commercial product as AOR. This is the case of the supergroup Asia, Rush, or Foreigner. During the 80’s, there was a rebirth of the progressive sound with a new generation of artists influenced by new sounds like new wave and hard rock. The neo-progressive scene was headed by bands like Marillion, Pendragon, and Pallas. Some of the most popular bands in the 90’s influenced by progressive rock are Dream Theatre and Porcupine Three.