Proto-prog

Proto-prog
Stylistic origins	Rock progressive psychedelic rock
Cultural origins	Mid-1960s
Other topics
Progressive pop progressive rock post-progressive

Proto-prog(short forproto-progressive) is the earliest work associated with the first wave ofprogressive rockmusic,known then as "progressive pop".Such musicians were influenced bymodern classicaland other genres usually outside of traditional rock influences. They often employed longer and more complicated compositions, interconnected songs as medley, andstudio composition.Some of the artists that were essential to the development of progressive rock, rather than just anticipating the movement, includethe Beatles,the Beach Boys,the Doors,the Pretty Things,the Zombies,the Byrds,the Grateful Dead,Buffalo SpringfieldandPink Floyd.

Definition

See also:Progressive music § Pop and rock

The Moody Blues,1978

Although a unidirectional English "progressive" style emerged in the late 1960s, by 1967, progressive rock had come to constitute a diversity of loosely associated style codes.When the "progressive" label arrived, the music was dubbed "progressive pop"before it was called" progressive rock ",with the term "progressive" referring to the wide range of attempts to break with standard pop music formula.

Music writer Doyle Greene believes that the "proto-prog" label can stretch to "the laterBeatlesandFrank Zappa",Pink Floyd,Soft Machine,andUnited States of America.Edward Macan, an author of progressive rock books, says that psychedelic bands likethe Nice,the Moody Blues,and Pink Floyd represent a proto-progressive style and the first wave of Englishprogressive rock.Conversely, academics Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell identify the Beatles,the Beach Boys,the Doors,the Pretty Things,the Zombies,the Byrds,the Grateful Deadand Pink Floyd "not merely as precursors of prog but as essential developments of progressiveness in its early days".

At the time, critics generally assumedKing Crimson's albumIn the Court of the Crimson King(1969) to be the logical extension and development of late 1960s proto-progressive rock exemplified by the Moody Blues,Procol Harum,Pink Floyd, and the Beatles.According to Macan, the album may be the most influential to progressive rock for crystallizing the music of earlier "proto-progressive bands... into a distinctive, immediately recognizable style".He distinguishes 1970s "classic" prog from late 1960s proto-prog by the conscious rejection of psychedelic rock elements, which proto-progressive bands continued to support.

References

Bibliography

• Cotner, John S. (2000)."Music Theory and Progressive Rock Style Analysis".Reflections on American Music: The Twentieth Century and the New Millennium.Pendragon Press.ISBN978-1-57647-070-1.
• Greene, Doyle (2016).Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966–1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era.McFarland.ISBN978-1-4766-2403-7.
• Haworth, John Trevor; Smith, Michael A. (1975).Work and Leisure: An Interdisciplinary Study in Theory, Education and Planning.Lepus Books.ISBN9780860190097.
• Hegarty, Paul;Halliwell, Martin (2011),Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock Since the 1960s,New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group,ISBN978-0-8264-2332-0
• Holm-Hudson, Kevin, ed. (2013).Progressive Rock Reconsidered.Routledge.ISBN978-1-135-71022-4.
• Macan, Edward (1997).Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-509887-7.
• Macan, Edward (2005).Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer.Open Court.ISBN978-0-8126-9596-0.
• Moore, Allan (2004).Jethro Tull's Aqualung.Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-1-4411-1315-3.