The Minimalisim vs. Complexity Scale

If I had to break Prog down into two categories, there's a nice little sliding scale between the bands that prefer sparse construction and the bands that like to throw in the whole 9 yards. For every Pink Floyd, and Tangerine Dream, for every Soft Machine, a Neu!. This difference bridges many divides in Prog, over many sub genres and nationalities.

This raises the question about which is superior. The general opinion seems to favor the complex over the simple, as bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, and King Crimson remain very popular and respected while Prog electornic seems to slip into obsucrity with each day. Minimalistic art in any form is always hardest to comprehend, as there's not much direction given to the audience. Still, I think that the criminaly underated Progressive Electronic Genre is so wonderfull due to its minimalizim, that trance of sound that exists.

However, it's not for everyone. So, I'm going to introduce a sliding scale of minimalisim to use in my reviews. I've put some groups to use as benchmarks to comapre to.

1- Extremely Minamalistic- Tangerine Dream
2- Minimalistic- Faust
3- Somewhat Minimalistic- Hawkwind
4- Neutral- Genesis
5- Somewhat Complex- Pink Floyd
6- Complex- Soft Machine
7- Extremely Complex- Gentle Giant

My hope is that this can help pin down how "Proggy" an album is, as the more compelx, the more progressive. Over time, perhaps you can get a feel of where you like your music.

Adventures of a Prog Missionary

The Question: Last night, I threw a 40th birthday party for Prog. Yes, I am that much of a nerd. I had five of my closest friends over for four hours of listening. As well as bowling with plastic cups and getting a sugar high, I conducted some valuable research on what a youth that is criminally underexposed to classic prog might think of it. What appeal does Progressive Rock have to Generation Y?

The Hypothesis: In a world with about zero attention span, most of it will dud. Prog requires too much attention to detail.

Materials: One iPod, One iDock, and several helpings of pretzels and M&M's.

The Procedure: I played a playlist consisting of In The Court of The Crimson King in its entirety, because it was it's birthday, and then 25 additional songs, maximum of one per band. Total time: 3 hours, 44 minutes. I tried to go mostly symphonic prog, because it's the standard, but I put in a healthy amount of Krautrock and Canterbury. Additionally, I had Jean Michelle Jarre represent Prog Electronic, Hawkwind for Space Rock, and of course J-Tull for Prog folk. I intentionally left out any RIO/Avant-Prog/Zehul because those are a little bit too much for prog virgins, as well as Jazz Fusion, for time constraints.

The Experiment: The reception to ItCotCK was rather warm. They didn't seem to appreciate the originality of the work, but the definitely were into the overall feel of the record. "The Court of the Crimson King" was best received. Amongst the other bands, I found a surprising amount of praise for Italian Prog. Le Orme's "Sospesi nell 'incredibile" got the best reception all night, and Cherry Five and PFM went over well also. Sympho Prog was very hit or miss. Yes (as well as Chris Squire solo), Camel, Wishbone Ash, and Renaissance went down very well. My friends hated Curved Air and Gentle Giant. ELP was received lukewarmly. I unfortunately had to throw out the results for Genesis because "Watcher of the Skies" was interrupted by a terrible improvisation session. Hawkwind was well liked, and Jethro Tull got thumbs up, so their respective subgeneres have some potential. The Canterbury Scene was received very coldly, and Jarre got booed. Krautrock actually went over somewhat decently! Can an Neu! did well, but Guru Guru fell down hard. Yet, the biggest surprise of the night was that one of my friends had heard of Camel without me telling him about them first. I nearly fainted.

Results: Classic Prog may be long gone, but it doesn't have to be that way. Despite the fast paced world we live in, today's teenagers will still get enjoyment from complex time signatures and 20 minute guitar freakouts. There are still a lot of us who like this music, and I'll be damned if I don't continue to make more converts.

Potential Flaws: This was an above average group in terms of intellect. They were pretty spastic, so the whole attention span part of my hypothesis remains valid, but there might be less of ability to appreciate the inventiveness and artistic qualities of prog in the lower IQ levels.

Conclusion: Most Subgenres of Progresive Rock do have appeal to the modern teenager.