Stylus Magazine: The Top 10 Progressive Band Pioneers

[DudeAsInCool]

Stylus Magazine takes a look back and examines what they feel are the most influential progressive bands - any thoughts?

10. Univers Zero

The Belgians. Well, they know something about beer. They also (damn their sacred sugar beets) know a good deal about chocolate. They also happen to know about combining classical music and progressive rock without boring the audience to tears...

09. Gentle Giant

Somewhere between classical, rock, and folk lay the world of the Giant. With a medievalism that was almost fetishistic, they avoided Incredibly Silly Band territory by exploring a hitherto unknown connection between Bardic rondos and R&B—multiple percussionists and a focus on rhythm keeping the fusions of modal singing and heavy rock from sounding like conceptual soup. ..

08. Aphrodite's Child

Being Greek gets you points.... Getting Top Ten European pop hits and then making a concept album about the apocalypse puts you way over the top. Breaking up immediately afterwards? ...

07. Van Der Graaf Generator

The band that saw the end of the proverbial line. Generic Alterna-logic dictates that the Velvet Underground were the band that demolished the hippie dream, but they struck from the outside. Van Der Graaf were the hippies that went too far—

06. Magma

They invented their own language in which they tell a ten-album long tale of a future Earth at war with hostile planets in the wake of a global ecological holocaust. Not a concept album, a concept band. Need we go further?

05. Genesis (Peter Gabriel Years Only, My Friend)

Say what you will about either post-Gabriel Genesis (though it had its moments) or our boy's solo career (which did too), but during their Foxtrot/Nursery Cryme/Lamb Lies Down... heyday, these gents were pretty much unstoppable.

04. Goblin

Equally at home constructing rambling psych-guitar epics, proto-Italo-disco, creepy horror themes, Bacharach-esque EL soup, and subterranean electro rumblings, Goblin were the answer to a question that was never asked: what if Prog went Pop?

03. Soft Machine

The ultimate all-purpose crazy great prog act, the Soft Machine were just as comfortable with dada whimsy (the debut) as with side-long jazz-based improv (the classic third record). In addition to giving the world UK national treasure Robert Wyatt and beating Led Zep to the rotating cover sleeve concept by two whole years, they were one of the only groups to stand at the nexus point of psychedelic, prog, and jazz-rock, delving into all three while maintaining a distinct identity

02. Gong

The band that should have been God. Gong did it all—funky oddities, space jazz, psych mindscrew, hippie folk nonsense—hell, they even had a logo and a cartoon mascot. Albums like Angel's Egg, You, and Camembert Electrique redefined rock on the edge of madness without stooping to the clichés of most popular prog.

01. King Crimson

All right so, fantasy rock is invented. Prog-hard rock, then prog-metal are invented. After which, Mr. Fripp finds time to invent prog-ambient, prog-FX pedal wanking, prog-MOR pop, and prog-"I'm just going to fling giant objects constructed out of clustered noise and speaker effects at you while I duck under this huge gallumphing guitar riff." ...Oh, which is followed in timely fashion with the reactivation of a previous lineup dedicated to showing the Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, System of a Down, and anyone else who's actually had the cojones to own up to a King Crimson influence exactly how the shit gets done.

Read the full review RIGHT HERE

[bmc]

double yew tee eff

no dream theater

[DudeAsInCool]

double yew tee eff

no dream theater

The list was old school pioneers - your band came later

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

WAYYYY old school.

I know maybe 3 of these.

And bmc, while DT are definitely progressive in their own right and style, they are hardly pioneers. They may be current giants, but bands such as Rush and the like deserve the honor than any 90s or late 80s band. For the record though, I'd gladly listen to DT 24 hours straight than listen to any of these bands once (again).

[DudeAsInCool]

WAYYYY old school.

I know maybe 3 of these.

And bmc, while DT are definitely progressive in their own right and style, they are hardly pioneers. They may be current giants, but bands such as Rush and the like deserve the honor than any 90s or late 80s band. For the record though, I'd gladly listen to DT 24 hours straight than listen to any of these bands once (again).

King Crimson is still worth listening to...

[bmc]

WAYYYY old school.

I know maybe 3 of these.

And bmc, while DT are definitely progressive in their own right and style, they are hardly pioneers. They may be current giants, but bands such as Rush and the like deserve the honor than any 90s or late 80s band. For the record though, I'd gladly listen to DT 24 hours straight than listen to any of these bands once (again).

yeah i know lol, i should have put a smiley in my post or something, i wasnt being serious. :happy:

[method77]

08. Aphrodite's Child

Being Greek gets you points.... Getting Top Ten European pop hits and then making a concept album about the apocalypse puts you way over the top. Breaking up immediately afterwards? ...

That was Vangelis' LSD years. He later became famous by making music for films and won an oscar for Chariots Of Fire. He also wrote the music for Blade Runner among other huge films.

Demis Rousos was also in that band. We all know him.

The others are all excellent bands.