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How are Pink Floyd considered PROG rock?

PF is classic rock. I’ve never heard them labeled as prog rock.

They can be both classic rock and prog rock. Classic rock is a really broad term at this point, but do you really think Floyd is closer to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Who, etc. than they are to early prog stuff like the original lineup of King Crimson or proto-prog like the Moody Blues and Procol Harum?
 
In South America Iron Maiden inevitably play in front of 100 000 human souls. Nowhere else they could achieve such a big attendance. :D
Indeed, filling stadiums with 40000+ people in every country for every tour doesn't count at all. 100 000 doesn't count because South America. And Rush isn't super famous since they only sold 40 million albums. And Pink Floyd isn't a prog band because they're not virtuosos. And their songs are too simple.
Your criteria for what constitutes a valid audience/great band/prog band seem appaling to me.
 
They can be both classic rock and prog rock. Classic rock is a really broad term at this point, but do you really think Floyd is closer to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Who, etc. than they are to early prog stuff like the original lineup of King Crimson or proto-prog like the Moody Blues and Procol Harum?
I think labels are useless and confusing. It’s more useful to compare to other bands, like “ they sound like x with a little y thrown in.” The fact that we’re having this discussion reinforces my point that they’re confusing because nobody agrees on them.
 
I think labels are useless and confusing. It’s more useful to compare to other bands, like “ they sound like x with a little y thrown in.” The fact that we’re having this discussion reinforces my point that they’re confusing because nobody agrees on them.

I am comparing them to other bands and you didn’t answer the question.

Also, it seems most of us agree on this issue… of posters in this thread, probably 75% or more are comfortable with the label “prog.”
 
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A definition of Progressive Rock Music

Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock) is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." The term "art rock" is often used interchangeably with "progressive rock", but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical.

Progressive rock bands pushed "rock's technical and compositional boundaries" by going beyond the standard rock or popular verse-chorus-based song structures. Additionally, the arrangements often incorporated elements drawn from classical, jazz, and world music. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used "concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme."

Progressive rock developed from late 1960s psychedelic rock, as part of a wide-ranging tendency in rock music of this era to draw inspiration from ever more diverse influences. The term was applied to the music of bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Soft Machine and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Progressive rock came into most widespread use around the mid-1970s. While progressive rock reached the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s, neo-progressive bands have continued playing for faithful audiences in the subsequent decades.

Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here is progarchive's #3 album just ahead of King Crimson's in the Court of the Crimson King, considered by many to be the birth of prog.

Read the reviews here:

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I think labels are useless and confusing. It’s more useful to compare to other bands, like “ they sound like x with a little y thrown in.” The fact that we’re having this discussion reinforces my point that they’re confusing because nobody agrees on them.
Especially when the labels have been created long after the fact, not by actual musicians, but by writers and critics trying to create more revenue.

I never, not once, heard the term "Prog" in the 1970s and 1980s when I spent thousands of hours listening to and playing that style of music.
 
I think you guys mean categories, not labels. Imagine shopping for food with no labels (a whole aisle with silver cans). Listening to music would be hard without labels too, with all the songs just blank. But categories are useful too just to make talking about things easier. Mammal is a category and car is a category, and even though not perfect categories, it makes things easier to talk about. e.g. I like prog rock vs. I like rush, pink floyd, yes, dream theater... I think long lists might be the most boring thing in existence.
 
I never, not once, heard the term "Prog" in the 1970s and 1980s when I spent thousands of hours listening to and playing that style of music.
First time I heard it was in the 90's when I was asked to join a proggy-fusiony kind of band. I'd been out of that scene for so long by then as nothing being made in recent years that I was aware was progressive at all. What I found when I started listening to the newer music that bore the label "prog" was regressive stuff that echoed old music from the 70's, nothing that was still progressive. So yes, the label fits. It's not the word that described the music that it borrows from. There's not much that's progressive in what's usually labeled "prog."
 
Sorry I'm late.






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I think you guys mean categories, not labels. Imagine shopping for food with no labels (a whole aisle with silver cans). Listening to music would be hard without labels too, with all the songs just blank. But categories are useful too just to make talking about things easier. Mammal is a category and car is a category, and even though not perfect categories, it makes things easier to talk about. e.g. I like prog rock vs. I like rush, pink floyd, yes, dream theater... I think long lists might be the most boring thing in existence.
This analogy doesn’t really work. A label on a can tells you exactly what’s in the can. It’s not open to interpretation. Red beans? Ok now you know exactly what you’ve got. A label on a music style although not completely vague, is open to quite a wide level of interpretation.
 
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First time I heard it was in the 90's when I was asked to join a proggy-fusiony kind of band. I'd been out of that scene for so long by then as nothing being made in recent years that I was aware was progressive at all. What I found when I started listening to the newer music that bore the label "prog" was regressive stuff that echoed old music from the 70's, nothing that was still progressive. So yes, the label fits. It's not the word that described the music that it borrows from. There's not much that's progressive in what's usually labeled "prog."
Was it you that posted a video of you singing with a proggy kinda band a few years ago? Anyway,I remember really digging it.
 
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