How are Pink Floyd considered PROG rock?

[MegaSwing]

Isn’t the essence of ‘prog rock’ the advancement of the rock form into new contexts and areas of expression? How did Pink Floyd not do that?

 

[BadSanta1281]

Are you saying you never heard the term progressive rock back then?

Yes. That is what I'm saying.

We listened to it and loved it and didn't feel the need to slap a label on it.

 

[ryco]

Pink Floyd were certainly progressive when tbhey came out. And it was more in thgeir live shows than anything captured on their albums. Once they had a label deal the band was more pushed towards making hit singles. But The Pink Floyd Sound was way way ahead in writing irregular songs and epic soundscapes, a lot of times incorporating sound effects; whereas 90% your pop/rock bands were vying for dance hits and not so much sonic exploration.

I would consider PF more art rock or psychedelic than "prog". But prog didn't start until around 68-9 with King Crimson and Yes - a little later ELP; where really good [read fast and articulate] musicianship and musical knowledge (scales, odd time, polyrhythmic) set the label/moniker.

It wasn't 'til Dark Side, and argueably Obscured By Clouds soundtrack, that PF came more down to Earth writing what could be considered more "normal" songs with the warning "and when the band you're in starts playing different toons".

 

[porteous]

"No odd time signatures?" Perhaps their biggest radio hit was in 7/4 (Money)

 

[dgonzo]

Pink Floyd might not be the 'definition' of Progressive rock, but they undoubtedly incorporated elements of it into their music where some might associate them together with more obvious prog rock bands.

 

[wildrice]

Careful with that axe, Eugene.

So if you give 'em a quick short, sharp, shock
They won't do it again. Dig it?

 

[Uncle Ernie]

I think of them as psychedelic, but then there is Atom Heart Mother, which is an orchestral suite… and The Wall borders disco-land! But all in all an extraordinary band

 

[Zenbassie]

I could have sworn that Money was in 7/4.

It was (apart from the guitar solo).

 

[wildrice]

200 years from now, most PF recordings will be in the classical music section on the starship in whatever format you’ll have to re-buy the White Album on.

 

[Zenbassie]

200 years from now, most PF recordings will be in the classical music section on the starship in whatever format you’ll have to re-buy the White Album on.

LP records will still be ok, because the aliens will have turntables (we did after all put golden LP records on both Voyager spacecraft, so aliens will have to have developed turntables to be able to listen to them).

 

[wildrice]

LP records will still be ok, because the aliens will have turntables (we did after all put golden LP records on both Voyager spacecraft, so aliens will have to have developed turntables to be able to listen to them).

Ack! Ack! Ack! No one will have any idea what a glacier is but at least we’ll hope to have compatible LP styli.

 

[Gordon Mills]

I think one of the reasons why Pink Floyd cannot be prog is that they have a mass appeal and they had a huge mainstream success (the run of albums DSOTM - The Wall), in fact they're among the biggest rock bands in general. So how are they PROG? Prog is supposed to be 'niche' music (or in other words, music not for the masses) and PF played stadiums.

Also PF lack virtuoso instrumental playing, they have no odd time signatures in their songs and they don't have complex compositions and arrangements and their music is not influenced by classical or jazz music.

What would you say? Why are they considered prog?

I guess you're too young to remember they had a big hit written in 7/4 time. Money!

Music doesn't have to have wailing distortion and stuff to be progressive. They're just not on the metal end of progressive...

 

[Andrew 1976 Ibanez 2353]

I think one of the reasons why Pink Floyd cannot be prog is that they have a mass appeal and they had a huge mainstream success (the run of albums DSOTM - The Wall), in fact they're among the biggest rock bands in general. So how are they PROG? Prog is supposed to be 'niche' music (or in other words, music not for the masses) and PF played stadiums.

Also PF lack virtuoso instrumental playing, they have no odd time signatures in their songs and they don't have complex compositions and arrangements and their music is not influenced by classical or jazz music.

What would you say? Why are they considered prog?

I deny the premise of your view..!! Progressive Rock is just that... PROGRESSIVE. In the mid 70s until the early 80's you had major radio stations devoted to Progressive Rock. It became very popular at times. Prog Rock is NICHE only because it is at times the "forward movement" in Rock. Although many believe that the Prog Rock of the 70s shows the last real PROGress... Convinve me I am wrong. : ) : P

 

[jerry]

It was (apart from the guitar solo).

Gilmour didn't want to solo over the 7/4 from what I've read.

 

[Ralf1e]

I think a lot of genre labels are misleading and unhelpful. I love a lot of Pink Floyd’s music, but I’m not interested in what it’s called. And as far as where the music came from…
I am now 68 years young I have enough memory to recal that progressive rock actually grew out of or was renamed from what we called progressive blues.
Lots of underground band were playing it. The progression was away from the then modern pop and was driven by progressing the blues. P F, Spooky Tooth, Family, Free, Soft machine, Tull, Aradian, Writting on the wall, bonzo dog do da band. American amboy dukes, Brian auger and trinity, Crazy world of Auther Brown. Moody blues, ever David Bowie grew from out of the underground club scene. Too many to mention but ALL trying to moove music on from the jingle jangle stagnant pop of the time. Thank God

A while ago, when I was transcribing a bunch of their songs for a tribute I was in, I realized something. Because some of their stuff (shine on you crazy diamond for instance) is hard to figure out because it’s so slow, I doubled (or more) the speed to more easily hear the form. It simplified it a lot, and I also made it clear that most of their songs are much more directly derived from the blues than I had realized. A bit of a revelation for me. It’s just harder to hear when it sits on the IV chord for 45 seconds.

So maybe they are best categorized as Electronic British Psychedelic Doomy Arena Blues. I think that fits as well as anything else.

 

[Zenbassie]

Gilmour didn't want to solo over the 7/4 from what I've read.

Yep, I heard that too. The sax player was good with soloing over it though.

 

[togril]

DSOTM was their first "mass appeal" album.
Are you familiar with this bands long long history?
DSOTM was their umpteenth album - in no order:
Ummagumma, Relicks, Atom Heart Mother, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Meddle, Obscured by clouds (film soundtrack: La Vallee), about 20 Singles - All before DSOTM - all with little "mass appeal".
They are the probably The Seminal Psychedelic band from around 1965
I have never in my life heard them described as prog.
Their live shows featured hour long non narrative, non formulaic solos and improvisations, if that's not Virtuoso then I don't know what is. I think it is worth listening to that early stuff - especially with Syd Barret, and imagine that you had never heard anything like that before. Imagine how people were in 1967,
appreciate it for the experience and the MASSIVELY INFLUENCIAL genre it was. But prog? no. never in a million years. time signatures? - all over the place even on DSOTM.
Hope that helps. If you do listen to The Piper and at the gates of Dawn and have problems "connecting"....then realise you are a normal healthy individual. Some of it is....challenging. but worth it.
T Xxx

 

[Hahaha]

Gilmour didn't want to solo over the 7/4 from what I've read.

I assumed that that was the case. 7/4 can feel awkward to a lot of musicians. To my knowledge, Money is one of only two songs in 7/4 time that were hits on top-40 radio.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Gilmour didn't want to solo over the 7/4 from what I've read.

Wimp!

Lots of my own material is in various odd time signatures.

Exhibit A:



Note the 7/4 guitar solo in the middle.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Let's muddy the waters some more. I consider this modern progressive rock: