Art-Rock/Progressive-Rock

Art-rock and progressive-rock incorporates elements of Eurpoean and classical music to rock & roll music, resulting in long, complex instrumental passages and dramatic, grandiose flourishes. Though the movement was sparked by the Beatles' =Sgt. Pepper,= art-rock bands tend to write compositions, not songs; instrumental prowess is also emphasized. Primarily, art-rock and progressive rock are album-oriented, not single-oriented. The album format gives the bands freedom to experiment musically and expand their ideas over the course of a side. Another tendency of art-rock bands is to tell stories -- frequently, their albums are strucutred as rock operas. The difference between art-rock and prog-rock is slight, but important. Art-rock bands tend to draw more heavily on classical influences and show a tendency toward midieval and mystical lyrical imagery. Prog-rockers do have some classical elements to their music, but they also have more of an overt jazz and psychedelic influences -- they have a greater tendency to improvise.

Pink Floyd are the premier space-rock band. Since the mid-'60s, their music has relentlessly tinkered with electronics and all manner of special effects to push pop formats to their outer limits. At the same time they have wrestled with lyrical themes and concepts of such massive scale that their music has taken on almost classical, operatic quality, in both sound and words. For the first decade or so of their existence, they were one of the most innovative groups around, in concert and (especially) in the studio.
Grim's Pick: Dark Side of the Moon. Visit Sony's Pink Floyd Web Site

Jethro Tull was a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of hard rock, folk melodies, blues licks, surreal, impossibly dense lyrics, and overall profundity defied easy analysis, but that didn't dissuade fans from giving them 11 gold and five platinum albums. At the same time, critics rarely took them seriously, and they were off the cutting edge of popular music since the end of the 1970's. Still being an avid fan, I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to see Tull live in '97 as they toured with Emerson, Lake & Palmer...another '70s favorite.
Grim's Pick: Songs from the Wood. Visit theOfficial Island Records Site

Alan Parsons Project As indicated by its name, the Alan Parsons Project was not a band so much as a concept overseen by Parsons, a successful producer and engineer. Parsons first garnered significant industry exposure via his work on the Beatles' 1969 masterpiece Abbey Road. Parsons subsquently worked with Paul McCartney on several of Wings' earliest albums; he also oversaw recordings from Al Stewart, Cockney Rebel and Pilot, but solidified his reputation by working on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The Project debuted in 1975 with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a collection inspired by the work of Edgar Allen Poe; similarly, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov served as the raw material for 1977's follow-up I, Robot.
Grim's Pick: Eye in the Sky. Visit The Avenue

Yes Far and away the longest lasting and the most successful of the 1970s' progressive rock groups, Yes has proved one of the lingering success stories from that musical genre. The band, founded in 1968, has overcome a generational shift in its audience and the departure of its most visible members at key points in its history to reach the end of the century as the definitive progressive rock band. Their audience remains huge because they've always attracted younger listeners drawn to their mix of daunting virtuosity, cosmic (often mystical) lyrics, complex musical textures, and powerful yet delicate lead vocals.
Grim's Pick: 90125. Visit Notes From the Edge

The Moody Blues Without question, The Moody Blues are members of that tiny musical elite who can justifiably claim to have created genuine milestones in rock history, establishing themselves into the realms of eternal rock legend, and influencing a thousand imitators. The Moody Blues have earned a reputation for breaking down barriers and setting precedents. They played a key role in expanding rock's sonic and lyrical horizons; they've survived countless musical trends while maintaining both their integrity and popularity; and continue to produce the goods for a multi-generational and fanatically devoted international following. In short, the Moodies are one of the world's most innovative and successful bands in rock history.
Grim's Pick: Long Distance Voyager. Visit The Official Moody Blues Site

Queen Few bands embodied the pure excess of the '70s like Queen. Embracing the exaggerated pomp of prog-rock and heavy metal, as well as vaudevellian music-hall, the British quartet delved deeply into camp and bombast, creating a huge, mock-operatic sound with layered guitars and overdubbed vocals. Queen's music was a bizarre yet highly accessible fusion of the macho and the fey. For years, their albums boasted the motto "no synthesizers were used on this record," signaling their allegiance with the legions of post-Led Zeppelin hard rock bands. But vocalist Freddie Mercury brought an extravagant sense of camp to the band, pushing them towards kitschy humor and pseudo-classical arrangements, as epitomized on their best-known song, "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Grim's Pick: A Night at the Opera. Visit The Official Queen Web Site

Rush Over the course of their decades-spanning career, the Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock's most highly-regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and rare recepients of mainstream pop radio airplay, the group nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following, while their virtuoso performance skills solidified their standing as musicians' musicians. 1976's , proved to be their breakthrough release: a futuristic concept album based on the writings of Ayn Rand, it fused the elements of the trio's sound -- Lee's high-pitched vocals, Peart's epic-length compositions and Lifeson's complex guitar work -- into a unified whole.
Grim's Pick: 2112. Visit the Rush Home Page@Atlantic Records

Rick Wakeman joined Yes, a post-psychedelic hard rock band that had attracted considerable attention with their first three albums, in the early '70s. Wakeman played a key role in the final shape of the group's fourth record, Fragile, creating a fierce, swirling sound on an array of synthesizers, Mellotrons, electric and acoustic pianos. Fragile was a hit, driven by the chart success of the single "Roundabout," and Wakeman was suddenly elevated to star status. Wakeman's first solo album was an instrumental work entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which consisted of his musical interpretations of the lives and personalities of the said six royal spouses.
Grim's Pick: Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Visit the Rick Wakeman Communications Center

Emerson, Lake & Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands into tens of millions of listeners, creating a major radio phenomenon as well. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers could compete for that arena-scale audience. Over and above their own commercial success, the trio also paved the way for the success of such bands as Yes, who would become their chief rivals for much of the 1970's.
Grim's Pick: The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Visit The Official ELP Global Web Site!

Dream Theater 's music is an interesting thrash-influenced brand of progressive rock. They're listed here at the bottom of this page simply because they are a fairly new "favorite" of mine. "Dream Theater have carved out a niche for themselves as one of rock's truly original bands by always following their own map. Their legend has grown from their native Long Island all the way to the far reaches of Japan, (where they constantly top the year-end rock polls) thanks to a worldwide following of Dream Theater fans. DT's epic storytelling and breathtaking musicianship inspires the kind of audience that knows every guitar lick, follows every set list, trading precious nuggets about the group throughout the world's computer screens on DT websites around the globe. This unbreakable contract Dream Theater has with its fans goes far beyond the usual music business edict of "let's just put out another record." The time and passion the group puts into each new disk is legendary, and their new album, Falling Into Infinity is no exception. Through it all, the steadfast quintet has managed to remain unaffected by the shifting winds of trend"....iMusic Rock Showcase.
Grim's Pick: Falling into Infinity. Visit Under a Cyber Moon - The Official Dream Theater site

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	Pink Floyd are the premier space-rock band. Since the mid-'60s, their music has relentlessly tinkered with electronics and all manner of special effects to push pop formats to their outer limits. At the same time they have wrestled with lyrical themes and concepts of such massive scale that their music has taken on almost classical, operatic quality, in both sound and words. For the first decade or so of their existence, they were one of the most innovative groups around, in concert and (especially) in the studio. Grim's Pick: Dark Side of the Moon. Visit Sony's Pink Floyd Web Site
	Jethro Tull was a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of hard rock, folk melodies, blues licks, surreal, impossibly dense lyrics, and overall profundity defied easy analysis, but that didn't dissuade fans from giving them 11 gold and five platinum albums. At the same time, critics rarely took them seriously, and they were off the cutting edge of popular music since the end of the 1970's. Still being an avid fan, I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to see Tull live in '97 as they toured with Emerson, Lake & Palmer...another '70s favorite. Grim's Pick: Songs from the Wood. Visit theOfficial Island Records Site
	Alan Parsons Project As indicated by its name, the Alan Parsons Project was not a band so much as a concept overseen by Parsons, a successful producer and engineer. Parsons first garnered significant industry exposure via his work on the Beatles' 1969 masterpiece Abbey Road. Parsons subsquently worked with Paul McCartney on several of Wings' earliest albums; he also oversaw recordings from Al Stewart, Cockney Rebel and Pilot, but solidified his reputation by working on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The Project debuted in 1975 with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a collection inspired by the work of Edgar Allen Poe; similarly, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov served as the raw material for 1977's follow-up I, Robot. Grim's Pick: Eye in the Sky. Visit The Avenue
	Yes Far and away the longest lasting and the most successful of the 1970s' progressive rock groups, Yes has proved one of the lingering success stories from that musical genre. The band, founded in 1968, has overcome a generational shift in its audience and the departure of its most visible members at key points in its history to reach the end of the century as the definitive progressive rock band. Their audience remains huge because they've always attracted younger listeners drawn to their mix of daunting virtuosity, cosmic (often mystical) lyrics, complex musical textures, and powerful yet delicate lead vocals. Grim's Pick: 90125. Visit Notes From the Edge
	The Moody Blues Without question, The Moody Blues are members of that tiny musical elite who can justifiably claim to have created genuine milestones in rock history, establishing themselves into the realms of eternal rock legend, and influencing a thousand imitators. The Moody Blues have earned a reputation for breaking down barriers and setting precedents. They played a key role in expanding rock's sonic and lyrical horizons; they've survived countless musical trends while maintaining both their integrity and popularity; and continue to produce the goods for a multi-generational and fanatically devoted international following. In short, the Moodies are one of the world's most innovative and successful bands in rock history. Grim's Pick: Long Distance Voyager. Visit The Official Moody Blues Site
	Queen Few bands embodied the pure excess of the '70s like Queen. Embracing the exaggerated pomp of prog-rock and heavy metal, as well as vaudevellian music-hall, the British quartet delved deeply into camp and bombast, creating a huge, mock-operatic sound with layered guitars and overdubbed vocals. Queen's music was a bizarre yet highly accessible fusion of the macho and the fey. For years, their albums boasted the motto "no synthesizers were used on this record," signaling their allegiance with the legions of post-Led Zeppelin hard rock bands. But vocalist Freddie Mercury brought an extravagant sense of camp to the band, pushing them towards kitschy humor and pseudo-classical arrangements, as epitomized on their best-known song, "Bohemian Rhapsody." Grim's Pick: A Night at the Opera. Visit The Official Queen Web Site
	Rush Over the course of their decades-spanning career, the Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock's most highly-regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and rare recepients of mainstream pop radio airplay, the group nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following, while their virtuoso performance skills solidified their standing as musicians' musicians. 1976's , proved to be their breakthrough release: a futuristic concept album based on the writings of Ayn Rand, it fused the elements of the trio's sound -- Lee's high-pitched vocals, Peart's epic-length compositions and Lifeson's complex guitar work -- into a unified whole. Grim's Pick: 2112. Visit the Rush Home Page@Atlantic Records
	Rick Wakeman joined Yes, a post-psychedelic hard rock band that had attracted considerable attention with their first three albums, in the early '70s. Wakeman played a key role in the final shape of the group's fourth record, Fragile, creating a fierce, swirling sound on an array of synthesizers, Mellotrons, electric and acoustic pianos. Fragile was a hit, driven by the chart success of the single "Roundabout," and Wakeman was suddenly elevated to star status. Wakeman's first solo album was an instrumental work entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which consisted of his musical interpretations of the lives and personalities of the said six royal spouses. Grim's Pick: Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Visit the Rick Wakeman Communications Center
	Emerson, Lake & Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands into tens of millions of listeners, creating a major radio phenomenon as well. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers could compete for that arena-scale audience. Over and above their own commercial success, the trio also paved the way for the success of such bands as Yes, who would become their chief rivals for much of the 1970's. Grim's Pick: The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Visit The Official ELP Global Web Site!
	Dream Theater 's music is an interesting thrash-influenced brand of progressive rock. They're listed here at the bottom of this page simply because they are a fairly new "favorite" of mine. "Dream Theater have carved out a niche for themselves as one of rock's truly original bands by always following their own map. Their legend has grown from their native Long Island all the way to the far reaches of Japan, (where they constantly top the year-end rock polls) thanks to a worldwide following of Dream Theater fans. DT's epic storytelling and breathtaking musicianship inspires the kind of audience that knows every guitar lick, follows every set list, trading precious nuggets about the group throughout the world's computer screens on DT websites around the globe. This unbreakable contract Dream Theater has with its fans goes far beyond the usual music business edict of "let's just put out another record." The time and passion the group puts into each new disk is legendary, and their new album, Falling Into Infinity is no exception. Through it all, the steadfast quintet has managed to remain unaffected by the shifting winds of trend"....iMusic Rock Showcase. Grim's Pick: Falling into Infinity. Visit Under a Cyber Moon - The Official Dream Theater site