Progressive rock is an underappreciated genre of music that has recently dropped off the radar.  In addition to being hard to define, progressive rock, or “prog,” has always morphed and split off into subgenres of different bands as they change throughout their lifetimes.  
   According to Miriam-Webster, prog is “rock music characterized by relatively complex phrasings and improvisations and intended for a musically sophisticated audience.” What immediately pops to mind is an image of strangely clad, long- haired rockers like Steve Vai or Jeff Beck backed by world class symphony orchestras.  Needless to say, this bumps the entire genre into a wall of pretentiousness. In fact, there are entire discussions between prog fans on different Internet forums, some about whether or not the genre is pretentious but mostly about the degree to which the pretention extends.
    Should we run away from the instrumental-laden 20 minute epics and baffling dynamic interchanges strewn throughout vague concept albums?  Maybe it is pretentious, and maybe the artists should all be taken with a grain of salt, but it is certainly worth trying to get to know the progressive music scene.  Sometimes all it takes is a little time and an open mind to understand the motivations behind what makes a particular band fall into the category of progressive rather than pop, indie, alternative or electronica music.
   Trouble strikes when it comes time to define the genre by its characteristics, or even to list off a number of influential bands.  Cameron Moore, a senior religion major and local singer-songwriter, said that most people do not have a well-defined understanding of what prog actually is.  
   “Ask most people what progressive rock is, and more than likely, they’ll struggle to give you an answer,” Moore said.  
    I could not agree more with Moore, as even while I asked him what his opinion was on prog, we struggled to understand what the other meant by seemingly simple terms like progressive, metal, pop and artistry.  The prog genre and each of the diverse subgenres are probably best defined by the bands that formed them and have taken hold of its fans.
    Prog started off in the 60s and 70s with bands like Deep Purple, Emerson Lake, Palmer, The Doors and Pink Floyd.  These bands would experiment with new musical and recording techniques, searching for interesting sounds, harmonies and instrumental explorations.  According to progarchives.com, prog started as an ambitious attempt to get more out of music than had previously been attempted.
 “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.”
   As noted above, a great achievement for any prog band would be to release a powerful concept album.  Concept albums are known to tie all of the songs together with a common lyrical theme and recapitulating musical motifs throughout the album, almost like a classical symphony or sonata.  This is one reason why the genre is somewhat pretentious; it demands so much of your concentrated attention that it sometimes has too high a view of its own importance and takes itself too seriously.  In general, the musical expression found in prog gives birth to a new version of the old Baroque mode of interlacing polyphonic sound. It makes virtuosic use of the Classical era’s technical proficiency and musical theory, and it reiterates the Romantic period’s self-expression in artistically-charged albums.
    I cannot tell you what to listen to, but I can suggest that you give some of the progressive subgenres a chance.  Try to listen to early Yes, Genesis, Riverside, Porcupine Tree or Dreamtheater albums, and pay as much attention as possible to the entirety of the music. Definitely try to start at the beginnings of albums and listen all the way through uninterrupted.  Prog music, most of which is easily accessible through online fan sites and Spotify, transcends simple definitions and confinement to specific genres. So go out and explore, you and I both may be surprised by what we can find.