"Every Home Is Wired":
2 -- The Progressive Rock Subculture and the Net
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This musician-based definition of the genre, which is an obvious result of the fans' devotion to particular artists and bands, has eventually even expanded to a particular form of subcultural in-joke: in analogy to the 'six degrees of separation' game, fans attempt to find the shortest possible connection, through musical collaborations, between any two individual Prog musicians. The starting-point for such chains of cooperation is frequently drummer Bill Bruford, who has played with a large number of Prog bands (including the three canonical groups Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis).4 Bit 6
Defining Progressive Rock: Stylistic Traits
Since not even the output of the musicians most central to the genre is necessarily all regarded as Prog, fans have attempted alternative approaches. Definitions through shared stylistic elements have also started from the core canonical bands, moved outward, and become increasingly contradictory with the amount of generic ground they have attempted to cover and unify. The seeds for these problems lie already in the canon bands' styles themselves: while individually these early groups might have established their own consistent stylistic approaches, there is for the most part little stylistic overlap between the psychedelic sound constructs of Pink Floyd, the grand-scale symphonics of Yes, and the bluesy pastoral folkiness of Jethro Tull, for example. Additionally, of course, the bands' styles themselves have changed massively through the years -- five years after its foundation, King Crimson had already seen seven different line-ups, retaining only guitarist Robert Fripp, and moved from a jazzy, moody mysticism to a hard-edged, complex, improvisational style. Bit 7

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© 1998 Axel Bruns