"Every Home Is Wired": 2 -- The Progressive Rock Subculture and the Net

"Every Home Is Wired":
2 -- The Progressive Rock Subculture and the Net

There are some common elements (perhaps more of musical attitude than style) in Prog, however -- elements which are not necessarily shared by all of the genre's proponents, though. Certainly, there is an appetite for experimentation, which arises out of a generally fairly high level of musicianship among Prog artists. This, then, often leads to a transcending of traditional song structures: individual pieces are stretched out to ten or twenty minutes in length, and often subdivided into distinct movements; alternatively, the songs of an entire album are musically or thematically linked to follow a unifying concept. Also, where songs have lyrics at all, they are often metaphysical in nature, or inspired by fantasy or science fiction concepts. Additionally, the music is likely to 'borrow' elements from other styles (from classical to jazz to today's world music); "there was probably no other style during the 1970s that drew on so many diverse sources" (Macan 143). These sources are then combined into works that frequently tend to be quite complex rhythmically and structurally.	Bit 8
As a result, Prog has also often departed from the classical instrumentation of rock: apart from guitar, bass, and drums (the last two of which are freed from their rock role as a mere rhythm section, and often take on more leading roles), there is also a strong emphasis on keyboards of all types, saxophones, and frequent use of more classical and folk music instruments such as violin, recorder, flute, trumpet, or flugelhorn. These have finally also been augmented by 'ethnic' instruments from the sitar to the nyatiti. Of this diverse range of instruments, the one that has been most identified with 'the Prog sound', elusive as it may be, has been the Mellotron, a late-1960s analogue keyboard which operates pre-recorded sound tapes on the pressing of a key.⁵ The full choral or orchestral sounds the Mellotron is able to create are responsible for what is frequently described as 'lush keyboard washes' especially in the music of 1970s Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson.	Bit 9

There are some common elements (perhaps more of musical attitude than style) in Prog, however -- elements which are not necessarily shared by all of the genre's proponents, though. Certainly, there is an appetite for experimentation, which arises out of a generally fairly high level of musicianship among Prog artists. This, then, often leads to a transcending of traditional song structures: individual pieces are stretched out to ten or twenty minutes in length, and often subdivided into distinct movements; alternatively, the songs of an entire album are musically or thematically linked to follow a unifying concept. Also, where songs have lyrics at all, they are often metaphysical in nature, or inspired by fantasy or science fiction concepts. Additionally, the music is likely to 'borrow' elements from other styles (from classical to jazz to today's world music); "there was probably no other style during the 1970s that drew on so many diverse sources" (Macan 143). These sources are then combined into works that frequently tend to be quite complex rhythmically and structurally.

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As a result, Prog has also often departed from the classical instrumentation of rock: apart from guitar, bass, and drums (the last two of which are freed from their rock role as a mere rhythm section, and often take on more leading roles), there is also a strong emphasis on keyboards of all types, saxophones, and frequent use of more classical and folk music instruments such as violin, recorder, flute, trumpet, or flugelhorn. These have finally also been augmented by 'ethnic' instruments from the sitar to the nyatiti. Of this diverse range of instruments, the one that has been most identified with 'the Prog sound', elusive as it may be, has been the Mellotron, a late-1960s analogue keyboard which operates pre-recorded sound tapes on the pressing of a key.⁵ The full choral or orchestral sounds the Mellotron is able to create are responsible for what is frequently described as 'lush keyboard washes' especially in the music of 1970s Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson.

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Section 2 -- Go on to Bite:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30