Defining progressive rock

Many attempts have been made to define progressive rock as a genre, with a strong emphasis placed upon musicological constituents and structures. For example, Lucky (Reference Lucky1998, pp. 120–1) offers a long list of criteria which is useful in characterising the music of the six major British progressive rock acts noted above. These include: long, structured and multi-movement compositions with dynamic arrangements; a blending of acoustic, electric and electronic instruments; a mix of soft and loud musical passages; extended instrumental sections and solos; and the use of musical styles other than the American blues/rock format common to much commercially popular music in Britain, Europe and the USA in the mid-1960s. These criteria seem straightforward when considering the recorded output of bands such as Yes, Genesis and ELP, but there are inconsistencies. For example, Yes, Jethro Tull and ELP drew upon US blues, country and rock styles within their music, while King Crimson incorporated full-band improvisations into their live performances. Other definitions and characterisations of progressive rock add aspects such as the prominent use of the concept album, instrumental virtuosity and compositional excellence which uses or adapts models drawn from European classical music (Macan Reference Macan1997; Martin Reference Martin1998).

However, progressive rock is, as Middleton and Muncie (1981, cited in Whiteley 1992, p. 6) have noted, a ‘particularly heterogeneous genre’ (cited in Whiteley Reference Whiteley1992, p. 6) which encompasses a wide variety of music, and which may or may not be characterised by the aspects discussed above. Indeed, there are acts which can be described using several of Lucky's criteria without ever being considered progressive rock (see Zak Reference Zak and Everett2008). Yet, the list that Lucky provides can be said to depict most closely the so-called ‘symphonic’ style of Yes and ELP, as well as the bands which followed their example. Interestingly, the definitions and discussions seen in Macan (Reference Macan1997), Martin (Reference Martin1998), Cope (Reference Covach2005–2006, 2008) and others also show a tendency to conflate ‘symphonic’ progressive rock with progressive rock in general. This ‘symphonic orthodoxy’ regards the progressiveness of progressive rock as the exploration and development of harmonic, metric and structural forms towards a high level of musical sophistication, as judged by Western conceptions of the classical tradition. As a result, such studies are predisposed to downplaying or largely ignoring the contribution of those bands which adopted or adapted alternative influences. Examples include: the aleatoric and minimalist music of early 1970s Germany (e.g. Cluster, Can, Tangerine Dream); the riff-based space-rock of Hawkwind; the John Coltrane-influenced jazz-rock of Magma and related artists in France; and the avant-garde and jazz-inflected style of ‘Canterbury Scene’ bands such as Soft Machine, Caravan and Egg.Footnote ²

In stark contrast, Cutler (Reference Cutler1991, p. 118) regards the symphonic progressive style, and bands such as Yes, ELP and Genesis in particular, to be ‘so much froth’, deeming them characterised by ‘giganticism, money and show business’ (p. 121) and not really progressive at all. He argues that their focus on instrumental technique, ‘clever arrangements’ and the ‘application of Nineteenth-century Classical music clichés to Rock instruments’ (p. 120) – lauded by Macan (Reference Macan1997) and others – had come to replace the experimentation and exploration which he regards as central to the progressive in rock. For Cutler, progression has three main aspects. Firstly, it involves the exploration of ‘electric and electronic instruments, including the recording studio’ (Cutler Reference Cutler1991, p. 106). Secondly, there is a ‘reforging’ of ‘the folk aspects of music making’, by which he means ‘cooperative and collective work in the group, the unification of composition and performance, expressive improvisation and a direct community with listeners’. Finally, there is a political progressiveness which involves ‘seizing control … over the processes of production and distribution’. In this definition, Cutler is promoting a distinctly left-wing approach to the idea of progression, one which is fundamentally at odds with the business practices and lifestyles of the major ‘symphonic’ groups (Cutler Reference Cutler1991, p. 121) – though in keeping with the many musical projects with which Cutler himself has been involved, and with the do-it-yourself attitude of the punk rock movement. However, elements of Cutler's definition are not antithetical to the practices of the music he criticises. For instance, Pink Floyd are well known for their studio experimentation and use of electronics while, as noted above, the live performances of King Crimson have been marked by large-scale whole-band improvisations since the early 1970s.Footnote ³

A generalised definition of progressive rock as a singular or coherent music genre would appear, as noted by Whiteley (Reference Whiteley1992, p. 6), to be rather problematic. Hence, it may be better to examine the term progressive, and its conceptualisation within the innumerable, contested and shifting styles found in the meta-genre of progressive rock. This fits more closely with the ways that fans discuss the music – their ‘lay discourses’ of genre construction – as they argue whether particular bands or styles should be considered to be progressive rock or not. In this context, progressive typically indicates (as noted earlier) a requirement for rock musicians to move beyond the musical structures and styles of chart-oriented pop, rock and R&B, to define their own, individualistic sounds and styles, and to develop these styles over the course of their careers: i.e. progression as an attitude to making music rather than a set of stylistic traits or political engagement. This latter point may be seen clearly in the early development of bands now routinely associated with the ‘symphonic’ or ‘classic’ progressive style (Macan Reference Macan2006, p. xxiii). For example, a creative use of musical arrangements is evident in the first two Yes albums, which include film music references (‘No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed’ from Time and A Word [1970]), covers of West Coast US folk-rock songs (‘I See You’ from Yes [1969] and ‘Everydays’ from Time and A Word [1970]), and the influence of American jazz (the playing of Bill Bruford and Peter Banks during the mid-section of ‘I See You’ from Yes [1969]). Yet these early Yes albums are not considered ‘progressive’ by, for example, Palmer (Reference Palmer2001), as the band does not merge classical music structures with rock music in the manner of its later albums. Instead, Palmer refers to them as experimental, while acknowledging their inventiveness.Footnote ⁴ Similarly, the first few albums by Genesis, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Deep Purple and others also demonstrate rapid stylistic development and should, using lay definitions, be classed as progressive, or at the very least proto-progressive, since they attempted to move beyond the standard structures and sounds of 1960s popular rock and pop music.

Two further points need to be made regarding the progressive in rock music. Firstly, that while progressive rock may be characterised and criticised for its lack of an overt politically progressive attitude (Cutler Reference Cutler1991; Moore Reference Moore2001), Keister and Smith (Reference Keister and Smith2008) argue that this is a misconception. They argue that the ‘prevailing narrative … [of progressive rock] as an escapist fantasy with an elitist agenda’ is highly flawed (p. 433), and that more attention should be paid to the ‘nasty side’, as they put it, of progressive rock (Keister and Smith Reference Keister and Smith2008). In their paper they show how the works of ELP, King Crimson, Genesis and Yes encompassed a ‘scathing criticism of rampant militarism and social conformity’, and how audiences would have interpreted the music, lyrics and album art in this way. The political stance of progressive rock is illuminated further if we look at music produced in contexts other than the UK, as this article will do in the following section. The second point to consider is a statement from Moore (Reference Moore2001, p. 64), who notes that ‘a high state of development [in music] is no necessary indicator of progress’. I would argue that the opposite is also true, and that the term ‘progressive rock’ is very problematic as a result. For instance, much of the music classed as progressive rock by fans does not achieve a ‘high state of development’. A prime example is the sub-genre of neo-progressive which emerged in the early/mid-1980s and is typified by bands such as Marillion and IQ who drew strongly on the sound and style of 1970s groups such as Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, but with a less sophisticated style of song arrangement (Moore Reference Moore2001, p. 145–6). Furthermore, if we adopt the notion of progression as an attempt to move beyond the musical structures and styles of chart-oriented pop, rock and R&B and to define individualistic sounds and styles, then, as Moore (Reference Moore2001) notes, a stylistic impasse can be recognised in the mid-1970s. After this time, bands ‘tended [with exceptions] to work within the limits set’ (Moore Reference Moore2001, p. 66) by the earlier groups. Indeed, many bands already did this in the mid-1970s, as they sought to emulate those who had already become successful. As a result, a further definition of progressive rock may be offered: as a category or label for bands that consciously make use of the stylistic elements and developments pioneered by others, yet add little if anything new to them.

In recent years, the fan definition of progressive rock has widened ever further, with the result that artists who sound almost completely different from each other may be discussed under the same umbrella term. Hence bands that compose and perform largely acoustic, pastoral or folk-based music may be discussed alongside others which draw upon the hard-edged musical legacy of Scandinavian death metal. In some cases these differing styles can even be found within the recorded output of individual bands, such as Opeth and Ulver, both of which have also drawn upon contemporary electronica and the avant-garde. The sheer variety and fluidity of progressive rock is characterised by Holm-Hudson (Reference Holm-Hudson and Holm-Hudson2002b, pp. 10–11) as a ‘network of styles’ (see also Moore Reference Moore2001, p. 64),Footnote ⁵ where each style attempts ‘to merge rock's beat with certain aspects of art music's style, in terms of harmony, metric complexity, or extended form’ (Holm-Hudson Reference Holm-Hudson and Holm-Hudson2002b, p. 11). Holm-Hudson's description is useful since the concept of the network infers the existence of interlinked nodes, each of which could be described by a sub-genre name. However, his broader description of progressive rock also serves to exclude music such as Tangerine Dream's earlier works, where a rock beat is only occasionally found and where harmonic and metric complexity are largely absent. Nevertheless, the metaphor of the network is helpful in understanding the use of sub-genre and style names within the lay discourses of fans, as these names are regularly used as shorthand markers, alongside the names of specific bands, to describe the origin, sound and/or attitude of new artists and albums through descriptive comparison.Footnote ⁶

Internet forums, such as that at Progarchives.com, allow the contemporary international community of progressive rock fans to play a highly important role in defining and categorising progressive rock. A variety of sub-genre classifications has been actively constructed and delineated through such forums and websites using lay discourses: a bottom-up approach to genre categorisation in which ‘collectively accepted norms’ (Fabbri Reference Fabbri1999, p. 67) are negotiated and communicated within a ‘taste community’ (Frith Reference Frith1998, p. 89), and with relatively little influence from record companies, retailers, magazines and other ‘official’ sources. For instance, Progarchives.com (2009) currently lists over 20 sub-genres and styles, though it should be noted that this number has increased from just 14 in 2005, and that some of the categories have also changed name and description in that period. This suggests four main things: firstly, that the musical genres and sub-genres of progressive rock are fluid concepts which change over time and in relation to the ongoing re-evaluation of fans; secondly, that ‘progressive rock’ should be regarded as a meta-genre which subsumes a wide variety of styles and genres for which there is a general agreement regarding progressiveness (in any of the senses discussed above); thirdly, that the fluid and encompassing nature of the meta-genre allows it to adapt to new developments. An example from Progarchives.com is the category ‘Tech/Extreme Prog Metal’, which was added in mid-2007 and encompasses a range of bands which not only demonstrate high levels of complexity and technicality in their playing and composition (aspects which are commonly included in definitions of 1970s progressive rock), but which are characterised by their use of elements drawn from the sub-genres of Thrash Metal, Black Metal and Death Metal.Footnote ⁷ Finally, the lay definitions and classifications which have evolved at Progarchives.com have largely been imposed in retrospect – creating categories which aid contemporary discussion but which were less relevant, or yet to be codified, when the musicians actually made the music. For instance, few if any members of the ‘Canterbury Scene’ actually referred to their music or themselves as such (see Bennett Reference Bennett, Bennett and Peterson2004), while the music now referred to as Rock Progressivo Italiano (discussed in the following section) was known simply as Italian Pop in the years of its original production (see Barotto Reference Barotto1998). However, one of the major strengths of the lay definitions and discussions found on sites such as Prograrchives.com is that they direct attention towards the too-often-neglected contributions of European bands who sought to progress rock music in their own ways. It is to those bands, and the socio-political and recording industry/media contexts of their music making, that the following section turns.

The early development and geography of progressive rock

The introduction noted the existence of both ‘rock era’ and ‘progressive rock era’ histories within academic and journalistic discourses, whereby progressive rock of the early/mid-1970s is either dismissed as pretentious and overblown, or lauded for its creativity and commercial success.Footnote ⁸ In both cases, progressive rock is generally assumed to be a largely coherent style which grew from the psychedelic music of the late 1960s and was swept away by the back-to-basics approach of punk rock. As suggested above, these histories tend not only to ignore for the most part music which does not fit the ‘symphonic’ style of the six major acts, but also to exclude musical developments in continental Europe. The aim of this section is, therefore, to examine the early history of progressive rock in order to place the emerging meta-genre within its wider historical and geographical contexts.

As several authors have noted (including Whiteley Reference Whiteley1992; Martin Reference Martin1998; Moore Reference Moore2001; Cope 2005–2006; Pirenne Reference Pirenne2005–2006), the influence of American psychedelic rock on the development of progressive rock in Europe should not be underestimated, since there are commonalities to be found, in particular, with West Coast US bands such as The Byrds, Vanilla Fudge, Jefferson Airplane, Touch and The Grateful Dead. Examples include the use of folk music and studio experimentation, which can be translated into progressive rock's mix of acoustic and electric passagesFootnote ⁹; the use of instrumental sections and lengthy solos; the creative use of dynamics; and an eclectic mixing of styles which allowed individuals and groups to establish their own ‘sound’. The influence of these bands, as well as other American artists such as Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground, could be considered to be as crucial as the innovations of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, ELP and King Crimson in the UK.Footnote ¹⁰ For instance, Fairport Convention were, for a time, known as the British Jefferson Airplane, while several of the early Italian progressive rock groups are described by both Barotto (Reference Barotto1998) and Asbjørnsen (Reference Asbjørnsen2000) as adopting an approach and style akin to Vanilla Fudge or Jimi Hendrix.Footnote ¹¹

In the late 1960s, pirate radio stations played an important role in disseminating psychedelic music and ideas across Europe, and in promoting British, European and American bands alongside each other in such a way as to create the illusion of a coherent underground scene composed of stylistically and geographically disparate elements (Pirenne Reference Pirenne2005–2006). The BBC soon followed their lead by offering jobs to pirate radio disc jockeys on the then new Radio 1, and by providing broadcast support for emerging rock groups.Footnote ¹² In parallel to this, US radio regulations led to the emergence of a ‘progressive rock format’ on FM radio, with presenters willing to play long tracks or even entire albums by British progressive rock acts (Pirenne Reference Pirenne2005–2006). This aided the dissemination and success of bands such as Yes and ELP in the USA, but prevented many European bands from gaining transatlantic recognition, since they often sang in their own languages rather than in English, and did not have the international record label support required to break the American market.Footnote ¹³ In addition, the consumer boom and popularity of recorded music in the late 1960s enabled record companies ‘to invest in their artists without requiring an immediate financial return … and also to relinquish a degree of control over the resultant product and its marketing’ (Moore Reference Moore2001, p. 65). Hence, independent record label owners, who often shared the musical and cultural values of their artists, were willing to support bands whose ‘sales were sluggish’ (Atton Reference Atton2001, p. 31). Bill Bruford (drummer and percussionist of Yes) notes that ‘Those were fertile times for musicians. They were allowed to develop something … And record companies were run by people who liked records’ (cited in Palmer Reference Palmer2001, p. 244). Bruford's comments could also apply to the many independent record labels which formed across Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though these companies were rarely as well developed as in Britain. Indeed, many bands struggled to release more than a single album, and those records which were released often received poor distribution and only limited marketing support (even when signed to local subsidiaries of major labels). Despite this, many have since become highly regarded collectors' items among an international community of progressive rock fans.Footnote ¹⁴

These developments in record company and broadcast support occurred alongside the rapid growth of a hippie counterculture and protest movement which not only adopted rock music as its musical soundtrack (Whiteley Reference Whiteley1992, p.2), but ‘shared a common belief that rock could articulate its concerns; thus, through participation in the music, as either performer or audience, a common cultural and political bond could be established’ (Whiteley Reference Whiteley, Swiss, Sloop and Herman1998, p. 155). The experimentation, stylistic complexity and blurring of genre distinctions found within progressive rock match the ideologies of the counterculture, which valorised free expression, individuality, contradiction and the testing of alternative modes of existence (Whiteley Reference Whiteley1992, Reference Whiteley, Swiss, Sloop and Herman1998; Moore Reference Moore and Bennett2004). Music became ‘an audible signifying badge of belonging’ for the counterculture (Whiteley Reference Whiteley, Swiss, Sloop and Herman1998, p. 159) while the counterculture itself evinced an ‘intense internationalism, which was based on shared dreams, strategies, styles, moods and vocabularies’ (Neville Reference Neville1971, p. 14). This internationalisation was broadly focused on challenging the dominant parental culture, and coalesced most strongly in the counterculture's opposition to America's military operations in Vietnam (Whiteley Reference Whiteley, Swiss, Sloop and Herman1998, p. 154). Political protests on American campuses soon spread to Europe where, in 1968 and 1969, student and youth protests were seen in most countries, though perhaps most notably in France, Italy, Germany and Greece (Macan Reference Macan1997; Whiteley Reference Whiteley, Swiss, Sloop and Herman1998; Looseley Reference Looseley2003). In the wake of these sit-ins, university occupations, street protests and civil disturbances came active psychedelic and underground rock scenes which developed their own magazines, clubs, festivals and happenings (Neville Reference Neville1971). The musicians involved in these scenes drew on the ideas and ideals associated with the American counterculture, but developed them in relation to local socio-political and economic conditions. Their eclectic, pick'n'mix approach to the blending of musical styles and instrumentation helped lay the framework for the development of a wide variety of progressive rock styles in the early 1970s.

Before discussing some of these bands, styles, genres and scenes, there is another aspect to consider: the adoption of European Romanticism into the cultural meanings of rock (Gracyk Reference Gracyk1996; Marshall Reference Marshall2005; Macan Reference Macan2006), and its affinities with ideas derived from the American counterculture. Romanticism was a 19th-century artistic and literary movement which, like progressive rock, was characterised by its stylistic diversity and a plethora of definitions which are each dependent on the historical and geographical context of discussion (Kravitt Reference Kravitt1992, p. 93). Romanticism was associated with composers such as Beethoven and Schubert and with poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley, and there is a general consensus that the Romantics believed that nature, intuition, imagination and human feeling/experience were more important than the rationalisation and industrialisation of capitalist entrepreneurialism (see Kravitt Reference Kravitt1992; Marshall Reference Marshall2005). They fostered new ways of thinking about the role of the expressive artist and the place of art within society; in particular, they considered the sphere of art to be radically separate from that of commerce, and viewed artists as central to creativity and aesthetic discourse. Art works such as poetry and literature were deemed to express the inner world of the author (regarded as a unique individual, even a genius), to communicate an emotional honesty, and to demonstrate originality and invention. Art was also about posterity; thus Wordsworth and others were important advocates in the promotion of copyright law (see Marshall Reference Marshall2005, pp. 35–8).

Kravitt (Reference Kravitt1992) argues that Romanticism was concerned not only with an expressive aesthetics which prioritised the author, but also with feelings of alienation and isolation: that the social changes which followed industrialisation left artists ‘estranged from society's conventions and values’ (p. 100). He argues further that these feelings ‘arouse an insatiable desire to escape from the monotony of daily life and the shackles of decorum. Unable to find happiness in the world of man, the romanticist looks for it in dreams’ (Kravitt Reference Kravitt1992). Marshall (Reference Marshall2005) also notes how the Romantics were responding to the social and technological changes of their era, and suggests similarities between these and the contexts within which rock emerged in the mid-1960s. Firstly, there were changes in markets of consumption: the 19th century saw the ‘development of a large impersonal art market’ for the first time, while the 1960s saw ‘the emergence of youth as a particular type of cultural consumer’ (Marshall Reference Marshall2005, p. 58). Secondly, both eras saw rapid technological innovations, such as the introduction of valves on brass instruments during the Romantic era and the development of electronic instruments and studio recording technology in the rock era (Marshall Reference Marshall2005).

In rock music criticism, Romanticism has been translated into a disparaging attitude towards the field of chart-orientated ‘pop’ music, and to those rock artists deemed to have ‘sold out’ for commercial gain (Gracyk Reference Gracyk1996, p. 176). However, the attributes of Romanticism discussed by Kravitt are perhaps more relevant to a discussion of progressive rock and its relationship to countercultural ideals, particularly with regard to the symphonic progressive style (see also Macan Reference Macan1997, Reference Macan2006; Martin Reference Martin1998). For instance, notions of individualism, genius and originality are evidenced in the stress placed upon compositional excellence and virtuosic performance (whether collectively attributed to a band, or to individual members), and upon the drive to forge new, original and distinctive styles.Footnote ¹⁵ A sense of posterity and artistry can be seen in Martin's (1998) characterisation of progressive rock as a ‘popular avant-garde’ which aimed to be a lasting alternative and successor to ‘classical’ music, rather than a here today, gone tomorrow commodity. It is, then, unsurprising that some progressive rock musicians should adopt the musical styles and arrangements of European Romantic composers, or draw inspiration for their song lyrics and conceptual ideas from the works of Romantic authors and poets. Moreover, there is a consonance between Romantic ideals and the mysticism, pantheism, surrealism and boundary-breaking of the psychedelic era (the latter is discussed by Macan Reference Macan1997).Footnote ¹⁶ Similarly, Kravitt (Reference Kravitt1992, p. 103) refers to the romanticist as seeking ‘escape from melancholy in dreams, in endless longing for a utopia, a land of illusion’. This resonates well with the counterculture's Aquarian ideals and concepts, and its nostalgic desire for the (often) imaginary utopian values of pre-capitalist society (Lowy & Sayre 2001, cited by Marshall Reference Marshall2005, p. 30). Romanticism and progressive rock each made use of mythology, fantasy and science fiction, and display an inherent critique of modernity. This latter point is also evident in the music of the West Coast hippies, where it was expressed through the espousal of environmental concerns, nature imagery and a return to folk music and acoustic instrumentation, which connoted the notion of ‘simpler’ and more authentic modes of living.Footnote ¹⁷

It is clear, then, that historical accounts which place progressive rock as a distinctively British medium are underplaying the European contribution, as well as the influence of a globalised youth counterculture. The most internationally and commercially successful groups were indeed British in origin, yet it could be argued that this resulted from differing developmental conditions between the British and European music industries, and the former's greater access to the American market. Nevertheless, European musicians were just as active in musical explorations and innovations as their British contemporaries and, in some cases, were able to create their own distinctive styles, genres and scenes which did more than simply copy the music being made in Britain (though this also happened). For instance, in Germany the influence of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Schaffer and Pierre Boulez was strong, leading to a wave of experimental avant-garde groups which used aleatoric approaches, synthesiser technologies, minimalism and musique concrète to create unusual and often instrumental soundscapes. The musicians drew inspiration from the American counterculture's emphasis on freedom and individuality, which allowed them to reject the more commercialised aspects of Anglo-American culture, such as rock ‘n’ roll music and Hollywood films, which had flooded into Germany following World War II (see McKay Reference McKay and McKay1997). It also allowed them to reject the heritage of a national parental culture tainted by its association with Germany's Nazi past – particularly traditional folk music and the classical music of the Romantics.

The new German rock music was, perhaps ironically, initially quite strongly influenced by British and American psychedelic rock; yet its experimentations with sound, style and form soon developed along new trajectories, and into a set of musical styles collectively termed Krautrock by the British press. Some of the earliest examples of Krautrock include the debut albums of Amon Düül II (Phallus Dei 1969), Can (Monster Movie 1969) and Embryo (Opal 1970). Amon Düül II emerged from a hippie-style artistic commune and were clearly inspired by the extended improvisations and free-form jams of Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane, with simplistic and repetitive riffs, bizarre vocals (wordless or in German) and percussion duets.Footnote ¹⁸ A more structured form of improvisation was seen in the music of Can, whose original line-up featured musicians steeped in classical, electronic and jazz music.Footnote ¹⁹ Their debut album was a mix of psychedelic rock and avant-garde minimalism, with compositions rooted in hypnotic, trancelike rhythms, simple, sparse arrangements which foregrounded the bass and percussion, plus raw-sounding guitar and ragged vocal parts. The band also made use of the multi-track recording studio as part of the composition process, as the tracks were edited down from the band's lengthy improvisations in much the same manner as Miles Davis's In A Silent Way (1969). That latter album also saw Davis experimenting with an electrified jazz-rock hybrid – an experiment which was also common to many Krautrock bands of the era, since many of the most able musicians were, like Jaki Liebezeit of Can, from a jazz background.Footnote ²⁰ Embryo, led by another jazz drummer, Christian Burchard, together with the multi-instrumentalist Edgar Hofmann, was one of the first groups to release an album of this kind, with saxophone, guitar and electric violin solos abounding on largely instrumental tracks which were also reminiscent of the psychedelic jams of Amon Düül II.Footnote ²¹ The follow-up album, Embryo's Rache (1971) added non-Western instrumentation and ideas to the band's jazz-rock style, with later albums in a long-casting career extending this kind of world fusion even further.Footnote ²²

Parallel to these developments, Krautrock also demonstrated an intense interest in the possibilities of the electronic synthesiser, and the sound textures that could be created using instruments such as the VCS3 and the modular Moog. American and British musicians were also using these technologies within rock music (for example, Pink Floyd in the UK and Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company in the USA), but it was German musicians, such as Florian Fricke (of Popol Vuh) and the various members of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster and others, who were to develop a new musical language through their experimental research. Early examples of ‘Kosmische Musik’ (as it was also referred to at the time) include the first two albums by Popol Vuh, Aftenstunde (1971), and In Den Gärten Pharaos (1972). These albums are built upon austere electronic and environmental noises intermixed with organ drones, Mellotron choirs and Moog sounds/pulses which are overlaid with ethnic hand percussions such as the tabla. The result is far from the new age style that Popol Vuh came to be associated with in the later 1970s, but is a clear influence on the development of the most successful of the early Kosmiche Musik artists, Tangerine Dream, with whom Florian Fricke guested on the seminal album Zeit (1972). Zeit was a double vinyl record comprised of four side-long tracks in which rock music structure was completely abandoned. The largely atonal music presented on the album is formed of glissando guitars, organ and synthesiser, yet lacks recognisable melodies or rhythms and instead flows like water between tonal colours and blocks of ideas which seem to melt into each other or, as in the final track, enter a kind of ambient stasis.Footnote ²³ As synthesiser equipment developed, so did the uses to which it was put, with artists such as Kraftwerk, Cluster, Harmonia and Tangerine Dream making innovative, and in some cases commercially successful, use of newly invented polyphonic synthesisers, electronic sequencers and drum machines.

The majority of the music subsumed under the name of Krautrock was markedly different from the contemporaneous progressive rock of the UK, and with only a few exceptions failed to receive the level of critical or commercial success of the latter. Nonetheless, the influence of these bands has proved remarkably strong upon Anglo-American popular music. This is due to a number of factors. Firstly, several Krautrock bands were signed or distributed by Virgin Records, with early successes such as Faust's The Faust Tapes (1973) and Tangerine Dream's Phaedra (1974). Secondly, Brian Eno, David Bowie and others pursued musical collaborations and exchanges with a number of German electronic musicians, including Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of Cluster.Footnote ²⁴ Finally, Krautrock has been elevated to cult status by post-punk and ambient/electronic musicians, who regard these pioneering electronic experiments as highly influential to their own music (see Cope Reference Covach1995; Albiez Reference Albiez2003a,Reference Albiez, Phleps and von Appenb; Reynolds Reference Reynolds1998, Reference Reynolds2006, Reference Reynolds2007). Examples include: the Cocteau Twins, Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox, Sonic Youth, the Future Sound of London, The Orb and Ulrich Schnauss. This has led in part to its canonisation by the British experimental and electronic music magazine The Wire. However, as the above discussion suggests, Krautrock encompassed many more musical styles than The Wire's particular focus on electronic music might suggest. For instance, there were also symphonic progressive groups such as Eloy, Novalis and Triumvirat, who adopted a similar approach to the British exemplars of Pink Floyd, Yes and ELP, and folk-influenced albums such as the debut by Hölderlin (Hölderlin's Traum [1972]).

Italy also boasted an important and well developed progressive rock scene in the 1970s (see also Anderton 2009a), although there are significant socio-political differences from both the German and the British scenes. For instance, while those countries each had a reasonably well developed club circuit, affording new rock bands a much-needed performance outlet and source of income, this was not the case in Italy. Instead, progressive rock bands gained exposure by performing at Italy's pre-existing songwriting competitions such as the San Remo Festival or, from 1971, at numerous open air festivals organised by left-wing student radicals and labour activists during a time of political upheaval and terrorist-style activities known as the Anni di Piombo (‘Years of Lead’) (Agostini Reference Agostini2007; Croce Reference Croce2008). From the outset, Italian progressive rock was, as part of the Italian version of the counterculture, a much more politically focused genre than its counterparts in Britain or Germany, though this was more often demonstrated by the bands' participation in left-wing organised music festivals than by their lyrics.Footnote ²⁵ There was also a large number of ‘one-shot’ bands in Italy – those which released only one album; this was due to poor marketing support by record companies, a lack of unemployment benefit (making musicians' financial survival difficult, especially given the lack of a strong concert circuit), and the requirement for Italian youth to undertake national service (Barotto Reference Barotto1998; Croce Reference Croce2008).

Musically, the Italian bands often had much more in common with British progressive rock than with German Krautrock. Many were strongly influenced by the early and contemporaneous albums of ELP, Yes, Genesis and King Crimson (among others), and showed a marked interest in exploring classical and folk music ideas and sounds rather than the free-form improvisations and electronic experimentation common to Krautrock (though these could also be found). As in Britain, many of the musicians involved in the Italian scene were either classically trained or had performed in beat bands and melodic pop groups during the late 1960s. Indeed, several of those bands persisted into the 1970s by adopting elements of the symphonic progressive style into their predominantly pop-styled music, or by adopting the symphonic style wholesale. A prime example is New Trolls, whose third album Concerto Grosso per I New Trolls (1971)Footnote ²⁶ features orchestral arrangements and music by the Argentinean composer Luis Enríque Bacalov. It is considered to be one of the defining moments of Italian progressive rock, since it was the first Italian record to mix classical music with rock instruments and styles.Footnote ²⁷ The first side of the record is the concerto grosso of the title (a Baroque form associated with composers such as Corelli, Handel, Bach and Vivaldi), which incorporates Jimi Hendrix-style guitar and breathy flute lines reminiscent of Jethro Tull. The second side presents a 20-minute improvisation which demonstrates the rock side of the band, and gives space for each member of the group to show their skills. As a whole, the record is as unconvincing as Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra (1969) and offers little new to the notion of a classical-rock hybrid, yet its commercial success – alongside that of Le Orme's Collage (1971) and Osanna's L'Uomo (1971) – helped kick-start the Italian progressive rock movement on vinyl. All three show the beginnings of a style that the Italian symphonic progressive rock bands refined during their commercial and, for many fans, artistic heyday of 1972–1974 – the same era which saw the major British bands consolidate their styles into the ‘classic’ period so often covered in the academic and journalistic literature.

However, a distinctive Italian symphonic progressive style is probably best exemplified by Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM), which became one of the longest lasting and internationally famous bands of the Italian scene. The band formed in 1970 from the ashes of the beat group I Quelli, which had released a number of singles in the late 1960s (mostly translations of foreign songs). A name and personnel change in 1971 led to a win at the first ‘Festival d'Avanguardia e Nuove Tendenze’ in Viareggio and the release of the band's debut album Storia di un Minuto in 1972. A second album, Per un Amico, followed before the end of the same year. Each of these records is as highly regarded among progressive rock fans as those released by the major British acts in the same year (see Progarchives.com 2009), and they helped to forge a recognisably ‘Italian symphonic’ style. That style was clearly influenced by King Crimson's debut album, for example in the dramatic use of dynamics, the swathes of mellotron chords, the intricate interplay between each of the musicians, and the swift changes of time signature and tempo. Yet the compositions and performances are sweeter and more lyrical than King Crimson's debut, with delicate acoustic passages, Italian-language lyrics, and flute, violin and synthesiser melodies which are rooted in Mediterranean folk and European classical styles. These characteristics can also be recognised in the many Italian groups which followed PFM's lead during the early 1970s, as well as the work of the numerous Italian progressive rock groups which have formed since the late 1980s (see Barotto Reference Barotto1998).Footnote ²⁸

In recent years the Italian rock scene of the early 1970s has increasingly come to be termed Rock Progressivo Italiano (RPI). This term not only subsumes the majority of bands which followed the broadly ‘classical-rock’ or ‘Italian symphonic’ styles discussed above, but also a range of other bands whose music could be categorised using other sub-genre or style terms, such as Franco Battiato, Perigeo and Area. The first few albums by singer-songwriter Franco Battiato are often described as Krautrock in style, due to their minimalist arrangements, extensive use of electronics (such as the VCS3 synthesiser), and use of avant-garde techniques such as musique concrète. Perigeo performed jazz-inspired rock music reminiscent of the UK's Soft Machine and Nucleus, and in a similar vein to Germany's Embryo (though with little of the psychedelic influence present in the German band's early records). Perigeo's music is much closer to jazz than to rock, yet it, and the bands which adopted or followed in its style, played at festivals alongside Italy's symphonic progressive bands and were treated as part of the same scene. A more unusual band was Area, whose music was a complex jazz-rock incorporating Frank Zappa-like experimental electronics, Greek and Arabian folk influences, and the unique vocals and vocalisations of Demetrio Stratos.Footnote ²⁹ Since the 1990s there has been a renewed and worldwide interest in RPI, fostered by progressive rock fan groups, specialist record companies and mail order companies operating through the Internet (see Anderton Reference Anderton, Kurkela and Vakeva2009a).

In the 1970s, regional variations of progressive rock appeared not only in Germany and Italy, but in most European countriesFootnote ³⁰; and while many followed the style of the better- known British bands, especially Genesis and ELP (for example, Ange and Pulsar from France, or Fusioon from Spain), others developed their own idiosyncratic styles or regional variations. One of the most unusual emerged in France where, led by Christian Vander's Magma, a network of jazz and jazz-influenced musicians melded a range of styles into a distinctive mix known as Zeuhl.Footnote ³¹ Magma's debut release was a double album, Magma/Kobaïa (1970), which displayed some of the hallmarks of the many albums which followed it. The combination of jazz influences (John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sun Ra's Arkestra), 20th-century European orchestral and choral music (Stravinsky, Orff) and American R&B and soul (which is often assumed to be absent from progressive rock), produced a striking first release (Macan Reference Macan1997; Holm-Hudson Reference Holm-Hudson2003). In the early/mid-1970s, a number of French and Belgian bands were formed which drew on elements of Magma's Zeuhl style, or extended that band's early jazz influences. Some of these (e.g. Art Zoyd and Univers Zero) have been referred to as ‘chamber-progressive’ or ‘chamber rock’, since they make use of acoustic strings, woodwinds and percussion instruments alongside Zeuhl's characteristically prominent and active electric bass.Footnote ³² France also saw the development of other forms of progressive rock during the early/mid-1970s including Gong, whose psychedelia-influenced jazz-rock has strongly comic as well as cosmic overtones, and artists such as Malicorne and Menestriers, who reinterpreted French medieval and folk musics. As in Germany and Italy, there were also artists who created electronic soundscapes reminiscent of Krautrock (including Didier Bocquet, Lard Free, Heldon/Richard Pinhas, Ilitch and Zanov), which is suggestive of the difficulties involved in trying to map particular musical styles on to specific countries.Footnote ³³

The European contribution to progressive rock is far greater than that seen in the few examples discussed here (see Asbjørnsen Reference Asbjørnsen2000 for an encyclopaedic discography of European progressive rock), but those examples are indicative of the breadth of progressive rock's styles, genres and contexts in the very early 1970s. The preconditions for the emergence of progressive rock were not seen solely in Britain, and the urge to progress beyond the predominantly American blues-, pop- and rock-based contemporary music of the mid-1960s was also relatively commonplace. As suggested above, this was related to the spread of countercultural values in the late 1960s which, though derived from the American psychedelic/hippie experience, became grounded in local socio-political and economic contexts. Stylistically, the bands drew a rich variety of sources into their rock music including, most notably, European classical and folk music forms, American jazz and the techniques and ideas of the avant-garde. The consonance between the ideas and ideals of the counterculture and those of the Romantic tradition led European musicians to seek their own styles and forms of musical expression. In so doing they were initially sparked by the British and American psychedelic music scenes of the late 1960s, but soon forged their own musical trajectories alongside those of the more commercially successful British bands. The numerous styles, genres and scenes of European progressive rock represent a distinctive contribution to the field of popular music, leading Asbjørnsen to assert that we should regard progressive rock not only as a European music, but as the ‘REAL European contemporary music of the years 1968–1980’ (2000, p. 7, emphasis in original).