Progressive music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Progressive music is the name given to a certain approach to musical composition that has been applied to several different music genres. One way the term has been applied is to subgenres that have evolved from their root genre by innovating, either through incorporating instruments from other genres or using new techniques within the framework provided by the instrumentation of the root genre to make a new or crossover style. Another is in reference to a gradual build-up of energy within progressive music track or throughout an album.

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The description "progressive" was first applied to jazz. The term, coined by Stan Kenton, was in reference to cool jazz tracks that used instrumentation to create an almost art rock like sound. The genre is closely related to bebop.

Main article: Progressive rock

In rock, the word usually describes music that expands traditional musical structures by adopting influences of jazz, symphonic, folk and world music. Progressive rock artists often string together the songs so that the entire album will become an uninterrupted musical "journey". Long tracks that can be divided into separate movements, all with its own place in the overarching theme of the song, are very common in progressive. An important aspect of progressive rock is the juxtaposition of contrast elements such as the raw, loud and fast with the calm and slow. Thus progressive rock not only tends to have strong melodic elements, but also expands the harmonic margin of rock music by utilizing atonal patterns from modern classical music as well as advanced chords from jazz theory. Progressive rock's popularity peaked in the early to mid 1970s with bands such as the "big four" consisting of Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and King Crimson. Many of these bands had their origins in the 1960s art schools of Britain.

Main article: Progressive metal

Although influenced by hard rock bands of the 70s who came close to progressive metal, such as Deep Purple, King Crimson, and Rush, it is generally agreed that progressive metal emerged in the 1980s with thrash bands such as Diamond Head (Lightning to the Nations), Metallica (...And Justice For All) and Megadeth (Rust In Peace), who brought complicated guitar compositions, time changes, and longer songs to heavy metal. Combined with traditional sounds of the 70s movement of prog rock, progressive metal has evolved through the work of artists like Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Queensrÿche, Symphony X, We came with broken teeth ,Opeth, and Pain of Salvation.

The term "Progressive", in modern dance music styles such as house, techno, trance and breakbeat (also known as breaks), may sometimes refer to the use of new instrumentation within existing styles to create a new sound, or, more often, to the use of arrangements and dynamics to subtly (unlike with genres such as hard house or Hi-NRG) build up to peaks within the track; this technique is extensively used by DJs who beatmatch to creatively build up energy on the dance floor when playing to a crowd.

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