Ultimately, we had to throw up our hands and say the simplest way to rule whether something was prog rock or not was “you simply know it when you hear it.”Īlong with Kraftwerk, no band did more than Tangerine Dream to expand the possibilities of the synthesizer. Likewise, we left out a slew of bands – from Steely Dan to 10cc to XTC to Radiohead – who tend to be loved by prog fans, but are really off in some other sphere. (Still, there was no leaving out Procol Harum, who started as an R&B band but branched off from there.) The modern bands we picked were allowed to draw from metal or alt-rock, as long as their 70s prog roots were still prominent.
We tended to prefer bands with a certain European approach who largely aren’t blues-based – which would exclude bands like Led Zeppelin, Wishbone Ash, Traffic, and Deep Purple, all of whom were blues-rooted bands that intersected with prog rock. The question of what is and isn’t prog was a little tougher. We’ve included a number of modern bands as well as a few who disappeared after the 70s, but the highest slots went to those bands who spanned a few different creative eras. But, crucially, this is strictly a list of bands, not solo artists (or people who usually worked under their own name) – so sorry Messers Zappa and Oldfield, we’ll get to you next time around.
Then again, the best prog is always about ambition of some sort.įor this list, we’ve tried to represent prog and all its major subdivisions. Drawing up a list of the 50 best prog rock bands is an ambitious project if there ever was one.
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