Your way in
Progressive rock 1968
Rock with classical ambitions: odd meters, twenty-minute suites, mellotron. The direct foundation of progressive metal.
- Heaviness
- 4
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- United Kingdom
- Tempo
- 60-180 bpm
- Song length
- 6-20 min
- Written about
- Myth and literature, War, Madness, Suites with a narrative rather than songs with a subject
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Progressive rock | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singing When someone is singing, what should come out? | clean | 100% | ×3 |
| As heavy as it gets How much weight do you want behind it? | 4 out of 10 | 40% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1968 | 100% | ×1 |
| Anger at something real What should the words be about? | Myth and literature, War, Madness, Suites with a narrative rather than songs with a subject | 50% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 81% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1 out of 9. Progressive rock leads the next by 1 point. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1The one to put on first
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King 1969
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King. The first track tells you everything.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5One step further in
Caravan, Caravan 1969
Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink. Prog that doesn't take itself seriously, and lasts because of it.
The first is Progressive rock's own entry point. After it come Progressive rock's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Proto-metal 80%
The heavy bands from before the term existed: over-amplified acid rock, already built around the riff.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 4 steps from Progressive rock.
The way into Proto-metal -
Arena rock / AOR 78%
Hard rock polished for stadiums and FM radio: huge choruses, keyboards and glossy production.
4 steps from Progressive rock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Arena rock / AOR
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- Singing put 54 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Black metal, Death metal, Post-hardcore. Worth 3 of 9.
- As heavy as it gets put 13 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Rock and roll, Folk rock, Country rock. Worth 2 of 9.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 9.
- Anger at something real put 108 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Black metal, Blues rock. Worth 1 of 9.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.