ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Progressive rock forms for musical reasons, which foreground the supposed 'progressive' nature of the music. As a movement, it was highly heterogeneous, and to identify it wholesale as 'progressive' is a mistake. The most notable difference between the blues as used in progressive rock and the earlier r&b lies in the use of tempo and texture. The purpose of rock improvisation is not, as it is in many cultures, the exploration of musical material or of an individual consciousness. A number of musicians who ultimately found their way into progressive rock had undergone an extensive conventional instrumental training – for example, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Kerry Minnear. Many of the styles of progressive rock differ from both their predecessors and their successors in terms of the most appropriate listening mode to adopt. The private mythologies of Marc Bolan represent one aspect of the intrusion of the fantastic into progressive rock.
