OFF: Progressive really progressive?

[Steven Tice]

In a message dated 97-02-06 03:45:58 EST, you write:

<< I have a little trouble with the terminology used to describe groups such
 as Rush and Yes.  To my mind, the word 'progressive' implies just that,
 progression.  So, I would say that bands like Henry Cow and Can (at least
 in their earlier days) were progressive.  Bands like Rush, Yes and Genesis
 I would hesitate to describe, not wanting to cause upset to their huge
 armies of fans, but to these ears they have not done much progressing
 since the early 70's!!!  Regression, well, that's another matter
 altogether. >>

Well, sure, none of the great bands of the early seventies are producing work
at all comparable to their best work.  Genesis completely abandoned
intelligent music circa 1980, and the quality of the material produced by Yes
and Rush has certainly declined (last Rush album I bought: Grace Under
Pressure).  King Crimson probably is the only exception, and I would say that
even they haven't quite achieved the quality of the Fripp/Wetton/Bruford
days.  But I think there's nothing wrong with continuing to use the word
"progressive" to describe them, even if it's something of a misnomer.  After
all, "modern" literature eventually became old, but they didn't bother
changing the term because it had come to mean something new, a particular
style of literature.  This in turn led to the development of the term
"postmodern" to describe the literary movement that followed the modernists,
although that term has since been appropriated by others to mean any number
of odd things.  And who knows, maybe we'll be seeing postpostmodern material
eventually or something.  But, anyway, "progressive rock" is a term that
indicates the music produced by certain bands at a certain time in history,
during which those bands could actually be considered "progressive" by
dictionary definition.

Amusing note from my days taking college music courses: in his day, Richard
Wagner's music was given the label "progressive" by his contemporaries.
 Given the length of his compositions, a thought that was pretty neat!

SET