As we said before, the progressive was born with the releasing of In the court of Crimson King in 1969. After this essential album from the King Crimson, many bands started to spring up. They were very innovative trying to put into their music features of the classic or folk tradition; the songs were more than three minutes long, without refrain easy to remember and full of long instrumental sections.
Bands like Genesis, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Camel, Renaissance between the 1969 and the second half of the 70s made extraordinary masterpieces. These groups, though they were quite different, were labelled as symphonic or romantic rock bands, to underline the similarities with the classic music.
Undoubtedly, this subgenre had more success, visibility and people involved, but there were also other movements in the progressive music.

Beside the symphonic rock (Canterbury and other stories)

Beside the symphonic rock there were many subgenres.
The sharp guitars and the bombastic rhythms of some hard-rock bands were put into more refined scenes, so that were called prog metal or hard prog bands like Uriah Heep, Patto, the Canadian Rush and the American Kansas and even some albums of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
But prog music was marked also by less conventional and often hard solutions. The unicity of the Pink Floyd's space music makes this band one of the most representative groups of the most experimental progressive (especially in their first albums), even if still today the issue "Pink Floyd: progressive o psychedelic music?" is open. Surely, Pink Floyd was an important band, as well as for the experimental rock history, also for the growth in the following years of the so-called space-rock; in fact, despite their change after Ummagumma, other great albums full of ideas were released, such as Meddle and Atom Heart Mother, till the big success of The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, in which prog music is mixed with a very elegant pop to let it spread among a lot of people.
But an important scene of the most cerebral progressive was in Canterbury. From this place a lot of musicians made their contribution to the making of an unique style, made of experimentations, improvisations and contaminations with jazz. The leading figures of the Canterbury School were Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong, Khan,Egg, Hatfield & the North, National Health, Matching Mole, Gilgamesh, Nucleus, Robert Wyatt.
Musicians often played in more than one band, showing all their skills and insights and so collaborations were thriving. Maybe thanks to those first experiences and the success of the Miles Davis' electric period many bands started to mix jazz with rock with some avant-garde insertions. Take a look at Mahavishnu Orchestra, Centipede, Bill Bruford, Brand X.
And there were bands that went even more far, playing hardest and very experimental music. They belonged to the RIO (Rock In Opposition) movement that didn't want commercial success and opposed the labels that were becoming ever more powerful. Moreover, musicians lived together united by sociopolitical choices and a strong Left ideology. The Henry Cow was the most representative RIO band. This movement took root in other countries such as Germany with the Slapp Happy, in France with the Art Zoyd, in Belgium with the Univers Zero, in Sweden with the Samla Mammas Manna, in Italy with Stormy Six. All this shows that the progressive movement was really a worldwide phenomenon.

Not only in Great Britain

It's true that in Great Britain the prog was born and from there the most famous bands came, but the progressive became soon a worldwide movement: Europe, North and South America Asia. Many made use of English currents but two important "subgenres" such as cosmic music and Zeuhl were born in Germany and French. The so-called German cosmic messengers played very experimental music, sometimes celestial and pastoral, sometimes strong and aggressive, with sometimes acoustic and sometimes electric sounds. The main bands were Amon Duul II, Faust, Agitation Free, Ash Ra Tempel, Can, Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze.
From French, the Magma created an unique style called Zeuhl that mixed rock and jazz a là Coltrane, classic and original vocalises.
Other bands were Potemkine, Zao, Eskaton, Offering, Weidorje.

The Italian Progressive Rock

And in Italy? Our country had a huge number of progressive fans; actually, many English artists had success first in Italy and then in their own country, like Genesis, Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator. The following, together with other sociopolitical issues, fostered the proliferation of many bands and the creation of a very original and high quality Italian progressive.
The English symphonic rock was mixed with the mediterranean tradition and groups like Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme e Area had great success, also abroad.
But there were many other bands that hadn't a great commercial success despite they released extraordinary works. Balletto di Bronzo, Osanna, Museo Rosenbach, Metamorfosi, Biglietto per l'inferno, Celeste, Alan Sorrenti, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Rovescio della Medaglia, Samadhi, Errata Corrige, Campo di Marte, Semiramis, Nuova Idea, Locanda delle Fate, De De Lind, Alphataurus, Alusa Fallax, Goblin, Jumbo, Murple are only a part of the names that makes so cheered the Italian scene.

Popular Success

Between the second half of the 60s and the 70s there was the most successful period for the progressive rock, thanks to bands that had a great following. King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP were at the top of the charts. But also groups quietly at first, like Genesis, Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator, after the success reached in the continental Europe, started to get fame.
However, we can't forget the incredible number of "minor" bands that, often with only one or two albums released, gave us extraordinary records.
Only in Britain take a look at the very beautiful albums of Catapilla, Cressida, Spring, Gracious, Mandalaband, Marsupilami, Gryphon, Web, Quatermass, Fantasy and many others. But, as we said, the progressive was a worldwide universal and also in other countries there were bands with wonderful albums: the French Ange, Pulsar, Sandrose, Shylock; the Spanish Mezquita, Crack, Fusioon, Iceberg, Medina Azahara; the Dutch Focus, Supersister, Alquin, Earth & Fire, Kayak, Trace; the Scandinavian Kaipa, Bo Hansson, Kebnekajse, Kvartetten Som Sprangde, Dice, Neon Rose, Solar Plexus, Wigwam, Haikara, Tabula Rasa, Tasavallan Presidenti, Jukka Tolonen, Pekka Pohjola, Ache, Burning Red Ivanhoe, Culperer's Orchard, Junipher Green, Ruphus; the Polish SBB, Czeslaw Niemen, Budka Sulfera, Klan, Skaldowie; the Czech Collegium Musicum, Modry Efekt, Fermata, Flamenco, Synkopy; the US Happy the Man, Mirthrandir, Yezda Urfa, Cathedral; the South American Alas, Bubu, Aquelarre, Crucis, Sui Generis, Pescado Rabioso, Mia, Materia Gris, Redd, Magma, Estructura; the Japanese Far Out, Far East Family Band.
And many others we could add to this list... :-)

Toward the decline

Unfortunately in the second half of 70s something started to change.
The growing success of the new musical ways of the disco music and punk, that came back into fashion simple songs and a very spare rock, together with the loss of creativity of the most important prog bands, caused little by little a drop in interest toward the progressive. The roughness of the Sex Pistols and the Bee Gees of Saturday Night Fever prevailed over suites, changes in beat and more committed music. Moreover, King Crimson split in 74; Yes, after Going For The One in 1977, were uncertain about which way they will go; the following year Genesis with the successful single Follow You Follow Me started to play a more pop oriented music; Gentle Giant showed an appalling loss of creativity in their album Giant For A Day; ELP, with Works vol. 2 and Love Beach, made two poor albums.
Without the main bands, the rock progressive success fell pitilessly and the glories of that days will never come back again.

Peppe
june 2002