No Christie Canyon or Nina Hartley?
I personally don't think Floyd is prog but for the purposes of a commercially successful top 5 that represent the genre to most people it's probably:
Yes
Floyd
Tull
ELP
Genesis
Now I personally would go something more like
Yes
Genesis
King Crimson
Tull
ELP
I have a problem with any "5" list. Top tens are a lot more manageable and lead to less heartbreaking "I wanna put X on the list but that means I can't keep Y" decisions. When I was in college (let's face it, that's where the list-making insanity for most guys begins) and on to the corporate world (hey, what else is there to do in meetings when the marketing jagoff won't shut up) it has always been top ten, whether for sports, music, professional wrestling, movies, or...adult entertainment. Picking a supposed big 5 will always exclude a truly significant artist.
And on PE it always leads to "Pink Floyd/Rush/Jethro Tull aren't prog"
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I always thought that the "Big 5" term was referring to those 5 early prog bands that achieved a certain level of notoriety and were sort of the defining groups that trail-blazed "progressive rock". As opposed to anyone's particular five favorite bands.
I think of the Big 5 as:
Yes
Genesis
ELP
King Crimson
Moody Blues
A case can certainly be made for the inclusion of Tull and Floyd too, of course.
No. I swear I thought it up on my own in the first year of PE, independent of it's past. I had never heard it before. Then again that was back when we didn't sit around and try to categorize this sort of stuff. That seemed like the first bout of that shit- net nitpicking. I'm about as interested in that as how you arrange your silverware drawer.
And it's Yes, Genesis, Crimson, ELP and Gentle Giant, IMO.
Duncan's going to make a Horns Emoticon!!!
In purely artistic terms like lasting influence on other artists, I go for Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, VDGG and King Crimson.
In sales terms, Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull and Genesis.
Last edited by JJ88; 10-25-2013 at 05:50 PM.
That is exacty my recollection of the British TV/press take on it in the 70s and 80s.
Tag Mike Oldfield, Alan Parsons and VDGG on to those 5, and those were the UK prog bands I was aware of in the 70s and 80s - until of course I started hearing Marillion on the radio.
To be honest, I first heard of King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel and Caravan in the 90s.
I heard of Soft Machine earlier in fact, when I heard one track on an 80s compilation of 60s "progressive underground" Also on that compo, that I can remember were: Edgar Broughton Band, Blodwyn Pig, Traffic, Gun, Nirvana, Sabbath, Cream, Hendrix, Roy Harper, Spirit, Nice, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Focus, Hawkwind, Purple, Free, Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Tomorrow, Spooky Tooth.
Vanilla Fudge?
But should'nt SF be in the the Big 5 ?
They influenced a lot of bands & musicians.
Yes
KC
Genesis
Floyd
Tull
ELP
GG
and Kansas (for the Americans)
so I'd go with 8...
Wouldn't that make it the "big 8" then?
Anyway, you left out RUSH so I guess that makes it 9.
I suppose it's ultimately pretty arbitrary as well as personal. Adding certain bands can give make it snowball. In other words you can get into the "well if you have such and such band then you have to have such and such band."
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