Ehh I guess on Oldfield. I wasn't complaining about how much of his music was prog though. I was complaining about his ratio of good albums to bad albums. But I can sort of see an argument for Top 20.

I never meant to imply that you did

I see you've got Kraftwerk in there. What about Tangerine Dream? They're probably closer to prog than them.

I'd have to agree with this post. Tangerine Dream is definitely one of the first of the progressive electronic artists.

Good call, Zach.

Honsetly, i don't think Rush should be above ELP. They beat em in popularity maybe, but ELP influenced the genre more than Rush, hell, Rush's breakthrough was about the time where the genre started dying in general. I'd say that Yes, KC, Genesis, ELP and Floyd was the five defining bands, and not having those in the top five would be a bit like having a trash metal bands list without Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax in top 4...

Implying that Prog died. Rush had a profound influence on 80s and 90s Prog, particularly Prog-Metal.

Well, died is a bad term, but the genre's grand years are considered, as far as i'm concerned, 1971-76 (some may say 77-78)... ELP , Yes and Pink Floyd were the 3 largest in a popularity sense in these years and they + KC and Genesis were the ones who made the genre into what it's known as, mainly a genre mixing different genres and odd senses of harmonics and melody (which ELP probably did more so than any of the other four mentioned and, for that sake, Rush) and rythmic patterns (in which they definitely did it more so than Rush), and such... And now i don't know how much impact/influence outside prog matters, but those years were the years where the genre actually had acclaim to a certain degree (sure the critics loathed it, but they were extremely popular)...

You have to limit your premises by quite an amount to make a case for ELP being ahead of Rush. Counting popularity only within a narrow time frame strikes me as a weak argument for raising them, particularly as Rush were as popular, at least album sales wise, during this period. They were more popular during the 80s, too.

While ELP are certainly one of the formative bands of the genre, they lack the lasting influence of the bands above them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... f_Germany/
(again, you need a UK IP or VPN to watch this) Documentary looking at how a radical generation of musicians in bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk created a new German musical identity out of the cultural ruins of war. (R)

Herzog/Florian Fricke/Popol Vuh : 'AGUIRRE I' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oh8yDDCrWQ
Wow, I haven't listened to this in ageesssss. really, u must listen to this, if you haven't already. Heya, Forgotten? Popol Vuh is not on your list?

Cheers for the links



Alas. My list is still incomplete.

Magma really should be in the top ten or fifteen, for inventing the Zeuhl sub-genre. Japan's prog scene most of everything to Magma. I really see no reason for Marillon, a band that just aped Genesis to be above them, let alone top ten.

Magma should be included fairly high, you're right. It was remiss of me to forget about them. However:



Marillion are the single most important band in the Neo-Prog subgenre, which almost single-handedly kept Prog alive throughout the 80s and 90s. As a result they're a major influence not only on that sub-genre, but on Prog Metal, modern Symphonic Prog and associated sub-genres. Magma, and the Japanese Prog scene they inspired, are far more niche than the well known acts on the Prog scene like Dream Theater, Gazpacho, Riverside, Arena etc.

The idea that they "just aped Genesis", even if it were true that their influences weren't as diverse as Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, Camel, Rush, Van Der Graaf Generator/Peter Hammill and Queen, is incorrect as it ignores the fact that they've released over a dozen albums since Script for a Jester's Tear that sound very little, if at all, like Genesis.

You're right, I mean in the beginning, and most impacting point of their career, they just aped Genesis. You're the expert on neoprog though, so I'll take your word for it. It still seems a bit weird seeing them above some other massive names but I'll trust you.

I can't help but agree that Magma should be high. Possibly Top 10.

For Krautrock, the bands that should be on here are Can, Neu!, and Faust.