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ProgYes is about the music I was brought up with around the late 60s and early 70s. This music can be broadly described as progressive rock: the attempt to push rock's creative boundaries beyond standard pop song structures. It was an era when Rock became almost classical, almost respectable. Musical arrangements often incorporated elements from classical, jazz and world music. It was a style that dared to be different. Record companies allowed artists the space to develop and the freedom to experiment. It was a risk which didn’t always work. However, overall, the risk paid off and more than returned on its investment, as the Psychadelic/Prog era became the most successful musical export England has ever created. People were ambitious for this new music: many thought that Progressive Rock would succeed pop music and might even have been considered alongside modern classical music. It tempted many talented and classically musicians to move into the field, into bands like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull, in other words, arguably some of the biggest bands of all time. Those 5 bands alone have sold maybe half a billion records worldwide.
Prog Rock could almost be described as Symphonic rock and certainly the fusion with classical (many bands recorded with orchestras) was one of the big steps forward that rock took in the late 1960s even with ‘A Day in the life’ by the Beatles and ‘Nights in White Satin’ by the Moody Blues.
However, our dreams of a utopian musical world were to be shattered: Progressive Rock went into decline in the late 1970s. It did continue, but Punk forced it to become more commercial – and in the 1980s became basically just high quality rock (although some great Prog music does exist from this era). For some reason it was never accepted into the world of Classical music. It also fell out of favour with mainstream audiences. With its exotic, literary topics and elitist image, Progressive Rock had little to say to British youth growing up in the difficult times of the 1970s. It was overtaken by more aggressive, simpler forms of music such as Punk and Disco.
Ralph Vaughan Williams said “The art of music above all other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation”. Well, let's recapture the spirit of this great music, sooth our troubled souls and be rightfully proud of this heritage.
The more recent attempts to micro-manage musical success (particularly through talent shows) seem to produce less and less return. I passionately believe we now need to create a specialised world where Progressive music can live, breathe and flourish once more. We need to create a world wide Prog community. That is what ProgYes is all about.
ProgYes exists in a growing number of formats. It exists on the live stage: I have run one festival already and several gigs. ProgYes now exists digitally on Internet Radio. ProgYes is a community where people can share the Prog Rock experience. Some, of course, will argue endlessly about exactly what Prog Rock is. I'd argue that 'The Moody Blues' is just as much about 'prog' as anything else. I'd also include some estoteric Jazz Rock, like Brand X and The Mahavishnu Orchestra and I'd even include some progressive 'pop' like Mike and the Mechanics. Prog should never be about bad song writing or 'hair shirt' music that is needlessly complex. The true spirit of Prog allows those who are not naturally glamorous, perhaps even quite introverted and eccentric, but nonetheless creative and sincere about what they are doing, to perform music in a supportive environment. Prog is imaginative, intelligent music with a structure and a degree of complexity that naturally suits the musical and lyrical idea being expressed. However, describing music has its limitations: the best thing to do is to just listen and enjoy it. Progressively Yours Tim Hunter ProgYes
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Do you ever feel that the modern world is completely mad? Do you ever despair about the utter mindless drivel that passes for modern music and wonder what the hell happened to all that great music from the past? Don't worry any more: you have found your spiritual home. At ProgYes we think exactly the the same as you.