Few styles of popular music have generated as much controversy as
progressive rock, a musical genre best remembered today for its
gargantuan stage shows, its fascination with epic subject matter
drawn from science fiction, mythology, and fantasy literature, and
above all for its attempts to combine classical music's sense of
space and monumental scope with rock's raw power and energy. Its
dazzling virtuosity and spectacular live concerts made it hugely
popular with fans during the 1970s, who saw bands such as King
Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and
Jethro Tull bring a new level of depth and sophistication to rock.
On the other hand, critics branded the elaborate concerts of these
bands as self- indulgent and materialistic. They viewed progressive
rock's classical/rock fusion attempts as elitist, a betrayal of
rock's populist origins.
In Rocking the Classics, the first comprehensive study of
progressive rock history, Edward Macan draws together cultural
theory, musicology, and music criticism, illuminating how
progressive rock served as a vital expression of the counterculture
of the late 1960s and 1970s. Beginning with a description of the
cultural conditions which gave birth to the progressive rock style,
he examines how the hippies' fondness for hallucinogens, their
contempt for Establishment-approved pop music, and their
fascination with the music, art, and literature of high culture
contributed to this exciting new genre. Covering a decade of music,
Macan traces progressive rock's development from the mid- to
late-sixties, when psychedelic bands such as the Moody Blues,
Procol Harum, the Nice, and Pink Floyd laid the foundation of the
progressive rock style, and proceeds to the emergence of the mature
progressive rock style marked by the 1969 release of King Crimson's
album In the Court of the Crimson King. This "golden age" reached
its artistic and commercial zenith between 1970 and 1975 in the
music of bands such as Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle
Giant, Van der Graaf Generator, and Curved Air.
In turn, Macan explores the conventions that govern progressive
rock, including the visual dimensions of album cover art and
concerts, lyrics and conceptual themes, and the importance of
combining music, visual motif, and verbal expression to convey a
coherent artistic vision. He examines the cultural history of
progressive rock, considering its roots in a bohemian English
subculture and its meteoric rise in popularity among a legion of
fans in North America and continental Europe. Finally, he addresses
issues of critical reception, arguing that the critics' largely
negative reaction to progressive rock says far more about their own
ambivalence to the legacy of the counterculture than it does about
the music itself.
An exciting tour through an era of extravagant, mind-bending, and
culturally explosive music, Rocking the Classics sheds new light on
the largely misunderstood genre of progressive rock.
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