"There is no black music in Progressive Rock" Pretty bold statement for a genre in which EVERYONE was influenced by Jazz. Jumping to conclusions from the skin color of a genre's protagonists to the music itself is pretty stupid. It's just branding. Especially in the early 70's when scenes were a lot closer (intentionally or not). It's not a wide step from Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic and Miles Davis to King Crimson, Yes or Jethro Tull. Hell, there were even (admittedly rudimental) plans of Hendrix joining Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Historically perhaps but today, not really because some of the best soloist are Asian and they are also well represented at the orchestra level. It's heavily localised though (Japan, China, Korea). I would have thought metal or country were the "whitest" genres.
I am Black. And I've been listening to Progressive Rock since 1972 (I'm, as of this writing, 58.). And I've never put racial or racist brands on any music I enjoy. I just enjoy it. Period. Apparently, this person never heard of James "Blood" Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Fela Kuti, Sonny Sharrock, Jimmy Hendrix, and many other Blacks who contributed to Prog.
Also a lot of Jazz influences in Prog . Bands like Soft Machine or Mahavishnu Orchestra where clearly Jazz Rock . Also John Coltrane's free Jazz ideas basically influenced the french Prog rock band Magma . Or King Crimson's 70s line up was influenced by Miles Davis .
Hey, Blood and Sharrock! Great shout-outs, dude. Tony Williams is another good example, for those reading for information -- he led a band called Lifetime in the late Sixties that foreshadowed (and was better than) a lot of the weird jammy jazz fusion that came later. And Miles Davis' Seventies albums are worth a few listens, too, especially the live ones with the twenty-five-minute tracks on each side. :) Even the guy who wrote the "Whitest Music" article loves them.
Ethan Hurt Because they think it's pretentious and overly technical and somehow lacks "soul" whatever the heck that means. Sometimes it is but really it's not.
Ethan Hurt People don't like prog because it is quite frankly a hard genre to get into. It does require at least the willingness to sit down and listen to long stretches of music that sound similar accross the album or even within a song. Not everyone is willing to listen to one song for 8 minutes straight. Thats likely the biggest reason people call it pretentious because they believe a song should be easily digestible. Even in other genre's especially rap, songs longer than 5 minutes are rare, and even rarer that they be successful. Often they have to release shortened edits which for many artists undermines the music. The music industry dislikes prog because it is inherently anti-radio. As I said the songs are almost always long without satisfying beginnings or ends (because they lead into the other songs), lack a chorus, and are generally weak as singles. In the days of vinyl and cassette, the only prog singles were those which started a side or ended it. Money by Pink Floyd is the first track of the B side on both cassette and vinyl and so has a clear beginning and is somewhat short. Lastly its seen as pretentious because quite frankly, prog is music for listening not dancing. It features long solos and improv sessions and non standard instruments and very abstract lyrics. Its a bit hard to follow at times and usually has to be listened to multiple times. Hmu for some reccomendations dog
rap has sort of spread too far to be considered solely one race. folk, tribal music is probably the most "racial" music genre depending on whatever country it originates from.
Yeah, it’s dominated by white people, but, not awful? It’s one of the most important genres in rock music. As other commenters stated, there’s quite a few black artists that also contributed prog rock.
That entire article literally boils down to, "Prog rock is nerdy, therefore it's white. I don't like prog rock, because it's for nerds. I like punk rock, therefore punk rock is better because I'm not a nerd." I don't even want to get into how that would correlate to the conclusion, "Most black people aren't nerds, so they don't like prog rock, just like me." So yeah, it literally had no actual point and the whitest genre BS was clickbait. Glad to see journalistic integrity is just as dead as I remember it from the 80's and 90's...
SteadyRhythms That's funny because prog was a staple of late night radio programs in all of Europe and still is frequently played on most stations that have something to do with rock.
@WildGooseberry I actually do feel the same way, especially since I started listening to more obscure prog rock albums. Some are just ok and some are pretty boring, but there are a few gems here and there
@@gdmatter2286 I mean, I love that stuff, too. Yes is like the gateway band to prog. And I like King Crimson, but their stuff varies for me. Like, I love the Andrew Belew stuff, but not everything from them works for me.
The singer of a prog rock band said prog rock is for Europeans Author: PROG ROCK IS WHIIIIIIITE The multitude of nazi punk bands Author: you can't use a few group of people to represent a whole genre
I'm black and like prog rock, I really like "Yes" and appreciate the thought process and musicality they displayed. I also like Math rock which derived from it
Xx_bRÜTaLd3Th666_xX I think it's actually something like Polish, Ukrainian or Hungarian folk music. No blacks in that part of the world to begin with. No interest of the genre outside those countries.
I think Rufus Harley would disagree with you there on the bagpipe side of things ;) He was the first jazz musician to use the Scottish great Highland bagpipe as his main instrument.
+beach impala I can't say I agree, even after listening to PF's discography multiple times I always rank atom heart mother at the lower end of the list. Its not bad but I just don't enjoy it as much as a lot of their other music.
As if Frank Zappa didn't have a plethora of different ethnicities playing the most complex music available in the 60's-90's, as if black music icons like Stevie Wonder weren't making concept albums about the lives of plants, as if blues & jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock didn't spend a large part of their career pursuing progressive jazz fusion.
calling jazz fusion progressive is kinda misleading since fusion on its conception was just a bunch of jazz artists realizing other genres exist, not just rock
@@Martykun36 by coincidence I bought in the court of the crimson king and bitches brew on vinyl before I had ever listened to either album as a complete piece, and when you listen to both albums back to back there is so much sonic overlap it's pretty much impossible to argue the two movements aren't incredibly similar. The primary difference is honestly that jazz fusion is jazz incorporating rock instrumentation while prog rock is rock with some jazz instruments thrown in as well as incorporating jazz's improvisational techniques.
It's pretty popular among punk fans to hate prog because punks in 1977 hated prog. But why would you hate it in 2017, prog isn't mainstrain anymore and it takes effort stumble upon prog when you're a casual music fan. 40 years later only the good progbands are remembered and all the excess and mediocre shit is long forgotten like with any other genre. After initially rejecting it punk has been influenced by prog and fusion since the 90's when punk and grunge bands started to experiment with odd time signatures.
The "Nu-Left" in America believes all things are racial now (mirroring some on the right who also do). It's mostly because they were fixated on things like the Trayvon Martin case and other so-called "Human Interest Stories", as well as the fact a lot of people went to University for purely liberal arts thus graduate with knowledge of gender/race/feminist topics but not Economics or Political Science, the traditional educations for political folks. I was forced into some gender/race courses myself for Political Science and you could essentially write *anything*, as long as it's not racist against non-whites and not plagiarized. This means though that as more and more papers are written about race/gender, the amount of new stuff that can be written without getting in trouble for plagiarism shrinks. So students have to write about increasingly fringe topics nobody has covered yet, and can make everything up. Like "Preferring Tacos without Hot Sauce is pure racism".
"White", when used by woke ass twitter and articles like these, is basically code for bougy, basically someone with no culture or style whose only defining trait is privilege, usually someone who is dorky and stuck up. In layman's terms "White" just means "lame". Basically they are saying that prog is the lamest music ever, but using woke language, mostly to make it sound like people who are poor/underprivileged don't enjoy prog. It's fucking stupid.
Ebola Jenkins it’s not left at all to be against progressive music. People like to hide behind labels for credibility. Their political knowledge is usually lacking.
Peter Gabriel was inspired by soul singers when developing his own vocal style and spent 25 years of his solo career enriching his prog sound with world elements and he's a way more representative voice of the genre. Some people just wanna stay mad and find new ways to justify it.
bitch ,you're dead He means black metal from scandinavia rather than metal with members from a certain ethnicity But you should check out sevendust, bad bones , living color and killswitch engage,
South América and southern Asia own black/death metal as much as Europe, just look how Many demos and lps came from places like Malaysia, Singapure or Brazil, Colombia, Chile, etc
I can’t imagine hearing parts of certain prog songs and not being in awe. The buildup in the second half of Starless by King Crimson? The instrumental jams on Selling England By The Pound by Genesis? The insane and inventive arrangements on stuff like Heart of the Sunrise by Yes? I just think it’s the most satisfying shit out there.
Yeah, I agree! Obviously some musical genres are majorily one race (Like country being mostly white and hip-hop being mostly black) but that doesn't mean a sound is intrinsically linked to your skin colour. Fuck that notion.
MegaShiney99 There are no 'race' or anything homosapiens, just homosapiens defined by phenotype, even definitions are meaningless. Sorry, just had to try it out.
Prog also had huge following in Argentina, and there were a number of bands in the late 70's and 80's that made their own version of Prog. It was a huge influence on people like Luis Alberto Spinetta who then went on to mentor one of Latin America's most celebrated talents, Gustavo Cerati.
Not to mention that Punk has one of the biggest white supremacist elements compared to most other genres. The sheer lack of awareness in this article should be enough to revoke any kind of journalism credential if "journalism credential" wasn't such a huge oxymoron to begin with.
I hate how music journalisms attitude towards prog rock is grounded in an immature writing off of it as pretentious based on this music nerd hating mentality. I feel like theres been this weird romanticizing of pop from past eras, just like in that previous stinkpiece fantano had where the one lady was talking about the forwarness of old teen idols and girls groups, and punk is just an extension of this, cause I bet you anything these writers could care less about Richard Hell or Patty Smith, but have this fetishized, spoon fed idea of how revolutionary and rebellious Sex Pistols were(they weren't). This whole attitude is just irksome
I really like that you don't just go with either "of course prog is heavily black influenced" OR "so what if it's a white genre," but provide information on both. It's a great way of presenting a wider range of viewpoints, great choice there.
Apparently a celebrity wax museum in Japan holds statues of Mani Neumeier (from Guru Guru, a band that most Germans have not heard of) and Frank Zappa (who most of his fellow Americans haven't listened to either). Yeah, I would say prog is bigger in Japan than in a lot of Western countries.
I was introduced to prog rock in Latin America. With the exception of Pink Floyd or Yes, I can’t remember a time prog rock was ever mentioned in the US in conversation
The Blues in Pink Floyd, the Jazz in King Crimson, the Funk in Chris Squier bass of Yes, the Reggae of Rush, the bluegras of ELP, the Harmonica in early Jetheo Tull etc. etc. Also Jon Anderson and Chris Squire where actually more working class than some Punk Outfits. A lot of misconseptions. To be honest Rock is Blues played by White Men.
Prog rock and Jazz fusion literally started as a result of black jazz musicians jamming with white rock musicians. In fact, lots of great prog musicians go around learning things like African or Indian classical specifically to sound different. Is Danny Carey "culturally appropriating" the tabla even though he spent years studying with an Indian master?
Prog had the sophistication and precision of European classical music with the soul and improvisation of jazz and the experimentation of psychedelic rock.
Idk I think some of those songs are very expressive, but I do see what you mean, it's much more calculated than anything else, I enjoy it though, sometimes
@@donkeydarko77 he didnt say, that prog is the whites genre of music, but you did the reverse for some reason. Its a big question who is the dum dum here
Prog Rock is easily and literally the most progressive music because it takes influences from everywhere from european classical music over british folk, asian melodies, african rhythms,... to american blues. And thats why i love it. You can never know what happens next. Prime examples for me: Gentle Giant, Can, VdGG,...
King Crimson, The Moody Blues, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Supertramp; all some of my favorite bands.
I'm black and love prog. Found it through jazz fusion and math rock. Prog encompasses jazz and blues motifs occasionally, it's simply not true. You could also say that about country and metal.
European folk music may be more for the title, but Here is an item that makes a head scratcher that of no black influence -- "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed", the album's first cover song and opening track, was written by American artist Richie Havens.
The worst thing is that in order for someone to make this assumption, they'd have to overlook all the artists of color in progressive rock music, including its popularity in Latin America with bands like Fràgil and the overflowing abundance of it in Asian countries, especially Japan. Hell, one of the most popular prog bands of recent memory (as well as possibly all of history) has been The Mars Volta, a band that is led by two Hispanics and includes many different races in its various lineups. Even if he's speaking specifically about a lack of black people, he still doesn't have to look any further than TMV with keyboardist Ikey Owens and drum god Thomas Pridgeon.
"Prog is bad punk is le quality", "something is made by white people therefore it is bad and worse than things made by black people". Yeah. The author of that article is a human NPC whose opinions are just a regurgitation of whatever he's read in the music press most often / whatever opinions he believes he'll be patted on the back for having. Critics have always hated prog, probably because many critics are failed musicians who never even tried and they resent a genre that's based on strong musicianship, which is also why they circle-jerk over punk, a genre based on the idea that musicianship is not important. Not saying either approach is inherently good or bad, but this is why these genres are regarded this way by the warped, tortured minds of the twisted golems known as "music critics". Punk lets them believe "yeah I could have been good... I could still be good if I just wanted to... I'm the best... people just don't understand me, just like punk... punk is totally anti-establishment and everyone is against it cuz it's so edgy...", prog crushes their dreams because it's so clearly very difficult to make and requires skills they know they don't have and don't have the diligence or guts to even try to develop. Of course there's tons of bad prog, just as there's loads of awful shit in literally every single genre. But this is why prog has been so obsessively hated on by music cretins - i mean critics.
The idea that "whitest" is even a relevant metric, or avenue of critique, is reprehensible in itself. Questions like "what does that even mean," or "why does it matter," should be exchanged for "why is this acceptable to ask?" These days, it's become distastefully fashionable to display open hostility towards white peoples, and cultures. As a black man, I'm revulsed.
William Long idek what idm is tbh but the artists I see described as it are apex twin and flying lotus and flying lotus may have jazz inspired songs but jazz definitely isn't his genre
thank you for basically saying everything that I thought and felt and wanted to say after reading that article on my own, but I just didn't have the energy to say it.
I wouldn't trust this James Parker guy any farther than I could throw him. Read his "Electric Miles Davis" article, he calls Bitches Brew the best album of the period and mentions Tribute to Jack Johnson exactly once. And he thinks Agharta sounds "tired". Some people just have no taste. :)
Some good Prog albums for those looking to get into it: Classic Prog Pink Floyd- Animals Prog-Rock Rush-Hemispheres Prog- Metal Dream Theater- Metropolis pt 2 Scenes from a Memory Prog-Thrash Vektor-Black future or Voivod- Nothingface Modern Prog Steve Wilson- Grace for Drowning There is a lot of variety in these artists so I hope I have found something for everyone. Enjoy
Yes - Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans. Emerson Lake and Palmer - debut album, Tarkus. Soft Machine - Bundles Queen - Queen, Queen ll Rush - 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Moving Pictures. Klattu - 347 EST.
Ayreon - Human equation Spock's beard - Snow Camel - Mirage The Who - Quadrophenia Transatlantic - The Whirlwind King Crimson - In the court of the crimson king Genesis - Foxtrot The Ocean - Phanerozoic Haken - Aquarius Supertramp - Crime of the century Porcupine tree - Fear of a blank planet Gentle storm - The diary ELP - Brain salad surgery Neal Morse - Sola scriptura ELO - Eldorado Jethro tull - Thick as a brick Marillon - Misplaced childhood Queensryche - Operation mindcrime Pink floyd - Dark side of the moon Gazpacho - Demon
"Prog is awful" Translation: I am a fucking idiot with terrible music taste who can't handle a song that's longer than 5 minutes and just likes pop music. I don't deserve the right to have ears, or the right to an opinion."
@@brownleaf_o1 Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, Meddle, Close To The Edge, Fragile, Relayer, Tales Of Topographic Oceans, The Yes Album, Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, Trick Of The Tail, In The Court Of The Crimson King, Red, Larks' Tongues In Aspic, 2112, Moving Pictures, Hemispheres, A Farewell To Kings, Thick As A Brick, Aqualong, Brain Salad Sugery, and In The Land Of Grey And Pink are all FANTASTIC prog albums. And there's many more. If you think there are no good prog albums, you've clearly never listened to prog in your life.
As a matter of fact, it may have gone on to be even more influential than anyone could have imagined; a lot of that classic prog was a huge influence on Japanese videogame composers in the 80s and 90s, and just seeing how well it fits with the fantasy worlds that so many Gen Z are invested in (w/ gaming, anime etc.) that was really influenced by this stuff, it definitely had a huge impact on the perception of (at least that sort of music). Oftentimes I'll show a friend some prog-influenced piece I'm working on and they'll tell me it sounds like an anime opening.
Assuming that's supposed to be Frank Zappa in the artwork, he's pretty much the best example of how wrong this article is. Zappa endured a ton of discrimination in his early career from club owners upset he had black musicians in his band The Blackouts. The original Mothers had Roy Estrada (Latino) and Jimmy Carl Black (Am. Indian), in the 70s he had George Duke, Sugarcane Harris, Napolean Murphy Brock, Chester Thompson, Ray White, Ike Willis, Tina Turner, etc. He even had his adolescent inspiration to pick up a guitar in the first place, Johnny "Guitar" Watson play on a few of his albums.
How so? Abasi is one man. That's like finding one successful white guy in China, and thinking, "Well, China is the Whitest country in Asia!" You are dumb, sir.
This video actually makes me want to get the book that was referenced, to learn more, I'm black! Furthermore, when Chic's Nile Rogers was hired to produce David Bowie's Let's Dance album, Rogers originally intended to make Bowie's version of Dark Side of the Moon. Bowie had other ideas, wanting a more pop album (I think). Unfortunate IMO, I feel we missed out on something huge, at least something more compelling.
Who gives a shit, who listens to Progressive Rock and goes immediately to discussing race? Inserting race into everything is never going to solve racism, this is so damn tiring. I listen to Prog Rock because it's sonically amazing and interesting, never cared about the bands personally, so.
I hate it when people say "black people invented rock music". Uhm not really. Black musicians sped up the blues(wich became rock & roll) and you had jimi hendrix. What people refer to as ''classic rock'' is kind of predominantely white and black people were busy making other kinds of music like Funk, R&B and disco (those sounds ofcourse did end up in some parts of classic rock).
I know the original article is trying to be edgy and clickbaity, but I just want to point out that there are a ton of prog bands from Japan, Korea, South America, and Africa.
I am from Chile and I really have to say that in my country, in the 70s, two of the most popular and respected bands in my country's history emerged: "Congreso" and "Los Jaivas", both of which took a progressive rock mixed with jazz and traditional music of the native (oppressed) peoples of Chile. So all of this stupid bullshit of "it's just white music" is a complete nonsense.
I vaguely recall the article and chafed at the suggestion that prog rock was the uncoolest rock ever. By "uncool" one generally means "non bluesy". That is the standard measure of "cool " in popular music going back to the depression era. Anyway, to me prog was the coolest rock, not the uncoolest. Bartok was cool too. And Miles Davis in "kind of blue" was considered cool for NOT sticking to blues scales. Anyway, your point is well taken that prog can certainly be bluesy, but equally important is whether it can be cool when it isn't bluesy. Well of course the answer is yes but you have to venture a bit outside of the US/NYC centered mode of thinking when it comes to popular music. That's what Miles did when he turned these notions on their head. And take ELP for example. Keith Emerson was not at his coolest when playing "Benny the bouncer"which was bluesy but when playing "just take a pebble" which was not. Cool is also about being true to yourself. White guys will play whatever speaks to their heart, and cool is really just a measure of how successfully and originally one has done that. So no crap article can ever hope to define cool if it starts with the basic premise that the entire history of classical music is not cool because it is not bluesy. Because from there, one must then eliminate from "cool" any musician that does not play a blues inspired music. See how ridiculous this gets? Rock critics without a European perspective are playing with half a deck. Prog is white like Bjork is white or radiohead is white. Let the white guys be the ones to define cool once in a while.
I always find it interesting that people who like Kendrick Lamar, Radiohead, and The Mars Volta have huge overlap. These genres of music overlap each other because either 1: They are top of their craft, or 2: This music is blending genres and cultures.
What the three of them have in common is that they all pushed the boundaries in their respective genres, and if you have an open mind and learn to appreciate genres out of your comfort zone, anyone can learn to love all these amazing artists regardless of genre boundaries.
"There is no black music in Progressive Rock"
Pretty bold statement for a genre in which EVERYONE was influenced by Jazz.
Jumping to conclusions from the skin color of a genre's protagonists to the music itself is pretty stupid. It's just branding. Especially in the early 70's when scenes were a lot closer (intentionally or not). It's not a wide step from Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic and Miles Davis to King Crimson, Yes or Jethro Tull. Hell, there were even (admittedly rudimental) plans of Hendrix joining Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
ELPH would’ve been fucking awesome.
Bill Bruford also stated that Yes were inspired by Sly & The Family Stone
Black people created jazz!
@@Jryder933 yes you're right
Hendrix once said that Krimson was the greatest band ever.
Wouldt classical music be the whitest music ever?
Historically perhaps but today, not really because some of the best soloist are Asian and they are also well represented at the orchestra level. It's heavily localised though (Japan, China, Korea). I would have thought metal or country were the "whitest" genres.
William Grant Still, Scott Joplin
@Max Campo yes it is
Histrically yes,
Now, not so much
Yes
Fantano's teeth are the prog of teeth
MoreCowbellStudios Yes,just like Prog his teeth bush the boundaries of dental healt
MoreCowbellStudios whitest teeth in the game
w
LMAO i was thinking abt this and in the background fantano said "its so white" and i was like ohhhhh thaks fantan now i understan
fantano's hairline is the lowercase of hairlines
I am Black. And I've been listening to Progressive Rock since 1972 (I'm, as of this writing,
58.). And I've never put racial or racist brands on any music I enjoy. I just enjoy it. Period.
Apparently, this person never heard of James "Blood" Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Fela Kuti, Sonny Sharrock, Jimmy Hendrix, and many other Blacks who contributed to Prog.
Also a lot of Jazz influences in Prog . Bands like Soft Machine or Mahavishnu Orchestra where clearly Jazz Rock . Also John Coltrane's free Jazz ideas basically influenced the french Prog rock band Magma . Or King Crimson's 70s line up was influenced by Miles Davis .
SuperCartiel "As a black"
Lmao you not black but good point
Fif G you're*
Fif G says who nigga you dont know him
Hey, Blood and Sharrock! Great shout-outs, dude. Tony Williams is another good example, for those reading for information -- he led a band called Lifetime in the late Sixties that foreshadowed (and was better than) a lot of the weird jammy jazz fusion that came later. And Miles Davis' Seventies albums are worth a few listens, too, especially the live ones with the twenty-five-minute tracks on each side. :) Even the guy who wrote the "Whitest Music" article loves them.
Why do so many people have such a vendetta against prog
Ethan Hurt Because they think it's pretentious and overly technical and somehow lacks "soul" whatever the heck that means. Sometimes it is but really it's not.
Kami Lee seriously complaining about the "feel" and "soul" is in 99% of cases people being butthurt
Because it is made up of the greatest music in the entire history of the universe.
Ethan Hurt People don't like prog because it is quite frankly a hard genre to get into. It does require at least the willingness to sit down and listen to long stretches of music that sound similar accross the album or even within a song. Not everyone is willing to listen to one song for 8 minutes straight. Thats likely the biggest reason people call it pretentious because they believe a song should be easily digestible. Even in other genre's especially rap, songs longer than 5 minutes are rare, and even rarer that they be successful. Often they have to release shortened edits which for many artists undermines the music. The music industry dislikes prog because it is inherently anti-radio. As I said the songs are almost always long without satisfying beginnings or ends (because they lead into the other songs), lack a chorus, and are generally weak as singles. In the days of vinyl and cassette, the only prog singles were those which started a side or ended it. Money by Pink Floyd is the first track of the B side on both cassette and vinyl and so has a clear beginning and is somewhat short. Lastly its seen as pretentious because quite frankly, prog is music for listening not dancing. It features long solos and improv sessions and non standard instruments and very abstract lyrics. Its a bit hard to follow at times and usually has to be listened to multiple times. Hmu for some reccomendations dog
PROG UBER ALLES
It's like saying "is rap the blackest genre?"
hey that's racist
CJ alicéa muh double standards
Um, excuse me, the blackest genre is black metal. Duh.
rap has sort of spread too far to be considered solely one race. folk, tribal music is probably the most "racial" music genre depending on whatever country it originates from.
I wish that was still true
I take less issue with them calling prog rock "white" and more with them calling it "awful" honestly...
Agreed, it’s especially bad because they’re trying to imply that something being white also makes it awful, which is incredibly
P R O G R E S S I V E
It's my favourite genre and I must admit it's pretty white lmao
Yeah, it’s dominated by white people, but, not awful? It’s one of the most important genres in rock music. As other commenters stated, there’s quite a few black artists that also contributed prog rock.
Me too. I mean, they’re both shitty statements.
@@mattsmith457 LMFAO
That entire article literally boils down to, "Prog rock is nerdy, therefore it's white. I don't like prog rock, because it's for nerds. I like punk rock, therefore punk rock is better because I'm not a nerd." I don't even want to get into how that would correlate to the conclusion, "Most black people aren't nerds, so they don't like prog rock, just like me." So yeah, it literally had no actual point and the whitest genre BS was clickbait. Glad to see journalistic integrity is just as dead as I remember it from the 80's and 90's...
Seems like a Finn take tbf
James Parker is a tremendously good writer, but this article sucks and you nailed the reason why.
@@lipby admittedly I have no idea who this guy is, but if he writes wankery like this I doubt he’s that good of a writer
Seriously, prog is great. These plebs just can't handle songs longer than five minutes.
"It's not radio friendly? It's not music then."
SteadyRhythms That's funny because prog was a staple of late night radio programs in all of Europe and still is frequently played on most stations that have something to do with rock.
@WildGooseberry listen to Thick as a Brick. See what you think
@WildGooseberry I actually do feel the same way, especially since I started listening to more obscure prog rock albums. Some are just ok and some are pretty boring, but there are a few gems here and there
@@TonyAMO Such as?
So who the fuck is county music for?
Ray Charles.
County music?
southern women
You mean nobody in American suburbia
Nightshade inbreds
Is Fantano the whitest Channel ever?
Poke Kay he's had myke cc on a few times
Poke Kay L
The melonest channel ever.
He's not white, he's a melon
HPFMav ....Ok.
Prog is actually my favorite genre! Gentle Giant, Genesis (Peter Gabriel era), ELP, I love that stuff!
Yes. But you forgot yes and king crimson
@@gdmatter2286 I mean, I love that stuff, too. Yes is like the gateway band to prog. And I like King Crimson, but their stuff varies for me. Like, I love the Andrew Belew stuff, but not everything from them works for me.
@@RichKnight36 Understandable.
What about Rush?
@@GustavoEPerez-gj7qz Rush is great, too
The singer of a prog rock band said prog rock is for Europeans
Author: PROG ROCK IS WHIIIIIIITE
The multitude of nazi punk bands
Author: you can't use a few group of people to represent a whole genre
I don't think author even konw more then like 8 prog bands lol
This should be top comment
Max Raider implying "anti-white" wood be a bad thing
Max Raider dude chill out, it's just a dumb racebaiting/clickbait title and the Atlantic is hardly "leftist"
Adolf Stalin more like GANG punk amirite
I'm black and like prog rock, I really like "Yes" and appreciate the thought process and musicality they displayed. I also like Math rock which derived from it
the whitest genre is either polka or scottish bagpipe music
Xx_bRÜTaLd3Th666_xX I think it's actually something like Polish, Ukrainian or Hungarian folk music. No blacks in that part of the world to begin with. No interest of the genre outside those countries.
I think Rufus Harley would disagree with you there on the bagpipe side of things ;) He was the first jazz musician to use the Scottish great Highland bagpipe as his main instrument.
SCOTLAND FOREVER
Akhchually
@@ealing456 Wtf? Just because a black guy used that instrument doesn't mean Scottish folk music isn't white.
King Crimson worst to best
Jasper Shaw Red?
Jasper Shaw fav album is probably animals or dark side or meddle
+beach impala
I can't say I agree, even after listening to PF's discography multiple times I always rank atom heart mother at the lower end of the list. Its not bad but I just don't enjoy it as much as a lot of their other music.
King Crimson only best to best
the last 2 songs on Islands are rad..
Tosin Abasi is a defining artist of the modern prog movement, and I'm pretty sure he is not white.
O. Phillips tosin abasi is white
@@muhammadlivranf6919 no....no he's not
Hexto what?
I’m pretty sure that’s the NAXALT fallacy.
The Mars Volta too
OJ: I'm not black I'm OJ
Fantano: I'm not white I'm melon
fam alam I'm not white, I'm eggshell. Lulz, I quit 😂
So he half-black(half-green)
As if Frank Zappa didn't have a plethora of different ethnicities playing the most complex music available in the 60's-90's, as if black music icons like Stevie Wonder weren't making concept albums about the lives of plants, as if blues & jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock didn't spend a large part of their career pursuing progressive jazz fusion.
calling jazz fusion progressive is kinda misleading since fusion on its conception was just a bunch of jazz artists realizing other genres exist, not just rock
@@Martykun36 that IS what makes it prog like
@@Martykun36 by coincidence I bought in the court of the crimson king and bitches brew on vinyl before I had ever listened to either album as a complete piece, and when you listen to both albums back to back there is so much sonic overlap it's pretty much impossible to argue the two movements aren't incredibly similar. The primary difference is honestly that jazz fusion is jazz incorporating rock instrumentation while prog rock is rock with some jazz instruments thrown in as well as incorporating jazz's improvisational techniques.
Zappa band was pretty racially diverse, including two legendary black members.
Not to mention that Uncle Remus is about the civil rights movement which is one of his biggest songs
wait but prog is very influenced by jazz fusion and fusion is mostly established by Miles Davis, right? what is this
TheZooropaBaby Idiocy
TheZooropaBaby TRUE
All american music originates blacks. Obviously except for the folk genres brought from Europe.
Blues too...
Jazz was heavily influenced by European folk initially.
Im not white im vegan
I am not white, i am a slav.
im not white im 12
*long pause* okay
I'm not white I'm shite
I'm not black I'm a jack pauler
This James Parker dude clearly never heard Geddy Lee spitting pure fire on the rap verse of Roll the Bones
Haha, I had forgotten about that (maybe on purpose)
davetbassbos Jack, relax, get busy with the facts
That was Geddy Lee?!? I didn't know his voice could go that low lol
Pizza Mozerella they like... tuned it down in post effects or something? I don't remember.
Anyway, get out there and rock, roll the bones.
BroadcasterHouse thanks, now I have to listen to the entire album again lol
It's pretty popular among punk fans to hate prog because punks in 1977 hated prog. But why would you hate it in 2017, prog isn't mainstrain anymore and it takes effort stumble upon prog when you're a casual music fan. 40 years later only the good progbands are remembered and all the excess and mediocre shit is long forgotten like with any other genre. After initially rejecting it punk has been influenced by prog and fusion since the 90's when punk and grunge bands started to experiment with odd time signatures.
I love when internet culture writers think they're actually doing something important by writing shit like this.
This Article is so wrong on so many levels . a lot of Prog Rock was Influenced by Jazz which was mostly black music .
True man. Pink Floyd is a badass Prog Rock band and the Blues and Jazz influence is real as fuck.
SeniorSaint and the genre can still be mostly white?
I don't get why skin color is even relevant here
The "Nu-Left" in America believes all things are racial now (mirroring some on the right who also do). It's mostly because they were fixated on things like the Trayvon Martin case and other so-called "Human Interest Stories", as well as the fact a lot of people went to University for purely liberal arts thus graduate with knowledge of gender/race/feminist topics but not Economics or Political Science, the traditional educations for political folks. I was forced into some gender/race courses myself for Political Science and you could essentially write *anything*, as long as it's not racist against non-whites and not plagiarized. This means though that as more and more papers are written about race/gender, the amount of new stuff that can be written without getting in trouble for plagiarism shrinks. So students have to write about increasingly fringe topics nobody has covered yet, and can make everything up. Like "Preferring Tacos without Hot Sauce is pure racism".
@@stuffums no its the far left
Probably because evolution is a thing, and different population groups have different mental and physical traits?
"White", when used by woke ass twitter and articles like these, is basically code for bougy, basically someone with no culture or style whose only defining trait is privilege, usually someone who is dorky and stuck up. In layman's terms "White" just means "lame". Basically they are saying that prog is the lamest music ever, but using woke language, mostly to make it sound like people who are poor/underprivileged don't enjoy prog. It's fucking stupid.
Ebola Jenkins it’s not left at all to be against progressive music. People like to hide behind labels for credibility. Their political knowledge is usually lacking.
Peter Gabriel was inspired by soul singers when developing his own vocal style and spent 25 years of his solo career enriching his prog sound with world elements and he's a way more representative voice of the genre. Some people just wanna stay mad and find new ways to justify it.
Black metal is the whitest genre tbh
blasphemy has a black guitar player , but thats all i could think of
bitch ,you're dead
He means black metal from scandinavia rather than metal with members from a certain ethnicity
But you should check out sevendust, bad bones , living color and killswitch engage,
South América and southern Asia own black/death metal as much as Europe, just look how Many demos and lps came from places like Malaysia, Singapure or Brazil, Colombia, Chile, etc
Doesn't even make sense. It's called black metal. How can it be white?
Latino is not a race. And Max Cavalera from sepultura is white.
I can’t imagine hearing parts of certain prog songs and not being in awe. The buildup in the second half of Starless by King Crimson? The instrumental jams on Selling England By The Pound by Genesis? The insane and inventive arrangements on stuff like Heart of the Sunrise by Yes? I just think it’s the most satisfying shit out there.
There is no racial or anything music, just music defined by sound, even definitions are quite meaningless.
That's it.
Exactly.
"I don't hear color." --White Person.
Yeah, I agree! Obviously some musical genres are majorily one race (Like country being mostly white and hip-hop being mostly black) but that doesn't mean a sound is intrinsically linked to your skin colour. Fuck that notion.
yea and black people invented 95% of all of it anyway so there's definitely no whitest genre
MegaShiney99 There are no 'race' or anything homosapiens, just homosapiens defined by phenotype, even definitions are meaningless. Sorry, just had to try it out.
Prog also had huge following in Argentina, and there were a number of bands in the late 70's and 80's that made their own version of Prog. It was a huge influence on people like Luis Alberto Spinetta who then went on to mentor one of Latin America's most celebrated talents, Gustavo Cerati.
"I only have a couple of problems with the article, it's not that bad."
*goes on to roast almost every facet of the article*
Not to mention that Punk has one of the biggest white supremacist elements compared to most other genres. The sheer lack of awareness in this article should be enough to revoke any kind of journalism credential if "journalism credential" wasn't such a huge oxymoron to begin with.
Using a skin colour as an insult? Sounds progressive.
🤣
@A Champion Using skin colour as an insult? Sounds Progressive.
I hate how music journalisms attitude towards prog rock is grounded in an immature writing off of it as pretentious based on this music nerd hating mentality. I feel like theres been this weird romanticizing of pop from past eras, just like in that previous stinkpiece fantano had where the one lady was talking about the forwarness of old teen idols and girls groups, and punk is just an extension of this, cause I bet you anything these writers could care less about Richard Hell or Patty Smith, but have this fetishized, spoon fed idea of how revolutionary and rebellious Sex Pistols were(they weren't). This whole attitude is just irksome
Who cares if music is white, black, or whatever. I only care As long as it's good
Exactly
prog-bashing is a dead meme anyway.
I really like that you don't just go with either "of course prog is heavily black influenced" OR "so what if it's a white genre," but provide information on both. It's a great way of presenting a wider range of viewpoints, great choice there.
It doesn't matter if it's a white genre unless you're an anti-white leftist who hates white people
@@jasonmaguire7552 yikes
@@jasonmaguire7552 yikes
Anthony would make a fantastic English teacher.
Whoever titled this article must've forgotten about The Mars Volta.
It kind of totally ignores the fact that progressive rock was a mainstream thing in Japan (and maybe still is? I am not up on that.)
Apparently a celebrity wax museum in Japan holds statues of Mani Neumeier (from Guru Guru, a band that most Germans have not heard of) and Frank Zappa (who most of his fellow Americans haven't listened to either). Yeah, I would say prog is bigger in Japan than in a lot of Western countries.
It’s popular in Italy too
@@justatoaster3140 Italians are white, dude
Meervo I know
I was introduced to prog rock in Latin America. With the exception of Pink Floyd or Yes, I can’t remember a time prog rock was ever mentioned in the US in conversation
The Blues in Pink Floyd, the Jazz in King Crimson, the Funk in Chris Squier bass of Yes, the Reggae of Rush, the bluegras of ELP, the Harmonica in early Jetheo Tull etc. etc. Also Jon Anderson and Chris Squire where actually more working class than some Punk Outfits. A lot of misconseptions.
To be honest Rock is Blues played by White Men.
It’s almost impossible to play music without a dozen diverse influences having shaped it.
Is the harmonic black?😂
Prog rock and Jazz fusion literally started as a result of black jazz musicians jamming with white rock musicians. In fact, lots of great prog musicians go around learning things like African or Indian classical specifically to sound different.
Is Danny Carey "culturally appropriating" the tabla even though he spent years studying with an Indian master?
Prog had the sophistication and precision of European classical music with the soul and improvisation of jazz and the experimentation of psychedelic rock.
The article is crap and so is the author.
Hip hop is the whitest genre
🏆
W
Also one of the worse genres
Walter White the world disagrees
saddest part is that nowaays this is the truth
Progthony Rocktano
Shhhh! Don't say that too loud! Before ya know it, we'll have roving gangs of skinheads blaring "Tales from Topographical Oceans" at top volume!
i am drunk, made me laugh heavily, many thanks :)
prog rock generally goes hand in hand with jazz fusion probably more than it does with any other style of music ever conceived
If anything Black Metal is the whitest genre ever
Wulbulbul Lubbubwublub
Its all dark and screamy
Nah. It's essantialy the same as Hojikaidan.
Body Count and Animals as Leaders are TRVE BLACK METAL
Shit I can't argue with that
To be fair, it is from Norway.
Saying prog is white pretty much dismisses the whole East Asian rock scene that is dominated by prog (as wel as post and math rock) bands coming out of Japan and Taiwan.
what about Tosin fucking Abasi?
the only black artist without soul
Idk I think some of those songs are very expressive, but I do see what you mean, it's much more calculated than anything else, I enjoy it though, sometimes
bitch ,you're dead Wait, Animals As Leaders "has no soul" but SoundCloud rapper #1376 whose never heard an auto-tune he didn't like "has soul"? 🤔
The exception that proves the rule
bitch ,you're dead Define 'soul'
Tosin Abasi is one of the best guitarist working today and he's a prog metal icon.... and also black.
Eminem, MGK and Tom Macdonald are well known rappers...and white. So I guess rap is the whitest genre of music?
You dumb as hell, Alex.
@@donkeydarko77 he didnt say, that prog is the whites genre of music, but you did the reverse for some reason. Its a big question who is the dum dum here
Prog Rock is easily and literally the most progressive music because it takes influences from everywhere from european classical music over british folk, asian melodies, african rhythms,... to american blues. And thats why i love it. You can never know what happens next. Prime examples for me: Gentle Giant, Can, VdGG,...
If Money is a bastardization of blues than bastardization is a great thing.
Is that the way of saying "I refuse to review the new Steven Wilson record"?
never in my life have i considered prog to be “white” nor would the thought have ever crossed my mind if not for this article
Lmao same
Hendrix had some heavily prog inspired stuff, and almost if not all prog, is inspired and influenced heavily by jazz.
“Old people really like pink Floyd so the genre sucks”
King Crimson, The Moody Blues, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Supertramp; all some of my favorite bands.
I'm black and love prog. Found it through jazz fusion and math rock. Prog encompasses jazz and blues motifs occasionally, it's simply not true. You could also say that about country and metal.
SoundCloud rap is the whitest music
Nah pretty sure it’s rock
Nah! Rap is, and always will be the blackest music on the planet!😂😂🤣🤣
"prog left nothing relevant" - "i Love tool" _ choose one
European folk music may be more for the title, but Here is an item that makes a head scratcher that of no black influence -- "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed", the album's first cover song and opening track, was written by American artist Richie Havens.
Mr. Parker needs to be reminded the only thing punk killed off was itself.
The author of the article said that there is "no black influence in progressive rock".
I guess the guy has never heard of Soft Machine.
The worst thing is that in order for someone to make this assumption, they'd have to overlook all the artists of color in progressive rock music, including its popularity in Latin America with bands like Fràgil and the overflowing abundance of it in Asian countries, especially Japan. Hell, one of the most popular prog bands of recent memory (as well as possibly all of history) has been The Mars Volta, a band that is led by two Hispanics and includes many different races in its various lineups. Even if he's speaking specifically about a lack of black people, he still doesn't have to look any further than TMV with keyboardist Ikey Owens and drum god Thomas Pridgeon.
"Prog is the whiteist genre"
Nerd rock: Am I a joke to you?
I remember when the Progressive Rock band Minor Threat made a song called "Guilty of Being White".
"Prog is bad punk is le quality", "something is made by white people therefore it is bad and worse than things made by black people". Yeah. The author of that article is a human NPC whose opinions are just a regurgitation of whatever he's read in the music press most often / whatever opinions he believes he'll be patted on the back for having.
Critics have always hated prog, probably because many critics are failed musicians who never even tried and they resent a genre that's based on strong musicianship, which is also why they circle-jerk over punk, a genre based on the idea that musicianship is not important. Not saying either approach is inherently good or bad, but this is why these genres are regarded this way by the warped, tortured minds of the twisted golems known as "music critics".
Punk lets them believe "yeah I could have been good... I could still be good if I just wanted to... I'm the best... people just don't understand me, just like punk... punk is totally anti-establishment and everyone is against it cuz it's so edgy...", prog crushes their dreams because it's so clearly very difficult to make and requires skills they know they don't have and don't have the diligence or guts to even try to develop.
Of course there's tons of bad prog, just as there's loads of awful shit in literally every single genre. But this is why prog has been so obsessively hated on by music cretins - i mean critics.
Lol tell this to South America and Mexico filling up venues to watch King Crimson for 5 fucking days straight
Peter Gabriel’s (Genesis’ singer) biggest influence is Otis Redding
The idea that "whitest" is even a relevant metric, or avenue of critique, is reprehensible in itself.
Questions like "what does that even mean," or "why does it matter," should be exchanged for "why is this acceptable to ask?"
These days, it's become distastefully fashionable to display open hostility towards white peoples, and cultures. As a black man, I'm revulsed.
I’m guessing that James Parker’s concept of punk rock is limited to Blink 182 and Green Day.
That painting of Geddy Lee is also anti-Semitic af man
We need more progressive punk. The Mars Volta broke up a few years ago and now I have nothing.
listen to Cardiacs and Deerhoof if you haven't already. Masters of the style and both innovators
I was gonna comment "What about metal or prog metal?" but I could see dozens of "B R A Z I L" replies in my mind.
B R A Z I L
A Q U I É B R V É I ! ! !
Metal is perhaps the closest thing to a global genre if you don't count Top 40 pop.
Prog is the whitest genre
Ok
Living Color
Tosin abasi
Tim henson
John myung
Tony macalpine
The mothers of invention
Just to name a few
Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
Osibisa
Whitest genres
1. European folk (all kinds equally)
2. Baroque
3. Classical
4. Romanticism
5. Prog
6. Punk
7. Metal
You should do a "Prog Metal" starter pack! BTW, loved The Death Metal started pack!!
So I assume The Atlantic hasn't heard of IDM then
The Supreme Meme flying lotus?
FL is jazz, try again
William Long idek what idm is tbh but the artists I see described as it are apex twin and flying lotus and flying lotus may have jazz inspired songs but jazz definitely isn't his genre
FL doesn't make IDM the same way AFX or autechre does lol, we can´t even say that FL is IDM
everyone knows the majority of autchre fans are black
thank you for basically saying everything that I thought and felt and wanted to say after reading that article on my own, but I just didn't have the energy to say it.
Ryo Okumoto
Born and raised in japan, he became part of Spock's Beard in 1995. It's now one of the biggest prog keyboardist alive
Man, 2017 was THE year for annoying SJW-ish pop culture critiques.
I wouldn't trust this James Parker guy any farther than I could throw him. Read his "Electric Miles Davis" article, he calls Bitches Brew the best album of the period and mentions Tribute to Jack Johnson exactly once. And he thinks Agharta sounds "tired". Some people just have no taste. :)
"Booty booty article"?
I knew it.
Anthony Fantano is a songwriter for Meghan Trainor, confirmed
Some good Prog albums for those looking to get into it:
Classic Prog
Pink Floyd- Animals
Prog-Rock
Rush-Hemispheres
Prog- Metal
Dream Theater- Metropolis pt 2 Scenes from a Memory
Prog-Thrash
Vektor-Black future
or
Voivod- Nothingface
Modern Prog
Steve Wilson- Grace for Drowning
There is a lot of variety in these artists so I hope I have found something for everyone.
Enjoy
Yes - Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Emerson Lake and Palmer - debut album, Tarkus.
Soft Machine - Bundles
Queen - Queen, Queen ll
Rush - 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Moving Pictures.
Klattu - 347 EST.
Ayreon - Human equation
Spock's beard - Snow
Camel - Mirage
The Who - Quadrophenia
Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
King Crimson - In the court of the crimson king
Genesis - Foxtrot
The Ocean - Phanerozoic
Haken - Aquarius
Supertramp - Crime of the century
Porcupine tree - Fear of a blank planet
Gentle storm - The diary
ELP - Brain salad surgery
Neal Morse - Sola scriptura
ELO - Eldorado
Jethro tull - Thick as a brick
Marillon - Misplaced childhood
Queensryche - Operation mindcrime
Pink floyd - Dark side of the moon
Gazpacho - Demon
"Prog is awful"
Translation: I am a fucking idiot with terrible music taste who can't handle a song that's longer than 5 minutes and just likes pop music. I don't deserve the right to have ears, or the right to an opinion."
Give me some good prog albums i'll wait
@@brownleaf_o1 Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, Meddle, Close To The Edge, Fragile, Relayer, Tales Of Topographic Oceans, The Yes Album, Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, Trick Of The Tail, In The Court Of The Crimson King, Red, Larks' Tongues In Aspic, 2112, Moving Pictures, Hemispheres, A Farewell To Kings, Thick As A Brick, Aqualong, Brain Salad Sugery, and In The Land Of Grey And Pink are all FANTASTIC prog albums. And there's many more. If you think there are no good prog albums, you've clearly never listened to prog in your life.
@@brownleaf_o1 got em?
As a matter of fact, it may have gone on to be even more influential than anyone could have imagined; a lot of that classic prog was a huge influence on Japanese videogame composers in the 80s and 90s, and just seeing how well it fits with the fantasy worlds that so many Gen Z are invested in (w/ gaming, anime etc.) that was really influenced by this stuff, it definitely had a huge impact on the perception of (at least that sort of music). Oftentimes I'll show a friend some prog-influenced piece I'm working on and they'll tell me it sounds like an anime opening.
Assuming that's supposed to be Frank Zappa in the artwork, he's pretty much the best example of how wrong this article is.
Zappa endured a ton of discrimination in his early career from club owners upset he had black musicians in his band The Blackouts.
The original Mothers had Roy Estrada (Latino) and Jimmy Carl Black (Am. Indian), in the 70s he had George Duke, Sugarcane Harris, Napolean Murphy Brock, Chester Thompson, Ray White, Ike Willis, Tina Turner, etc. He even had his adolescent inspiration to pick up a guitar in the first place, Johnny "Guitar" Watson play on a few of his albums.
Having Tosin Abasi as the one of the most famous progressives musicians of nowadays seems to refute the title
How so? Abasi is one man. That's like finding one successful white guy in China, and thinking, "Well, China is the Whitest country in Asia!"
You are dumb, sir.
Ironically, I’m pretty sure the whitest genre is actually black metal.
I thought that something like Celtic music would be the whitest music ever, or like polka. Hehe .
This video actually makes me want to get the book that was referenced, to learn more, I'm black!
Furthermore, when Chic's Nile Rogers was hired to produce David Bowie's Let's Dance album, Rogers originally intended to make Bowie's version of Dark Side of the Moon. Bowie had other ideas, wanting a more pop album (I think). Unfortunate IMO, I feel we missed out on something huge, at least something more compelling.
Who gives a shit, who listens to Progressive Rock and goes immediately to discussing race? Inserting race into everything is never going to solve racism, this is so damn tiring. I listen to Prog Rock because it's sonically amazing and interesting, never cared about the bands personally, so.
I hate it when people say "black people invented rock music". Uhm not really. Black musicians sped up the blues(wich became rock & roll) and you had jimi hendrix. What people refer to as ''classic rock'' is kind of predominantely white and black people were busy making other kinds of music like Funk, R&B and disco (those sounds ofcourse did end up in some parts of classic rock).
Black people did invent rock n roll, ever heard of Chuck Berry?
I know the original article is trying to be edgy and clickbaity, but I just want to point out that there are a ton of prog bands from Japan, Korea, South America, and Africa.
Are they prog rock or program metal though. Theres quite a few Japanese prog metal bands.
I am from Chile and I really have to say that in my country, in the 70s, two of the most popular and respected bands in my country's history emerged: "Congreso" and "Los Jaivas", both of which took a progressive rock mixed with jazz and traditional music of the native (oppressed) peoples of Chile. So all of this stupid bullshit of "it's just white music" is a complete nonsense.
There's a lot from Mexico too
Emperor Crimson is a great band
I vaguely recall the article and chafed at the suggestion that prog rock was the uncoolest rock ever. By "uncool" one generally means "non bluesy". That is the standard measure of "cool " in popular music going back to the depression era. Anyway, to me prog was the coolest rock, not the uncoolest. Bartok was cool too. And Miles Davis in "kind of blue" was considered cool for NOT sticking to blues scales. Anyway, your point is well taken that prog can certainly be bluesy, but equally important is whether it can be cool when it isn't bluesy. Well of course the answer is yes but you have to venture a bit outside of the US/NYC centered mode of thinking when it comes to popular music. That's what Miles did when he turned these notions on their head. And take ELP for example. Keith Emerson was not at his coolest when playing "Benny the bouncer"which was bluesy but when playing "just take a pebble" which was not. Cool is also about being true to yourself.
White guys will play whatever speaks to their heart, and cool is really just a measure of how successfully and originally one has done that. So no crap article can ever hope to define cool if it starts with the basic premise that the entire history of classical music is not cool because it is not bluesy. Because from there, one must then eliminate from "cool" any musician that does not play a blues inspired music. See how ridiculous this gets? Rock critics without a European perspective are playing with half a deck.
Prog is white like Bjork is white or radiohead is white. Let the white guys be the ones to define cool once in a while.
I always find it interesting that people who like Kendrick Lamar, Radiohead, and The Mars Volta have huge overlap. These genres of music overlap each other because either 1: They are top of their craft, or 2: This music is blending genres and cultures.
What the three of them have in common is that they all pushed the boundaries in their respective genres, and if you have an open mind and learn to appreciate genres out of your comfort zone, anyone can learn to love all these amazing artists regardless of genre boundaries.