The History of Progressive Rock

Coheed and Cambria is a rock band, but more specifically, a progressive rock band. Progressive rock, often shortened to prog rock, or simply, prog, is hard to define, but it often has these characteristics:

• Irregular song structure – Either does not have a verse, chorus, bridge, etc., or has extended sections, additional passages, etc.
• Rhythm – The use of time signatures and other rhythmic techniques that are not often used in rock music.
• Concept albums – Many progressive rock artists write concept albums, albums that have a theme or concept or tell a story.

Progressive rock began in the mid 1960s, but became much more popular in the 70s and has continued to be popular until now. Prog often combines elements of other genres such as jazz. Some of the first progressive rock bands, many of which influenced several bands are Jethro Tull, Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rush, Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf Generator, Uriah Heep and King Crimson. There have been many progressive rock bands since then. Such as, The Alan Parsons Project, The Mars Volta and The Moody Blues.