Progressive Rock
Progressive rock is an ambitious style of rock with long, complex songs that borrow from classical music and jazz.
It developed in Britain and the United States in the mid-to-late 1960s and peaked in the first half of the 1970s. Typical features are unusual time signatures, extended instrumental passages, keyboards such as the Mellotron and synthesizer, and concept albums with a linked story or theme. It values technique and composition where most rock values directness, which is what punk later reacted against.
Artists it is known for: Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd.
- Family
- Rock
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom and United States, mid-to-late 1960s
- Also called
- prog rock, prog
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 8%
About 6,300 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have progressive rock among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Progressive Rock artists
Pink Floyd
TOOL
King Crimson
Opeth
Dream Theater
Genesis
Rush
Supertramp
Polyphia
YesThe progressive rock artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.