Category: Jam Session
Okay, there was this form of radio on FM, mainly during the 70's and late 60's with either Underground or a Progressive format. What is this format? I have never heard radio llike this, nor have I heard music like this. What exactly is Underground and/or Progressive music? Thanks, John
Both labels refer to a music genre that has a small group of dedicated followers but has not exploded in the big comercial media. Progressive used to be associated with long songs, lots of experimentation with instruments and solos (the Who is a good example, the Beatles almost turned progressive on the ...Lonely Heart Club Band album but Pink Floyd is perhaps the best known example).
Underground or indie just refers to music that is .. well .. underground, has few but often very dedicated followers, bands like Lotion e.g. would be considered underground, Franz FErdinant used to be there but are up and coming now. You can use both labels for music that is not very popular and all over comercial radio stations basically. Progressive refers more to rock but underground could refer to any genre of music.
cheers
-B
To me, underground music is music that has either a small following or is pretty much unknown and is usually a bit too experimental or extreme for commercial radio. I'd say it's a pretty broad category, as it could apply to things like noise bands and found sound artists, but also just anything that's essoteric like industrial or Goth or such. Again, my own definition of progressive rock is a type of rock music that was somewhat popular in the late Sixties and through the Seventies. Songs clocked in at more than the standard three minutes most of the time and were full of long guitar, keyboard, and sometimes drum solos. It was kind of a merger between rock, jazz, and classical music but using rock instruments and of course the synthesizer, which was new then. Pink Floyd was one of the more popular acts which still gets some airplay, but you're not going to hear any of their longer works like "Echoes" on the radio unless your deejay is fairly adventurous and it's late at night. Other prog bands that people might know would be Yes, Moody Blues, Genesis (especially the albums with Peter Gabriel,) Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and a lot of lesser known bands.