Is Prog the Whitest Genre? 

"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.

Fantano's teeth are the prog of teeth

Wouldt classical music be the whitest music ever?

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...

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.

It's like saying "is rap the blackest genre?"

Is Fantano the whitest Channel ever?

Why do so many people have such a vendetta against prog

I take less issue with them calling prog rock "white" and more with them calling it "awful" honestly...

Prog is actually my favorite genre! Gentle Giant, Genesis (Peter Gabriel era), ELP, I love that stuff!

Seriously, prog is great. These plebs just can't handle songs longer than five minutes.

So who the fuck is county music for?

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

the whitest genre is either polka or scottish bagpipe music

This James Parker dude clearly never heard Geddy Lee spitting pure fire on the rap verse of Roll the Bones

Im not white im vegan

King Crimson worst to best

I don't get why skin color is even relevant here

Tosin Abasi is a defining artist of the modern prog movement, and I'm pretty sure he is not white.

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

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.

wait but prog is very influenced by jazz fusion and fusion is mostly established by Miles Davis, right? what is this

OJ: I'm not black I'm OJ Fantano: I'm not white I'm melon

"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*

I love when internet culture writers think they're actually doing something important by writing shit like this.

Using a skin colour as an insult? Sounds progressive.

prog-bashing is a dead meme anyway.

This Article is so wrong on so many levels . a lot of Prog Rock was Influenced by Jazz which was mostly black music .

Black metal is the whitest genre tbh

There is no racial or anything music, just music defined by sound, even definitions are quite meaningless. That's it.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

Whoever titled this article must've forgotten about The Mars Volta.

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.

Who cares if music is white, black, or whatever. I only care As long as it's good

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.)

Anthony would make a fantastic English teacher.

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.

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!

what about Tosin fucking Abasi?

The article is crap and so is the author.

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.

If anything Black Metal is the whitest genre ever

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

Lol tell this to South America and Mexico filling up venues to watch King Crimson for 5 fucking days straight

prog rock generally goes hand in hand with jazz fusion probably more than it does with any other style of music ever conceived

If Money is a bastardization of blues than bastardization is a great thing.

Progthony Rocktano

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

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,...

Tosin Abasi is one of the best guitarist working today and he's a prog metal icon.... and also black.

"Prog is the whiteist genre" Nerd rock: Am I a joke to you?

Is that the way of saying "I refuse to review the new Steven Wilson record"?

SoundCloud rap is the whitest music

Hendrix had some heavily prog inspired stuff, and almost if not all prog, is inspired and influenced heavily by jazz.

Hip hop is the whitest genre

That painting of Geddy Lee is also anti-Semitic af man

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.

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.

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.

Peter Gabriel’s (Genesis’ singer) biggest influence is Otis Redding

We need more progressive punk. The Mars Volta broke up a few years ago and now I have nothing.

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 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.

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

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).

Whitest genres 1. European folk (all kinds equally) 2. Baroque 3. Classical 4. Romanticism 5. Prog 6. Punk 7. Metal

"prog left nothing relevant" - "i Love tool" _ choose one

Emperor Crimson is a great band

Ironically, I’m pretty sure the whitest genre is actually black metal.

Are we to condemn prog rock since apparently black people aren´t interested in it? Black people are free to join in and form their own prog rock band. Since they do not are we to condemn them for not showing interest? Music is music no matter who´s playing it or enjoys it.

Im African American. I love Zappa, Yes, Mars Volta, Mahavishu Orch., Jethro Tull, National Health. If you close your eyes...its just good music. I have noticed women dont particularly like Prog/Fusion. The beat keeps changing so it throws them off.

"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.

Having Tosin Abasi as the one of the most famous progressives musicians of nowadays seems to refute the title

"Booty booty article"? I knew it. Anthony Fantano is a songwriter for Meghan Trainor, confirmed

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.

The long history and rich tapestry of Latin American prog rock: "am I a joke to you?"

"Prog is the whitest genre". As a white person, I'm flattered.

WTF? Miles Davis practically created Prog rock

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.

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.

This guy legitimately thinks that him holding the opinion that progressive rock is bad is objective truth. Objectively, if you measure the skill and craftsmanship of the music, prog rock is better than punk and pretty much anything else. It doesn't mean anyone has to like it, but it is the best rock music by any objective standard based in a scientific reading of the music.

Calling progressive rock the whitest genre is both racist and elitist. You’re basically saying that a genre known for its musical complexity and abstract lyrics could only be enjoyable to white people, as if to say that people of other races aren’t smart or sophisticated enough to understand it. That’s bullshit. I know people of all different backgrounds (white, black, hispanic, male, female, etc.) who listen to prog. Articles like this only perpetuate the idea that one kind of music is better than another, when really all of it is subjective and a matter of personal taste. Why must people be divided and judged for the things that they like?

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.

*So am i crazy for listening to ALOT of prog and being black?👁️ 👄 👁️*

Search for japanese or latin american rock. If you didn't you are losing probably half of the best in the genre. Is not just about black and white. I rest my case.

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.

Prog is the anthesis of punk, which is why prog is so terrific.

I'm late to this vid but goddamn that is a garbage stinkpiece. Prog rock is not even remotely close to the ""Whitest"" genre, only someone who ironically has a poor grasp of broad musical genre education would think that. In reality there are genres like European Pagan Folk and other rustic European folksy genres that basically are not only obscure but have zero appeal to other races, and likewise if the music is in a language like Slovenian there is a language barrier in play - English has multiracial appeal but Slovenian does not (Slovenia is not a country of immigrants and its diversity is linguistic). An urban left-leaning cosmopolitan pop-Journalist from North America probably doesn't know of the bands in that genre anyways, despite claiming to be so knowledgeable about music. Melon doesn't even review such music so I'm not sure he listens to it either.

So I assume The Atlantic hasn't heard of IDM then

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.

Can't believe I'm getting pissed about a 4 year old article written by some bitter jealous old punk. But at the same time getting reassured again by Antony successfully dunking on every one of his dumb points.

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.

why'd the dude single out gentle giant? that's about the best argument FOR prog.