PINK FLOYD | PROG OR NOT PROG?
Pink Floyd have been described as ‘prog-lite’ by Rolling Stone magazine and some argue they’re not prog at all. Here I look at both sides of the argument. Prog or not prog ? That is the question.
If you like my channel and appreciate the work that goes into my videos, please support my channel. You can –
Become a Patron! – Be part of a Classic Rock Community!
There is a fine body of work on there now. https://www.patreon.com/classicrock
Make a one-time donation!
Help me to make more videos or buy stuff to annoy my wife with and unbox on my channel: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=46G7795CU9VBA&source=url
Gift me something to unbox from my Amazon Wish List: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1T8FFB9GS4H25?ref_=wl_share
Buy me a coffee.
All that talk is thirsty work: https://ko-fi.com/classicalbum
Like the Facebook page:
I add stuff on a daily basis: https://www.facebook.com/1968rock#
All music used in my videos come from the Free Music Archive: http://freemusicarchive.org/
#pinkfloyd #prog #classicalbum
Comments
Latest news
@MinorCirrus
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I'm a big prog fan and Pink Floyd is my favorite band ever, but I would say that Pink Floyd has some prog songs but is not a prog band.
To me, the difference lies in improvisation or, let's say, melodic freedom. A lot of the biggest prog tracks by the biggest prog acts are actually very composed, where even live, the solos and instrumental breaks will not stray too far away from what's on the record (think Tarkus, Close To The Edge, 21 Century Schizoid Man). The live performance will be an act of trying to replicate the record as closely as possible.
Aside from a handful of exception, Pink Floyd wasn't doing that at all. The songs, even the longest ones, do include jumps from one atmosphere to another, but within each, Wright, Gilmour and sometimes even Mason improvised quite a bit (think Echoes obviously, but also Embryo, Any Colour You Like and even Money). Sometimes, some tracks show more of that "discipline" that's crucial to what I perceive as prog: Time is one of them, as is Dogs but the biggest example for me is the first half of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. That's as prog as Pink Floyd ever got. The rest has more freedom and honestly, that's why I like it even more than prog.
@car-or-ock616
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Such nonsense. What is Prog? I hear it as a mix of three influences. (1) Classical music which is more current (still) in the UK than North America. (2) Advances in studio recording, multitracking, coming together with synthesizers. (3) A 'spacey feel,' a kind of more classical or less camp version of that other contemporary or almost contemporary British genre, Glam Rock.
@porflepopnecker4376
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
The only reason Rolling Stone referred to Pink Floyd as "prog lite" is because Rolling Stone doesn't like prog. Regardless of RS' longtime anti-prog prejudice, however, Floyd is totally prog.
@chaunceymabe5497
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Who is the commentator?
@robertmonks7190
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
You present solid arguments. Yes Pink Floyd are prog. I thought prog rock was extended compositions exploration and very diverse. The Guardian critic seems to have it in for Robert Fripp, I don´t know why as he and Eno are very good musicians. For instance Court of the Crimson King is major, it was wonderful when I first heard it, my older brother had the album in the seventies. Also was producer on Matching Mole 2 album, this still is a very good prog album. I actually like the German prog bands Faust and Can Neu a lot but Pink Floyd Fripp etc are just as good major.
@davidbirdsong4750
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
What's in a label? But I will say that most folks that own a Yes, Genesis or King Crimson album or two probably have a Pink Floyd album in the stack as well.
@EtherealWave-bt7zo
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
First of all> Why Pink is labeled as a ROCK band? Show me every rock song in every Pink's album. You won't find more than 1 or 2… if it every one even has. Is it the guitar distortion that labels as rock? Oh, no… take an example Queen's We are the champion. That song has a guitar distortion, but it is a ternary time signature. So, it can't be considered ROCK, because ROCK is 4/4. So, while you re reading this comment, you have thought and counted the numberr of rock songs you can find on Pink floyd repertoire, and you got catched that there is not much. There are lots of ternary songs, ternary blues, folk, even a mix of funk. So, if one day you recorded a rock song among tons of ternary songs, are you still a rock band? For sure, no. I could say Pink is Rock only for the spirit of the their music, not for the technical arrangements. Ok. It is not ROCK. Now, let's see if it is progressive. The most strange musical structure on Pink Floyd doesnt take you to label it as prog. I could say the complex songs are mostly for inventive achievemente of layer of sounds. You can't call Echo of a rock song. What it is different between parts are textures of sounds, giving distinct colour and environment to the piece. So, definitelly, not prog, but a deeper and sophisticated balance from the psychedelic root, from where you can open your head to get new sounds. Don't come with Atom heart mother, please, that is most for a collection of textures over a basic harmony (even a great harmony). And that is only ONE album between 50. Do not label anybody!
@oliviermuller8214
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I couldn't agree more. Floyd is said non-prog only by people who want to keep their ass dry of all the other prog stuff they don't like or don't understand. Which doesn't mean that Floyd doesn't fully occupy its very special own segment in the history of prog…
@koszim
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I think if we try to fit Pink Floyd's music into categorization boxes, we just need a box with the name Pink Floyd…Btw nice video.
@reginaldobittencourt878
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I spent lots of times with the firm opinion that Pink Floyd is not prog, but after joining a group of prog music at Facebook it made me think again. And then, now I say – well, if you really wants to label it, yes, it's prog; but actually it is a type of music done only by Pink Floyd. Yes, I'd say Floyd has some moments of real "progfulness", but it doesn't make Floyd prog. They fit some clichets in some moments – long tunes, atmospheric sounds, more "elevated" themes on the lyrics -, but in how many other moments they're different of this! One of the biggest clichets is to-tal-ly apart from Floyd: a prog band with no virtuosi? Impossible. Man, Nick Mason is one of the most "rude" and "instinctive" drummers I've ever seen! Nonetheless, he's my second favourite drummer of all time (the first is Keith Moon). All the others – Wright, Gilmour, Waters – are – less Waters – my favourite instrumentists on their instruments. They made "elevated" music with a "raw" approach. I mean, when they did so – because in so many other moments Floyd is simply pop rock – of the best kind (not forgetting their experimental approach, of course). Take, as an argument to my pop-rock theory, "Obscured by Clouds" for instance, or "Dark Side". And I obviously would mention the B-sides of "Meddle" and "Atom Heart Mother". There are many other examples on their music of "not-progish" moments. They're unique, though obviously they paid tribute to their historical period. No; I'd say "not exactly prog". Pink Floyd is Pink Floyd; one of the greates bands of all times.
@StephanGraffeo
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
From my perspective, when my dad first played Dogs for me at age 13, it was honestly unlike anything else I had heard up to that point (there were very few tracks I knew divorced from the radio). Not long after, it led me to other eras of Floyd before opening me up to other bands such as ELP, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, etc. So to answer your question, you can maybe argue the degree of how progressive Pink Floyd are, but you can't NOT call them a prog band.
@isaacness2647
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
i love pink floyd, but i remember when i listened to them for the first time the only other band i could compare them to was led zeppelin, years later i started to get into yes, king crimson and camel and honestly they reminded me a lot more to queen's early albums (my favorite band) than to the long jammy and guitar centric works of floyd and zeppelin
@mixaliskokkinos1496
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
After Barret yes!More prog and you dead… Still waiting the video about ten psychedelic..
@adamfindlay7091
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I thought they began the thing….arguably. just my opine. Their approach seems to be. Just call it Art Rock or a band that helped create Concept album medium.
@QHarefield
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I am now ten months late to this party, but I will add my two penn'orth for what it's worth. Prog, unless I am mistaken, grew out of what used to be called 'The Underground', or 'Underground music.' In my mind, there is a clear difference. The word 'Prog' presupposes progression, progress, constantly growing or changing (as well as irregular time-signatures, long solos, etc., etc). However, Underground had no such pretensions. It was simply alternative music that travelled beneath the radar of mainstream taste, without having to meet the requirement of being progressive, etc. If one judges by that, admittedly poorly-articulated (by me), definition, then Pink Floyd have always been very Underground but not necessarily Prog. In my opinion, very little of their work is Prog.
@olivervus3655
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
The band themselves in interviews over the years, if I am not wrong, have said that they fit in the prog genre.
@daemonspudguy
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Yes. The Floyd are prog, and honestly for the same reason Yes and King Crimson are. All 3 came out of the psychedelic movement of the late 60s.
@billtellefsen6785
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
At age 77, I have heard, sung, and played many types, styles, and forms of music from classical, and religious or church music, to probably every type of "pop" music including show tunes from Broadway musicals, movie themes and occasionally listened to some jazz. I remember the "big band" music of the forties and early 50s and enjoyed attending Glenn Miller Band show in Tallahassee (yes, that band has musicians from my age to to the early 20's and they play the old "standards" that all early "rock'n'rollers" learned and eventually probably partially incorporated some "licks" in their early rock & roll songs. Those early rock songs had roots in country, the blues, even classical orchestra music, and every other possible genre, including islands, native American chants, african – any type of music could end up incorporated into the various and varied styles of "rock n' roll". It's not that much of a stretch to say that The Beatles could probably be classified or categorized as the original "prog" band because they took those American blues songs, the show tunes, dabs of American country/western, and what some of their peers in Liverpool, London, and Hamburg were doing and built a repertoire of over 1,000 songs as a base from which they then began composing their own original ballads and "hard" rock'n'roll music. They "processed" those riffs, rythmns, and harmonies and "progressed" from a form of "copycating" to composing originals with different tempos, adding more sophisticated nuances and over a short span of 10 years completely changed the genre of popular music, with George Martin encouraging and facilitating the incorporation of any instrument or sound they could imagine, using innovations in the studio like multi-tracking, slowing down or speeding up segments, recording and reversing tapes of guitars, utilizing unique instrument such as George's sitar – he and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had been experimenting with sitars and George subsequently befriended and learned from & played with Ravi Shankar, thus opening the genre of rock to virtually any instrument in the world. They were "progressive" even before thy added psychedelic into the mix! Remeber that as a group, the Beatles hadn't become a worldwide phenomenon until coming to the USA in 1964. They toured Japan in 1996, becoming the first Western rock band to perform in the country. The Beatles toured Germany, Japan and the Philippines between 24 June and 4 July 1966. The thirteen concerts comprised the first stage of a world tour that ended with the band's final tour of the United States, in August 1966. The Beatles officially broke up in April of 1970. Since Ringo was actually the oldest (born July 7, 1940), none of the Beatles had yet turned 30 years old! For the reason why, I suggest the following link: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/11/entertainment/paul-mccartney-john-lennon-beatles-split-scli-intl/index.html
While I have never heard them referred to as "progressive", their compositions and performances have inflenced generations for at least the past 60 years. If that's not "progressive" I don't know what is.
@psychicdriver4229
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Absolutely is prog. People who say that floyd is not
Prog have only listened to a quarter of their catalog
@morismateljan6458
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I think that Rolling Stone journalist is mixing up prog rock with one of its subgenres, symphonic rock.
If we need to put them in a tidy compartment: Pink Floyd were, for the most part "space rock", just like Hawkwind, even if those two bands were quite different.
I've always felt Gong were exploring more or less similar sonic textures (before they went fusion), even if they were filed under "Canterbury scene".
Also, one just needs to look at the circle of PF's "extended family" of collaborators, associates and protégés: Robert Wyatt, Kate Bush…that's a prog rock circle.
@leproghead
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Prog as Hell.
@Ballardian
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Sigh… Why do we even need these labels? They do nothing to aid the creation or appreciation of music. Why do we have to stick things in boxes. The term prog rock is particularly useless as is doesn't really denote any musical similarities between the varied bands (not in the way 'jazz' or 'blues' does) they're too diverse.
@dylanolson4600
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
If Pink Floyd isn’t “prog”, then they’re better than prog
@michaelsterckx4120
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
I don't really care. I came to Floyd before Genesis, and if I saw the groups as colours, Genesis would be painted in vivid tones, and Floyd had an almost blue and grey business visual audio image sometimes.
@sixbladeknife44
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Conceptual art rock w/ psych leanings and proggy and poppy/jazzy at times also…atmospheric was also an apt description. The need for some to box and categorize is mostly useless, great music is great music and doesn’t require tags.
@michelwilms6607
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Psychedelic atmosferic rock. For sure Floyd have some prog in their songs, but i can't say it's a fully progband. Progrock for me are: Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson and Camel. Virtuoso music with a lot of changes in one song.
@edwardwright2989
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Space rock. Not too technical on the playing but production and concepts of the albums were a little deeper than typical rock.
@Doc_Tar
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Seems to me they gave themselves over to prog in their formative years then tamed it to a highly successful commercial product that gave them a global audience.
@TheD4VR0S
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Ive heard Pink Floyd described as Lean Prog
Edit: you heard it too
Comments are closed.