Top 10 Elements of Progressive Music
I am familiar with progressive rock and metal music but this list is not limited to them. If you can give examples from other music genres, it would be great.Progressive rock music is more classically influenced than your typical, blues-based rock music.
Metal music is classically influenced by default, but this is more obvious in progressive subgenres. I don't mean only prog metal but also other subgenres with significant prog elements: symphonic metal, prog power metal, prog death metal, and more or less all subgenres with "technical" in the title (technical thrash, technical death metal, and so on). Technical virtuosity is also part of the "progressive" definition.
I want to add that many metal songs don't even have choruses and they reach the complexity limit of the progressive song structure. Have you noticed that some of the most iconic metal songs are without any chorus? Examples include Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden), Holy Wars... The Punishment Due (Megadeth), Ghost of Perdition (Opeth), and Phantom of the Opera (Iron Maiden).
You can see more songs of this type on my list: Top 10 Metal Songs Without a Chorus.
An ordinary rock song usually goes "verse-chorus, verse-chorus, verse-chorus, end," and the listener knows what to expect after the first "verse-chorus" cycle (same music repeated with different lyrics).
But a prog piece is less repetitive and may have bridges, pre-bridges, pre-choruses, etc. So the cycle is extended, and there are more musical ideas and melodies that are not repeated as often as in an ordinary song.
Most prog musicians could be considered virtuosos in their fields.
Operatic vocals, outstanding vocal skills.
Ordinary rock and metal bands usually don't have piano, keyboards, strings, flute, etc. But progressive rock and metal bands use these instruments to set up the "progressive" sound.
Metal fans enjoy pieces longer than 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes. This is a very typical element, but I put it at #6 because I think some other elements are actually more important.
For example, there are songs shorter than 7-9 minutes, but they are still progressive. This is possible because these songs may have most of the other progressive elements that I put higher.
Many people associate prog music only with this characteristic, but this isn't correct because it's too narrow an understanding.
Prog bands use odd time signatures because they make a song sound different. Often, such songs are more difficult to play. Odd time signatures, such as 5/4, 6/4, 7/8, 9/8, 13/8, and 23/16, are common.
The default time signature for metal is 4/4 (i.e., march), so anything different from 4/4 is odd in metal. Sometimes odd time signatures appear because some prog bands include folk tunes from all over the world, and these folk tunes come with odd time signatures. An example is Blind Guardian.
No, I don't mean folk metal - it isn't progressive!
But Blind Guardian are progressive. They incorporated folk tunes in some of their songs without becoming folk metal (Nightfall, Mirror Mirror). A good example from rock music is Jethro Tull.
Prog bands tend to make concept albums, but this is not absolutely necessary.
Hypothetically, even non-progressive rock artists may have some heightened lyrical content, but it isn't typical.
The Dance of Eternity (Dream Theater) has 108 time signature changes! Of course, this is extreme. Usually, there aren't so many changes, but you get the idea.