8.11.14

Scandinavian Prog Rock Over The Years

By Christa Jarvis


Progressive rock has been one of the most popular genres of rock over the years of music. This sub genre of music was known to have stemmed out from the United Kingdom and spread to countries near that area. Scandinavian prog rock is known to be one of the best in this sub genre and is also known to have a very interesting history.

Now progressive music is something that stemmed out from a combination of a lot of genres that melted into one rather complicated style. Now the reason as to why it is labeled complicated is simply because there are often a lot of sudden changes in tempo and beat. Because of these sudden changes, listeners would often be given a variety of sounds to listen to in just one song which can be quite appealing.

Of course this genre became a big hit in the region of Scandinavia which can be located somewhere in the European region. Now the main countries that would make up this region would be Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Now some of the secondary countries in this region would also include Iceland, Holland, and of course Finland.

The country that was really one of the pioneers of this sub genre was none other than Denmark. Danish progressive became quite famous in the late sixties because of bands like Steppeulvene, Alrune Rod, Ache, Blue sun, and many more. Of course they would sing their songs in their native language which is Dutch which made their music even more authentic.

One of the very big bands in this music scene was of course the Dutch band Burnin Red Ivanhoe which became popular sometime in 1969. Now they had a rather unique sound in which they combined many genres like rock, jazz, and even rhythm and blues. They were also very known for their heavy use of organs and harmonicas.

Now the Swedish also had their own bands that they could be proud of. Now one thing to take note of is that prog rock did not become that popular among the Swedish unlike around the Dutch. This type of music only became extremely popular in the nineties when many artists and bands emerged from the underground.

Holland was also very known for their prog rock scene which really boomed in the start of year 2000. They combined both elements of rock and roll as well as elements from folk music too. The bands from this country made a lot of melodic songs that had very slow and then very quick tempos and disjointed rhythms.

So as one can see, the progressive scene is actually quite a big thing in the region of Scandinavia. Now one should remember that even if this type of music did originate from the United Kingdom, its influence spread to the countries beside it. Of course it was because of this spread that the genre was able to gain a lot of popularity.




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