January 13, 2026 – Is it Prog? Who Cares?

A few words before I go to bed. It seems like every prog rock or prog-related Facebook group I come across has this one question that continuously plagues all of them: Is (insert band/artist) prog? If you know what I mean, then you know how it goes. Someone asks the question, and then It’s only a matter of a few comments before it descends into fruitless arguments and then personal attacks. It’s honestly what has kept me from wanting to engage with people in these groups because the music is taken so damn seriously. It’s to an extent where it takes the joy out of listening to the music. Every song, time signature, lyric, album, and so on becomes treated like some overthought intellectual exercise rather than something we would want listen to and enjoy. The times I spent sitting in a room with friends for an album listening party were spent doing just that: listening and enjoying, and I’m sure it was like that for most of the people in these groups too. We enjoyed the music for what it was while bonding with our friends and making happy memories. I’m sure none of us spent those listening parties fighting with each other over the music or lyrics or trying to slap meaningless labels on everything. After all, that’s why musicians do what they do in the first place. To use their musical gifts to bring joy to both themselves and to others. And what’s prog without joy? I mean heck, what’s music without joy?

People are free to spend their time doing what they want, of course, but I personally don’t see the appeal or point of continuously asking this tired old question, “is it prog?” Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. Let’s pretend for a second that we all actually did decide on a consensus of what prog is (between you and me, I doubt that’s ever going to happen.) Would it change anything about the experience of the music? I’m going to guess not. I hope that in time, at least some of these debaters will look back at the lasting legacy of these bands and realize that it wasn’t worth all the time spent arguing with people on the Internet in the first place. They’ll just press Play, and enjoy.