Progressive rock’s emergence represented the moment that rock n’ roll grew up and decided it wasn’t going to merely rely on making people dance any longer. This wasn’t cool music anymore, but it sure was clever. It was book-smart and technically capable.

It wasn’t jazz, either. This was music that took you on a journey, having more in common with folk tales and fantasy games than with motorcycle gangs or music teachers dressed in turtleneck shirts.

Everything about progressive music was oversized. And against all the naysayers and prophecies, it lives, thrives, and records made during its golden era still sell in the bucketloads.

There are many important progressive bands which have been started recently. But today, we are focusing on the very best, old and new. I am talking about the bands who wrote great concept albums, who tried to turn rock into a respectable art form, and, more often than not, wore their LARPing gear on stage. I am counting down the greatest prog-rock bands of all-time.

The 100 Best Prog-Rock Bands of All-Time

1. Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd was “trippy” before it was “progressive.” At least, that’s what highly devoted fans thought of the band’s evolution. Starting out as a vehicle for architecture students to spread rock n’ roll to the outer reaches of its psychedelic potential, and led by the eccentricities of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd was the hit of underground London.

Barrett, by most accounts, sadly, went mad. It meant that The Floyd had to retreat, for a while, into free-form experimentation and reduce the number of pop moments in the vein of “See Emily Play.”

It wasn’t the dead end that everyone predicted. Due to the efforts of the early 1970s, the music world was ready for a bit more complexity. This had been just what Roger Waters had been pining for. Waters’ philosophical laments of “Dark Side of the Moon” and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” made the band, less so the band members, into a superstar group.

By the time of “The Wall,” every nuance of their music was poured over by serious critics, not like an idiot writing these words. And, even though sans Waters, things took a turn for the poppier under David Gilmour’s rule, Pink Floyd remained the great prog-rock band by which most others are judged. To think it all started with a bunch of strobe lights in a London cellar.

Deepen your Pink Floyd studies with:

• Pink Floyd Albums Ranked from Worst to Best
• Syd Barrett’s Albums Ranked from Worst to Best
• “Wish You Were Here” Reviewed and Revisited
• The Song Story and Meaning of “Comfortably Numb”

2. Yes

Yes was the band that Jon Anderson always thought that The Beatles secretly wanted to become. Of all the Spinal Tap-like cliches attributed to prog-rock bands, in general, in fact, most of them belong to Yes.

But the ambition was based on incredible musical ability from the very beginning. After a series of false starts, Yes found its audience with a series of musically adventurous albums in the 70s. How adventurous? Apparently, the bill to buy Rick Wakeman his keyboards nearly bankrupted the group.

Songs and albums kept getting longer, and for a while, the audiences kept getting larger. The cult-like obedience of fans was less dependable by the end of the 80s.

But, as was the fate of many a great prog-rock group, by the 80s, with several lineup changes under its belt, Yes emerged as a pop sensation. Reunions, feuds, and a return to making “classic prog-rock” were all relatively successful. It leaves Yes as a hard act to follow for anyone wanting to make double albums about fantasy lands using plenty of keyboards and complex guitar solos.

3. Genesis

The musicians of Genesis were always fated to make prog-rock. They were classmates from a fancy boarding school, they were highly intelligent, they dressed funny, and they were English.

Managing somehow to put all of those elements together and led by the ever-ambitious theatrics of Peter Gabriel, Genesis became an important live draw in the early 1970s. Concept albums and their stage presentation became something of a gold standard for the genre. The musicianship and storytelling of albums like “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” are serious and successful artistic statements.

Gabriel’s departure was an excuse to disguise the prog-rock elements. It was just in time. This was the 80s, and nobody got more picked on than “progressive” musicians. With Phil Collins singing, Genesis enjoyed great pop success. Yet, if you listen closely and can count uneven time signatures, you’ll still find traces of ye ole prog-rock.

4. Rush

The best prog-rock bands keep fans invested and investing over many decades. This is what Rush did for its fans, musical fanatics who, more often than not, own every single album in the band’s lengthy discography.

Rush could’ve been the Canadian Led Zeppelin if Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson had their way. But by the time Ayn Rand-loving drummer and songwriter Neil Peart joined the band, the desire was to find unparalleled excellence.

The trio did just that. Largely ignored by the critics and often savaged for their fashion sense, Rush made one classic after another during the 1970s. In an era dominated by prog-rock bands, few were more consistent and hard-working than this trio.

By the early 80s, Rush parlayed this success into radio hits and even toyed with synths and pop elements on a number of albums. They called it quits for nearly a decade before returning to monumental fan support in the 2000s. The sad passing of Neil Peart put an end to the group. But what was left behind was the kind of enormous musically progressive statement at which Rand herself would’ve blushed.

5. Dream Theater

Dream Theater was an elite kill squad of prog-rock musicians on a suicide mission. What made the chances of survival as a group so slim? By the late 80s, when Dream Theater was formed by Berklee College students, progressive rock was no longer very successful. Not even rock fans wanted to hear it, and 80s rock fans wouldn’t have tolerated anything.

However, progressive metal bands, a separate but connected strand, had shown there was potential for an audience. This was, of course, provided you could play heavy, fast, and tell a story. Queensryche and Fate’s Warning had done this very well.

Incredibly musically proficient and able to spin a yarn through song, Dream Theater became a surprise hit with the album “Images and Words.” By the 2000s, the band was practically a genre unto itself. They’ve maintained a highly loyal following to this day. And, yes, no drum, keyboard, or guitar solo has ever been long enough for the Boston band.

6. Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull didn’t start out as a progressive rock band. But then again, few of the classics did. Nah, Ian Anderson wanted a blues-rock band just like the others who were making a bit of dough in England in the late 1960s.

An interest in classical music, the fact that the musicians looked kinda funny on stage, and a nice sense of humor pushed Jethro Tull in the arms of progressive music.

Serious musicians, as they now were, Tull’s members created the muscular “Aqualung,” or the faux-concept album “Thick as a Brick.” By the late 1970s, millions had bought the band’s albums, and most confessed to not knowing what this Jethro Tull character making all this racket looked like.

The truly classic releases somewhat dried up by the end of the 1970s. But Anderson guided forward, prog-rock flag in hand. Jethro Tull continues to play to a cult following all over the world.

7. Queen

Most progressive rock bands became pop-rock bands in the 1980s once the bill started piling up. Queen’s quartet, on the other hand, saw the writing on the wall early.

Sure, most people associate Queen with similar pop hits played on the stage of Wembley Stadium. However, during the 1970s, few groups were as clever or wrote compositions that were as rich and complex as Queen. To not be included on the list of the greatest progressive rock bands would be a crime on par with letting Paul Rodgers sing “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

If anything, the sophomore release, “Queen II,” was the band’s shining musical moment. Heavy-sounding, ambitious and inspired by ancient myths and dubious fashion choices, “Queen II” hints at a future where Dungeons and Dragons players and heavy metal fans can live as one.

Commercially, Queen’s progressive era reached its zenith with “A Night at the Opera,” an album inspired by dead or dying musical forms. By the 1980s, there were fewer than 10-minute songs in live playlists. But the progressive gospel was recorded for all to hear. Freddie Mercury was prog fan from London before was a rock god.

8. King Crimson

King Crimson is the essential prog-rock unit, monks of musical complexity and, people widely believed to have never smile. But if anything, King Crimson created a market. Their debut album, “In the Court of the Crimson King,” was a monster hit. It created a demand for complex musicianship and intricate storytelling. And essentially, it broke up the initial version of the group.

Led by guitarist Robert Fripp, King Crimson continued to challenge rock fans during the 1970s. The ever more intricate and abstract material nearly always demanded that the musician sit down while playing. Fans bothered little ith this detail.

By the 2000s, when they were ready to call it a day, King Crimson had the following of a religious cult, some of its band members had formed other successful groups (like Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Asia), and the early 1970s records were held in the highest esteem.

There’s a ladder that prog-rock fans have to climb. King Crimson is most surely up at the very top, in between “really demanding” and “I give up.”

9. TOOL

An essential part of being part of a successful prog-rock band is a mistrust of your over-enthusiastic fan base. TOOL’s singer, Maynard James Keenan, has often complained about this. But how could it have been any different?

TOOL’s second and third albums, “Aenima” and “Lateralus,” made progressive rock fanatics of alt-rock and grunge kids. TOOL’ s music was mysterious, well-played, heavy and highly intricate.

The fanaticism kept TOOL in business. And, even though the group’s only been able to reconvene to make another two albums since then, its influence is colossal. Walk into any practice space and you’ll hear kids trying to master the otherworldly mood of TOOL’s music and the complex sound signatures.

10. Opeth

Scandinavians and people recovering from broken limbs spend the most amount of time indoors. The former often uses this time to create unwelcoming art that displays their virtuosity.

By the early 90s, the Northerners were fighting each other in wars of heavy metal. Opeth was among the competitors in the category of “World’s Most Evil Bands.” But growling and blast beats alone can only get you so far.

Mikael Åkerfeldt’s leadership took the band to a more complex territory, peaking in the early 2000s with albums like “Blackwater Park.” From then onward, Opeth was placed at the vanguard of a new kind of progressive rock. This version revelled in darkness and operated as comfortably with death metal elements as it did with classic rock ones.

Typical of Swedes, Opeth’s musicians remained hard-rock working and consistent. They released many other well-acclaimed albums, built a global fanbase and created their own brand of prog-rock. All of this means that to not include them would be to ignore all the work done by all of those young men and women stuck in their Swedish garages for 6-8 months of the year.

Top 11 – 20

11. Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Nowadays, they’d probably just call it a celebrity jam session. However, when Emerson, Lake and Palmer were created in 1970, blending the creative energies of three of the best-known progressive rock musicians of the day, the music press went wild.

And, even though supergroups have always had a tendency to misfire, I’d ask you to reconsider on this occasion. Early Emerson, Lake and Palmer releases included classics like “Brain Salad Surgery.” Whether galloping through extensive individual solos or singing folk-rock ditties such as “Lucky Man,” this is one of the most respected prog-rock groups.

12. Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel had acquired quite a reputation by the time that he abruptly decided to leave Genesis. So well were his music and stage costumes known that the ever-creative Gabriel opted for an entirely new musical direction. Those daring early experiments changed what prog-rock could. And, by the 1980s, Gabriel’s sounds had essentially created the modern language of MTV-approved pop.

13. Can

Early progressive rock was, more than anything, an attempt to test the boundaries of pop music. Dazzling playing was welcome, but audacious creativity was the thing most praised. Of the early prog bands, none were gutsier, smarter, or more willing to confuse audiences than Germany’s Can.

The group created, in my opinion, a number of stone-cold classics during the 1970s. And while I can understand the reasons why Can never quite become a household name, this should be no reason for you to pass on the group’s fantastically sophisticated freakouts.

14. The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta was less of a band, initially, than it was a dare. The group rose out of the ashes of the rambunctious stage-destroying unit At the Drive-in.

Like their previous post-hardcore band, Cedrix Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez worked to sow mystery into their music. Unlike their earlier music, however, The Mars Volta’s music was a complex mix of psychedelia, Latin-rock and jazz textures. It’s hard to argue against the group’s first two records, “Deloused in the Comatorium” and “Frances the Mute”, which are modern classics.

15. Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant took the idea about prog-rock being meant to be boundary pushing to heart. Few groups of the early 1970s made music that was more challenging while appealing to rock crowds.

And while the complex vocal orchestrations or the touches of Medieval music were a barrier too high for some, Gentle Giant did acquire a fanbase that still praises the group’s albums.

16. Van der Graaf Generator

I learned about Van der Graaf Generator from a friend’s father at school. I was excited when he lent me some albums. And, I admit, that the music, initially, went entirely over my head.

A prog-rock band for musicians primarily, Van der Graaf Generator were interested in sonic complexity and in bringing a stroke panache to concept album storytelling. But this is also one of the biggest cult groups of all time. And, finally, I can understand that this is for good reason.

17. Porcupine Tree

Porcupine Tree sought to be their generation’s gateway into the fantastic world of 1970s prog. In many ways, this Steven Wilson-fronted trio achieved just this.

The band’s earliest releases turned alt-rock and grunge kids into prog-rock collectors. And with so many releases to their name, Porcupine Tree have managed to keep those fans interested through the years.

18. Supertramp

I think that if you want to win an argument about music of previous decades getting successful solely on artistic merit, you ought to bring up Supertramp. The group secured a loyal global following with its gentle, Pink Floyd-inspired records, before really hitting the big time with “Breakfast in America.” Few gimmicks or fancy haircuts were ever involved. Listen back now, and I doubt that you’ll find many better progressive-rock bands.

19. Queensryche

I can hardly believe that there was a time when every single major musical genre hadn’t been blended together. Still, back when prog-metal was merely a dream in some over-excited teenagers’ brain, Queensryche saw an opening.

It wasn’t just a gimmick either. The American group married metal’s technical sophistication with Pink Floyd-like themes of detachment and ELP-like dynamics. Albums like “Operation: Mindcrime” and “Empire” are still some of the most enjoyable listens in the whole progressive-metal genre.

20. Marillion

I can understand the reasons for starting a teenage band that apes your heroes. Marillion did as well. The band’s earliest records were designed to mimic Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. But put that aside for a moment and you’ll find wonderful music. Are you done hearing “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway?” Continue here!

Even more amazing was the fact that, after losing Fish, the band’s charismatic singer, Marillion moved on, evolved and secured the loyalty of a pop-friendly prog area of the public. The group thoroughly deserves recognition and a place on this list.

Top 21 – 30

21. Magma

Progressive rock bands tend to be either loved or hated by the general public. None is, however, quite as divisive as French experimentalists Magma.

The band’s compositions didn’t begin on guitar or piano. No, they were led by drumming virtuoso Christian Vander. The great muso created a mythology for Magma, a secret language (Kobaïan), and a significant body of work.

Magma was always fated to be a cult act rather than a platinum-selling group. But what’s more prog than that?

22. Procol Harum

There aren’t many bands that get to have a generational hit and are also an art-rock institution on the side. However, with both the gorgeous “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and a discography spanning five decades, that’s what Procol Harum has achieved.

Known for musical proficiency, a love of poetry, and for being one of the first rock groups to incorporate an orchestra within the live setup, Procol Harum is one of prog-rock’s greatest bands.

23. King’s X

Most bands on this list never sought to gain commercial acceptance. For some, it happened, and it was a shock. For King’s X, things never worked out this way, which has, in fact, been the surprise.

That’s because King’s X were well-positioned to be Rush for the 90’s alt-rock scene. A power trio capable of great playing and able to summon proper grit into its compositions, King’s X, finally, deserves this recognition. This is one of the greatest prog-rock bands.

24. Soft Machine

You can’t do that now, I’m pretty sure! The mid 1960s in Britain were wild, experimental times. And the characters who got on stage to play music are nothing like the industry-approved musicians of today.

Like Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, Soft Machine were led by young men desperate to test the limits of rock n’ roll. Soft Machine’s musicians were better read than most, more adventurous, and, for the most part, harder to understand. Soft Machine’s musicians are art-rock heroes!

25. Hawkwind

It’s a long and strange trip that Hawkwind has been on. And, yes, to be fair, on occasion, it’s the stories about the band members that have been even more remarkable than the music.

However, this space rock outfit deserves a mention on our list for the sheer enthusiasm with which Dave Brock and his crew of Sci-Fi nerds turned rock stars have approached the band’s music.

Read more:

• Hawkwind: Psychedelic-rock pioneers or acid victims?

26. Gong

When most groups of the 1960s were still playing three-minute pop and blues songs about cars and girls, Gong got rid of all those conventions. Formed by Daevid Allen, former guitarist for Soft Machine, Gong pioneered lengthy on-stage improvisations, absurdist humour, and writing songs about aliens.

Gong was also a launching pad for the careers of several musical luminaries, including Steve Hillage and Allan Holdsworth. Never becoming a platinum-selling band, Gong is, regardless, one of space-rock’s greatest institutions.

27. Transatlantic

Ever watch one of those soccer games where the world’s best players, albeit slightly past their youth, play a match? That’s what Transatlantic is to progressive rock.

The group, first, earned notoriety by including Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy along with former members of Spock’s Beard, Flower Kings and Marillion.

However, it’s been the critical reception of their few studio albums, and, especially, interest in their live shows that makes Transatlantic one of the best bands to adopt the progressive-rock banner.

28. Wishbone Ash

Throughout the 1970s, Wishbone Ash was one of the best and most driving guitar-driven bands. It’s sound prioritised hard-rock guitar riffs, the work of Andy Powell. However, the British group was always more forward-thinking than its contemporaries, embracing similar principles.

Perhaps it is this that has, strangely, decreased the band’s fame since its Golden Era. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that Wishbone Ash is one of the top hard-rocking progressive bands!

29. Styx

Yes, yes, I know. You’re humming “Mr Roboto” right now and asking if I’ve lost my mind.

And while I don’t make a habit of defending Styx, this time I feel I have to. Like Kansas, Styx was an American band obsessed with British progressive rock. They built their version of it. Their music was theatrical, ambitious, and well-played. And, when it started to get good, Styx became a soft rock band. The end!

30. Be Bob Deluxe

Be Bob Deluxe is another band that chose sophistication over commercial palatability. And it’s a few, but dedicated fans of their 1970s output are happy things worked out this way.

Guitarist Bill Nelson, on the other hand, made a difficult decision in this regard. Albums like “Sunburnt Finish” and “Axe Victim” are great representations of his talent.

Nearly pop in its sonic palette, but a little too clever for mass appeal, Be Bob Deluxe are prog-rock heroes you may not have considered for this position in a long time, but for which you might need to make a change.

Top 31 – 40

31. Return to Forever

32. Aprodite’s Child

33. UK

34. Spock’s Beard

35. Focus

36. Utopia

37. Camel

38. Mastodon

39. Steven Wilson (solo)

40. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

Top 41 – 50

41. Uriah Heep

42. Mike Oldfield

43. Caravan

44. Therion

45. The Flower Kings

46. Electric Light Orchestra

47. Asia

48. Kansas

49. Gojira

50. Devin Townsend

Top 51 – 60

51. Fates Warning

52. Between the Buried and Me

53. Messhugah

54. Karnivool

55. The Pretty Things

56. Baroness

57. Premiata Forneria Marconi

58. Tangerine Dream

59. Enslaved

60. The Alan Parsons Project

Top 61 – 70

61. Nektar

62. The Pineapple Thief

63. The Moody Blues

64. Animals As Leaders

65. Crack the Sky

66. Symphony X

67. Coheed and Cambria

68. Haken

69. Periphery

70. Sky

Top 71 – 80

71. Dragon

72. Omega

73. Renaissance

74. Leprous

75. Riverside

76. Katatonia

77. TesseracT

78. VOLA

79. Pavlov’s Dog

80. Caligula’s Horse

Top 81 – 90

81. Obscura

82. The Contortionist

83. Curved Air

84. Ayreon

85.Strawbs

86. Liquid Tension Experiment

87. The Ocean

88. Barclay James Harvest

89. Arena

90. Fish

Top 91 – 100

91. Family

92. Klaatu

93. IQ

94. Textures

95. Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

96. Delivery

97. Wheel

98. Seventh Wonder

99. Greenslade

100. Audience