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Prog Rock

From Bohemian Rhapsody to Greta van Fleet

Shefali O'Hara
3 min readJul 1, 2024
Rush: source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_%28band%29

I was born in the generation after the Boomers. I guess that makes me a Gen X. I missed the heydey of some classic rock bands, but Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust came out in 1980, when I was on the cusp of becoming a teenager.

It was the first time I’d heard Queen and I fell in love with the band.

Of course, I liked a wide range of music, including artists like Madonna that I haven’t listened to in decades. However, I still love Abba, Fleetwood Mac, and several others that are artists that are definitely pop or pop rock.

I also think that Dire Straits might skirt the prog rock line, particularly thanks to two of my favorite songs — Telegraph Road and Brothers in Arms. Telegraph Road is 14 minutes long, complex, and pushes boundaries; Brothers in Arms combines elements of American country music with British prog rock.

Most of their music would not be classified as prog rock, not that I care — they are still one of my favorite bands decades after I first heard them.

As I went through high school and college, I found myself being increasingly attracted to prog rock groups such as Yes (which a friend of mine and I used to listen to under the blue lights in her basement), Pink Floyd, Rush, Supertramp, The Moody Blues, Emerson, Lake…

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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