Pink Floyd and Krautrockers shifted the meaning and sounds and meaning of progressive rock by reconciling the genre with more traditional rock music while at the same time moving further away as a genre. Pink Floyd was not unlike other contemporary progressive rock bands when they were playing songs and instrumentals such as Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun and Interstellar Overdrive, respectively. Yet their album “Dark Side of the Moon” was a marked departure in some ways from these tracks. By combining the passion they had for electronics, instrumentals, and space rock with rock, blues and jazz and then infusing them with conceptual lyrics about the modern world, they were able to strike a perfect harmony between progressive and more popular music. The thing that made “Dark Side of the Moon” so successful was the fact that it reflected the feelings of so many people who listened to tracks like Money, Time and Us and Them. These were people that may have become disenchanted with the modern world and their own prospects within it and not only heard their own sentiments within the songs but were uplifted by the songs.
Personally, I felt that the strength of the album came from the fact that so many of the songs just sound amazing and could easily stand alone as beautiful songs without lyrics. Of course with lyrics it makes them that much better. Nevertheless, I think it makes the songs that much more special that the lyrics were able to add to and not take away from or merely be there for the sake of being lyrics. The fact that the lyrics contribute so well to the already great music that is present is another reason “Dark Side of the Moon” has been a hit for so long. I also think that this album really helped shift the direction of progressive rock from a symphonic genre that relied heavily on musical skill to one where that skill was present but where songs could be presented in ways that were more “popular” in nature.
Krautrockers too, ventured in a similar direction as Pink Floyd, although admittedly they continued to expand the horizons of earlier progressive rock groups in some regards. According to Ken Hollings, Krautrock tends to be a reflection of German fascination with (and fear of) the future, with electronic sounds a reflecting the cosmos, the space race and the cold war. This created eclectic soundscapes, and fast-paced electronic music that was more of a reflection of more symphonic progressive music. Yet after listening to some Krautrock selections, such as The Velvet Cell by Gravenhurst, and Tribulations by LCD Soundsystem, I found that these groups were also capable of creating music that would be more popular. This was accomplished, not unlike Pink Floyd, by combining the groups’ skills in engineering and playing with more rock influences. This enabled the groups to sound like rock bands while displaying their affinity for their equipment and their incredible musical imaginations.
In taking their music to new heights while getting in touch with their musical roots and attempting to make more reflections on the modern world Pink Floyd and Krautrock bands were able to find a balance between where their music had come from and where it was going. This resulted in a combination of progressive and the popular that had not before been present in progressive rock and moved it away from merely a symphonic genre to one that was capable of taking the audience to new worlds while giving them something more familiar musically. This genre was also able to allow for the writing of truly great, meaningful songs that reflected the concerns the period.
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