10 Bands That Mixed Different Music Genres

Progressive music has always been about pushing the boundaries of what rock and roll could do. From the sounds of Deep Purple bringing classical influences into rock and roll to Pink Floyd and Genesis expanding the songs to different rock and roll symphonies, this was where the music could breathe a little bit more and find something a lot more meaningful than your traditional three minute pop song. Even in the circles of prog though, there's a good chance that Rush could have been too progressive for their time.

Though the origins of the band may have started in the blues tinged sounds of acts like Cream, hearing them spread their wings on something like 2112 was unheard of, telling long narratives over different sides of a record and weaving through different time signatures without a care in the world. Even when their sound became more mainstream around the turn of the '80s with Tom Sawyer, they were still looking to up their game slightly, bringing the keyboards in more prominently and getting almost jazzy on albums like Hold Your Fire.

Once they had finished with that version of themselves once the '80s ended, their next era saw them getting back to a more raw form of rock and roll, separate from the blues but still rooted in the same prog ideals, whether that meant stretching songs out into a jam or putting different sequences together to fit under one roof. Most bands will be lucky to have one decent run of records, but Rush is one of the few that seemed to have different phases of their career to choose from.