Progressive rock reached America later than it reached Britain, Italy or Germany, sold there in far larger quantities, and was received very differently by the people who wrote about it. Beyond the Atlantic will be the American progressive rock book: Kansas, Styx, Rush across the northern border, and eventually Dream Theater.

It is the fourth volume of Beyond the Sound, a five-part series that gives each national scene of progressive rock a book of its own. Like the others, it will stand entirely on its own.

What the book sets out to do

The American scene is the one most often dismissed, and the book starts from the view that the dismissal deserves examination. Its story is about a genre arriving in a market organised around radio and arenas rather than around albums and art schools — and about what survives that transition, and what does not.

Start with the bands now

The book is still being written, but the four bands the series has already named for it have full guides on this site, with every album in order.

For every band in the archive, start from the American progressive rock scene guide.

The rest of the series

Beyond the Sound follows progressive rock from scene to scene. Each volume stands on its own.

Or see the whole series together.