Beyond the Decades follows progressive rock forward from 1980: the neo-progressive revival, what came after it, and the long argument about whether a genre defined by progressing can have a revival at all. It will be the modern progressive rock book of the series.

It is the fifth and last volume of Beyond the Sound, a five-part series that gives each 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

Three strands run through it: neo-progressive rock in the 1980s, the post-rock and post-progressive music that came after, and the long electronic afterlife of the German scene.

That last strand is a promise the series has already made in print. Beyond the Rhine ends by pointing here: the line that runs from a tape loop in a Cologne studio in 1968 to a club in Detroit in 1988 is one of the strangest in modern music, and this is the volume where it is traced to the end.

Start with the bands now

The book is still being written, but the scenes it follows already have their guides on this site, with every album in order.

For everything else, start from the neo-progressive rock scene guide or the modern 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.