Official Progressive Album Chart Launched

Progressive music is to gain official endorsement for the first time, with the launch of the UK’s first Official Progressive Albums Chart.

The new, regular monthly Official Progressive Albums Chart is being launched as a partnership between the Official Charts Company and Prog Magazine - founders of the Orange Amplification presents the Progressive Music Awards in association with currencies.co.uk, which take place on September 3, at the Underglobe at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

From 9th September, Prog Magazine will publish the Official Progressive Albums Chart – a Top 30 of the biggest progressive albums over the previous month - in each of its monthly issues. The chart will also be published monthly on OfficialCharts.com.

Showcasing a range of artists - from Pink Floyd and Genesis, through to the modern purveyors of prog such as Muse and Public Service Broadcasting - this contemporary chart will act as a definitive monthly list of the UK’s most popular prog albums.

Artists such as Pink Floyd and Genesis are some of the best-selling and most acclaimed of all time. Radiohead and Muse continue to innovate their sound and are two of the most commercially and critically acclaimed artist of a generation, and the ‘new breed’ such as Steven Wilson, who plays a sold out Royal Albert Hall at the end of September, is one of today’s most sought after producers and remixers, and the likes of Tame Impala and Public Service Broadcasting are challenging the musical perceptions of a new generation and finding great success in doing so. With the Official Progressive Albums Chart, the prog genre is finally being recognised and given the credit it deserves as more than just an archaic 1970s phenomenon!

An extensive list of albums eligible for the chart have been defined by the progressive rock experts at Prog Magazine, the UK’s only magazine dedicated to progressive music. This list will be refined by new releases every month, with the biggest selling titles ranked on physical and digital sales and audio streaming data (from services such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Google Play and more), collected by the Official Charts Company. The ever evolving list will identify the artists and albums that push the conceptions and boundaries of ‘traditional music’.

With the first ever chart published in the September edition of the magazine, on sale 9 September, Tame Impala are the first ever Number 1 with their album Currents.

Jerry Ewing, editor of Prog Magazine, says, “Prog artists have always pushed the boundaries of musical convention, and by doing so, many have gone on to be some of the best-selling and most influential artists of all time, but prog didn’t stop in the 1970s, there are many people out there who are into prog artists and just don’t seem to know it!

“You look at some of the best-selling and acclaimed artists of the modern era like Muse, Radiohead, Mogwai, Tame Impala - what they do is incredible, they are challenging themselves, their audience and inspiring a new generation, and the Official Progressive Albums Chart is the platform in which this will be recognised.”

“We’re delighted to be working with the Official Charts Company and that the voice of the UK’s best-selling music have given prog the platform it so deserves.”

Martin Talbot, Chief Executive of the Official Charts Company, says, “We are delighted to be working with the progressive music experts at Prog Magazine to create this exciting new chart – and look forward to giving the most inventive artists working today a new showcase of their own, every month.”

To celebrate the launch of the new chart, the Official Charts Company have also compiled a list of the biggest selling Prog artists of the 21^st Century. An all-British Top 4, Muse take the top spot with 4.4 million album sales, just beating Pink Floyd who have sold 3.8 million albums, with Radiohead in third and Kate Bush (the biggest selling prog female) in fourth. In total, six acts have sold more than 1 million progressive music albums this Millennium, with the 30 biggest artists selling over 24 million progressive music albums between them.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.