Official Charts and Prog Magazine join forces to launch the Official Prog Albums Chart

Find out who's Number 1 on the first ever chart, plus the biggest prog sellers of the Millennium.

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Please give a warm welcome to our brand new chart: the Official Progressive Albums Chart!

The new, regular monthly chart is being launched as a partnership between The Official Charts Company and Prog Magazine and coincides with the Orange Amplification presents the Progressive Music Awards in association with currencies.co.uk, which take place on September 3. 

>View the latest Official Progressive Albums Chart here

From September 9, 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 here on OfficialCharts.com.


Above: The cover of Prog Magazine's new issue 

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; giving the genre new recognition and 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 this month's edition of the magazine (on sale September 9), we can reveal that Tame Impala are the first ever Number 1 with their album Currents. See the full Top 10 below: 

1 CURRENTS TAME IMPALA
2 DRONES MUSE
3 AMUSED TO DEATH ROGER WATERS
4 SHOCKWAVE SUPERNOVA JOE SATRIANI
5 THE RACE FOR SPACE PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
6 SOL INVICTUS FAITH NO MORE
7 UNDERWORLD SYMPHONY X
8 THE ENDLESS RIVER PINK FLOYD
9 STUPID THINGS THAT MEAN THE WORLD TIM BOWNESS
10 ENDLESS FORMS MOST BEAUTIFUL NIGHTWISH

©2015 Official Charts Company . All rights reserved.

Jerry Ewing, editor of Prog Magazine, said: "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, added: “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, we've also compiled a list of the biggest selling Prog artists of the 21st Century. 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.

The Official Top 30 Progressive Artists of the 21st Century

  ARTIST BIGGEST SELLING ALBUM
1 MUSE BLACK HOLES & REVELATIONS
2 PINK FLOYD THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
3 RADIOHEAD OK COMPUTER
4 KATE BUSH AERIAL
5 JEFF WAYNE THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
6 AIR MOON SAFARI
7 SIGUR ROS TAKK
8 MIKE OLDFIELD TUBULAR BELLS
9 GENESIS SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND
10 FLAMING LIPS YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS
11 RUSH 2112
12 YES CLOSE TO THE EDGE
13 ELO OUT OF THE BLUE
14 JETHRO TULL AQUALUNG
15 JOHN MARTYN SOLID AIR
16 PETER GABRIEL SO
17 ROXY MUSIC AVALON
18 KRAFTWERK THE MAN-MACHINE
19 MOODY BLUES ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM
20 DAVID GILMOUR ON AN ISLAND
21 DREAM THEATER IMAGES AND WORDS
22 FAIRPORT CONVENTION LIEGE & LIEF
23 TOOL LATERALUS
24 SUPERTRAMP BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
25 MOGWAI HAPPY SONGS FOR HAPPY PEOPLE
26 SPIRITUALIZED LET IT COME DOWN
27 WITHIN TEMPTATION THE HEART OF EVERYTHING
28 BRIAN ENO AMBIENT 1 - MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS
29 NIGHTWISH ONCE
30 MARILLION MISPLACED CHILDHOOD

©2015 Official Charts Company . All rights reserved.

Note: Chart shows the biggest artists, based on sales of their progressive albums from Jan 2000 to June 2015 inclusive. Each artist’s biggest selling progressive album of the Millennium is stated.

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OldHoneyman

0

It was all going so (reasonably) well until I reached Avalon. Couldn't actually read the rest for laughing...

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JohnEPatrick

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The problem with any chart based on musical genre is the pedants will have a field day arguing over what should and shouldn't be included in the category. Always has happened always will. What one person considers to be Rock another does not and the same goes for Prog Rock and any other music genre. Not worth losing any sleep over though or arguing one way or another.

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BrendaKilgour

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I find it hard to believe that not a single Emerson Lake & Palmer album has sold enough to make this chart. And yes, Air have very little to do with prog, nor does the smoochy adult contemporary of Avalon. Very odd selections.

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Lars Van Moer

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Surprising to see that Spock's Beard are not in this week's top 10, as they are in the general album charts in various countries at this very moment with their new album "The Oblivion Particle" . Let us hope the revered Polish progmetal band Riverside makes this list soon with their upcoming new album. Later on, it would be nice to see the likes of Haken, Anathema, Pendragon, It Bites and Lonely Robot (all from the U.K.) or - who knows - my fellow Belgians of Fish on Friday.

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Scratchy7929

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Which genre area is more accurately represented though.The increasing more dubious Indie chart or this new prog(ish) chart.

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Official Charts

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Hi Scratchy7929, just to clarify, the 'indie' chart is short for the Independent Chart, i.e best selling singles/albums released via independent labels, so covers a range of genres.

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Scratchy7929

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That is a very deceitful reply OC.As many people know many 'so called' Indie labels are in fact Major label subsidiary labels.I could expand on other issues that cloud the issue of whether artists are truely Indie or not.That should not be discussed in a Prog chart comment section, however.

Glad to see you have made the decision to make a 'commercial' partnership with Prog magazine to show this chart.It brings a sometimes dismissed alternative area of music to a wider public at least.

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Tony Bianchi

1

I agree that Kraftwerk can't be called prog beyond the very early albums. Tangerine Dream yes - depending on the album. Roxy were never prog. Muse do have prog elements as do Tool, Faith No More, The Flaming Lips (on certain albums), Sigur Ros, Mogwai and Nightwish. Kate Bush is somewhat debatable and would also be album specific (Aerial would qualify but only half of Hounds Of Love would) - you'd have to include Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Florence and The Machine, Marina and The Diamonds and countless others if you had her. I'd call her alternative pop myself and i'm a big fan. Tame Impala aren't really prog by any stretch. Their last single sounded like George Michael! Air are lounge music / electronica.

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Trannøn Gøble

1

Muse #1? Over DSOTM? Hahahahahahaha. I love Muse, but really ... let's be real.

DH

David Heaton

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I think you'll find it's down to sales. Muse have sold more than Pink Floyd in the 21st Century. The albums mentioned are their biggest sellers, but the artists chart includes all albums by that band.

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Geoff Robbins

1

But they're not even a prog band, they're a rock band.

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Geoff Robbins

4

You cannot be serious.

Sorry, Muse are a rock band, not a prog band. Roxy Music? Art Rock. Avalon was more soft rock than anything else.

Nightwish, great rock band, or at least they were until their superb opera trained singer left and they replaced her with a singer from an Abba tribute band.

Radiohead and Air? No.

ELO had left prog behind by the time they released Out of the Blue. That album was more a Beatles tribute than prog rock.

Kraftwerk are electronic

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Garry Bangs

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With you on this geoff