Editing Program music (section)

==Popular music as program music==
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The term "program music" is not generally used with regard to [[popular music]], although some popular music does have aspects in common with program music. The tradition of purely orchestral program music is continued in pieces for [[jazz orchestra]], most notably several pieces by [[Duke Ellington]]. Instrumental pieces in popular music often have a descriptive title which suggests that they could be categorized as program music, and several instrumental albums are completely devoted to some programmatic idea (for example, ''[[China (Vangelis album)|China]]'' by [[Vangelis]] or ''[[The Songs of Distant Earth (album)|The Songs of Distant Earth]]'' by [[Mike Oldfield]]). Some of the genres of popular music are more likely than others to involve programmatic elements; these include [[Ambient music|ambient]], [[New-age music|new-age]], [[space music]], [[surf rock]], [[black metal]], [[jazz fusion]], [[progressive rock]], [[art rock]] and various genres of [[techno]] music. Bluegrass has at least one outstanding bit of program music called ''Orange Blossom Special''. 

Progressive rock groups and musicians during the 1970s in particular experimented with program music, among which was [[Rush (band)|Rush's]] "[[Jacob's Ladder (Rush song)|Jacob's Ladder]]" (1980), which shows clear influences of [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana's]] ''[[Má vlast]]'' ("My Homeland") (1874–1879). In addition, Rush's songs "[[Xanadu (Rush song)|Xanadu]]", "La Villa Strangiato" "Red Barchetta", and "YYZ" also show their experimentalism with program music, as do parts of "[[2112 (song)|2112]]", particularly the discovery scene.