Are there any musical movements that lack a name? Here’s two I wish had a genre designation so they’d be easier to discuss:
–Indie rock that bears a strong prog influence. I’m thinking stuff like Joanna Newsom, the Decembrists, Fiery Furnaces, etc. I have heard the term “neo-prog” but it tends to be used for metal bands or technically precise bands like Dream Theater.
–The “artier” side of singer-songwriter music. Think Tori Amos and Regina Spektor.
Progressive folk?
Well, it definitely wouldn’t cover Fiery Furnaces, whose style is more noise rock with jazz and folk influences.
And The Decemberists are a little too rocky to fall under folk comfortably.
This definitely is a tricky genre to name. It seems to unified by approach and mindset more than musical style.
There’s a group of us who have been calling that “ecto” music, for lack of a specific official name, since the early '90’s. It would also include artists such as Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes, Jane Siberry, early Sarah McLachlan, Bel Canto, Milla’s album The Divine Comedy, Jeff Buckley, much of Peter Gabriel’s output, among others. It didn’t catch on with anyone else but it worked/works for us to dscribe the generally indescribable. I’m on my Touch so I can’t put in a proper link, but it’s mentioned at http://ectoguide.org (I hope that’s right, I can’t check right now).