Prog was never supposed to be for the masses, perish the thought!
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Why did prog rock never have mass popularity?
- Thread starter MidnightRunner
- Start date
Hmm, Rush did Swords and Sorcery AND stuff about space probes so now I'm very confused. To me if there's an associated role playing meme (D&D, Traveller) it's prog. Although I don't remember many role playing games about child poets, so now I don't know how to classify Jethro Tull, nor one about being a bridge in Newcastle.
So, I guess we're ruling out any of John Cage's work???Sort of like Classical and Jazz, isn't it?
Most people don't really listen to the music and if it gets complicated, they opt out.
It doesn't fit into "It's easy to dance to, Dick, I'd give it a 7." mold.
Grunge didn't kill it, I'm pretty sure Hair Metal immolated from all that hair spray.
(<<< sheepishly admits to enjoying some Go-Gos from time to time.)
That's a great point. "Grunge" was extremely popular, the mainstream at one point, and while some of those bands managed to extend their lifespans way beyond the first few years of the subgenre's heyday due to being critically as well as commercially successful, or changing their sound a bit, they also managed to blend in with the next pop/rock music phase (until breaking up or losing members to death!).
The next phase in pop music, I think, was a more inclusive one in which pop, rock, metal, R & B, funk, electronica, and hip-hop all seemed to co-exist, and even that 70s subgenre of glam rock made an appearance.
So, if we're going by # of years, Prog Rock had a heyday that was just as long as other sub-genres.
Moving Pictures was a quite accessible material to a wider audience. But Hemispheres on the other hand...
devnulljp
Supporting Member
And as that happened, a whole new neo-prog thing happened, at least in the UK. It didn't last long, but some of those bands are still going. Marillion was the big one that broke away and had mainstream success, but there was Twelfth Night, Pendragon, The Enid, IQ, Pallas. If you like classic prog and haven't heard those, have a listen you might like them. Last I looked, Twelfth Night are still going as are IQ.
Post-punk, prog was always a bit of an anorak throwback I suppose. Introspective earnest young (mostly) men. Some great music though, and neo prog was much more working class than the public school/art school rugby jersey vibe of your Genesis era. Less fairies and elves, more songs about terrorist bombings in Northern Ireland, unemployment, war, serial killers (they jut put a nasty one away in the UK in the early 80s), and as a nod to the rise of neoliberalism at the time, Orwell.
I was at the Reading Festival in 1983, and the lineup had a lot of prog bands. Marillion headlined one of the nights.
That wasn't one of my reasons.
1. the mathematical exactness expresses too much scientific cred.
2. although I might say this (as I've certainly quoted the 80-20% rule), it feels arrogant, so I want to add a little obvious error (humility) into the expression.
3. I feel that people who say this kind of thing (me included along with another 80% of the population) need an escape route so that we don't have to acknowledge the facts (which bucket we actually fit into).
4. I've heard it said that engineers (certainly smart and thoughtful) are the most gullible to financial fraud because they believe they know everything, or can know everything with a minimal effort (e.g. don't know their limits). So the ability to think is often limited to certain realms.
I hadn't articulated all that to myself when posting, but I think that's the gist of it.
Too technical to dance to. Hence the young ladies have no interest, no patience for it. No young ladies, then less bar booze is sold. Thats it in a nutshell folks.
I think with Floyd, the reality is that space rock/psychedelia and Prog are super super close genres. Pepper is a great example as it tends to be categorized as psychedelic rock.
Those genres aren’t different factually in many regards. Psychedelic drugs were supposed to be mind expanding. Psychedelic music therefore is best categorized as music that is mind expanding and/or is music best enjoyed while on psychedelics.
Prog is often mind expanding and a lot of people listen to it while blasted out of their gourds.
l’d argue the main factual delimiters are playing ability. But one could argue that era is also important.
Regardless, while I’ll agree that Pepper could be categorized as prog, it isn’t by the majority of listeners.
Personally, I feel like even stuff like Echoes, is more psychedelia than prog. Factually speaking, Floyd came out of the psychedelic movement. They did not form with the intent of making progressive music, in terms of like, you know, actual musical complexity. Unlike say Crimson, or Yes, or ELP, who all did.
Floyd imo is a psychedelic band that matured their production and synth programming abilities to a point where their music didn’t sound like psychedelic music anymore. Unlike many other proponents of the genre, they didn’t partake themselves, and were able to create professional sounding music.
As is, I don’t really think many sounds used by Floyd in DSoTM are that novel. They didn’t really think outside of the box as much as they kinda just used the same period gear, like synths, that their contemporaries did. But unlike their contemporaries their lack of virtuosity forced them to use those synths for atmosphere and texture, instead of playing like actual notes in the way Emerson did.
But yeah. I think they’re factually more of a psychedelic band that grew up, and was lumped in with a similar sounding genre by a mistake of categorization.
I never understood or appreciated the need to fit every piece of music into a category.
At least not from the perspective of a listener.
It serves no useful purpose, other than possibly what section to look for it in a record store.
But they don't have those anymore, so it's even less useful now.
At least not from the perspective of a listener.
It serves no useful purpose, other than possibly what section to look for it in a record store.
But they don't have those anymore, so it's even less useful now.
IIRC, there is a traditional English dance in 7/4 based on my occasional attendance at ceilidhs. But I was drinking, do don't ask for details.
