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Why did prog rock never have mass popularity?

#561
Markmann said:
Wow man, that album is excellent! I also checked out your first one and it's equally great but different. What's interesting is when I search your name on Bandcamp only the first album show up. The second only shows under the Subcontinental label page. Ok, back to the music... your bass playing is fabulous and to me is reminiscent of Percy Jones playing with Brand X who is one of my favorite players. Your music is not quite like anything I have ever heard and I love every track. FYI, I am also on Bandcamp and you might like the first track on my second EP, but only because it's (at least to me) a cross between prog and space rock and the track opens with a bass solo:
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Thanks, that's a super great compliment. Yes the second album is on an Indian label and the first one is self published. And yes, Percy Jones is sure an inspiration, although I never try to imitate other players. You can find a lot more music on my YouTube channel too (Barend Tromp). I like your track too. Nice vocal line which somehow reminds me of John Wetton/UK.
 
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#565
turf3 said:
Why is it a stupid comment? I was there. Were you? I can tell you at dorm parties, when you put on the YES album, all the girls went off to the corner and started talking. When you put on the B-52s album, they all started dancing. Which do YOU think they liked better?
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How do you conclude from that that these girls didn’t have much rhythm? Can it be that they just didn’t like YES?

If I like the B52s better than YES, does that mean I have weaker sense of rhythm than someone who prefers YES?
 
#566
BismarckHerring said:
How do you conclude from that that these girls didn’t have much rhythm? Can it be that they just didn’t like YES?

If I like the B52s better than YES, does that mean I have weaker sense of rhythm than someone who prefers YES?
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Gee, you clearly haven't ever been there.

"Hey! Put on some music we can dance to!"
"I don't have any trouble dancing to this!"
"I don't care, put on some music WE can dance to!"

Sheeesh, do I have to spell EVERYTHING out for you? Or are you just taking on that "Internet-Literalist-and-Spectrum-Occupier" persona for fun?

I was there. It's pretty clear you weren't.


Here's the short and curly rundown.

Chicks HATE outfits like Rush and YES and King Crimson, when they're at a party and want to party. They don't buy the records; they switch the radio station. And this, boys and girls, is a prime reason why prog (as y'all are calling it nowadays) never achieved mass popularity, at least not on the level of, say, the Beatles, the B-52s, Carly Simon, etc.

Yeah, yeah, I know, there are women who like prog. Obviously I'm stereotyping and over-generalizing. But I was there, in the 70s and 80s, and I can tell you that straightahead dance music and wistful singer-songwriters sold a hell of a lot more records to the distaff side than the proggers.
 
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#567
turf3 said:
Why is it a stupid comment? I was there. Were you? I can tell you at dorm parties, when you put on the YES album, all the girls went off to the corner and started talking. When you put on the B-52s album, they all started dancing. Which do YOU think they liked better?
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Anecdotal evidence...the same anecdotal evidence has been shared by you and twenty other dudes in this thread.
Was I there?... not sure where there was, but I was very present in 1969 when King Crimson's first album was released.
Ended up with lots of progressive rock records in my collection over the next couple decades.
I also witnessed very little dancing at most of the concerts and clubs I went to with my girlfriend (wife of 45 years) in all those years.
It wasn't a big part of enjoying music for many of the people I grew up with, not a big thing back then.
That being the case, I have lots of anecdotal evidence that might contradict yours.
Both of my adult kids have lots of progressive music in their collections, one is female and one is male, but that is just more anecdotal evidence.
I think there are lots of reasons why progressive rock has not had as large a fan base as other genres of music and dancing is one but the single thing that you (and twenty other guys in this thread) cited about female music fans is probably not nearly the whole picture.
One of the things that has always struck me as funny with many male progressive rock fans, lots of them seem to have a weird arrogance attached to their being fans of progressive rock, like it makes them special.
It's just not as big a deal as many seem to think it is, it's not that big an accomplishment to be a fan of progressive rock.
 
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#569
"I don't have any trouble dancing to this!"
It might have been hilarious watching some of those dorm party boys dancing to Yes, King Crimson, Genesis (Peter Gabriel years), Gentle Giant, PFM, early Floyd, Van der Graff Generator, Renaissance, Gong, Can, Focus, Magma, Camel.
Careful fellas, those time signatures might cause you to sprain an ankle. :smug:
 
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#571
dead_horse.gif
 
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#572
fokof said:
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is Super/Duper/Über Proggy ( Great grand father of prog ) and there was people dancing on stage at the premiere in Paris.

Just saying......


:)
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I thought people were rioting over it, with its supposedly primitive rhythms. Robert Fripp, I believe, described “Larks Tongue In Aspic, Pt. II” as a combination of Stravinsky and James Brown, and it was appropriated as background music for a very, uh, rhythmic scene in the infamous 70’s art house skin flick, Emmanuelle. Can I take it to the bridge, Bobby?
 
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#580
bholder said:
I can't say I've ever seen that Robert Fripp lives in want or need of anything. Can you say that about your choice of career?
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Crimson was one of the first, and kept changing over time, and with the times. They actually kept progressing when other “Prog” outfits stagnated, doing the same old thing.
The Wetton/Bruford band was way beyond and more brutal than the first album, although there were traces of the earlier era. In turn, the 70’s band was to influence 90’s alternative(Tool, math rock), while Fripp had already been there, having gotten together with the likes of the Talking Heads, Blondie, and his band with XTC/Shriekback keyboardist Barry Andrews and bassist Sara Lee(Gang of Four), let alone the Bowie sessions. He also helped Peter Gabriel move beyond Genesis. The Belew band was just as much New Wave as Prog.
 
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