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Why do some progressive bands sound so dated?

#241
ElectroVibe said:
I started watching the Genesis - Behind the Music documentary. They are one band whose early music I just don't know much about. I love some of their pop stuff. I love some of Phil Collins' stuff (sorry haters). I love Peter Gabriel. But their early period obviously was the their foundation.

I could say the same for Yes. I really love their more popular hits that were more pop oriented. And of course the side projects like Asia. But I just can't get into their earlier stuff. Yet I know that there are a core of progressive rock fans who like the more obscure work of these bands, or perhaps other bands like King Crimson.

But it seems like I might have really been into this kind of music if I had been of the right age at the time. It makes me wonder why their music doesn't seem to endure the way other bands of the same time period have, whether pop, classic, rock, hard rock, etc.

Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on this?
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I totally agree with you. I don't like a lot of prog because it is so stuck in the 70s.
As many have pointed out part of it is the sound. Because it came to such prominence at a specific time, and used such specific sounds, it is hard to divorce it from its time.
I have the same problem with some jazz. Because the instruments and preferred tones haven't changed in 50 years, it always sounds dated to me.
They both also suffer from a musician\fan base that think the style nailed it a long time ago. Call it the Fender P syndrome; some people insist it is perfect, etched in stone, and impossible to improve. That's a one way ticket to stagnation.
I like the implementation of progressive elements in other styles, but the progressive "standards" bore me.
 
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#242
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#243
This thread has madw me go out and buy a Porcupine Tree album (The Sky Moves Sideways) today. I also bought a Tull album, but that was on the list anyway cos I heard Bourré the other day and want to learn it. Had a discussion with the store owner about how we both gave up on Dream Theater since Portnoy left. Interesting lunch break!

bigtiny said:
'Hooked on a Feeling' - HOly Crap!!!! I hoped I'd never have to think about that tune again! What have you done to me?!?!?!?!?!
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I love that tune!

JDMcDorce said:
At the same time, I'm still not certain what the label "progressive" really means. I don't think that there are many that would label Deep Purple as a "prog band", yet while listening to songs like "Burn" my ears hear a lot of progressive elements.
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Listen to Uriah Heep's Lansdowne Tapes compilation. To me, a song like Magic Lantern is pure prog. Ditto for The Park and Salisbury off their second LP.

I would love to play prog, but I just don't think I have the chops for it...
 
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#245
JDMcDorce said:
Sounds like the days when Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, and Chicago where what was most likely coming out of my stereo, while songs by Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, ELP and a couple of other bands were more likely to be heard at a party where the guy spinning tunes was smoking a joint. Listening to the same music 40 years later, I find myself impressed, amazed, and more appreciative of what the "Prog" bands were doing.

At the same time, I'm still not certain what the label "progressive" really means. I don't think that there are many that would label Deep Purple as a "prog band", yet while listening to songs like "Burn" my ears hear a lot of progressive elements.
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The thing is, in Deep Purple's time, EVERYONE had progressive elements, because ROCK was progressive. CSN&Y's Deja Vu is a "somewhat progressive" album. Doobie Brothers, "The Captain and Me" had progressive elements. And anyone who thinks Elton John, David Bowie and other "mainstream" performers didn't have prog elements never heard "Funeral for a Friend," or anything off the Ziggy Stardust album.

Deep Purple? If "Sweet Child in Time" has nary a prog element, I'll eat my ELP records.
 
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#248
mellowinman said:
The thing is, in Deep Purple's time, EVERYONE had progressive elements, because ROCK was progressive. CSN&Y's Deja Vu is a "somewhat progressive" album. Doobie Brothers, "The Captain and Me" had progressive elements. And anyone who thinks Elton John, David Bowie and other "mainstream" performers didn't have prog elements never heard "Funeral for a Friend," or anything off the Ziggy Stardust album.

Deep Purple? If "Sweet Child in Time" has nary a prog element, I'll eat my ELP records.
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Album-Oriented Rock radio stations in that day ID'd themselves as Progressive Rock Music...so, yes, all of those bands/albums you mentioned were Progressive Rock.

Then...in the '90s, younger co-workers told me they listened to "Progressive". Their definition of Progessive = The Gin Blossoms, Ocean Blue, Cracker, etc.
 
#251
Scottgun said:
And the grandaddy: R.E.M. Ugh. Any chance of me liking them was destroyed by hordes of college classmates acting like the band was the music of the spheres.
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They weren't art rock. They were an art band. The first really popular one.

By the way I was going to say Bruce Springsteen is the most anti-progressive performer I can think of, especially considering the time period that he first began performing.
 
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#252
ElectroVibe said:
They weren't art rock. They were an art band. The first really popular one.

By the way I was going to say Bruce Springsteen is the most anti-progressive performer I can think of, especially considering the time period that he first began performing.
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I might have 5000 albums, LPs, cds, etc.
I have never bought a single Springsteen album.
To me, it is basic RnR...and I have plenty.

The whole Punk (& then New Wave) movement was anti-Prog.

Anyone else (besides me) seen Vinyl, the 1-Season HBO thing?
The lead character/owner of a Record Label sees the New York Dolls & is immediately kicked in his balls.
He sez screw Yes, ELP...this is Rock the way it used to be.
;)
 
#253
JimK said:
in the '90s, younger co-workers told me they listened to "Progressive". Their definition of Progessive = The Gin Blossoms, Ocean Blue, Cracker, etc.
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JimK said:
The whole Punk (& then New Wave) movement was anti-Prog.
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Remember the (apparently short-lived, and probably industry-fabricated) genre of "Post-Punk Progressive Rock"? I honestly have no idea what bands they were referring to, but the concept always intrigued me.
 
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#256
There wasn't much progressive music being produced after the mid to late '70's, but there was a lot of prog-derivative music being packaged up for the record companies and polished up for platinum sales. Some people might call those bands prog, but prog was pretty much dead by then.
 
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#260
Bob_Ross said:
Remember the (apparently short-lived, and probably industry-fabricated) genre of "Post-Punk Progressive Rock"? I honestly have no idea what bands they were referring to, but the concept always intrigued me.
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If you are intrigued you should listen to This Heat. I honestly have never heard before about "post-punk progressive rock" as a phenomenon as you describe it, but they perfectly fit the definition and they are one of the greatest, most groundbreaking bands that ever existed.
 

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