Why do some progressive bands sound so dated?

[rylie]

Interesting...prog rock as a single moment in music time? There is a choice. The late 60's/early 70's, or skip ahead to the current century. Prog rock never went away. There are others, my current favorite prog is Porcupine Tree. Unfortunately, guitarist Steve Wilson, who guides PT, decided to disband. They have a strong discography presence on YouTube. PT song, Stars Die, is a new classic prog with a great fretless bass part.

 

[SactoBass]

Early Genesis and Yes albums sound fresher than anything recorded with Autotune.

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig +1

 

[jerry]

I know exactly what you mean …

here is a more modern version of some Genesis

Man, John Wetton was great!

 

[43ManSquamish]

One of the problems with prog at the time - and even today - was the fear of the song that was longer than standard airplay. (Please shelve all comments about "Stairway to Heaven" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" for now.) Prog had a bunch of songs with extra length, got a reputation for that, and if radio plays longer songs it plays fewer. The less airplay, the less exposure, and radio is all about numbers. Also, punk took a bunch of wind out of the prog sails (I always thought punk was a reaction to Tales From Topographic Oceans, which was against everything punk stood for. Still love the album, though).

It's been over 40 years since Yes could expect to fill major venues for several nights running, and since then we've had a bunch of new genres competing for attention. Prog was going to be pushed out of the way eventually until it gets rediscovered, which might be happening these days. The great music is there; it'll take kids raiding their parents' record collection, which always happens, for the classic stuff to be rediscovered. And once they do that, they discover the new stuff.

I saw Steven Wilson recently in Atlanta and the place was absolutely packed. I'm not sure if Wilson considers himself strictly prog, but his remastering of past prog albums will get people interested in him interested in these past albums, and then you've got rediscovery all over again.

Just like any classic form of music, prog ain't dead - at worst, it's merely sleeping. I think it's more awake than you think.

 

[faulknersj]

Just throwing this in the thread because is is dope! King Crimson Live 1969

 

[JW56789]

For me, recordings (regardless of how well-written a song it is at the core, aside from the arrangement) sound dated for two reasons:

1) It's an arrangement driven song, where the arrangement has taken an OK tune, but in the hands of the right producer with good musicians, the chart really dresses things up and makes it stronger than it actually is. Arrangements, and the production styles and recording methods, change over time and can sound dated years down the road in light of what's current. Phil Collins had made some wonderful, timeless records, but on the other hand, what the hell is going on under 'SuSudio', and that song is a big zero without whatever all that burbling mess underneath it.

2) The instrument tones (which can be part of the production process, obviously. . . .) can be dead giveaways. The big slap echoes on 50's records. The 'chikki-chikki-wah-wah' rhythm guitar parts in 70's funk. Disco's 'beee-oooooooo' syndrums, or the big gated snares or Simmons drum tones on 80's records, or the depressing detuned sound of grunge in the 90'. Lots of examples. Can definitely be part of the charm of some recordings, but instantly dates them, if you're old enough (like me . . . . ) to have heard the progression over time, you remember when these sounds were the deal.

Strong, great songs, with arrangements that don't cover them up, and timeless instrumentation recorded well escape this mostly. Smartly administered quality is timeless. Owen Bradley's Patsy Cline recordings, so many Jazz records, George Martin's best work with the Beatles, and others would be hard to be improved upon.

One of my favorite recordings is Orleans' 'Still the One'. I've heard this a million times, yet I can never imagine where I'd change one thing to 'improve' it or 'update' it. Any time I find that feeling, it never does nor ever will sound old.

 

[Ric5]

Man, John Wetton was great!

Yes … vocals and bass both excellent!

 

[Ric5]

Man, John Wetton was great!

more

 

[DJ Bebop]

Back in the day in Portland town, we had a radio station KQIV FM that broadcasted in quadriphonic and played nothing but prog-rock and jazz-rock fusion and an AM station KVAN that was prog rock, jazz fusion as well at the time.
KVAN (AM) - Wikipedia
http://www.rockininquad.com/
Invalid Link Removed

 

[DJ Bebop]

Yes … vocals and bass both excellent!

Yeah, what was up with all those across the pond bass players?
Bruce, Wetton, Lake, Squier...

 

[Jeff Scott]

Some modern progressive rock.

 

[Andy Daventry]

This thread has been fun. I'm surprised the word "pretentious" hasn't been used. Anyone remember Aphrodite's child or Magma? I quite enjoyed Genesis - and played bass in a genesis cover band for a while in the early 80s - but Yes always left me cold. I had a taste for the hippie stuff - like Gong and the excellent Hawkwind, which wasn't really prog, but most prog rock is thankfully buried. It followed Sturgeon's law.

Prog rock was primarily a European thing, and American music was more fun. Girls could dance to it.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Pink Floyd is more of a rock band in my opinion.

Prog up to about 72 or so, not really so much thereafter. Dark Side of the Moon I would not class as prog. But then even some of ELP strays into more poppy territory. Not so much Soft Machine or Camel.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Why it sounds dated (in my opinion):

• Synths;
• Recording / Production means;
• Extra long songs with extended, sometimes psychedelic instrumental sections / solos
• Theatrics / Overall weirdness

And throwing lots of jazz and classical elements in, odd time signatures, unusual scales (e. G. Red by KC)

 

[Deleted member 165050]

And throwing lots of jazz and classical elements in, odd time signatures, unusual scales

Oh dear that's my last two bands dated then

 

[nilorius]

You can't listen to anything anyway. It depends what you like, despite it can be a lot of.

 

[mellowinman]

One of my favorites of the prog movement.

 

[Bassique]

I dont know why you would claim that people know the prog bands only because they went commercial in the 80's. I think prog had really big following in the 70's. And most people still going to see those bands are not there because of the "hit songs".

 

[Bob_Ross]

there was a prog renaissance with a bunch of newer bands like Dream Theater and Spock's Beard, but I just never got into that whole new era of prog. To my ear, it was bombastically and cartoonishly derivative of something that I'd left behind me decades earlier

I've mentioned this elsewhere on TB, but to my ear the thing that makes post-1990 prog significantly and conspicuously different from -- and less charming/more bombastic than -- "original" 1970s-era prog, is that the entire 1980s hair-metal thing intervened. Every so-called "prog" band that's made a dent on the music industry radar since the 1990s has some element of "shred" and "headbanging" going on in their sound that, in the worst cases, lends a (as you say) cartoonishness to their exploits. And even in the best cases makes it fairly easy to timestamp the repertoire.

 

[ElectroVibe]

Don’t use your eyes to to listen to music.

If a band creates a video it deserves to be appreciated visually along with the music. So I consider it a part of the song which helps to explain the meaning of the lyrics, especially a video as good as Yes's.