Why do Asia get 'dissed'?

necromancing777 wrote: stonebeard wrote: "Heat of the Moment" is on my playlist of songs to blast really loud in the car, as are Europe's "The Final Countdown" and Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."   Who's living in the 80s? I'm super !     Right on! I grew up in the 80's.  So for me, some of the first music I ever heard as a kid was "Heat of the Moment", "Hungry Like The Wolf", "Owner of a Lonely Heart", "Every Breath You Take", "Little Red Corvette", "Sussudio", etc.   Perhaps there is some "elitism" on the part of some prog listeners (I could be wrong), that draws resentment from the "lower classes" of music (AOR, Top 40, C&W, Hip Hop, etc).   Now I love prog (Yes, Genesis, Rush, ELP, Marillion, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor, etc.), and I also like other music such as: Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Philip Glass (try sitting through the entire 60+ minutes of 'Music With Changing Parts'), but my wife loves Adult Top 40 and (cringe with me here) "Today's Hot Country".   Music, like any art is subjective and there are those who will stick up for "their bands", just like their favorite football club (USA 1, Italy 1....NOOOO!). But in the case of Asia, their seems to be a type of anger leveled against their music by many prog fans that I find hard to understand. But it's just like anything I suppose. I mean, I'll defend contemporary figurative painting over abstract expressionism any day of the week. But that doesn't mean I don't like some abstract works.   But, "Here I Go Again" on another rant. Thank God for this forum, otherwise I'd be bored out of my mind today. It's too hot to go outside.

stonebeard wrote: bhikkhu wrote: stonebeard wrote: "Heat of the Moment" is on my playlist of songs to blast really loud in the car, as are Europe's "The Final Countdown" and Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."      Umm ... wow ... okay... Actually, it took a lot of guts to admit that.     No it didn't!   First of all, prog be damned those songs are catchy and fun. If proggers can't handle that then fine. All I can say is that there is no prog equal to rolling up into the Taco Bell drive thru at 1:30 at night with "The Final Countdown" at full volume.

bhikkhu wrote: mgallard wrote: <snip> is I have to be able to listen to it at least 5 times without getting bored plus of course have some originality either in the music or the lyrics, preferably both.Lose all the pretenses, all the snobbishness, all the holier-than-thou attitudes and enjoy music, enjoy life. GreetingsMogens      I can aprecciate your point, and I like most of the artists you listed. My dislike of Asia is not because of snobbishness, or disappointment in my heroes. I just think the music is really weak.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Tastes vary as much as DNA.

Mogens

Some people hate Asia because they're snobs, others because they think they know better than they do (they=Asia, real musicians, famous artists) how to make music (bull), others because anything that comes close to being popular (let alone get played on the radio!) is a sell-out, others because they think their expectations are going to magically make their "idols" make the music they supposedly like, some think simple compositions are despisable, etc, etc. the list goes on.

When I heard Asia for the first time I actually didn't know who each artist was and have since then figured it out, but that didn't detract from the music and I've always enjoyed the album as a group, not as a heterogeneous mix of prog luminaries, I have their complete discography actually, but the debut is the one that gets most rotation, plus it reminds me of some good last years in school.

I actually am happy that I have a wide taste in music, I can enjoy the latest Mars Volta, Asia, Men At Work, Blondie, Ryan Adams, Elvis Costello, Genesis, King Crimson, Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan, I don't know... Johnny Clegg, Midnight Oil, Crowded House, Tryo, Holst or Mahler or Mozart, Wynton Marsalis or Spyro Gyra, Mahavishnu and Miles Davis, Prince and The Pogues, SUN Project to Robert Miles to Tangerine Dream to Kraftwerk, etc. There's so much good music out there and my only criteria is I have to be able to listen to it at least 5 times without getting bored plus of course have some originality either in the music or the lyrics, preferably both.

Lose all the pretenses, all the snobbishness, all the holier-than-thou attitudes and enjoy music, enjoy life.

Greetings

Mogens

People hate Asia because the music was popular.  Now here's the true story in dramatic form:

crimson thing wrote: If you go back in time to approx 1977.......Howe on the back of Going for the One.......Wetton still basking in the glow of KC's big 3 albums of 73/74.........and someone said, hey, Wetton & Howe & that great drummer & some other guy are getting together, you'd have thought, WOW!!! You'd have pawned your granny to hear them, surely they'd be so innovative & astounding!!!!   Ho hum..........   That's why people diss Asia - not for what they are/were - but for what they could have been.........

Teaflax wrote: necromancing777 wrote: I mean, I'll defend contemporary figurative painting over abstract expressionism any day of the week. But that doesn't mean I don't like some abstract works. Huh? What contemporary art - respected art, that is - is there that is primarily figurative? Not much that I can think of. Apart from hyperrealism in the 60's, purely illustrative or representational art hasn't really been much of a force in art since the early 20th century.

Edited by necromancing777 - June 17 2006 at 21:18

necromancing777 wrote: I mean, I'll defend contemporary figurative painting over abstract expressionism any day of the week. But that doesn't mean I don't like some abstract works.

Huh? What contemporary art - respected art, that is - is there that is primarily figurative? Not much that I can think of. Apart from hyperrealism in the 60's, purely illustrative or representational art hasn't really been much of a force in art since the early 20th century.

I mean, unless you count someone like Francis Bacon, whose paintings certainly qualify as "paintings of people that can (sort of) be recognized", but that's stretching the definition a bit.

Anyway, to get back on topic; I think AOR gets slammed from both sides of the spectrum, because the non-mainstream snobs such as myself find it too safe and common, whereas the hit-loving crowd probably find it a bit lacking in other aspects that are popular now, such as danceability and/or cute-girl singer or for not being aggressive enough (because post-Metallica's Black Album and Nirvana, that aspect really has been turned up quite a bit).

And, you know, there was quite a bit of good music in the 80's (scroll down for my personal list of a few of the 5-star albums produced during that decade). There's absolutely no need to blame that decade for its sins any more than other decades.

I guess I can see both point-of-views. I like Asia because they came on the scene when I was a mere teenager....and before any prog snob-dome had a chance to infect me. I was aware of the bands these guys came from, but unaware of how engrained they were in the fabric of progressive music. To me, it was good music and easy to listen to.

On the other hand, Asia had a completely different agenda from Yes, ELP, King Crimson or UK. I bet that torqued the radical fans of the bands from which they came. Here you have 4 brilliant musicians joining forces, and what comes out is completely different.

E

stonebeard wrote: "Heat of the Moment" is on my playlist of songs to blast really loud in the car, as are Europe's "The Final Countdown" and Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."   Who's living in the 80s? I'm super !