Rate yourself! (Prog elitism)

7!

I rated myself a two. I listen to a lot of other music, heck, prog is relatively new to me except for Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd. I would have rated myself a one, but some music really is terrible.

I reckon I'm over-egging the pudding at 4 ...

Definitely a 5 on spacerock though ...

-several zillion on RIO

I put an eight. I often find myself barely giving other forms of music a chance, then again nothing satisfies me like progressive music. There are only a few non prog bands I listen to (Steveie Ray Vaghn, a perfect circle...). The only thing keeping me from giving myself a ten is my respect for ALL music, accept for mainstream hip-Hop, I really dont ear the music in that music.

Well, being a record store owner and a life long prog fan, I get myself a 9. I would have said a 10, but that goes for most TOOL fans. Most (not all) of the ones I know only listen to TOOL and they believe that everything else sucks. So I save 10 for them.

jimmy_row wrote: 0 or 1 for me, because I view elitism as an extention of artistic preferences to one's personal quest to be better than others:    Like it or not, Prog is for an elite, not saying it's the best genre, but only a minority is able or cares to understand it, while most people worries for music just to dance or to look cool, we worry analyzing, listening cerfully and even trying to improve our knowledge of music theory.   So, want it or not, Prog is elitist.   an elitist would be someone who thinks that they have superior taste to the mainstream and that they are of higher intellect due to this heightened awareness or understanding of art/music.    I believe the music I listen is the best FOR MY TASTE, I would be a liar if I said I consider Rap, POP and Disco as good as Prog while I spend most of my free time in a Prog siite have and about 80% of my albums from this genre.   I'm honest, I believe Prog is the best genre for me as a Rap or Pop listener believes the genres they like are the best.   To me, it's just music...no reason to think I'm better than the next guy;   I don't think I'm better, I believe I'm different, but I tell you something, the average Prog listener knows more about music than the average fan of ALMOST any Rock genre, because it demands an effort from the audience, and if you want to really understand Prog, you need to analyze it.   or that the music I get off on is superior to the music you like, simply because I like it - that would be incredibly pretentious and self-important.   Prog is pretentious, that's also a fact, playing Pictures at an Exhibition before an audience of kids who probably never ghheard about Mussorgsky before, is pretentious and it works, Journey to the Centre of the Earth didn't required almost 300 persons on stage, but it sounds better.   How many Symphonic band dare to take the music of the great masters like Bach, Grieg, etc abnd make new arrangements to make it sound better? Isn't it pretentious to alter what a genius did?   Yes it's pretentious and thanks God there's people who want to achieve perfection or at leas be the closer they ca to it, if it wasn't for pretentious musicians, we would sink in mediocre performers who follow what a couple good mainstream musicians did and never take the risk of breaking boundaries.   So what's the problem to admit it?   The worst enemy of Prog is a Prohead, because he is ashamed to say he/she believes the music he/she listens is the best, while all the listeners of the other genres shout how good, cool or great is the music they listen.   Lets be honest with ourselves, it's part of human nature to try to be the best, if we don't really admit Prog is the best genre for us, then we are lying to ourselves and to the rest trying to sound open minded.   That doesn't mean all Prog is good, because there's a lot of crap out there or that only Prog is good, but if you are a Proghead, you believe Prog is the best genre, at least for your taste.   Iván

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: working for free

Check's in the mail.

Let me say one ting, I might be more elitest about certain bands. I will admit that I get impatient with people who think that King Crimson isn't that great, or goes about dissing magma, and yeah, it goes beyond prog, it applies to metal (what do you mean darkthrone sucks, are you mad?), and jazz (don't you diss John Coltranes free jazz) and classical (bach boring? f**k off!). But, I hold no elitism towards the genre. I realize that all genres are compunds of quality and crappy bands, and there is no such thing as an inherantly superior genre, because a genius knows no such boundaries, they will produce staggering works no matter what genre they are in.

darqdean wrote: In his last paragraph Ivan has made a very important distinction between the types of Elitism and I think many here are mixing them up.   Elitism has two meanings - one good and one bad. A person who claims elitism or to be an elitist believes themselves to be in the good definition - everyone who disagrees with elitism objects to the bad definition. A bad elitist would see themselves as being superior because of what they listen to, which infers that not only is their taste superior, but their music is too. A good elitist accepts other peoples music as being of equal worth but is more selective (by their own standards, discerning) in their own tastes.