Why isn't prog popular?

Well, I guess everyone can be converted to prog. It could be a matter of time.

I've never converted anyone, but I've tried and failed many times.

I never force any of my personal beliefs on anyone, but I got my girlfriend into Camel recently; she loves "The Snow Goose" 

I agree with TODDLER that the implications of rejecting improvisation as a valid means of musicial expression are serious.  Perhaps, critics in heartily joining the punk brigade didn't anticipate that jazz too would move off the limelight while still remaining a serious and respected musical form because of this wholly illusory projection that improvisation is pretentious.  Just because you can't improvise doesn't mean those who do are pretentious! 

With regard to timburlane's point regarding a "say it brilliantly, say it in three minutes and make sure you can dance to it" approach, Gentle Giant and Jethro Tull were both capable of writing short and smart songs. Even Genesis on occasion, I mean if somebody would really rather listen to Sweet Home Alabama than I know what I like or Counting Out Time, that's more a matter of taste and not the prog musician's inability to write interesting music in a short song format.  But the media defined prog by stuff like Karn Evil 9 and TFTO and people completely bought into that.  To an extent, it is also true that a lot of prog listeners subscribe to a "longer is better" approach which I'd personally hesitate to concur with and this lends some 'credibility' to the myth.  I have always looked at prog as more an approach to writing music, which doesn't necessarily depend on a certain minimum length, and not necessarily as indiscriminate license to sprawl but the latter is what prog is often taken to be.  

As for nerdiness, again, no smoke without fire.  A lot of prog listeners do buy into the "Pink Floyd is awesome because they don't write love songs" kind of thinking. There's no reason why a love song is in itself such a bad thing.  Why should expression of one of the vital human emotions, one that arguably keeps the world going, be deemed invalid? It is just the often cliched and cheesy treatment of love in mainstream pop/rock that people react to but the reaction seems to push people to 'cold', 'intellectual' subjects (read sci fi).  I think nerdiness may be at work if a group of people honestly believe that interpretation of normal but profound human emotions is somehow inferior and commonplace and only subjects like winged elephants dancing in the air should be the subject matter of prog.


Edited by rogerthat - January 21 2011 at 21:59

I don't even try to convert people to my religion, why should I convert somebody to Prog? 

Maybe I've "sewn some seeds" as the saying goes, and the prog will do the rest   

Isn't it popular on this site, therefore it's popular?

Most people aren't looking for music but for "entertainment", for a quick musical snack that sounds exactly as they want it.
No problem at all with that, I don't have much of a clue about painting or literature neither.

The people that are looking for music as a form of artistic expression are a minority.
And that minority has to be further spread over the many available options: classical, jazz, blues, rock, world, indie, singer songwriters, some of the music featuring on PA and much more...

So it's simple logic, low demand and many many options.
 Nothing to do with intellectual superiority, better taste or whatever.



Edited by Bonnek - January 22 2011 at 03:29

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: I don't even try to convert people to my religion, why should I convert somebody to Prog?  Iván

Because Prog is far more important

The Self Flagellation of the Minority Interest Enthusiast:

If Prog were popular mainstream music a significant number of you wouldn't listen to it any longer. The smart money would be on you defecting to the outer reaches of the avant garde (or whatever other genre you deem esoteric enough)

Just because the herd you belong to is smaller than the biggest one doesn't  make you immune to the herd instinct.

I see most of these types of thread as being either disingenuous (the lady doth protest too much) or carry transparently rhetorical questions which only serve to reveal the respondents dearth of life experience.
(e.g. people who dislike Prog are dumb, unthinking conformists, shallow, reactionary, gullible, materialistic, lack patience and sensitivity, terminally trendy and so hopelessly conditioned that they cannot form their own opinions etc)

Of those people I consider close to me, not one has the slightest affection or interest in Prog and would represent the polar opposite of the lazily depicted 'masses' quoted above.  My loved ones know full well that I would never attempt to 'convert the heathen' (As this would result in the perfectly justifiable reaction everyone should reserve for front door evangelists everywhere - WHAACCKKK ).

I also love soccer even more than Prog, but don't go around thinking that baseball, basketball, tennis, ice hockey, rugby or cricket are the sport of choice for plankton with learning difficulties. Similarly, I adore the music of the Velvet Underground, Wall of Voodoo, Cure, Banshees, Magazine, Television, Patti Smith, PIL, Bob Dylan, The Smiths, Bunnymen etc but do not consider such to be at some lower rung on the evolutionary ladder than Yes, ELP, Genesis, Crimson et al.

Too many bulls-eyes being awarded for merely hitting the wall round here...