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How did Porcupine Tree become popular?
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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    Posted: May 24 2024 at 14:50
Today is laundry day for me which means I put on a prog rock t shirt. Today it happens to be Porcupine Tree which got me thinking how they became one of the biggest prog bands in the modern era. No, they never became really big in a commercial way like say Muse or Coldplay but compared to just about every other modern prog band except maybe Dream Theater they got to be pretty big.

Back in the 90s the big three of prog rock seemed to be Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings and Porcupine Tree (five if you throw in Echolyn and Ozric Tentacles). However, at some point around the time Gavin Harrison joined the band PT somehow became much bigger then those bands. Even before then they probably had a larger fan base outside of the prog crowd when they started to add alternative elements and even more so when they added metal elements. But being that Porcupine Tree weren't really ever played on the radio I'm wondering how this happened. I remember when they played at Nearfest in 2001 there was an empty seat next to mine the entire time except when Porcupine Tree played. Just about the only other times that happened there was for Steve Hackett and Nektar a year later. If you took away the non prog fanbase from PT they would probably still be about as big as TFK or SB imo but instead they eclipsed them. So how did all these non prog fans discover Porcupine Tree? Does anyone know how this happened? I'm just curious. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 24 2024 at 14:53
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mellotronwave View Drop Down
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I discovered PT thanks to a french prog magazine (a fanzine) called Harmonie back around 1995.
(they covered the début of the band)
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JD View Drop Down
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Well, for my part, I used to have one of those CD cases for the car. Held maybe 40 CDR's or something. I had a ton of "Mixed/Best Of/Comp's/of all my favourite bands. PT was one of them. One day I was in a music store in a mall and was talking music to the cashier checking me out. I mentioned PT and she had never heard of them. After my purchase, I went out to my car, grabbed the PT Comp I'd made up and brought it back in to give her.
So maybe one fan there?
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I don't know the actual history, but before I got into prog, I knew of Porcupine Tree from a few different people. One was a person who mostly listened to alternative rock / radio rock but was also into acts like Nightwish and video game music. Another was a guy who was super into metal. And then my wife, who is more into acts like Dashboard Confessional, and singer/songwriter love ballads.

I'd say based on that sample, that they managed to write songs that appealed to a broader cross-section of listeners for their melancholic atmosphere and metallic influence, that didn't require the listener to even think of them as 'prog rock' to enjoy.
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Originally posted by JD JD wrote:

Well, for my part, I used to have one of those CD cases for the car. Held maybe 40 CDR's or something. I had a ton of "Mixed/Best Of/Comp's/of all my favourite bands. PT was one of them. One day I was in a music store in a mall and was talking music to the cashier checking me out. I mentioned PT and she had never heard of them. After my purchase, I went out to my car, grabbed the PT Comp I'd made up and brought it back in to give her.
So maybe one fan there?

Around what year was that? What was the PT album?
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Originally posted by TheGazzardian TheGazzardian wrote:

I don't know the actual history, but before I got into prog, I knew of Porcupine Tree from a few different people. One was a person who mostly listened to alternative rock / radio rock but was also into acts like Nightwish and video game music. Another was a guy who was super into metal. And then my wife, who is more into acts like Dashboard Confessional, and singer/songwriter love ballads.

I'd say based on that sample, that they managed to write songs that appealed to a broader cross-section of listeners for their melancholic atmosphere and metallic influence, that didn't require the listener to even think of them as 'prog rock' to enjoy.

Yes, I suspect them being marketed to the metal crowd had something to do with it but I don't know the specifics. Maybe they were mentioned a lot in metal mags or metal websites sometime after In Absentia or Deadwing? The only time I ever heard them on the radio was right after In Absentia. WZZO in Allentown PA played "blackest eyes." However, I never heard them again after that even though Deadwing (and not IA) was their first to crack the billboard charts. 

I knew a guy who was into metal (including some prog metal). He introduced me to the Gathering but never heard of Anglagard. Then a few years later I see the same guy outside the venue for a PT show in my area (this was in 2005 for DW) so obviously they reached beyond just the prog crowd by then.


Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 24 2024 at 15:01
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mellotronwave View Drop Down
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I think their frank metal orientation corresponds to their signature with the LAVA label. ( 1st recording In absentia I think?)
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Originally posted by mellotronwave mellotronwave wrote:

I think their frank metal orientation corresponds to their signature with the LAVA label. ( 1st recording In absentia I think?)

Yes, IA was their first with LAVA. 
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The first PT I bought was the EP Moonloop around 1996.
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I have no clue. Are they Taylor Swift popular?
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Points: 6442 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mathman0806 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2024 at 15:58
My introduction to PT was through a sampler CD that a music magazine had. I can't remember the magazine but it was a U.S. publication because the track was Stars Die, which is on the U.S. release of The Sky Moves Sideways. Later, I got beanother sampler CD with an edited version of Moonloop. That got me interested and I have been a fan since. I think the U.S. label was actively promoting the album by getting tracks onto sampler CDs and sending promos to music critics as I later saw a mention/review in the local paper (the music critic was writing for all the papers that were part of the national ownership group).
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Another data point is that early PT (prior to the addition of metal to their sound) had a reputation of being Pink Floyd like, and Pink Floyd was both still a going concern then, and has a large reputation in classic rock circles independent of their reputation of prog. So they were probably able to gain a foothold in classic rock circles through that association.
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

I have no clue. Are they Taylor Swift popular?

Who's that?

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Points: 6442 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mathman0806 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2024 at 17:20
^^ Yep! The Pink Floyd references were abundant when I first heard them and that aspect of their sound certainly appealed to me at that time. I was also getting into Tool at that time without considering them as a subgenre of progressive rock. So, when Porcupine Tree added some crunch with In Absentia, I accepted that whole-heartedly. Even looked at them as the bridge between Pink Floyd and Tool.
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Hi,

1999 at the SF Progressive Music Festival.

When they arrived at the venue, they were missing one keyboard that had taken a big spill at the airport (I think) and it had been opened backstage as some folks tried to fix it. No go. They could not find a replacement. Richard Barbieri, spent at least a couple of hours, while some bands played programming some keyboards backstage for their show. They went on, and I thought ... goodness, even without a keyboard, this band sounded excellent. A roadie of theirs was upset that they sounded terrible, and Sean Ahearn and I finally had it and told him to get outside and shut up ... the band sounded great even if not having the "right stuff" ... and what an immense credit this was to Richard, that the band sounded really good.

I kept with them since, and although the albums with Gavin were really good, in my book they lost the "trip", or maybe they were tired of it ... they were fine for me, although I don't think of them as one of the "majors", and probably due to SW whose attitude was not something I liked. I was the photographer for the show that weekend, and Sean Ahearn was upset when SW specifically told me ... NO PICTURES ... and I complied. But I got a shot of Richard backstage trying hard to get a keyboard ready for their show ... if that is not the idea of a great musician knowing what he is doing, I don't think there is another definition. 

It wasn't the best show of all bands, but it was a magnificent show, despite not having a keyboard that was very  much a part of their sound. 

I have never really compared bands, so that one is better than the other ... they all have a different identity, and they are all really fine for me. But on that weekend, the best show belonged to the band that opened the whole thing .. Lana Lane and The Rocket Scientists ... the most professional and clean show ... they were magnificent, and it is a serious shame that the location did not even have one half the audience it should have had ... already it was quite visible that the whole thing was about "the stars" and not the music, a really sad shame as other folks put on some great stuff.


Edited by moshkito - May 24 2024 at 19:11
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Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by JD JD wrote:

Well, for my part, I used to have one of those CD cases for the car. Held maybe 40 CDR's or something. I had a ton of "Mixed/Best Of/Comp's/of all my favourite bands. PT was one of them. One day I was in a music store in a mall and was talking music to the cashier checking me out. I mentioned PT and she had never heard of them. After my purchase, I went out to my car, grabbed the PT Comp I'd made up and brought it back in to give her.
So maybe one fan there?

Around what year was that? What was the PT album?
2002-03 maybe? No, a self made compilation...

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A mix of positive reviews, word-of-mouth, and the band's gradual sonic progression over several decades led to Porcupine Tree's rise to fame. Their early work became well-known in the underground psychedelic music scene in the UK, and in 1991 they signed a record deal with Delerium Records. "On the Sunday of Life...," the band's debut release on Delerium, was well-received and contributed to the band's reputation as an enigmatic and inventive outfit. 
As Porcupine Tree went on tour and released more albums, they developed a cult following and received positive reviews from magazines like PopMatters and Melody Maker. After joining the KScope label in the late 1990s, they started to go towards a more popular alternative rock sound. 
They changed their sound once more, this time towards a more proggy alternative metal sound, when they signed with a major record company in the early 2000s. The release of "In Absentia," their best-known album to date, via major label Lava Records in 2002, helped Porcupine Tree become even more well-known. Since Porcupine Tree blended elements of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, and alternative metal, their style on "In Absentia" is characterised by intricate compositions, ethereal textures, and potent guitar riffs. Fans of alternative metal who were searching for something new and inventive found this then-unusual combination of these genres to be appealing. Their ability to appeal to fans across different genres while staying true to their experimental roots played a significant role in their rise to prominence within both prog/psych and the alt-rock/metal communities.
Last but not least, the fact that both progressive/psychedelic and alternative rock and metal circles were captivated by Porcupine Tree's intense live performances certainly also contributed to the band's wide popularity. 
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I first heard of them just when the released the Stupid Dream album and Wilson gave an interview for a magazine (I don't remember which one). There was an obsession with the idea of 'the future of progressive rock' and all those free CD samplers. That was the only reason anyone bought these magazines. There was one in particular where the song 'Four chords that made a million' (from Signify) was included alongside tracks by the likes of Threshold and Anathema who grabbed me a lot more at the time. I didn't like Stupid Dream at all when it first came out and even swapped it for a live CD of IQ with a Canadian PA member. The CD had gone out of print and I repurchased it when it was reissued as an expanded edition. This was around the time of Deadwing (which I loved) but I then remember listening to Stupid Dream with what seemed a new pair of ears and loving it for the first time. Porcupine Tree has become the 'in prog band'. Got to see them a few times live and it was noticeable that a fair number of the audience were metal heads. I think that has been key to their success. Metal has the most fans and that's the audience you want to tap in to. I'm sure Wilson has always been well aware of this and you can see the transition from Alt rock to a more heavier style from In Absentia onwards. They nailed it with that trio of albums up to FOABP which has even been name checked in the popular comedy drama series Loudermilk (mentioned alongside ELP's triple album in a discussion about prog). Achieving full recognition in popular culture means job done.
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^^ I think you are right about the metal-head connection. My ex Bro-In-Law got into PT because he was a huge Opeth fan and wanted to know who this 'Steven Wilson' was.

I also got to know them via the Classic Rock free CD sampler, as the mag started around the release time of Stupid Dream in 1999. Thought it was very interesting stuff, but wasn't completely sold on them until Lightbulb Sun, then went backwards... 
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Originally posted by suitkees suitkees wrote:

Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

I have no clue. Are they Taylor Swift popular?

Who's that?


sailor twyft
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