Prog about nightmarish technocracy?
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Topic: Prog about nightmarish technocracy?
Posted By: David_D
Subject: Prog about nightmarish technocracy?
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 05:24
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Besides the overtly political Prog, and according to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics (1997, p. 69, 73), symbols drawn from mythology, fantasy and science fiction literature, as well as a host of sacred texts from the past have been used in Progressive Rock lyrics as symbols of resistance and protest in two ways:
1. to symbolize an idealized society toward which we might strive, or 2. to symbolize a nightmarish technocracy which the hippies believed is on the verge of overwhelming us. In this thread, I'd like us to put focus on the second way, and a couple of examples are Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Karn Evil 9 suite, with its story of a computer becoming a tyrannical overlord, and the Tarkus suite, which can be interpreted too as technology running amok and out of the control of its creators, visiting misery upon all it touches. What else can we find of Prog symbolizing some kind of nightmarish technocracy? ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Replies:
Posted By: progaardvark
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 05:39
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The first group that came to my mind was Ayreon. In particular some of the songs off of Actual Fantasy, and the albums 01011001 and The Source. ------------- ---------- i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag that's a happy bag of lettuce this car smells like cartilage nothing beats a good video about fractions |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 06:06
| John Mitchell's "Lonely Robot" comes to mind. |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 06:40
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2112 is the first one I can think of. ------------- 
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Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 06:53
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Simon Says - Tardigrade (the whole album) ------------- “On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.” — Ernest Vong |
Posted By: Criswell
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 07:28
My first thought also...
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Manuel wrote:Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 09:55
I think, 2112 is more about authoritarianism than technocracy, or how do you see it? ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 29 2024 at 17:16
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Voivod - Nothingface (1989) This Prog Metal album may not be that much about technocracy, but I think it can at least be said to be quite a lot about nightmarish industrialism. The Canadian Voivod was born in Jonquiére, a town with pulp, paper and aluminium factories churned unceasingly, spewing smoke and generating a perpetual mechanical din. The drummer, Michel Langevin, could have nightmares because of the sounds from these factories, and all that can be heard in the album's sound and seen in the coverart and lyrics.  ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: July 30 2024 at 00:25
You may be right, but the line "Our great computers fill these hallowed halls" slipped through my mind. -------------
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: July 30 2024 at 02:45
The inner gatefold with the electronic printed circuit board below the Red Star man would indicate that indeed, technology has become the main controlling tool for that authoritarianism. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: July 30 2024 at 06:56
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Rick Wakeman - 1984 Giorgio Mororder - Metropolis Everything by Magma (except for Merci) Some Art Zoyd ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 30 2024 at 11:34
Can you explain a bit about how you see it? ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: July 30 2024 at 20:57
| It's hard to tell but it seems like Phideaux' "Doomsday Afternoon" might qualify |
Posted By: martinprog77
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 02:58
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ZERO HOUR 'the tower of sbarize '' ------------- Nothing can last there are no second chances. Never give a day away. Always live for today. |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 03:21
I think there's a lot of Prog Metal from that era which would fir the description well, including Anubis Gate, Beyond Twilight, Communic, Andromeda, Dominici, which dealt with a future dystopia in one form or another? ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 09:36
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Eloy - "The Light from Deep Darkness", Floating (1974) This epic may symbolize some nightmarish technocracy too, as it looks to be apocalyptic and about some technology, probably atomar, which will destroy the future of the mankind by destroying the entire Earth. Pollution as a reason can maybe be a possibility too. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 14:25
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King Crimson, "Epitaph" was there first. ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 16:31
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King Crimson - "Epitaph" The wall on which the prophets wrote Is cracking at the seams Upon the instruments of death The sunlight brightly gleams When every man is torn apart With nightmares and with dreams Will no one lay the laurel wreath When silence drowns the screams Confusion will be my epitaph As I crawl a cracked and broken path If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying Between the iron gates of fate The seeds of time were sown And watered by the deeds of those Who know and who are known Knowledge is a deadly friend If no one sets the rules The fate of all mankind, I see Is in the hands of fools ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 16:35
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^That song "Epitaph" literally helped me to direct my angst about the American environmental disaster of the late 1960s (rivers catching on fire etc.) and inspired me to pursue work in the environmental field. Music by Yes ("Let them rape the forests" - uh, no way!) helped as well!! This is the result (I am co-founder): http://www.neochloris.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.neochloris.com
------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 31 2024 at 20:46
Some great lyrics!! ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 01 2024 at 06:49
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Van der Graaf Generator - "Pioneers Over C", H to He.... (1970) The space technology, as depicted in this song, seems definitely not to be a good one, either, as an astronaut feels rather bad about being lost in the outer space. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 01 2024 at 23:40
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Did anyone mention "Get 'em out by Friday?" ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 02 2024 at 16:42
Yes, in the political thread.  ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 02 2024 at 20:29
I'd posit that it is more of a nightmarish technocracy song..... ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: August 02 2024 at 23:10
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Yeah but how about something more current? Genesis has been done to death. I would say Surface Tension by Bubblemath sort of fits the bill. Though the lyrics are admittedly a little oblique. Not in a Jon Anderson way, but the true meaning isn't readily apparent and requires further interpretation.
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Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 03 2024 at 07:01
I think, I can see what you mean if "technocracy" includes experts in social and biological matters, and with the Genetic Control agenda. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 03 2024 at 13:28
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Sean, Can you maybe tell what Atoll's L'Araignée-Mal suite is about? Can it be something of what we're looking for? ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 04 2024 at 14:31
Btw,  ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: August 04 2024 at 15:39
I'm not familiar with the lyrics/music of this King Crimson release, but the cover art sure fits the bill for this thread!  ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: August 04 2024 at 23:16
| ^You should listen to it. It's as good as their other material. Though it does not have anything to do witha nightmarish technocracy. |
Posted By: Necrotica
Date Posted: August 05 2024 at 00:03
Exceptional choice for sure. Also, if you want to consider Nevermore a prog metal band, they have a lot of those lyrical themes as well ------------- Take me down, to the underground Won't you take me down, to the underground Why oh why, there is no light And if I can't sleep, can you hold my life https://www.youtube.com/@CocoonMasterBrendan-wh3sd |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 05 2024 at 06:41
Yes, I think you're right, as all the songs/albums, which point at industrialism as a dominant part of the organization and function of societies and of people's life, have to be about technocracy.
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 06 2024 at 07:20
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This thread has been quite busy but at this point of time, it may look to me that Macan kind of exaggurated the amount of Prog about nightmarish technocracy, as he was quite surely talking about the stricktly defined, English Progressive Rock from the '70s, and we haven't find particularly much of that kind. Maybe it was mostly ELP specialty. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 08 2024 at 06:12
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Iconoclasta (Mexico) - Reminiscencias (1985), apocalyptical concept album concerning the danger of nuclear technology and arms race ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 18 2024 at 09:50
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Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (1973) According to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics (1997, p. 78), the lyrics of this album explores those sides of modern industrial society that depersonalize, dehumanize, and ultimately drive people to madness. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: August 20 2024 at 05:25
| I do love the US band called Built For The Future. Their third album from last year 2084: Heretic may qualify although they are delving into Orwellian themes that are more about control and authority rather than technology being out of control. I still want to mention it though as the 'feel' they successfully create is very claustrophobic where the world closing in on you. Terry Gilliam also did this brilliantly in the film Brazil where among many other things technology literally makes an office smaller, not even metophorically! A character played by De Niro also drops in to an apartment and pulls out so much wiring and pipework (in trying to fix it) that the dwelling is virtually rendered uninhabitable. |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: August 23 2024 at 06:18
Is this opinion of yours as Magma being about nightmarish technocracy well in line with this I wrote in another thread about Magma in the '70s?: "Magma had definitely certain thematic preferences and consistency, as well as they seem to be rather socially concerned. Or at least Christian Vander who according to Wikipedia claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magma_(band) )" ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Prog-jester
Date Posted: August 23 2024 at 17:31
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the robots are coming, mankind refuses to procreate, "machines bad" in short |