A Call to Musical Arms

In the wake of the recent melee over the latest Proto-Prog addition, I feel it is time for me to speak up. This is not about the merits of any band in Proto or Related, but I think there is an overt amount of attention paid to those bands. There have been many new full prog bands added, but you hardly see anyone talking about them. With the Exception of Erik's "Symphonic Progressive Rock Appreciation Thread," most of the activity in the "Prog Music Lounge" is about the same big names. Even then, I find it to be one of the less active lounges.

It's time for us to ask ourselves why we are here. Progressive music is supposed to be the focus of the site. I also think that many of us came here with hopes of discovering something new. However, that can't happen if we are only talking about the most well know artists, or proto/related artists that are played daily on every classic rock station.

So, I am embarking on a crusade to bring forth new artists, and hidden old gems. I plan on starting threads dedicated to this venture. Erik already started a while back, but we need more. I hope I will find support in this venture. It's a good bet that most of what I bring up will be symphonic, because that's what I know best. I am looking to others to unveil some of their lesser-known favorites.

So what do you say? Let's (prog) Rock!

Got a band you like that the bulk of the people around here don't know about? Start talking about it. I have begun one thread already in the Prog Music Lounge.

What I am pushing here is discussion about the vast number of bands already listed on the site. I couldn't even list the number of Symphonic bands, off the top of my head, that never get mentioned.

Yes! Let's have some threads about bands like Embryo, Erlkoenig, Centipede, Flairck, and many many others that are rarely mentioned.

It's a very good idea, actually. Very "healthy".

If I made a topic about pelican, would any of you all check it?

There's an old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". The simple fact is that people tend to focus on bands they are familiar with. You only have to look at the number of views of threads about less well known bands to see how they are ignored.

Easy Livin wrote: There's an old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". The simple fact is that people tend to focus on bands they are familiar with. You only have to look at the number of views of threads about less well known bands to see how they are ignored.   The proto prog and prog related sections serve well to bring people into the site. We would not have been nearly as successful without them. The challenge for our collaborators is therefore, now that we have them here, how do we educate them in the wide range of music which is here?   The obvious answer would be to share the music, but that brings with it copyright issues. So what can we do to encourage people to investigate and discuss less well known bands.   I don't have the answers. What I would say though is don't blame the PR and PP categories, without them many of our members would not be here to present the prog bands to.

I am under no illusion that the old discussions won't continue as always. However, there are plenty of members here that have the lesser known stuff, but still get dragged into the the topics concerning the well covered artists. I am just trying to encourage some alternate topics. I'm sure there are members that want to discover some of these oddities that we love. There are also people that never get the chance to talk about these bands, because they think no one wants to.

bhikkhu wrote: kazansky wrote: Jimbo wrote: I personally haven't found the energy to create such threads knowing that they'll only get 0-3 responses exactly what i thought. most people will simply ignore them, especially when it comes to a certain sub-genre Really? Take a look at my "Special New Artist" thread, or Erik's "Symphonic Appreciation" thread.

yep, i started a few in the past. that's why i said that