Artsy pop rock and prog (soft or frentic approch)

1) I se this Roxy Music topic and my love for both of these Art Rock/pop bands just grows and grows (hoped it is spelled right), it seem's strange enough that after joining the archives i'm becoming more found of catchy rock bands who use all that prog is good for but are still creating cool, catchy, hooked and funny songs that to me is the ultimate musicianship when progressive rock influece merges with exs soft rock to create wonderfull pieces off music. 10cc is the masters of this all their songs are catchy enough but have enough quirk to make it stand out. otherwise they would never be accepted in this archives. like the song Im not in Love and People in Love.

don't misunderstand I love Progressive Rock (Symphonic prog, Heavy prog, Neo prog, Eclectic Prog, Post rock, Metal, folk and some Jazz/fusion) even though I am slow to bye records from all this, (many crucial albums i don't have).

2) also some of my own vision off prog have been challanged here and that is good (not that I have commented about that ), when I read in reviews that the KC song Epitaph or Talk to the Wind is ballads and not prog,  for me to write a good ballad as a prog rock band is as much acquierd as to have the abilaty to create a frentic complex songs, heavy melodic song, dissonance rock,
off course it is twelve string guitars (i think), flute, soft jazzy drums, sax and to me that is as much progressive rock/folk as frentic jazzy passages with tons of dissonance, flying arpeggios, unisons and etcetera.

my favourite is the albums that balances the frentic, the haunting, the soft, the dark, the bright, sludgy, have to be impressive, elegant, goosebumpability but it should also bring tears, a smile, a warm feeling in the chest.

well this is probably two topics but as I become more used to this site I have seen it done before, and as for spelling English is not my native language, (actually I study phonetics now so spelling should NOT be my problem, but I have to blame dyslecsia  for that)









Edited by aginor - March 18 2010 at 18:25

I commonly like contrast in my music.

A lot of us, as Lucas said in his post, appreciate good pop songs, and the skill needed to write them. Thankfully, those who consider pop as the ultimate evil are fewer than you would think - I'd like to believe that most of us on this site are lovers of good music, first and foremost.

As to the example you brought in your post - albums balancing a 'softer' and a 'darker' side - I cannot think of a better example than Supertramp's Crime of the Century, or even Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure.

Raff wrote: A lot of us, as Lucas said in his post, appreciate good pop songs, and the skill needed to write them. Thankfully, those who consider pop as the ultimate evil are fewer than you would think - I'd like to believe that most of us on this site are lovers of good music, first and foremost. As to the example you brought in your post - albums balancing a 'softer' and a 'darker' side - I cannot think of a better example than Supertramp's Crime of the Century, or even Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure.

I might recommend two somewhat similar albums:

Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Alan Parson's Project

War of the Worlds - Jeff Wayne

Both are (as it will soon become obvious) based on classic works of fiction, but both also balance artsier material with a contemporary popular style. Certainly the marriage between early seventies radio pop married with art rock is easier to stomach in Tales of Mystery and Imagination (the first side is genius), but I find the disco/prog hybrid of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds (believe it!) more rewarding. 

Oh, and, if you're in for something more classic rock sounding, Jethro Tull's Living in the Past compilation is 90% art pop (fused with jazz, blues, folk, etc.) at its finest. 

Edited by The Whistler - April 10 2010 at 03:39