Prog or pop?

Based on what currently floats around in the charts, I'm not sold on this assertion that "it takes as much talent to write a 3 minute pop song as it does to write a progressive suite" after all.

Not that I can't appreciate some pop music, but if I like a popular band they're usually post-punk that has sold well.


Edited by laplace - June 19 2006 at 14:32

I think it is a matter of what you really want from being in a band.

There is essentially an option for people who want to start a band and have the ability to go places with it. Do I want to play the music I want and love to play for the fun and the experience in attempt to bring what I think is good music into the world, or do I play the music I don't really like in order to become well-known and rich?

I think that with the 70's prog bands, like any other musicians that have risen to a good amount of fame, they want to keep their status and fame the same, and appeal to thier fans, get new ones, and avoid other new bands that are also becoming more famous.

Bands like Yes and Genesis obviously saw that the prog thing wasn't working out, so they had to do something to keep their fame. They essentially had 2 options.

1. loose the fame they had in order to not make mainstream music, which I'm sure was virtually impossible for them because they could not imagine giving up all they had done just for the music.

2. Continue on playing, but writing more commercial and mainstream music than before in order to keep thier status the same.

It's a question that's been with me for a long time, and now I'd like you to share your opinion, or to make one if you don't have it!

Why a musician with enough skills to write 3 minutes-billion dollar pop songs would write instead 20+ minutes songs (sometimes struggling at that) and (mostly) go nowhere?

This thought raised from the fact that most prog musicians (I'm speaking mainly of the old guard of prog) got their reputations when they performed complicated and experimental songs, but made real money only when they got to play more simple and "ordinary" music.

As main example, I could bring GENESIS and YES. It's interesting to note that the music these and other groups made money with is generally bashed by the strictly-prog audience, when the overall quality of those songs, if compared to other kinds of music released at the same time, is largely superior.

Another case in point is an album I love, "Holidays in Eden" by Marillion, that's not highly rated in this site, but contains many killer songs like "No One Can", "Cover My Eyes" and many others... This is a great pop album by a prog group!

I know it's a matter of inspiration and tastes, and everyone should write, play and listen to what he wants, but inspiration comes in many ways and forms; if you want only 30 minutes suites from your favourite bands, maybe you are killing 10 great "small" songs...