Do you read Prog magazine?

Raff wrote: Not since one of their reviewers disparaged music not sung in English. As a non-native speaker of English and a language professional, I found this attitude so intolerable that I even wrote a blog post about it. I have much better uses for $ 15, and I can find much better reviews on the Internet (though I am one of those few remaining people who still love books and magazines made of paper).

Agreed Raff.  The attitude they chose to publish about Italian language prog equates to low creditability in my book.  Why would I support that?  And you are right in that we have a handful of writers right here who smoke the reviewers in that mag. 

I just bought it, for the first - and probably last time.  I bought it at the international press shop at the railway station.  It cost € 19.20 - way too expensive, and I dithered quite a while before I decided to buy it.  My impression is that they consider a lot of things "prog" which have only a most tangential relationship to progressive rock as I understand it; basically, it seems to me that they consider everything "prog" which has long songs.  Also, it is too UK-centric.  The German Eclipsed magazine, as disappointing it is these days, does a better job to me.  They also have a very broad scope, but at least, they don't consider all that stuff "prog".  And it is much cheaper.

I buy the occasional issue, based on who the main focus is about. But most of the bands featured are not prog in the traditional sense. They are indie rock/alternative crossover rock/metal bands, which I don't have a problem with but misleading to the title of the magazine.

Dean wrote:

Exactly

The Dark Elf wrote: Why bother with a magazine when one has the internet?

Why bother with buying albums, or going to gigs, or browsing a friend's record collection, when one has the internet?

Why bother with a magazine when one has the internet?

Hi,

Editorial aside ...

If learning about the music, and finding new music, is what you need, PA is probably the best around. If all you want is the nice picture of Deep Purple, Keith, or Rick, then I guess a magazine like that comes through. No posters, though!

If you want serious discussion, some not perfect, but the main ideas are all actually discussed, I don't think that anywhere can be better than PA.

As Dean mentioned, the folks writing these things were the same folks that tore into the music we love, and appreciate, and I have NEVER been a fan of their writing and their very obvious commercial kisses, so they could get another free album, or a new KISS leather pants!

I came from a house with a huge music library, and even the Beatles and Rolling Stones, that we had since 1964 along with Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte, Ella Fitzgerald, Gilbert Becaud, Edith Piaf, Amalia Rodrigues, Maria Betania and many others were not as big or important ... other than merely popsters ... until one day, there was a searing attack on one song by one of these, that basically said ... this is the end ... this is the difference, and from that day on, I did not need a magazine to tell me if the Beatles were good, (it all went down hill on their own for my tastes), and all the others ... got older!

But by that time, the rock press was getting insidious and ridiculous, and only concerned with "being cool" with these stars, and not caring about the music and the work itself. No one can say anything bad about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones ... they are the biggest GODS of them all!

I'm not cynical enough to say that some folks' music choices are not great. Guy Guden's were spectacular and his show had it for more than 20 years' though that picture of his is getting too cartoonish for my tastes ... and some folks here, in their write ups also have some serious appreciation for a lot of music, and their suggestions are worth the attention ... but in general, I have not bought a whole lot of anyone's suggestions in the past 5 years ... I have instead purged my LP collection. But some of those magazines, are not helping you go out and buy that other stuff ... the major articles are all on the "stars" that helped "sell" the magazine! ND you already got the albums, anyway!

What else do you need to know?

Edited by moshkito - March 07 2015 at 11:12

Toaster Mantis wrote: The only major international music magazine I read on a regular basis is Mojo.

I like the magazine. Lots of cool pictures and some good writing, a bit overly-sensationalistic at times but I find that quite funny!

One thing I enjoy is the fact that such a magazine exists and I can stop by the local Chapters/Indigo and buy it. Amazing, and would have been unheard of 10 years ago.

Ken

I used to but got tired of the expensive price and misinformed reviews.

Edited by AtomicCrimsonRush - August 20 2014 at 05:55