About the top 100

Hey Tony R! Which one is you and which is your brother?

These band defined the genre.. blah blah they are the best of the genre blah blah ELP are good... blah blah.

Hogwash.

The reason for the top 100 consisting of albums from a select few bands, is simple. People don't know that many albums, nor have they listened to enough albums to review albums relatively relatively. Relativity is the key when making a top 100. You don't have to know all albums in prog-rock to know that 'The Snow Goose' is a masterpiece, but you have to know a great deal when composing a top 100.

Conclusion: The top 100 list doesn't represent the top 100 albums of the genre, but are based on this site's reviewer's rating, and amount of ratings.

BaldJean wrote: I stated that from being the most popular you can't derive they are the best, and I'll stick with that. And it is certainly true in many cases that bands are simply overrated by the majority. My personal opinion is that about 10-20% of what is very popular also is very good, compared with the unpopular stuff. But mere popularity of a certain band or album says absolutely nothing about the quality.

Well, in prog it does. 'cause prog is a genre of music that is NOT regarded as popular!!!

BaldJean wrote: I stated that from being the most popular you can't derive they are the best, and I'll stick with that. And it is certainly true in many cases that bands are simply overrated by the majority. My personal opinion is that about 10-20% of what is very popular also is very good, compared with the unpopular stuff. But mere popularity of a certain band or album says absolutely nothing about the quality.

I respectfully disagree with you. I would like you to tell me who YOU think are the top 5 best progressive rock artists in YOUR opinion.

Also, you have not commented on my view that all the artists that I mentioned (Genesis, Miles Davis, Mozart, Bob Marley, etc.) are very good. Do you disagree? I doubt you do, which is why your argument fails to hold up.

The top100 is actually based on the number of rating instead of the actual overall note of the album.

Dream Theater's Train of Thought is 14th with a 3.24 rating! (297 reviews) This is one of the most contreversial album on the site. It's far from being the best DT album, it's a lot more metal than prog, and it's actually pretty bad in my opinion. I accept somes like it, but well, number 14 on a top100 prog album ever!?!

Pink Floyd's Division Bell is 47th with a 3.76 rating. (88 Reviews) Not a bad album, but well...

Radiohead's OK Computer is 82th with a 3.87 rating. (55 reviews) Not bad for an album which isn't considered prog by many people, including Radiohead members.

AcdcFan411 wrote: U guys dont know the meaning of a great band, the best band is ac dc Top Ten Ac/Dc cds 1Jailbreak 2Razors edge 3 DirtyDeedsDoneDirtCheap 4 ACDC Live 5 Let There Be Rock 6 Stiff upper lip 7 Sattilite blues 8 High Voltage 9 Back In Black 10 Powerage

No dissrespect, but are you sure you've come to the right web-site???...or are you just kidding.....???

AcdcFan411 wrote: U guys dont know the meaning of a great band, the best band is ac dc Top Ten Ac/Dc cds 1Jailbreak 2Razors edge 3 DirtyDeedsDoneDirtCheap 4 ACDC Live 5 Let There Be Rock 6 Stiff upper lip 7 Sattilite blues 8 High Voltage 9 Back In Black 10 Powerage

ACDC must be one of the rock bands I dislike the most, I can't stand a single tune... so shall I throw my 5000+ albums out with the garbage since they must be crap?

BaldJean wrote: flowerchild wrote: BaldJean wrote: I stated that from being the most popular you can't derive they are the best, and I'll stick with that. And it is certainly true in many cases that bands are simply overrated by the majority. My personal opinion is that about 10-20% of what is very popular also is very good, compared with the unpopular stuff. But mere popularity of a certain band or album says absolutely nothing about the quality. Well, in prog it does. 'cause prog is a genre of music that is NOT regarded as popular!!! That's neither true for prog nor is it true for any other genre of music (or, for that matter, art or cinema or literature or whatever). Personal preference plays a big role, of course. I have a certain dislike for bands tht are too willinglky pleasing for the ear. I already quoted the Japanese tea-master Kobori Enshu before and do it again here:  "I used to praise the artist because he created what I liked. Now I praise myself because I like what the artist has chosen for me." What Kobori Enshu wants to say with that is that an artist should not try to create something that is pleasing for the listener, he should create what what he likes no matter if anyone else likes it. Most bands don't follow this rule, because it simply doesn't pay off financially, so they create what the audience wants to hear. Once again I want to state that I don't expect the artist to deliberately create something most people don't like, he just shouldn't care about it. And very few artists nowadays have this integrity.

I agree with you on this! BUT, I still think that TRUE prog IS a genre that holds VERY much of what you seem to like. Otherwise, why prog???

BaldJean wrote: I disagree in the case of Bob Marley; he is overrated. And I happen to prefer Beethoven to Mozart (though I have nothing against Mozart; he just isn't my favorite classical composer. But he wrote my favorite opera, "Don Giovanni"). As to my personal top 5 in Prog: I don't even know if I have any, but I think if pressed  I'd would certainly put Gong among them. Probably Magma too, and Embryo (a band no-one ever lists). Peter Hammill (including VdGG), and Guru Guru. Or possibly King Crimson. As to Genesis: They certainly defined the genre, but on the whole they are a little too tame to be rated at the very top. I respect them and even like them, but not absolutely top.

Both Embryo and Guru Guru is at my top 5  :)

And to me Genesis ain't bad at all but nothing like Yes, King Crimson & Pink Floyd to name a few.

gdub411 wrote: Okay...you kiddies need another lesson. The Top 100 list is based on number of reviews that were given to that band....nothing else....take Piper At the Gates of Dawn(rated at 31) has a 3.99 rating whereas In the Land of Grey and Pink(rated at 50) has a 4.61... ALL THE LIST IS IS THE 100 ALBUMS THAT HAVE BEEN REVIEWED THE MOST! End of lesson.

Sorry, gdub411, but that's not correct. The Top 100 is based on both the number of ratings per album AND the value of each rating for an album. See the following thread for a detailed explanation:

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4038

particularly my two very long posts on the 3rd and 4th pages of that thread. That thread also should hopefully make it clear why just using the arithmetic mean alone is not a good way of ranking albums. The current algorithm takes into account how many people like/dislike an album and by how much they like/dislike it.

This topic is perennial. Hell will freeze over on the day every Prog fan independently comes up with an identical list of Top 100 albums. I suppose the fun is in the discussion. It's all subjective at the end of the day: one man's meat is another man's poison.