Wonder why so many prog bands come from Sweden?

My personal theory - it's a reaction to growing up and being forcefed music like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS5FrHiO-9Q

I don't know, really. This thing started in the late 60's or 70's - and is as popular as ever in Sweden (and Norway too when it comes to that).

Even the third rate tier of bands playing this music (imagine what that sounds like...) will sell loads more than your average prog band.

That must be why so many metal bands come from Sweden too.....

^ I didn't mean to isolate the phenomenon, just add it as a counterweight to the horrible dansband music 

Jonas Reingold (bass player from The Flower Kings) gave his opinion on this, but on a more general level:

PA: And what do you think of the music scene in Sweden right now? It seems very fertile.

JR: Yeah, I think that the average climate for music is very good! Not that they’re all getting gigs everywhere, I kind of think the gig scene is pretty low everywhere… but we’re the third biggest exporter of music in the world, and I think that’s pretty good considering our population. I believe that United States is number one and then England is 2 and then we’re number 3, so it’s a big success internationally, and we love that. There was a time in the late 90s where we really dominated on the Billboard list with guys like Max Martin and those guys who wrote songs for Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears and Celine Dion, and I think there was a specific week when Max Martin had number 1, 2, 3,4 and 5 on the charts and that’s only happened once before with the Beatles in ’64 or ’65 or something. I think it’s because of that and I think it’s because the parents can read that people are actually making money from music and it’s considered a good business here in Sweden. If you sell a million records you will make a good amount of money, so, they’re encouraging kids to play and we have a good education system here in Sweden where the parents can put their kids into a music school. I went to that school and they just had to pay a very, very low fee to have your kid in a musical school – I think it’s like fifty bucks a year or something – plus you can rent an instrument for fifty bucks more. Its nothing! So it’s a good system where anyone can start to play, and we have rehearsal rooms and studios where people can go and practice and form bands, and we have programs to try and keep the kids off the streets, just focusing on good, positive things like music or art. So we’re harvesting the benefits of what we started, like, 25 years ago - right now.  There’s a lot of bands playing and of course Abba opened the door in the 70s. There’s a lot of reasons, but it’s because we had things in place to do that, we had programs to keep them out of the streets and to stay productive.

Sweden has months with no sun- doesn't it. What else can you do?

Windhawk wrote: My personal theory - it's a reaction to growing up and being forcefed music like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS5FrHiO-9Q

CPicard wrote: jplanet wrote: I think it's one of the few countries where a prog musician can still actually make a living... Since when being a musician can make a living??? Especially, a musician working in such a disliked genre as prog rock?! More seriously, I doubt it. I don't think that the musicians from Anglagard, Anekdoten, Flower Kings or others are on the poverty line, but I would be curious to see their monthly wages. Not as high as the ones of the ABBA, Ace of Base or Roxette members, I guess...

Edited by RoidRageOnStage - November 16 2008 at 07:10

^ In communist Sweden prog funds you  (hopefully)

I remember reading that TFK were started with a pretty sizable government grant that Roine Stolt received, so yes, in Sweden , at least, there appears to be a more broadly applied approach to public funding for music.  In the US what little money that is left coming to the arts (sine the NEA has all but dried up and blown away) goes to classical music which has no chance whatsoever of making a dollar in this country.  And believe me, as someone who has applied for a number of the remaining grants for my classical music endeavors, the odds of getting one of them is miniscule.  The number of applicants for the few grants available is huge and they seem to be awarded to the friends (and nephews) of those holding the purse.