Trollin' Polls Vol. 1: Dream Theater vs. Magma

I love Magma, but I love DT more. I know, how pedestrian.

Triceratopsoil wrote: Logan wrote: Anthony H. wrote: Man, this is even pissing me off, and I'm the one who started the poll.  I started this poll just to see the massive avant-snobbery of the people here, and oh my god is it working. Bravo, best troll post yet! I don't see any avant-snobbery, I see people honestly discussing a band that they love.  You're some kind of anti-avant snob, Anthony

The trollishness of this poll is even sucking me in! I must cease.

Dream Theater is more popular than Magma, so they have to be doing something right.

Maybe that thing could be writing actual songs and not singing gobbledygook over 13th chords any monkey could play.

Textbook wrote: It's funny, I used to think DT were going to go down as a legend of prog, but now it seems their legacy is unravelling. The more time passes, the more people seem to view them as cheesy and over-rated. Maybe they won't be remembered so well after all.

Indeed, DT in the fullness of time will barely leave a crease in the Prog pillow.

ExittheLemming wrote: Textbook wrote: It's funny, I used to think DT were going to go down as a legend of prog, but now it seems their legacy is unravelling. The more time passes, the more people seem to view them as cheesy and over-rated. Maybe they won't be remembered so well after all. Indeed, DT in the fullness of time will barely leave a crease in the Prog pillow.

Prog pillow!   Yeah, it's funny, maybe as we move further and further from that decade, people find it harder and harder to digest 80s music, as in the typical cheesy, oversaturated 80s elements (heaven knows there was good music in that decade too).  Nevertheless, Magma-ism courtesy chief Kobaian Logan must be in full force now or the DT fans must have disappeared for the voting beggars belief at the moment.      Voted for Magma, btw.  I am no avant-snob but I am no prog metal fanboy either.  

I knew that Magma would win this, because I know the people who regularly post on these forums. I don't mind them winning, because the music that they make is incredible. The problem that I have with DT haters is that they for some reason take pride in the fact that they don't like the band, which is the very definition of snobbery.

Also, DT are certainly going to be viewed fondly in generations to come. They're one of the bands who helped bring prog into this generation of listeners; you can't deny that, whether you like them or not. Their music is near and dear to the hearts of many people (including myself). If you don't like them, then that's no big deal, but don't insist that there's some sort of objective problem with their music.

I've heard very little Magma, but for what I've heard on the clips posted here and what I searched on Youtube, I'm pretty sure it's not my thing (well, their were a pair of clips that were somewhat easier to digest than the rest). On the other hand, I really like DT a lot, so that's my vote.

Anthony H. wrote: but don't insist that there's some sort of objective problem with their music.

IF technical exhibitionism is not a problem for you, then yes there's nothing wrong with their music.  Most DT fans refuse to acknowledge this and yet the Rudess years reek of exhibitionism to my ears and most other people who have this complaint(I really like the Moore albums, speaking of which).  And I don't 'discriminate':  I don't like Karn Evil 9 as much as I used to because a lot of it now feels like "Look, I am Keith Emerson, the best keyboardist in the history of music" when the much more controlled Dave Stewart could have shown him a thing or two.   Likewise, maybe you don't mind a cheesy and overemotive style of singing so much but that is the complaint most people who don't like La Brie's vocals have of his singing.   

stonebeard wrote: I agree. It's a fault in my own taste that I don't like Justin Beiber that much, but at least I recognize that. Not as much I can say for Magma fans who apparently value long, female-repellent beards over a good tune.

And Kohntarkohz pt-2 does not have melody? It's more gorgeous than DT's cliched AOR/glam-y vocal melodies.  And what about Coltrane Sundae?  And if it's just about a good tune, why are we all on a prog forum anyway? I am not saying that all prog should be, in the words of Exitthelemming, only the heinously weird, atonal, free-form, balloon animal strangling extremes of modern jazz but prog is about expanding the frontiers of what's possible, right?

Anthony H. wrote: I knew that Magma would win this, because I know the people who regularly post on these forums. I don't mind them winning, because the music that they make is incredible. The problem that I have with DT haters is that they for some reason take pride in the fact that they don't like the band, which is the very definition of snobbery. Also, DT are certainly going to be viewed fondly in generations to come. They're one of the bands who helped bring prog into this generation of listeners; you can't deny that, whether you like them or not. Their music is near and dear to the hearts of many people (including myself). If you don't like them, then that's no big deal, but don't insist that there's some sort of objective problem with their music.