Why isn't prog popular?

The reason why Prog is not popular is that it is a heavy music listener's genre. A lot of people don't listen to an album the whole year round, they need jingles. Even those who listen to music may not sit down and listen to music for regular extended periods. This is the Ipod century, after all.

I'd suggest out of heavy listeners to music in general there is a high correlation to prog fans (and related high-quality genres).

This is 70-90% of the problem. The other may be the attraction of soft listening, which can be provided by country, soft-pop/rock and in minority, classical, jazz etc.

Wow, my first post!

Edited by Acidchrist - January 21 2011 at 11:35

Edited by The Quiet One - January 21 2011 at 12:00

Everyone has very good reasons why prog may not be popular. The difference now is the availability of media coverage, news at faster than the blink of an eye. There is so much content being thrown at us that to me anything that might have good content gets lost in the distribution....so it can become "un-popular" very quickly in our society.

Different people use music for different things.

The Quiet One wrote: Here's what I think, repeating a bit of what others said:   - It doesn't gratify instant gratification. Check! - It's not danceable, it doesn't go along with your average chick. Check! - Most people don't really care for music as a form of art. Check!   . people don't listen to albums or even whole songs anymore. They just want to download the hit and listen to it repeated times till it's out of fashion.   . people don't really know what they're listening to. Maybe not a bad thing per se, and here comes the part that we (Prog fans and other music fans) are "music nerds". A guy can listen to Enter Sandman and a Nickleback song and think they're the same rock. People don't really listen to the music, if it's catchy so be it, they careless for the musicians and what are they playing.   Yeah, I could think of some more stuff, but I think the basics are there.    That's why I think that a Prog fan generally is meant to broad their music horizons, since they generally appreciate music as a form of art and not simply because it's catchy or hip. They appreciate what they're listening to and dare to search for more art that can satisfy them, plus they give their time for dedication of it.   Not trying to put us, fans, like superhumans or anything.   BTW: this is all coming from a 16 year old guy, so this is what I see between my friends and social group (?).

You have a wise head on young shoulders certainly. The only bit I have a little niggle with is that which I've highlighted in red. Perhaps I'm confusing value with memorability but 'catchy' is really hard (just you try to write a melody that window cleaners, postmen, housewives and their descendants can't stop singing to themselves for years to come)

But otherwise yes, I think you're correct that Prog fans are not necessarily discouraged by music that contains no readily identifiable 'hooks' and that we have many other criteria through which we can discern a value in the music of our choice.




Edited by ExittheLemming - January 21 2011 at 13:15

Because a lot of people don't like it. Having said that more people like it now than has been the case since the mid seventies. My boss, with whom I share a lot of musical interests (we're both music teachers) doesn't care for prog much at all although he does like Radiohead and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. When we were both teenagers in the mid/late seventies he toally bought into the whole "Year Zero" ethos that punk had and has never really got over it. Ultimately he, like many others, finds prog to be pretentious and exclusive not having the "say it brilliantly, say it in three minutes and make sure you can dance to it" attitude that pop music has.

silverpot wrote: zravkapt wrote: Prog was huge in the 1970s, and it's more popular now than it was in the 1980s. Yep. It was actually about the only thing we listened to. We didn't know it was prog though. It was the Punks that gave this kind of music a bad reputation and "music" from these orcs killed peoples apetite for more complex music it seems. At least it has taken until now for it to recover. I think a forum like this shows that this kind of music is gathering momentum again.

Which is why Keith Emerson and Johnny Rotten being the best of friends is sheer perplexity for me.   But seriously....who am I to say why and what for? After all the garbage I've witnessed I must find irony in  this subject in order to survive. I second that motion of the punks giving prog a bad reputation.It's a sad situation and the punks had the power to influence the minds and mentalities of the youth in the 70's. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what really happened to Progressive Rock in the late 70's.

Edited by TODDLER - January 21 2011 at 14:56

By very definition Pop music is popular. It is what the average person hears the most. It is what they hear on the radio, or from TV, or from their friends. Since this is the music they become familiar with, it is the music they end up listening to.

That is why when people are introduced to prog music they might find it "weird" or "pretentious" or even "boring." It is because Pop music has become the standard by which to judge music for most people, and in comparison to pop music, I can see how people would come to those conclusions about prog. They don't really give the music a chance, and just judge it on the surface by how it compares to what they are familiar with.

Also, I think most people are casual music listeners. They don't want to put too much effort into finding music, so they stick to the biggest hits on itunes, and are happy with that. It isn't worth the time, effort, or money to find other forms of music they might like. Why should they when they are perfectly content with the music they already have?

I think Prog music listeners are those that either grew up with it and became familiar with it from their parents (thus, it in a way became their 'pop' music) or were more inclined for adventurous music due to their nature or from being a musician themselves and had friends that introduced them to it or developed a certain flavor for it through their exploration of music. But, I think these are the minority. Most people just listen to what they happen to come across and don't put too much effort in finding new music. Since pop music is the most accesible, that is what they listen to.

But, those are just my random thoughts...

Simple , not everybody is a musician xD