Top 10 Reasons Why Metal Eclipses Prog

There, I said it. No, no, I'm not a metal head - I'm just a card carrying progger simply amazed (and aghast) at how big metal is compared to my beloved art rock. One might really have to strain hard to find 10 reasons, but I've noticed there's quite a number of fine essayists on this site who could probably toss this thread aside in no time with definitive thoughts on why prog is lagging behind metal in popularity. I suppose I'm also looking in anticipation for a few good belly laughs, so be perfectly forthright with your sardonic evaluations.

SteveG wrote: Prog is not my first musical love either, RN. I can only take so much of it at a time. But what are your reasons for metal trumping prog?

I don't care to give any reasons. I'm only interested in the opinions of others. And I never said prog is not my "first musical love." In fact, it is.

Rednight wrote: SteveG wrote: Prog is not my first musical love either, RN. I can only take so much of it at a time. But what are your reasons for metal trumping prog? I don't care to give any reasons. I'm only interested in the opinions of others. And I never said prog is not my "first musical love." In fact, it is.

My bad RN, but it seems that you have some like for metal. True or not?


Edited by SteveG - October 30 2014 at 10:58

The one reason why Metal eclipses Prog I can think of is this:

Edited by someone_else - October 30 2014 at 11:07

To be honest I can't help with anything else but agreeing with RN when I see its crescent popularity compared to prog, its more aggressive style fits perfectly for a huge and massive invasion of 'kill-destroy-kill-detroy' video games in my country.  But obviously not everything from this genre is trash metal.

I would find that the kinds of metal you are talking about and the kinds of metal fans you are talking about would make for different reasons. Some are into metal because of the emergence of critically acclaimed acts like Alcest, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Sunn O))). Others are into metal because of a kneejerk reaction to pop music, with the nearest thing to them requiring technical skill being metalcore. Some are into metal via proto-metal via classic rock. Some are into metal after digging through their older brothers CD collection. I also know people for whom the only good prog and the only good metal to be found are in prog metal. You probably would be better off looking at the different sub-genres and fans instead of the qualities of the genre itself.

someone_else wrote: The one reason why Metal eclipses Prog I can think of is this: It is the way of the world that the ones who sw**k loudest shout down the others.

Case in point - check out the ad banners on PA at any given time.  Metal is really good at promoting itself.  And yeah, metal fans are generally pretty "out-front" about their tastes, to put it diplomatically.


Edited by HolyMoly - October 30 2014 at 12:09

I started seriously obsessing over music with metal, so I do love metal. I never really liked the extreme metal direction, so I stuck to early/proto metal, thrash, power metal, and prog metal. But prog...it just seems to have way more variety and fewer boundaries. It's true what rogerthat mentioned about pop, because that's one of the reasons I relate to prog fans more than metal fans.
Both reject mainstream pop but for different reasons.
1. To metal fans, the opposite of pop is being dark, shocking, and tough/masculine.
2. To proggers, the opposite of mainstream pop is being creative, unpredictable, and boundary pushing, which usually come off as less catchy.
Even when I only listened to metal, it needed to meet the latter criteria for me to accept it, whereas the former was an afterthought. That's why I made the switch, I think. As for some of the ten reasons, I'd agree with some. It's definitely "cooler" and gets more chicks, and definitely singers like Rob Halford totally slay every vocalist in prog (though even he was influenced by Peter Hammill). However, I wouldn't say the instrumental playing is necessarily better. It can get repetitive playing metal and not very creative. I think it was Rob Zombie who said every metal band gets their riffs from Sabbath, and while that's not entirely true (more like from Schizoid Man haha), I agree with the sentiment that playing minor key, distorted riffs is nothing new and has become overdone.
I also strongly disagree with the lyrics being better. I typically only really cared for the sound of metal, and the few bands I liked lyrically were the more literate, thought-provoking bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica. There's so much more to life than death, the devil, fist-pumping, and all those metal cliches that many fall into. It's not that prog doesn't have it's standard themes, but I don't think prog necessitates any theme. It's that prog themes will go wherever mainstream culture has left a gap.

well, i think metal was more popular than prog from the beginning, even though they crossed multiple times since then.

It wasn't true in the seventies though unless you count Purple and Zep as metal.