Why isn’t Prog more popular?

Trouserpress wrote: flowerchild wrote: xhamasaki wrote: Fantomas you didnt answer BebieM's post.  Not all music is intelligent and you know it.  Stupid, overblown, childish and pretentious... Hang on... HE'S ELP!!!

Fantômas wrote: fractal wrote: Fantômas wrote: Every music is intelligent. In a "popular catchy" way, or in a "selective" way. But none is more intelligent than other. I beg to differ. You are from Brazil like me. You certainly know certain music genres that are... far less inspired than, say, bossa nova or classic MPB (popular brazilian music). Think a certain comercial-ass-shaking music that has no qualities of its own, just good looking dancers... Axe and Pagode, as an example, are very smart music in the catchy way! For the people who like it, it rocks! It's great to dance (not for me. I hate it). In this sense it's intelligent, because it makes people "dance with it".

I think we disagree in what it means to be "intelligent." I think I would prefer to call it "appealing" or "apropriate" to certain audiences. It might even be an intelligent artist, because he will become rich and sell a lot of his music, but I don't think the music is inherently intelligent (it is, as I said, apropriate, appealing or even well thought out, but it wasn't a good exercise of intellect).

But that raises the question... What is an intelligent music then? I don't like this term and I don't use it. I prefer to use the opposite: dumb and lousy music, just like there are bad poetry.


Edited by fractal

Fantômas wrote: BebieM wrote: Fantômas wrote: Every music is intelligent. In a "popular catchy" way, or in a "selective" way. But none is more intelligent than other. Come on, you can't be serious about that. Even if you don't like bands like Yes and Genesis you still have to admit that more intellect is put in their music than in the average mainstream britney spears album. Don't always try to sum it all up with one statement that's simply not true.   First of all, I don't have to admit ANYTHING because you say I must. In the sense of "musical quality" it's more intelligent, but in the "pop" way it's not. There isn't just one "intellect", it depends of the point you view it.

Oh, great, now that helps. So the argument of "intelligence" is invalid from now on, since fantomas has proven that everything is equally intelligent.
 

Im just saying, if something is intelligent, creative, and unique you'd think that more people would want to listen to it.  Thats why i dont understand why prog isnt more popular.  I have no problem with other forms of music, I guess I just see that not always but much of the time- intelligent, creative, and unique forms of music are followed by intelligent, creative, and unique people.  Thats not to say that people that like other forms of music are stupid!  But I'm weird I consider more styles of music progressive than most people on this board, maybe thats why I come off as being arrogant?  I think that any music that is creative and different sounding, no matter what genre, is progressive.  You just don't usually find people listening to creative, intelligent, and different music that are stupid.

xhamasaki wrote: Im just saying, if something is intelligent, creative, and unique you'd think that more people would want to listen to it.  Thats why i dont understand why prog isnt more popular.  I have no problem with other forms of music, I guess I just see that not always but much of the time- intelligent, creative, and unique forms of music are followed by intelligent, creative, and unique people.  Thats not to say that people that like other forms of music are stupid!  But I'm weird I consider more styles of music progressive than most people on this board, maybe thats why I come off as being arrogant?  I think that any music that is creative and different sounding, no matter what genre, is progressive.  You just don't usually find people listening to creative, intelligent, and different music that are stupid.

It's all subjective. What you consider as being intelligent, I consider boring and pretentious... Got it?

BebieM wrote: Fantômas wrote: BebieM wrote: Fantômas wrote: Every music is intelligent. In a "popular catchy" way, or in a "selective" way. But none is more intelligent than other. Come on, you can't be serious about that. Even if you don't like bands like Yes and Genesis you still have to admit that more intellect is put in their music than in the average mainstream britney spears album. Don't always try to sum it all up with one statement that's simply not true.   First of all, I don't have to admit ANYTHING because you say I must. In the sense of "musical quality" it's more intelligent, but in the "pop" way it's not. There isn't just one "intellect", it depends of the point you view it. Oh, great, now that helps. So the argument of "intelligence" is invalid from now on, since fantomas has proven that everything is equally intelligent.

Yes, you shouldn't use the term "intelligent music", because every music requires a little intelligence to be made...

xhamasaki wrote: Im just saying, if something is intelligent, creative, and unique you'd think that more people would want to listen to it.  Thats why i dont understand why prog isnt more popular.  I have no problem with other forms of music, I guess I just see that not always but much of the time- intelligent, creative, and unique forms of music are followed by intelligent, creative, and unique people.  Thats not to say that people that like other forms of music are stupid!  But I'm weird I consider more styles of music progressive than most people on this board, maybe thats why I come off as being arrogant?  I think that any music that is creative and different sounding, no matter what genre, is progressive.  You just don't usually find people listening to creative, intelligent, and different music that are stupid.

mate prog rock does not have many fans because it is not an easy listening style of music. that's half of the truth. the other half is that prog rock might sound a bit 'old' in some people's ears, but believe me if bands like yes/king crimson/ jethrotull and smaller bands still exist that means they sell enough otherwise they wouldn't do it.

Well, I love this topic - it makes me laugh. The arguments between xhamasaki and fantomas are so funny, and trouserpress is trying to play arbitrator. All that xhamasaki wants to hear is: "yes, dear Xhamasaki - prog is not popular because most people are idiots and you, my lovely, as long as you listen to prog, are very intelligent and clever person, your mighty brain is full of great thoughts and ideas, and same goes to all of us here - so you can be proud of the fact that finally you belong to the bunch of intellectual elite of the world."

Frankly, I think that progressive music is very demanding, and serious listening to it can be very time consuming, therefore any prog fan should have quite a lot of free time. Luckily my job allows me time to listen to serious music, however I know lots of highly intellectual people who just cannot afford to listen to prog due to lack of time, when they have a moment they would rather go for something undemanding and easy - sort of musical background while doing other things.   

Tony R wrote:

...anytime Tony Rough, ..anytime...

ps, thanks for the pic, I collect moving pictures...

I guess I just wish mtv and other media would actually go out there and promote prog.  We are all on the same team here.  I just wish it could get more exposure than the likes of kelly clarkson,etc