Why isn't prog as successful as metal as an indus

idk, when I was into metal in a big way, I knew people who didn't per se have much patience with complex music of any kind but loved extreme metal.  In extreme metal, the complexity or inaccessibility is more of a by product.  The intended purpose of harsh vocals, crushing riffs and really fast drumming is more to convey aggression.  Metalheads love how aggressive the music is.  This is why those who like 'real metal' often mock power metal because it is seen as too happy sounding and lacking the aggression or, to use the appropriate metal terminology, brutality that is an essential component of metal.  Prog doesn't have any one particular hook that way to draw in listeners.  That is simultaneously its strength and weakness.  It demands a lot of patience and perseverance from the listener (who has to be a really intrepid sort to begin with) to start loving prog.  But on the flipside, it is less boxed in and more open to possibilities.  In theory.  In practice, of course, nostalgic yearning for things that sound like "made in the 1970s" seems to have swept all over prog in recent years.

You cute one  maybe the cause might be us, the so called prog fans who are too critical to see beyond anything good, especially the great contributions new bands are bringing to us. Instead of being happy we tend to undermine them and this is wrong. xxx  

In 1970, intelligent kids would question Black Sabbath's "The Wizard". They would react ..."Okay, I've read many books on wizards" and the lyrics in this song are kind of plain and simple, lacking the essence of surreal art. Other people were obsessed with the lyrics , not thinking of them as shabby and wanted to have a role playing game with those lyrics which made them feel very good...as if they were part of something that had a  supernatural connection and for their very small agenda. Then a few years later, more kids were interested in a role play or adapting the song personally to themselves than questioning it and the Metal community grew to be large and powerful. Metal music had the power to lure in the youth and I even think of that process as hypnotic rather than compacting people and claiming that it is totally up to the individual who hears the music, likes it, buys it, and sets the example of living the perfectly normal life. To understand an artist, you cannot allow their work to overshadow your thinking process. You must occasionally back off and allow your own thoughts to resurface, no matter how lured in you are by their music. Obviously..not many people were thinking for themselves...because Metal was quite the opposite with it's style of album covers, lyricism, subject matter, and driving "Speed Metal" volume. It created a personality and a mentality that was quite different than Spinal Tap, (although they had the hair), as there wasn't an abundance of pathetic humor ..unless it was sadistic in nature. It definitely had a huge impact on the youth of the 80's and 90's and the Metal bands were presented through the news media as the ideal candidates of corruption to the minds and mentalities OF the youth and there was no doubt the government got involved ...which was sometimes laughable

 

I certainly hope so, unlike certain cult killings in New Jersey  where one or two perpetrators are convicted and the rest involved are not.

 

Of course it was business! However...do you think that kids in the 80's and 90's thought about that? Because the answer is mostly no and the evidence that they were unaware or could care less was submitted to me when I played for these kinds of audiences. The recording industry knows that all too well and it's a means of exploiting the youth so that the "baby boomer" parents would hand out money for their kids. The kids may have bought the albums discreetly because it may have been forbidden by their parents, but the sales were skyrocketing and sh-t didn't hit the fan until kids turned up dead with pentagrams carved in their foreheads.

 

And yes, commodities like occult tinged metal from Iron Maiden to Slayer still sell, if a bit less, and always will.