Is prog still an underground genre?

Hi,

In my experience, in Santa Barbara with Space Pirate Radio and Guy Guden, there was no such thing as "underground", and he played anything from here to Pluto and back, that would make PA look silly, and picky!

The issue, in my book, is that folks think that the only "validity" there is to ANY MUSIC out there is that it "sells", and that "my friend has it". And that is a very poor look at the album, the music and the artist, and it makes for a sad representation of the music. AND, to think that those folks are the ones that created the "perception" of the definition of "progressive" (and later "prog"), and decided that one set of bands were top tier and the others were bottom tier.

In my book, and experience, when you do that, you have, in effect, shut down a lot of your ability to listen to VASTLY different things, and you end up (later) comparing everything to thosse favorites, and thus making it very difficult to find, appreciate, and even listen to, anything new and interesting ... because it sounds the same as it employs a Farfisa organ, and too many bands already did that, or a Mellotron and many bands already did that!

There were at the time, and even today on the radio FM dial, a few college stations that are a bit way out there in playing this or that, and some have hard core rap, or hard core progressive, and hard core this or that, a lot of which we do not listen to or discuss. I mean, I first heard BENT KNEE on one of these places, not even on PA!

Music is everywhere, and there are all kinds. The only "underground" is what our MIND decides, since you are not in another city or area to even know that such a band was actually known in their area, and sold well. 

It's never what we think ... but we like to use that as an excuse for the truth. And I hate the thought that NY and Tokyo will always sell more than anyone else, and therefore everyone else from a small town can not possibly be progressive or play prog, because no one is listening to them ... it's just a horrible way to look at music, and we, specially here on PA, should not be doing that!

We need to respect the music better. The only underground is in our minds. Why would we even mention the bands, otherwise?

NP: XTC - Wake Up!