Why is prog rock always called "snooty"? |
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HackettFan
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A curse upon the heads of those who seek their fortunes in a lie. The truth is always waiting when there's nothing left to try. - Colin Henson, Jade Warrior (Now)
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Lewian
Prog Reviewer Joined: August 09 2015 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 14742 |
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Prog/more complex "free" stuff can well be associated with escapism and drug culture, compared to some more "direct" music, possibly with direct political lyrics. I'm not saying that this is how it is, I'm just saying I can imagine (and have heard from some people) the same kind of argument stabbing the other direction.
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 15252 |
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That gets into some heavy duty neuroscience and how the brain responds to certain patterns, loops, cadences and subject matter. In a nutshell, most pop music provides a sort of hypnotic inducing spell that allows subliminal messages to be inserted whereas the more complex forms of music evoke the opposite reaction. There is more than enough evidence that the Tavistock Institute of Public Relations was responsible for the British Invasion for example. The 60s music scene was manufactured to create an escapist route so that many would find themselves immersed in a drug culture and in effect neutralize the protest movements. Once indoctrinated into the cult of simple music, anything outside of that paradigm seems threatening and thus a defense response. I remember when i was young i thought prog was some snooty old people music so i'm speaking from my own experience as well. It wasn't until i opened up my mind and explored it that i realized i was a friggin idiot for having any of those assumptions. Of course there was primo talent with the artists you mentioned above but famous musicians were effectively mind controlled and required to do what the record label wanted. Prog on the other hand exemplified true musical freedom (for some anyways) and also served as the jackhammer to shatter ossified mind patterns.
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I prophesy disaster
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Maybe they call prog rock "snooty" because of how we look down on them. Ok, I admit that I'm a music snob, but at least I accept that label with good humour, and recognise that maybe we are at least partly to blame for the denigration of prog. |
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No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.
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Psychedelic Paul
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^^ It's good that Progressive Rock has stood the test of time too. "In the Court of the Crimson King" sounds just as good now as it did upon its release 50 years ago.
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ExittheLemming
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Why would those who have not been programmed to enjoy 'simplistic artistic expressions' necessarily gravitate to Prog, Classical or Jazz rather than other popular music genres? The music of Lou Reed, Beatles, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Patti Smith, Harry Nillson, Paddy McAloon, Lloyd Cole, Ray Davies, Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb, John Fogerty, Brian Wilson, Buddy Holly, James Brown, Randy Newman, Neil Young (the list goes on) is relatively simple when compared to Progressive Rock but none the less profoundly moving and thought provoking for all that. Why do we persist with the idea that complex music is somehow more deserving of reverence than simple music that has withstood the transience of fickle fashion for more than 50 years?
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moshkito
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Kinda like saying that Bernard Herrman is pretentious ... or almost every known composer of music in the 20th century. The 20th century was the century of the GREAT VISUAL that would be considered "pretentious" if it had been written or discussed ... instead ... IT WAS THE NEWS AND LIVE ... RIGHT DOWN TO A BULLET TO SOMEONE'S HEAD ... and calling the strength and emotional impact of the music (and many of the arts) "pretentious" ... is, to me, not only weird ... but way out there on left field ... aligned with Martians and Venusians!
Edited by moshkito - November 24 2019 at 04:46 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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tamijo_II
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I would tend to believe It is mostly about the attempt to avoid that the masses from starting to think, and their mind starting to become active, they might want more for themselves. Making a situation where the under educated and the educated hate each other, is just what the 1/2% richest need, so they won't unite, cos that is where revolutions always start.
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tamijo_II
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One of my friend heard in the Radio some so called expert explain that a song longer that 3-4 min, would lose the listener. (my friend was off course indirectly referring to prog)
Well I said, in that case most classical masterpieces must be unlikable in the stressed mind of the modern music expert. Young man says "you are what you eat" - eat well. Old man says "you are what you wear" - wear well. You know what you are, you don't give a damn Edited by tamijo_II - November 24 2019 at 01:52 |
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HackettFan
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Thanks, David.
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A curse upon the heads of those who seek their fortunes in a lie. The truth is always waiting when there's nothing left to try. - Colin Henson, Jade Warrior (Now)
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Atavachron
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^ Wurd |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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HackettFan
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It’s the same reason liberals or academics are referred to as elitist. Inactive minds feel the need to mock those with active minds and then complain about how we are looking down on them.
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A curse upon the heads of those who seek their fortunes in a lie. The truth is always waiting when there's nothing left to try. - Colin Henson, Jade Warrior (Now)
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 15252 |
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^ yep. They don't realize that what they call snooty is our soul booty! Treasures filled with gold that NEVER get old
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rogerthat
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This, and they assume that people who listen to stuff like prog (or jazz or classical) only do so to fulfill intellectual needs and not because they find it soulful. What they don't realise is complex music is naturally more dense and takes more effort to fully come to terms with and only THEN you can start appreciating its emotions. It makes you have to persevere to appreciate, which you don't have to do with pop and they think that is somehow wrong.
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Frenetic Zetetic
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Anything outside the average mainstream IQ acceptance range will be labeled in a derogatory manner/
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"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
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richardh
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LOL , Miss Piggy said it best
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The Dark Elf
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Snooty and pretentious?
Pffft! Merely the mewling cattle call of the unwashed masses.
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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I think Peter Gabriel thought so too but then changed his mind at the last minute. Check out this last minute lyric change: "If you think that it's
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Progfan97402
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Genesis quote, from "It" off The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway! Anyways, it's not just the general public that feels prog is "snooty", it was especially the rock critics. The rock critics were accusing prog of such even before punk existed. Sure some rock critics were worst about it, most particularly Dave Marsh, Lester Bangs, and Robert Christgau (although Christgau did give King Crimson's Red an A-, his reviews, regardless of artist or rating, you can't always tell if it was favorable or not). The first Rolling Stone Record Guide, from 1979 actually gave pretty favorable reviews to Yes albums, even Tales from Topographic Oceans, but in the second edition, from 1983, they couldn't cough up more than a three star rating. If I remember right, it's because Rolling Stone let Dave Marsh review those Yes albums and he never had a favorable opinion towards that band. This is the same guy with an unhealthy obsession with Jackson Browne where he throws four and five star ratings at everything he done in those books.
Edited by Progfan97402 - November 21 2019 at 22:35 |
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Argo2112
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I was in a band years ago with a guitar player who use to get on that kick.
He was one of these old school puritans that thought rock and roll should be simple, three chords & raw. Nothing wrong with that if it's what you like but we all know it can be so much more.
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