Why isn’t Prog more popular?

A minority of prog rock bands are already very very popular and sell as many albums as the kings of commercial music: I mean GONG, Pink Floyd, Genesis, ELP, Yes...are in the business music and make big money! You can easily find their stuffs everywhere!! if they not come to you by themselves

Edited by philippe

I believe that people who are listening only to heavy pop (britney spears, hip-hop...) are manipulated by the comercial music industry, and they wouldn't listen to anything if it wasn't of the MTV things and the radio.

I'll says it again: Real music is art, so not everyone can understand and appreciate it. In fact, there shouldn't really have popular music; prog, pop, classical, or any other. Not everyone got the same tastes, and not everyone should.

Edited by Borealis

flowerchild wrote: abyssyinfinity wrote: The problem about prog is not popular... IMO is not a right question, prog is for definition not popular, or maybe will be popular in 2112 A.D.... Ok

why is there always an air of "dont step on my toes" about all your replies Lostrom?
And why do the admin group allow you to remain......

Beastie Boys is a GREAT band. If you judge 'em by what they're labelled as, you might get surprised!

Fantômas wrote: Beastie Boys is a GREAT band. If you judge 'em by what they're labelled as, you might get surprised!

fantomas you are quite atypical in your taste (for a prog-rock site)

Edited by NetsNJFan

Someone earlier posted that they don't think prog or jazz will have much of an impact on the music of tomorrow.  I don't think this is quite true, myself.  Time and again I've been listening to more mainstream music and heard remnants of blues or jazz grooves.  As far as I'm concerned, music is all one great, big organism, and the bits are each influenced by one another.  Today's classical-style music bears the fingerprints of rock and heavy metal, and even bits of country.  Pop music steals from jazz and classical and just about every other genre ever.  Part of the reason I'm so fond of prog music is because that's where the connections really start to show through.  You hear the symphonic instrumentation accompanying heavy guitars and keyboards.  World music comes knocking on the door to say hello.

As for prog not being as popular as more mainstream music, I think this is simply because tastes differ.  Some people just don't like Ayreon or Dream Theater, and often will not try to dig into a genre after one or two bad experiences.  In a genre where re-listening is key to truly appreciating the depth of the music, that can be fatal.  It isn't that prog listeners are any smarter than your average Brittney or Jay-Z fan, it's just that prog listeners like prog.  Personally, the argument that we are smarter because we are more "cultured" or more "open minded" is like vegetarians thinking that all meat-eaters are barbaric twits (and yes, I'm vegetarian, so please don't attack me).  We're not better or worse than the next group of music fans, just different.

That said, the McDonald's analogy made me giggle uncontrollably.

It's true. If prog were somehow popular, hipsters would flood into the thrift stores and Hot Topic to oversaturate and ruin it like they did so many other things.

*O M totally G I <3 Krimso!!! RoBErT FrIpP is ssos o good @ saxoaphone! ThA'ts wHa#T he PlaYz riGht? oH, GuItaR???// KeWL! SCANDALOUS LOL!!!1111*

Blecccchh. Morons. 

v

As far as availability is concerned - where there is a market there will be sellers. Of course we can now use the internet. Thats the only way I can acquire most of the stuff I am trying to get.

As far as intelligence is concerned. According to Howard Gardner there are at least eight recognised identifiable types of intelligence including bodily/kinaesthetic, logical/mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal and intrapersonal (maybe some of us can work on some of these) spatial, environmental and musical. And supposing that prog is the epitomy of musical intelligence anyway just because you dont have the last one, doesn't make you any less intelligent than anyone else.

6 billion people on this earth and we are all different but who would want us all to be the same anyway.

Biggles wrote: Complex music will come back anyway. There's a cycle to it. It starts off simple, then people get tired of doing the 12 bar blues and yammering out the same old cliched lyrics, and they start to experiment and music becomes more complex. Then it becomes even more complex. Finally, when albums like "Tales from Topographic Oceans" reach number one, you know that complex music is not long for mainstream. Then it gets simple again, then complex, and so on. It's all part of rebelling to what's standard and what's accepted; when simple is the norm, people will steadily gravitate towards complex, and vice versa. I'm a 16-year-old and I listen to progressive music. Throw me into the late 70s and I would probably be ranting about those pretentious toffs who think they're hot shots cause they can play in 15/8.

Seems logical, captain.