Why Is Prog So Hated?

 

Ultra-personal, inintelligible lyrics are part of the prog-ignoring problem as I said in my last post.... first person that actually gets and feels IDENTIFIED by the lyrics from Tales From Topographic Oceans please let me know....for you truly come from a topographic ocean

 

....I mean, prog-rock is complicated rock, better rock, BUT Still rock....musically-speaking, there aren't many really impossible-to-get-if-you-don't-know-theory bands.... so, why did prog classics feel they could get away with impossible-to-get-if-you-didn't-actually-write-them lyrics???? We all here like to be challenged and read something interesting that's not the usual come-to-bed pop song (not that that kind of lyrics is bad PER SE...only when it's THE ONLY topic).... but please?? Do we really like to read the strange dreams and wanderings of Anderson (and other for that matter) minds???

 

Music not, LYRICS were pretensious (and still are, a few at least).... because if almost every prog musician is a gifted, if not excellent musician, that doesn't mean they WERE POETS, too..

 

 

Tell me why Beethoven is remembered? If people were incapable of enjoying something so classic (also not commercial) then I wouldn't be able to reference him.

 

You can say people don't care, and you'd very often be right, but that doesn't mean they never will. The overwhelming majority of people who buy CD's aren't 35+ years old (typically mature people willing to give inaccessible things and strange art a chance are older).

 

It's pretty easy to complain about how stupid people are at the grammy's, we all know that here. Part of being human is often times being able to understand things you didn't before, whether it be on a concrete topic or not, you just have to be willing.

 

The 14 and 17 year olds who constantly buy Backstreet Boys and Usher is what keeps the grammy's going (This is coming from a young person, by the way). If everyone under the age of 25 was killed today, tomorrow there would be a much smaller reason for pop, and everything would be closer to balancing out. You'd be able to hear whatever you want.

 

So to reiterate, age does not determine what one is able to understand and enjoy, but more often the willingness to understand and enjoy something, such as progressive rock. Most who buy CD's + feed off of MTV/Grammys are young, and have little willingness to purchase something such as progressive rock, but that doesn't mean they won't ever want to. Give it time, give it age.

 

And me as well , I hope so.

edit: if you're refering to when I said I listened to mainstream stuff as well, I said minus the pop-punk and rap stuff. Rap is the most degrading music in the world.... 

I agree with all that. Minus the fact that I'm 15. And I like some post-rock.

But, I'll listen to anything if it's GOOD. Speaking of Ozric Tentacles, I just got one of their CDs. They're crazy good.

 

I don't think prog is hated; more like underexposed and too much like hard work for the general listener.

 

Using the "trouble and strife" as the barometer (she hates me putting on prog in the car ... but when I'm driving I do get to pick the music ... sometimes):

 

1. She can't sing along to prog; 2. She can't really bop about to prog ...therefore she's not interested in prog.

 

When she turns on the radio what does she get: 3 minute pop songs, albeit mostly from an older era, because that is what sells nappies, Coca-Cola, motor cars, tampons, etc, therefore it is what the commercial radio stations play.

 

I think having been exposed to prog when I was in my early teens (before pop-type stuff had a chance to get it's hooks into me) prog has stayed with me. (It may have been put on a back burner during different times in my life as priorities changed but it has always been there.)

 

Hopefully my kids will hold the prog banner high in the future! My 9-year old daughter loves Pink Floyd (or so she tells me) and I do catch her listening to PF quite regularly as she sits at the computer; Sons 1 and 3 seem to be taken by instrumental music, so much of what I play from the instrumental or minimalist lyric prog field gets stuck into their computer playlists; as for son 2, he is into prog metal (especially DT) and metal in general, plus good old classic rock. He is playing the guitar and bass ... he has played in one small gig at school doing something I can 't recall from System Of A Down, plus Sabbath's Iron Man and Purple's Smoke On The Water. I see him as a possible provider of prog music in a few years time ... fingers crossed! Anyway, hopefully my playing of loads of prog and them seeing the myriad prog CD's I buy has seen the seed of prog appreciation planted very close to home!

 

I get into a lot of classic rock, too. I don't mind some pop and punk. I dig quality blues and jazz. I have a few classical CD's that get a spin from time to time. And I get into prog in a fairly big way.  Hopefully this diversity makes for a reasonably balanced music appreciation, and evidence to my children and their circles of friends that all types of music can live together if you take the time to enjoy it ... and that some music (read "prog") needs more time to be appreciated.

 

I think I was going to make three points at the start of this post and my have lost the plot. It must be the grey hair affecting the grey matter!