The Fascinating Contradictions Of The Beastie Boys

Wrong. Or bullsnot. (either works for me). That view is snobbery of the worse kind - attributing lofty ideas and ideals to Prog that it isn't entitled to wear. You cannot actually determine the philosophy behind the creation of a piece of music just by listening to it, and even the words that come out of the artists mouth aren't entirely trustworthy in this respect either (that's were "pretentious" comes into play).

 

Whatever dark hole of introspective pretentiousness prog has painted itself, this is not where it began and, in spite of everything, it hasn't actually managed to climb atop the pedestal that has been created for it. Musically Prog is Pop regardless of the embelishments added to it.

 

Prog was created to make money (via fame if necessary, or vice versa) - no prog musician ever wanted to be a starving artist. Prog music (and musicians) just happened to arrive at a time when the music business was receptive to it and allowed it free reign - in the 70s Prog was the cash-cow, selling large numbers of albums instead of large numbers of singles was an unexpected windfall for the record industry and they were more than happy to indulge the golden goose (...don't worry, I've plenty of metaphors where they came from). The marketting and promotion of Prog was no different to the glitter-ball marketting of three minute pop, the stage spectacle and year-long world tour was to draw the crowds and sell the album, selling coolness/happiness to those who would buy it, even demin-clad lank-haired students living in bedsits pouring over the lyric sheet of Close To The Edge while rolling spliff on the album cover wanted to be cool and happy. And this still happens today, Roger Waters grossed $227,365,144 from the recent Wall Live tour.. Two hundred and twenty seven million three hundred and sixty five thousand one hundred and forty four dollars. Lady Gagag fell short of that total by more than $102million...

 

Prog is Pop.

 

 

Textbook wrote:    Snow Dog: I'm not a snob, I'm right. You guys who judge the entirety of hip-hop based on 8 seconds of a Fifty Cent song you hear from a passing humvee don't have a leg to stand on. You're like young kids who say they hate classical music when they've never heard any ;)