What if Prog was Pop?
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23175
Printed Date: March 12 2025 at 16:04
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Topic: What if Prog was Pop?
Posted By: The Hemulen
Subject: What if Prog was Pop?
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 07:15
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The other day I was on the phone to my girlfriend. I was whinging about how impossible it is to have real life prog friends and how nice it would be if prog was just a leeeeetle bit more popular.
She laughed, put on her most patronising voice and said "No you wouldn't, silly." And I just can't decide if she was right or not. Would I be happier if the Gentle Giant remasters had made the album charts? Would it feel right to switch on radio 1 and hear Banco blasting out at me? Maybe some of the older members can share their memories of what it was like when Topographic Oceans topped the charts... As for those of us who never experienced it - what would you prefer, a whole world of prog fans or the insular collective we have today? |
Replies:
Posted By: pero
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 07:33
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In my time prog was very popular (on the charts), and a lot of my friends were listening prog music: Gentle giant, Yes King Crimson, Pink Floyd, VDGG, ELP, Mahavishnu orchestra, Gong, Soft machine and more.. Some of them were on proto prog bands as: Deep purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath..
Even some girls were hooked on prog too.
It was the best time of my life.
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Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 07:40
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I guess I qualify as an "older member" as I've been aware of Yes since around 1973. When I was at school in the later 70s, there were a lot of Yes, Genesis and ELP fans around, as well as fans of the more rock-orientated bands such as UFO and Lizzy. There were also a few punk fans. We used to swap and tape all the latest prog albums (gasp) and I don't remember this sort of music even being labelled as "prog" at the time, it just seemed like another branch of rock music.
At work these days, I know a few people who are into prog bands such as Rush and VdGG (and I know a few more now thanks to PA) and I kind of like it like that. The only real disadvantage is that you can't get hold of the CDs so easily, although the Internet helps there.
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Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 07:44
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The idea of prog being the masses music of choice, or just generally a lot more popular than it is, is a nice one. But it makes no odds to me really. I just listen to whatever I fancy listening to, prog or otherwise. I'm not going to fall into the trap some of my friends have apparently fallen into, where they still get excited about a pair of £200 trainers, and buy the latest albums by the 'latest bands' because some sh!te media source has told them they should. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: pero
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 07:49
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In those days for us was even harder to buy LP-s. We have to go to Italy and smuggle 10-20 LP-s across the custom office.
The another way was if someone was going to England, where you could order from catalogues.
Today is much easier, because CD-s are much smaller, and available trough Internet or in shops.
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Posted By: rockandrail
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 07:57
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I prog was pop, Mankind would be intelligent, clever, peacefull, constructive, educated. Therefore prog is not pop. ------------- Pierre R, the man who lost his signature |
Posted By: pero
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 08:05
| The best were if we could living in ancient Greece listening to prog. |
Posted By: Trickster F.
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 08:08
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This is a good question. Something I wish that saying "I like Maxophone" or "The new Enslaved album is neat" in front of people didn't provoke the only "who?" answer, but then I begin to think: would I still keep living in the same spiritual world I live in now if the mystery was gone and it was exposed to everyone by the media? Deny it or not, when more people get into the same group that is special to you, the magic goes away.
-- Ivan
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Posted By: sleeper
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 09:19
I dont really think that it would make a huge difference to me, but I would like it if when a new prog album is releasid it wasnt £17 a time, where chart albums are £10 on release.
------------- Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005 
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Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 10:02
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I'm also one of the older members who remembers the Golden Age when prog topped the charts and you could hear PFM, Banco, Le Orme and other Italian prog greats on the radio as often as you now hear Britney Spears and her ilk. What can I say? It was a different time, a different world. I don't know whether it was actually better than the one in which we're living now, but I can't denynowadays it seems so. Perhaps this is one result of getting older - longing for the good old times that are no more?
Seriously, though, I think I'ma a sort of elitist - namely, I'm not interested in doing what the masses do, especially if I don't like it. I've always listened to music which was not cool (apart from the '70s), I couldn't care less about designer clothes, I hardly ever watch TV and I don't read anything even remotely trendy. In spite of that, I feel quite normal (if there is any such thing). Perhaps I'm a snob, but I wouldn't really like it if prog was pop and everybody else listened to it. Nowadays it would be impossible for the genre to be popular and keep its integrity at the same time.
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Posted By: Chicapah
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 10:54
I was a rock musician in those days and all of my peers and associates considered prog to be the most exciting and challenging music to attempt to reproduce. While all of us had to play the Top 40 hits in order to find gigs and keep a roof over our heads, we worshipped any new album by YES, ELP, GENESIS, PINK FLOYD, and JETHRO TULL (just to name a few) as being of the utmost importance. When Tales from Topographic Oceans came out there were about ten of us that actually had a listening party. It was almost like a religious experience. Groups that could pull off a tune by Yes or ELP were considered to be way above average and audiences would actually applaud/encourage any attempts to bring those songs to the dance club level (as long as they didn't get too carried away with it). So, in essence, the seventies decade was the heyday of prog in my experience. Those concerts were the hottest ticket in town and support for the genre has never been more intense. Once about 30 of us borrowed an RV and drove to Oklahoma City to see Yes because that was the closest they were going to come to Dallas that year (74-75?). Good times! ------------- "Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 10:59
Yup this might be a sign of the better part of our lives being over with >> but this is not really worrying me that much as I know I will make my life as interesting as I can
Your profile reads a bit like mine, meaning that generally I hate crowded/popular areas of entertainment, fashion and I feel even mopre normal than those I choose to "snob"
Naaah!!! If prog was pop, I think I'd still like it.
I am not so sure prog was worrying about keeping its integrity back then , though!! >> they were just doing things without worrying too much and a large part of the public followed
------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Ghost Rider wrote:Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 11:03
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Another thing is that I was really a bit too young to have completely enjoyed the 70's (born in early 60's) , and I was not making enough money to afford all the concert I wanted to go to or buy the albums I wanted >> Newspaper delivery was not paying that much
I have a feeling that for me to have enjoyed the 70's to the fullest, I would've had to be born a decade earlier and come arounf 67 being 20 or so. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 11:37
i am into many styles of music, some mainstream, some obscure niche bands. in 1975 i queued for two hours at 7 o'clock in the morning to get tickets for Led Zeppelin at Earl's Court as demand was so great. these days getting tickets for cream or oasis was virtually impossible, and diabolically expensive, but wishbone ash was a doddle - so i'm pleased! niche interest bands are the most rewarding - at least i managed to see them!! -------------  Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Posted By: Tristan Mulders
Date Posted: May 11 2006 at 13:00
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I prog was pop, my friends would be more interested in my musical taste ------------- Interested in my reviews? You can find them http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=784 - HERE "...He will search until He's found a Way to take the Days..." |
Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: May 13 2006 at 01:56
If Prog was POP, I would probably listen POP. 
I almost never:
1.- Been fan of a real popular band
2.- Never voted for a candidate that won the elections
3.- Read best sellers
4.- Cheer the team that wins an international football (soccer) cup
So probably in that case POP would not be popular.
Iván
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Posted By: chamberry
Date Posted: May 13 2006 at 02:04
Well now we have a good reason for making prog popular  ------------- 
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Posted By: DrGoon
Date Posted: May 13 2006 at 03:49
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I was born in the 60s, so I'm too young to really appreciate the supposed golden age of prog, but I can certainly recall punk, NWOBHM and the neo-prog bubble. The music industry has been in constant regression since the early 70s, trying to milk a handful of artists and sanitised sounds that have been carefully refined to appeal to a supposed lowest common demoninator. It's not just prog that the industry has tried to eradicate in its quest for the banal, but any semblance of original talent. It isn't working, and its the cause of the industry collapse that they are now facing. They can whine all they like about home taping killing music, and illegal downloads killing music, but the fact is that the greedy morons running the record companies are the ones killing their worthless mutated muzak. The sooner they do it, the better. Real music has always got by without them, even if it has been a struggle for the artists to get recognition, and as soon as the giant media conglomerates have given up on recorded music as unprofitable compared to their other interests, it'll be popular again - whether it be prog or any other great sounds. |
Posted By: Moatilliatta
Date Posted: May 13 2006 at 04:19
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I like being one of few prog fans. I have a small group of friends who appreciate it too, so I can discuss intellectual music with them. If it were popular, I believe it would be less special. ------------- www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph  
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Posted By: chamberry
Date Posted: May 13 2006 at 22:41
Your right. I feel proud when someone ask me what music do I listen to and I say "I listen to progressive rock" and they make THE face (the WTF? one), but that's just me. -------------
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Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: May 13 2006 at 23:47
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It's such a mixed bag, I mean I would love to have more people to talk about prog with, and more people who generally feel the same love for the music that I do. I'd love to be able to walk into my friends house at a party, through on Gnidrolog and have everyone cheer.
But at the sametime I think it would lose some of the magic if you were to constatnly hear prog on the radio, see it all over tv, and have it dominating your conversations.I hate to admit it but I like being elitist. I enjoy the looks of confusion on others faces when talking about music I like.
So overall I'd say I wish more of my close friends shared an interest in prog, but I would like it to still be kept out of the mainstream ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Posted By: nursethisviper
Date Posted: May 14 2006 at 22:57
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If prog were pop... *cutscene to dream sequence*
Every movement of Robert Fripp would be reported in the supermarket tabloids.
Every Grammy would go to Jethro Tull, regardless of whether or not they released an album that year.
There would be gala dinners for carpal tunnel syndrome, organized by the Keith Emerson foundation.
Nightclubs would play Gentle Giant remixes.
Geddy Lee would be elected Prime Minister of Canada.
And finally, two words: Prog Idol. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/nursethisviper/?chartstyle=redfive">  Proggin' it up eight days a week...
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Posted By: The Miracle
Date Posted: May 15 2006 at 01:50
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I don't think prog can virtually be widely popular in the world as it is now... prog appeals to a certain group of people, usually more intelligent than an average citizen, and taking music more seriously. If prog was pop, that would say a lot about the society, which, unfortunately, I can't say now.
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/ocellatedgod" rel="nofollow - last.fm |