How much time is important in music?

timothy leary wrote: The longer the work, the more skilled the artist needs to be. I did not know that.

All options for quality and sound are on the table, I'll grant. But I definitely use length and mixture of length as a cue for what I might be interested in. I also have a lot more tolerance and genuine interest in extended improvisations that some people might call noodling. Some of Henry Kaiser's work, Garden of Memory for instance, has one long guitar improv stretching over a whole CD with a total length of about an hour and ten minutes. And that is only one among five total discs in the box, each with their own extended improvs. Great stuff.

Kaucz wrote: Third from Soft Machine is one of my favorite albums, but i like the Volume Two. They are totally opposites in music time. Surely it is not only the music size that matters. The important thing is the music last as the need to take to show its meaning. And do not try to make it too short because you want to be successful on the radio, or too long simply because they want to make an epic. Balance is the key.

I'm a huge prog fan, of course (or I wouldn't bother posting here). 

But I'm a punk fan, too.

I'm a fan of a lot of different genres.

Probably any prog fan who thinks that song lengths are important isn't also a punk fan.  Although it wouldn't be surprising if there weren't a significant percentage of folks who are both prog and punk fans.

I can certainly enjoy songs of any length, but it just so happens that the overwhelming majority of my favourite songs tend to be longer. A few months ago when I made my own top prog songs list, all of my top 20 except for two tracks was 8 minutes or longer, and all but one from the top 10 was 10 minutes or longer.

Larkstongue41 wrote: Also, didn't punk develop as a counter-reaction to prog which was believed to be "the anithesis of rock n' roll"?

I think that's largely a myth or a "narrative," and partially for marketing purposes.  It's more that punk simply grew out of 60s garage rock by way of bands like the Stooges and the NY Dolls.  And bands like the Ramones had a huge love for late 50s/early 60s rock, rockabilly, etc.

A number of punk, post-punk, punk-associated etc. artists have some progressive tendencies, and punk fans are often fans of bands like Can, Faust, This Heat, Throbbing Gristle, etc.--they just wouldn't call any of the stuff they're a fan of "progressive (rock)"  --it's at least as uncool to like progressive rock in the punk community as it is to like punk in the progressive rock community.


Edited by Terrapin Station - October 14 2016 at 11:03

You will find many folks on PA who are into punk We are quite the eclectic bunch. The big proggers versus punks thang was largely fuelled by media and un/misinformed journalists. Many punk musicians have proclaimed their love of bands like Van der Graaf Generator, Can, Gong, Hawkwind, King Crimson and yes Pink Floyd (don't believe the silly t-shirts!).
Most people on here have very eclectic tastes ranging from free jazz and black metal to hip hop and electronic trance. We may have a shortage of polka fans, but I know at least two people who dig the style from time to time.
No two music styles are mutually exclusive.

I sometimes write long tunes because I'm lazy if that piece of information is of any help.

Dean wrote: I sometimes write long tunes because I'm lazy if that piece of information is of any help.

Do you mean you compose 20+ minutes pieces of two-chords drone music?

Dean wrote: In theory 20 minutes of two-chord drone could be recorded in 5 minutes then slowed down four times.

It's a theory that has been proven and the psychedelic effect is awesome.