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cstack3
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Topic: Prog Rock: A Noble, But Failed, Experiment Posted: June 15 2017 at 21:00 |
Good Lord, another journalist piles it on!
Progressive rock is the nonpolitical description that stuck to the pretentious, arty, classical-and-jazz-influenced bands, most of them English, who created the music fad of the early 1970s. With their mystical themes, their surreal and sci-fi album covers, their outlandish costumes (capes, fox heads), their obsession with faeries and aliens and loopy 20-minute synthesizer solos, bands such as Peter Gabriel–era Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer led rock down a bizarre sonic detour first mapped out by the Beach Boys on Pet Sounds and the Beatles on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Prog rock was the exclusive domain of a certain kind of nervous, experimentally minded, cautiously intellectual young white guy.
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Thatfabulousalien
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Joined: October 27 2016
Location: Aussie/NZ
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Points: 1409
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Posted: June 15 2017 at 21:17 |
Lol
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Classical music isn't dead, it's more alive than it's ever been. It's just not on MTV.
https://www.soundcloud.com/user-322914325
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Dellinger
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Posted: June 15 2017 at 21:48 |
Terrible article. If he doesn't understand nor know enough the genre, then he shouldn't write about it.
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cstack3
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Posted: June 15 2017 at 22:24 |
...outlandish costumes (capes, fox heads)...
Well it wasn't just prog that went for the stagecraft! James Brown famously used a cape in his stage show, and the funk show Parliament was probably as over-the-top as any of the white English bands, or more so!
This guy is an idiot...these days, we have Lady GaGa wearing a meat costume, outlandish stages filled with dancers twerking, etc.
Every generation has their "Look at that!" moment in music. Before prog, there was Elvis, the Beatles, and so forth. Having lived through the '70s (seeing LTIA Crim, CTTE Yes, BSS ELP, TAAB Jethro Tull and many more), I can say it was just amazing. Here's Steve Howe, playing "Ritual" during the "Solo Albums" tour....photo taken by my friend Curt. I don't think he looks bad at all!
Edited by cstack3 - June 15 2017 at 22:26
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2dogs
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Joined: December 03 2011
Location: England
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Points: 705
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Posted: June 15 2017 at 23:38 |
Prog rock had it's life cycle like everything but fortunately left a large body of great works. "Sonic detour" suggests the idea that music should follow some sort of evolutionary path leading to future perfection, new forms will be an improvement on the old.
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"There is nothing new except what has been forgotten" - Marie Antoinette
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Raccoon
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Joined: February 17 2012
Location: 444 Grove St RZ
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Posted: June 15 2017 at 23:54 |
Yep, because there wasn't an artsy phenomenon going on all over the WORLD.. From Brazil to Italy, everyone was challenging each-other to create the next piece of modern art. Many fell between the cracks, many challenged politics and idealism, only years later to be appreciated..
Experimenting with the new modern instruments coming out, everyone all over the world tried out the mini-moog/moog, melotrons if they could afford it. Also, there were experimentors of all different nationalities, not just an 'intellectual white guy'. I don't know what they're trying to achieve with these butchered prog articles just another one in the bin, to be forgotten because it's worthless information that anybody informed will know more than the reporter himself
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tdfloyd
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Joined: April 06 2008
Location: USA
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 00:07 |
Would like to see what this idiots idea of good music is.
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Spilster
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Joined: June 15 2017
Location: UK
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Points: 2
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 00:07 |
It seems mainstream media wants to try destroy anything of creative value and replace it with mind numbing frivolous nonesense. I think that's what they want to achieve through articles like this. If it was lady gaga or Katy perry they'd be singing their praises. Maybe they're scared of people having imagination and taking over the world.. haha.
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Atavachron
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 00:40 |
^ Or it's just the thing to compel innovation and creativity. Sometimes the best stuff comes out of the worst conditions.
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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noni
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Location: Canada
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 00:45 |
Another non-prog band is Kiss with the painted faces and ZZ top with the extra long beards,. Not quite costume I know, but still an effect on stage....
Edited by noni - June 16 2017 at 00:48
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Tapfret
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 01:15 |
tdfloyd wrote:
Would like to see what this idiots idea of good music is. |
Based on what he considers a publish worthy article, I'd keep your expectations low.
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ExittheLemming
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Joined: October 19 2007
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Points: 11415
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 01:56 |
I seem to have read loads of articles like this over the years (and all after the fact of course.) What's crucial to any form of revisionism is new evidence and as we have come to expect, the author can provide precisely zero. Instead, we get a rather myopic scatter-gunning of 5th hand ideas that have long been dismissed as spurious even by Prog's most virulent critics. The mythical creatures, faeries, sci-fi, fantasy literature, dungeons and dragons stick routinely used on Progressive Rock simply simply doesn't fit the trumped up charges. The panto theatrics of say, Bowie's Glass Spider Tour or Madonna wannabe Lady Gaga are celebrated as camp, kitschy, sexy and irreverent fun while Pink Floyd and ELP are considered worthy of community service for unleashing an inflatable pig and armed armadillo to cause both impotence and vitiglio in their overwhelmingly male fan-bases. It's pretty easy to make any period of popular musical style appear ridiculous in hindsight but I suspect that yer typical 'keep it real for the kids ya dig bro' music journo holds Prog in particular contempt for what he sees as an attempt to turn inclusive entertainment into esoteric 'high art'. For the sake of clarity, I don't think Prog is 'high art' but certainly consider it a higher form of musical entertainment than many others. To be fair to Kyle Smith, I do give him credit for defending 'pretentiousness' as an inevitable result of ambition thwarted by ability but pivotal to the advancement of culture.
Edited by ExittheLemming - June 16 2017 at 02:03
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SteveG
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 03:59 |
The Spinal Tap view of prog, to me, is most damaging. This is problematic as 2nd generation punk was just as silly and pretentious. What we need is a similar film depiction of punks jumping on the corporate bandwagon called Spital Tap and all will be back in balance.
Edited by SteveG - June 16 2017 at 04:10
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M27Barney
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Joined: November 09 2006
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 05:16 |
This idiot is called "Kyle Smith" a more bland name I cannot imagine (but it suits him) , lazy journalism , just re-hashing all the hackneyed cliches he could find about a genre that he clearly knows little about! I can imagine that he would be a fan of whatever is currently hip (to get him laid, as he seems to think that prog rockers are all virgins!!) - with no real liking for any of the commercially pushed guff he lies about liking. OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!
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Blacksword
Prog Reviewer
Joined: June 22 2004
Location: England
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Points: 16130
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 05:30 |
He's entitled not to like prog rock, but what he can't do is seek to analyse it's content and spirit in lieu of any knowledge of the subject.
It's as if he's copied and pasted his apprasial of this extremely varied and diverse genre from any one of thousands of generic prog rock critiques in the mainstream press over the years. It was barely worth the effort on his part. It's like me being commissioned to write an article about country music, and just endlesly waffling about the size of Dolly Parton's tits.
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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Kepler62
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Joined: February 09 2017
Location: Fort Erie
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Points: 501
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 06:54 |
Sigh.... so let's just listen to Mustang Sally over and over again for the rest of our lives.
Never mind progressive rock the guy doesn't even get Spinal Tap. Doesn't he know that they were a real band? Where was he back in the sixties when " Listen To The Flower People " was #1 worldwide with that amazing original drummer. Too bad he was killed in a gardening accident.
Edited by Kepler62 - June 16 2017 at 06:56
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Meltdowner
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 07:11 |
Generating hatred to get views... I'll not click that link.
Edited by Meltdowner - June 16 2017 at 07:12
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ExittheLemming
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Joined: October 19 2007
Location: Penal Colony
Status: Offline
Points: 11415
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 07:16 |
Meltdowner wrote:
Generating hatred to get views... I'll not click that link.
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So you've read the article but not clicked the link?
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Gully Foyle
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Joined: December 26 2011
Location: Massachusetts
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Points: 350
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 07:20 |
no surprise that this article is so idiotic - so is pretty much every word published by this rag
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uduwudu
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 17 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 2601
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Posted: June 16 2017 at 07:21 |
With popular music you either get something to see and that's fine. or something to hear. That's fine too. With prog rock you get both. Too much.
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