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DarHobo 
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 16 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 114
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 Topic: Why don't most people love our beloved music?
Posted: May 15 2011 at 18:08 |
Hello fellow prog rock lovers! I Have not visited the forums in quite awhile, so excuse me if this is beating a dead horse but... Why don't most people love prog?
The other day at work I was streaming Bevis Frond's "New River Head" album off of band camp.. sometime later a fellow co worker(wigger type) just blurted our rudely "HEY MAN CAN YOU CHANGE THE MUSIC. THIS SUCKS!!!" a couple of other people in the general area laughed as to agree with him. I really just wanted to reply by saying "Hey man sorry i'm not listening to a black guy talking over a generic third grade drum machine beat, i'm not that cool." But I simply ignored him.
Music to me is very personal(as likely with you all as well)I love trying to share "different" music with people all around me, who would otherwise never hear prog etc.. The way this guy straight disregarded this music without a chance reminded me of many other situations where people expressed similar views.
Many people I know simply say prog "sounds bad" but in reality, those same people have no understanding of music, composition, techniques, and performance. Its the same people who listen to and praise the generic mainstream super corporate pop/rap stars who diss prog, yet as I get older I realize sadly this is a large percentage of people.
Oh well, all in all I'm just glad there is a forum here of like minded individuals here who appreciate music as an art form, and not as a fashion trend or disposable market product!
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: September 30 2006
Location: Pearland
Status: Offline
Points: 64338
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 18:14 |
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A friend once told me that Prog made her nervous. I interpreted that to mean Prog is so involved and long-winded she wasn't able to enjoy, understand or get her hands around it. It's a fair criticism I think, and good Pop music is something you can enjoy while driving from place to place, which is part of why it is what it is.
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zappaholic
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 24 2006
Location: flyover country
Status: Offline
Points: 2822
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 18:26 |
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Understanding anything beyond a 4/4 beat is too much work!
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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
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harmonium.ro
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: August 18 2008
Location: Anna Calvi
Status: Offline
Points: 22989
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 18:27 |
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It kinda sucks.
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Horizons
Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: January 20 2011
Location: Somewhere Else
Status: Offline
Points: 16952
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 18:27 |
After years of listening to the music that is most accessable...Pop, people just don't want to go to a genre of music that is completly different in all ways.
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The Dark Elf
Forum Senior Member
VIP Member
Joined: February 01 2011
Location: Michigan
Status: Offline
Points: 12656
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 18:57 |
People don't like to think for the most part, which is why reality TV shows are so popular -- viewers don't even have to live their own lives, but live vicariously through some other person's more interesting, or at least radically different, life.
Most listeners eschew jazz, classical, and even progressive music, because the music can be taxing mentally. There is no primal, dumbfounding beat to bob your head along with as in Rap, with its emphasis on monosyllabic rhymes at the end of each measure, and a repetitive, jingling sequence looping eternally in the background.
Squash banana
Squash banana
Squash banana
Squash banana...
Music for the lobotomized.
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Progosopher
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 12 2009
Location: Coolwood
Status: Offline
Points: 6393
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:17 |
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Most of my musician friends do not care that much for Prog. I think that partly has to do with the fact that prog musicians tend to flaunt their abilities, wear their skills on their sleeves so to speak, and don't let the music speak for itself. It is seen as tacky. It takes itself far too seriously. I do not share these views (otherwise would I even be on this site?). As to my non-musician friends, it is too hard to dance to and the melodies are not catchy enough.
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The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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dr prog
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 25 2010
Location: Melbourne
Status: Offline
Points: 2444
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:17 |
They are musically dumb and inferior. They just follow fashions and don't have any idea or pride in music 
They can bag prog all they want but I know they aren't even trying to listen to it. I'm talking about prog between 1968 and 1983 of course
Edited by dr prog - May 15 2011 at 19:19
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KABSA
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 09 2010
Location: midlands
Status: Offline
Points: 154
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:38 |
social conditioning is `very` `very` `awe-inspiringly` Strong. the `many` outweigh` the `few` the `mob` will belittle the percieved `minority` so , dont bother trying to serve up pearls before pop-minded normal geezers. be selective yes. on the flip side , its nice to belong to a `cult` genre. also though. it must be also admitted , that `we` , deride the pap-normal superficial stuff `they` listen to ., and they are probably aware of this, so treat `our` stuff with `impunity`. none of us get out of this alive. its best being on `our` side of the fence. and as for popularity ., prog is certainly on the rise. progressive does denote a degree of complexity , and requires effort ., whereas pop stuff is the antithesis of this. pop followers do not wish to make much effort with their music. pop followers are probably more `body centric` ., and as such probably will be better `dancers` on the whole than the `prog-wallowers`. generalising of course.
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Tall Tales of Topographic Inconsequence
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32476
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:43 |
My dad literally fell asleep halfway through listening to my first album. 
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Henry Plainview
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 26 2008
Location: Declined
Status: Offline
Points: 16715
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:45 |
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if you own a sodastream i hate you
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rogerthat
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 03 2006
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 9869
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:52 |
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I think your comment first of all has a disrespectful tone, so I don't see why your co workers should have respected your music.
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32476
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 19:54 |
My only consolation is the belief that he was dreaming of colorful ponies.
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ProgressiveAttic
Collaborator
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Joined: April 05 2008
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 1243
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:08 |
 Atavachron wrote:
A friend once told me that Prog made her nervous. I interpreted that to mean Prog is so involved and long-winded she wasn't able to enjoy, understand or get her hands around it. It's a fair criticism I think, and good Pop music is something you can enjoy while driving from place to place, which is part of why it is what it is.
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It depends on the kind of Prog... Progressive Rock is a really wide label... and I think you can find things for most tastes in here... People that just bash Prog as a whole don't really make sense to me....
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Michael's Sonic Kaleidoscope Mondays 5:00pm EST(re-runs Thursdays 3:00pm) @ Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio(http://www.deliciousagony.com) 
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Thommy Rock
Forum Groupie
Joined: April 22 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 54
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:15 |
Epignosis wrote:
My only consolation is the belief that he was dreaming of colorful ponies.
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My wife actually sat through a 21min loop I created half-asleep as an album filler from a sound sample of fermenting wine and commented "that's quite interesting". She sort of ingnored the five previous tracks I sweated over for hours composing, recording, re-recording, editing and producing. Just goes to show...
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"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible" FZ
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twosteves
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 01 2007
Location: NYC/Rhinebeck
Status: Offline
Points: 4070
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:21 |
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It's been my experience that playing prog as background music at work or at a party ---it goes over like a led balloon. My brother tried to play CTTE at my birthday party and I immediately turned it off. Prog isn't going to go down in these settings any more than watching a great film at work or a party----it's not party music. It demands your attention in a time when the entire population of the world has A-D-D.. It's powerful special stuff that needs the right situation. Having said that prog is still pretty popular worldwide--But most people ears can't accept music that is not simple and defined---pop, jazz, R and B, hip hop, blues, classical, etc. Or maybe our musical ears have evolved as we were planted here by spacey aliens millions of years ago LOL.
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Guests
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:25 |
Epignosis wrote:
My only consolation...colorful ponies.
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Alitare
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 08 2008
Location: New York
Status: Offline
Points: 3595
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:36 |
My feelings reside with Henry's here. Why do people think prog is superior to pop? What mystically baffling deity beamed down to our muddy waterball and deemed to all creation that progressive rock was holy and benign and pop music was an inferior, soulless corporate husk devoid of all use; and that anyone preferring the latter to the former is a sickening, mentally defective reprobate deserving of castigation and ridicule?
You aren't right or wrong in thinking the way you do. But what you do believe betrays a severe lack of comprehension regarding psychology, sociology, blahblahblah, etc. etc.
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tarkus1980
Prog Reviewer
Joined: March 29 2010
Location: Chicago
Status: Offline
Points: 233
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:46 |
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While I generally don't care for the "prog is great, pop sucks" mentality, I'll bite. Most people who claim to like music don't actually like to listen to music. They like music that functions as light background while they socialize or work or run. It's just one of those things.
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"History of Rock Written by the Losers."
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Harry Hood
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 15 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 1305
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Posted: May 15 2011 at 20:49 |
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Prog covers such a wide array of sounds and styles, I think for many people it's simply a matter of introducing them to the right bands with the right context. This isn't easy and sometimes might take multiple failed attempts, but I think at it's core this genre has something for everyone.
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Why don't most people love our beloved music?
