Prog does not groove?

ProgMetaller2112 wrote: Prog can definitely groove listen to Red by King Crimson and i don't really like the band

My friend, keyboardist Mychael Pollard, certainly DOES groove!  Check out this funky stuff! 

Edited by cstack3 - February 04 2013 at 20:42

Many thanks Ajay.
I note within this thread that many people respond to criticism of prog by criticising other styles. Music is music. Style is unimportant and an 8th note looks like an 8th note when written down.

In my youth I was a prog snob. I thought prog outshone blues and pop. Naive to the point of foolishness. Uneducated, certainly. I learned from my many wonderful teachers and more experienced musicians I worked with just how wrong I was. Many of these lessons were screamed at me by angry band leaders. Needless to say, I took the lessons to heart.

Is there a superior form of music, a better music than any other? No. That idea is born of racism in the European conservatories of the past. A symphony MUST be superior to an African of Indian savage beating a drum. Nonsense. Chopin playing his triplets is better than an Indian playing triplets, how? The music is just different.

Fans of prog enjoy a form of pop music. Just as fans of hip hop enjoy a form of pop music. Any professional musician should be able to play a prog song. Just as they should be able to play funk, samba or country and western.

As a player, I have played many styles. It is what must be done if one wishes to pay the rent. A prog gig on Monday, a jazz gig on Tuesday. It is all the same. One style simply has a different approach from another. Prog and other forms of R&B are felt more on the downbeat. Latin and Brasilian styles are felt more on the upbeat. Jazz is swung and highly syncopated and communication in the moment is the key. It is this highly evolved syncopation that hides its beauty from the average rock listener. The brain is unable to distinguish and sort the various rhythms. I often have to help students through this sophisticated litening exercise. This is why it doesn't sell. And is why Earl Palmer and others added the backbeat.

Prog as a style is like any other western pop music form. It began with the 6-8 clave of the Oruba people from Nigeria, transported as slaves to the new world. This rhythm gave birth to many others, such as blues. The shuffle behind Fanfare for the common man owes as much to that birth rite as the jump blues bands in Chicago and New York in the 1930s, the music that began all form of what we call rock and roll.

For me, a student of music, there is not enough time in the day to take it all in. Everywhere I look I find startling new music. A student gave me a book on gamelan music for xmas. I was fascinated and begin instruction next Thursday. I am already searching for bells to buy. Latin music and jazz, African, Indian, samba.... Human beings have created wondrous forms of music. I am trying to learn as much as possible, but I am left humbled by my inadequacy and lack of time.

My advice to any open minded music lover is this; if ever you hear a musical style you do not understand, listen to it over and over until you do. The fault is not with the music. Music has no faults. It is simply that one does not understand the music. There is a form of music to suit every facet of the human condition. And that is why it exists.

Even One Direction. Because that young girl needs them.

By the way, I am deeply in love with music.

Thanks again Ajay.

Neelus wrote: Spoke to a blues rock fanatic yesterday, and he told me the reason prog rock is not widely loved is the fact that it does not groove, and therefore has no soul.  I tried to explain to him that complex rhythms has the ability to groove fantastically, it all depends where you place the accents.  He basically closed the argument by saying that most people like to groove, and few like prog, so let the evidence speak for itself.  We ended up chatting about the Allman Brothers, a band we both like, and agreed to disagree on the previous subject.  I dont know, does prog rock not groove?

One more red nightmare has some NASTY grooves in it. And pink floyd is heavily blues influenced and play many blues type grooves, especially on dark side and shine on.

There is plenty of prog that grooves. Pink Floyd grooves hardcore, and they are one of the most influential prog bands that ever existed.  The blues rock fanatic the OP is talking about is obviously a very close minded person. And the thing about blues rock is that it's cool until you realize that alot of them are basically just blues shuffles or minor variations on it. That gets old after hearing it in 10,000 different songs.

Remember guys. I'm saying some styles of Jazz to me are an array of noise pollution. Not all styles. :)

Ytse_Jam wrote: progbethyname wrote: Dayvenkirq wrote: ^ Seriously? You call that scattered and disorganized noises? Thou might as well calleth "Discreet Music" a bunch of scattered and disorganized noises. Not your link in general. There is nothing to open here. My comments are not in relation to your link. His link is a perfect example of non-groovy jazz that isn't only a bunch of noises, don't you think? EDIT: sorry, I did read your last post

For some reason I can't open it through my I phone, but if I had a PC it would probably work. I gotta get another computer.