Is 70's prog a nostalgia thing? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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presdoug

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 21:38

when i said 70's music above, i was referring to more popular types, like rock or jazz
as far as classical music recordings go, i feel the best ones were made before 1950, in what is known as the "historical period"

presdoug

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 21:33

70's music is of a higher quality than what came before or after it, period.

RoyFairbank View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 20:08

The Quiet One wrote:

ProgressiveAttic wrote:

gottagetintogetout wrote:

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

The Quiet One wrote:

King By-Tor wrote:

I'm 22 and I say that music from the 70s is, in large, better than what we get today. So no.

This. (and I'm 16)

That (and I'm 21).

This (and I'm 14)

I am 18 and I agree with the previous post! + you can't compare Genesis to the bunch of Genesis imitators that is the Neo-Prog genre....

On the other hand if Genesis (or Yes, Gentle Giant, etc.) didn't exist I would be a huge Marillion (or Starcastle, Yezda Urfa, etc.) fan...but just because there is nothing better

I wouldn't call the entire Neo-Prog genre imitators of Genesis, Marillion, IQ and Pendragon which are the most popular ones, indeed have a big Genesis influence, but also from Floyd and from the 80's pop(synths) style, besides I don't they've ever really imitated the style of Genesis in the composition aspects, with very few exceptions(eg: Harvest of Souls).

I really don't think I would like Marillion, Pendragon, etc as much as I love Genesis, Floyd, etc, if the latter didn't existed. There's even a chance I wouldn't be interested in Prog if only for the existence of 80's prog forward, which is a surreal thing.

Your right on, I probably would be a primary fan of AOR and 80s pop, of which I enjoy the prog-related variety in real life, but in such a alternate universe I would probably have to make due with. Marillion is very good, IQ is okay... these two bands alone are not going replace the HUGE impact 70s Prog has had on my life.

As for what others have said, I agree, 70s is better and the bands had a healthier attitude and more complex philosophy than modern bands - and I'm 22, so despite parental influence, I am less likely to seem biased than a 58 year old or whatever.

Slartibartfast View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 19:35

progpositivity wrote:

tweedles

"You know. They just don't make 'em like they used to..."

Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

rdtprog

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 18:48

A lot of good comments were posted here. My conclusion is that maybe the nostalgia thing is not a bad thing in itself because, it pushes us to listening to more new music trying to capture the essence of the best 70's music we loved, and even if we don't find the same excitement as we have when we were discovering our first big band (it's like our first love... Wink

) we keep enjoying listening to the music and sharing our passion with the community.

Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.

Emile M. Cioran

progpositivity View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 18:13

I will echo the statements about the sheer *volume* of music competing for our time and attention these days. It can tend to skew our perception toward a certain "lameness of today" verses the "greatness of yesteryear". Basically, we are comparing a semi-random selection of today's creative output, and comparing it against the most highly esteemed output of an entire decade (in this case the 1970's). Very much a case of comparing apples with oranges.

Think about it. A multitude of 70's rock music fans culled through tons of bands and songs. Progressive minded rock music fans formed favorites and passed those favorites on to the following decades of music fans. Genesis, Tull, Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, ELP, Frank Zappa ... These bands connected with large art-rock, symphonic rock, jazz-rock, prog-rock audiences - and not without reason.

No doubt, some very good bands went unrecognized at the time. But not very many prog bands got "handed down" to the next generation without some real and legitimate point of *connection* with a significant group of people.

Fast forward to today. Randomly grab any 7 self-described "progressive rock" bands from MySpace pages today. Mathematically speaking, what are the *odds* that one of those will be of the caliber to stand next to Genesis, Tull, Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, ELP, or Frank Zappa? Very low. They may be good and certainly worth enjoying. But the odds that they will be in the same league with time honored music heroes of the 70's? Not very likely.

Think of it this way. What if we randomly grab a 1970's art-symph-electronic-or progrocker from the "pool"? The odds are very similar that this randomly selected 1970's prog band won't be of the caliber to stand up next to the GIANTS of Prog either.

Interestingly enough, we may still have an affinity with the randomly selected 70's band that we don't have with today's new music due to the instrumentation striking a certain nostalgic "chord" that is more harmonious with our musical appreciation than the scratching and tweedles of today's scene. Which brings us full circle back to your incisive question about nostalgia.

"You know. They just don't make 'em like they used to..."

Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com

FusionKing View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 18:11

I'd say some of the most important and impressive bands are 70's bands. However I also have a great respect for 60's psychedelia, 80's glam, thrash and AOR and 90's grunge and jam bands. So I don't feel that the music of other decades was any less thoughtful, I just think that the 70's was a natural peak for rock as it had just come of age as a genre. Much of 90's metal and various rock after 2000 I will admit seems very desperate and stale overall, but what is popular now says nothing about the lesser known or less appreciated acts like Astra, Diagonal, Joe Bonemassa, Blood Ceremony...even some of the folkie acts like Newton Faulkner and Fleet Foxes present a ray of hope for the most modern releases. And I'm 18.

"Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself" - Sartre

Triceratopsoil View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 17:51

ProgressiveAttic wrote:

gottagetintogetout wrote:

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

The Quiet One wrote:

King By-Tor wrote:

I'm 22 and I say that music from the 70s is, in large, better than what we get today. So no.

This. (and I'm 16)

That (and I'm 21).

This (and I'm 14)

I am 18 and I agree with the previous post!

I'm 17 and do I even need to say it?

except for metal, metal is getting better

progpositivity View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 17:42

Prog fans can be a cognitively dissonant, enigmatic bunch of music enthusiasts. Philosophically we value creativity and *progress*... In practice, however, many of us love 70's style Moog and Hammond sounds, and traditional ...

If we are really honest, many of us prog fans *bristle* at some of the "new" sounds from technology because we associate them so strongly with "hip-hop" or "rap" or any other number of modern pop genres. But theoretically, there should be great potential in exploring these new sounds in a proggie setting. It is being done. But I suspect that many of us "tune out" these type songs before even giving them much chance to reveal their merit.

Now, I really enjoy bands like Black Bonzo and Presto Ballet - so I'm not *hating* on everything retro. Those bands love the classic music and they do an admirably *good* job of creating something new within that context. Even so, they are coloring "well within the lines" of what nostalgic Prog Fans expect.

Some of today's most Progressive music may get ignored by some of us Proggers if we aren't careful...

Edited by progpositivity - April 22 2010 at 17:58

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Tsevir Leirbag View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 17:33

ProgressiveAttic wrote:

gottagetintogetout wrote:

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

The Quiet One wrote:

King By-Tor wrote:

I'm 22 and I say that music from the 70s is, in large, better than what we get today. So no.

This. (and I'm 16)

That (and I'm 21).

This (and I'm 14)

NOT THIS!

By the way I'm fifteen. There were excellent bands, but there still are! Some are even better than those who were in the seventies.

As Greg said, just take (for exemple) avant-progressive or musique actuelle.

Les mains, les pieds balancés
Sur tant de mers, tant de planchers,
Un marin mort,
Il dormira

- Paul Éluard

Evan

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 17:30

one factor too often overlooked is that vinyl records maxing out at a little over 40 minutes means built-in quality control.

Edited by Evan - April 22 2010 at 17:36

PopLies

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 17:24

I believe this was already brought up... but I think that music from the '70s is considered better because there is a lot more bands around today, and unfortunately not all of them are good. So the "bad bands" get a lot of attention that the "good bands" don't.

I don't think it has much to do with nostalgia.

Alberto Muñoz View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:53

I listen to the 60 ,70's music because i like them a lot.

thanks

Catcher10

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:50

You started out by asking about 70's music and is it a case of nostalgia if we listen now. Then you compared some bands which turns the question into "do you like Genesis or Marillion better..."

I'll stay away from the band comparisons....because there are 10 million posts like that in the PA.

My 2 centavos:

If you are one of us that actually experienced the music of the 70's when it first came out...then yes for me right now a lot of it is due to nostalgia that I continue to listen to that era of music.....Obviously because I think it is good music. I also think that was the height of "progressive" rock so the music is very memorable to me....It always will be...but I am not stuck in that era at all.

Nostalgic versus good music as a reason why you listen to that era may not be good comparison. I mean I will listen to Christmas music made in the 50's and 60's' because its nostalgic, for sure I don't listen to it because its good music.....but what nostalgic means to me is "good memories".

Logan

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:20

We're always going to compare to what we know (consciously, semi-consciously, or sub-consciously) but that doesn't mean we can't truly appreciate music of the present time.

Watching while most appreciating a sunset in the moment need not diminish all the glorious sunsets I have observed before. It can be much like that with music for me.

The Quiet One View Drop Down

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:20

ProgressiveAttic wrote:

gottagetintogetout wrote:

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

The Quiet One wrote:

King By-Tor wrote:

I'm 22 and I say that music from the 70s is, in large, better than what we get today. So no.

This. (and I'm 16)

That (and I'm 21).

This (and I'm 14)

rushfan4

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:19

ProgressiveAttic wrote:

gottagetintogetout wrote:

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

The Quiet One wrote:

King By-Tor wrote:

I'm 22 and I say that music from the 70s is, in large, better than what we get today. So no.

This. (and I'm 16)

That (and I'm 21).

This (and I'm 14)

I love Neo prog. I love Marillion. Genesis, on the other hand is one of my least favorite classic bands. I prefer the Phil Collins years, which I heard first before hearing the Peter Gabriel years. It is inexplicable, but it is what it is.

rdtprog

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:15

My question is a reflexive thought on the subject of our capacity to judge the quality of music by band's comparaison through the years. Maybe, it's a way to find out that we have to learn to appreciate the music in this present time without any comparaison to the past music, if it's possible. Shocked

Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.

Emile M. Cioran

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:14

gottagetintogetout wrote:

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

The Quiet One wrote:

King By-Tor wrote:

I'm 22 and I say that music from the 70s is, in large, better than what we get today. So no.

This. (and I'm 16)

That (and I'm 21).

This (and I'm 14)

Michael's Sonic Kaleidoscope Mondays 5:00pm EST(re-runs Thursdays 3:00pm) @ Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio(http://www.deliciousagony.com)

Logan

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Posted: April 22 2010 at 16:13

The 60's and 70's were an amazing time for innovation in rock-based music (one could say the 50's too of course). There was a spirit of experimentation and breaking genre confines that I don't think we find to the same extent, generally, today. I feel like far too many modern bands are just emulating typical Prog-convention rather than being unconventional. Instead of progressive music, we commonly find regression (what I call gorp) -- looking backwards rather than forwards. And too many just incorporate classic Prog conventions with an AOR-type sound for my tastes. A lot of it so predictable and one hears the Prog band influence on the sleeves too much.

I think there are many great bands today, but not many innovative ones (certainly not ones that achieve popularity even in prog circles). There's a lot of prog cliche, and back in the day when Prog was being created, it wasn't yet cliché (though there were many poor imitators "even in the golden age".

I think a band like Marillion rather dumbed down Prog (I don't mean to be insulting), but it lifted Prog traits (especially from Genesis) while making music that was deliberately commercial-sounding (yes, bands such as Genesis and Yes have done it a lot too). I don't like melodic rock (AOR) type music much, nor a lot of pop music, and I don't think it blended well or has aged as timelessly or gracefully as classic bands music from the classic period. Rock was not progressed (expanding the possibilities of what rock music can be and freeing itself from convention) nearly so much past the golden age (oh, there are various more experimental artists/ band who have, but generally speaking).

Edited by Logan - April 22 2010 at 16:17

Watching while most appreciating a sunset in the moment need not diminish all the glorious sunsets I have observed before. It can be much like that with music for me.