Has The Archives lost it's way?

Cristi wrote: It's sad how Deep Purple and Black Sabbath are belittled sometimes, when both bands did some groundbreaking music in their hey day, and in DP's case, early in their career (the Rod Evans era). Both bands quite influential on genres to come, I don't see how them being on PA is controversial.

It's sad how Deep Purple and Black Sabbath are belittled sometimes, when both bands did some groundbreaking music in their hey day, and in DP's case, early in their career (the Rod Evans era). Both bands quite influential on genres to come, I don't see how them being on PA is controversial. 

richardh wrote: I've said many times that a load of bands in the seventies that were never considered 'prog' at all are now included in PA. Prog was a much more niche thing then than many would now have you believe. An awful lot of rewriting of history has gone on here and I believe that someone not that well versed in prog history would be very mislead if they visit here. The Doors are indeed a good case in point. Nowwhere near prog at all back in the day even if they were well respected generally. Riders On The Storm is cool but I could care less about anything else they did. I suspect they had more connection and influence on punk rock and the indie scene which is fine but I've not heard any prog luminaries talk about them as a major influence or anything like that.

SteveG wrote: Ah, to be prog or not to be prog? That is the question. I'm not sure myself why some artists are included here, especially some listed under "prog related", but "crossover prog" seems more straight forward. But what of the bands like Genesis and Yes that rebranded themselves as pop rockers in the 80's? Should their more "commercial" albums be ejected from the archives, leaving only their early prog classics to be included?  What we have is what we have. It's up to us to make the best of it. And incase no one was looking, the Main page is usually filled with reviews of the most outra prog albums imaginable, from a myriad of different sub genres both old and new. Reviews are the main reason this site exists. The rest is all academic to that purpose.

Well, I'm not so sure of the last sentence, the suggestions forum is not academic for the purpose of reviewing. In fact, the more artists added result in more reviewing possibilities. If some review is ever written here, that's because some poor fellow went through that ritual.

I love Prog Archives. I don't use any other Prog sites or forums.

I have no problem with RYM reviews not being in English. Translators are very good these days, and one can have translator add-ons. And I like to read in certain other languages sometimes.

I use RYM for the charts largely, and in looking at discographies. Those ratings have been a good guide to me, and I read the reviews there far more than here (speaking as someone who is far too long-winded, I prefer the brevity that is common there). I love that you can search for albums using multiple tags (not just genre tags too) and that it does get as many ratings as it does. I have discovered lots of albums that I love thanks to searching RYM's charts. I also find that the ratings there for the kinds of music I like tend to be more reflective of my tastes than at PA. I also find their definitions useful. I have been using it as a resource site for many years. Depending on what you want to use it for, I guess, I have not found it hard to navigate or figure out. It took some effort, pretty minimal, but I don't think ones needs a steep learning curve, or that much effort or intelligence to figure it out. A little patience to try things and figure it out perhaps, but not much required I think. I think some do have this sort of fast-food mentality where they are not investing in exploring and learning and judge way too quickly. The rewards were well worth the effort I put in.

It is the best place for me to discover albums of interest to me now. With PA, it's about the forums for me, and I don't visit the rest of the site much of my own volition. Often it is only when I am called on it to make corrections or because it relates to something I am doing on the forum. That said, I have found RYM horrible without ad-block. I think RYM is an awesome site, but the forum, which I have looked at more than once, has not attracted me yet. As resource, I prefer searching Reddit as a forum (I often would read Reddit without ever posting there). With PA, neither the database nor the the forums are used as much of a resource. I use the forums here because I enjoy interacting with the PA community and also out of habit. And another issue I have with PA is that I like far more music than what is included here, and if, say, using charts, I don't want to limit to so-called Prog


Edited by Logan - September 11 2023 at 09:59

Hrychu wrote: The advantage PA has over RYM is that all reviews have to be in English.

Edited by Sean Trane - September 11 2023 at 13:50

The advantage PA has over RYM is that all reviews have to be in English.

I was thinking of giving it a go on RYM, because, tbh., it is not restricted to one type of music. So basically I could be talking about any music there, and maybe there is a greater diversity among users? In theory, there should also be someone to take any genre seriously. However, when I looked at the site, it seemed a bit hard to manoeuvre around in.