I am upset. Here's why (progressive elitism):

King Crimson776 wrote: Shakespeare wrote: King Crimson776 wrote: Dood, don't even worry about it. If a Sleeptime Gorilla Museum fan makes fun of you for listening to Dream Theater, laugh at him; he's the pseudohead, you're the guy who likes a catchy metal band.  SGM? ARE YOU SEIROUS?!?! What a prog noob! dude, they're so bad compared to all the obscure stufff I listen to. Stupid noob, sucha lozer. I'm glad you don't like them (they make Magma sound good for f**ks sake ). They are just an example of a sh*t band that people think they are the sh*t for listening to. I could have used any more obscure example but then all the prog noobs wouldn't know what I was talking about. But then again the true noobs are those who reject catchy bands because they are too mainstream. You stop being a noob when you give all music a chance. (not you specifically, just in general). Btw, Magma's good, I just don't like MDK, so I didn't like them at first. I'm pretty much always in jest when I say a band as obviously good as Magma sucks, so no worries.

I think SGM is a great band. I truly enjoy listing to In Glorious Times, and I think that the  variety of textures and the complexity of the music is brilliant. I've watched the entire concert set on YouTube and the songs are perfectly executed... so that's proof for me that there's no pretending going on with the musicians. And also, I could care less if nobody knows that I listen to SGM.

King Crimson776, there are people out there who listen to bands like The Mars Volta and Sleepytime simply because they like them. You always take any chance possible to bash them whenever they are mentioned, which is lllllllllllammmmme. You seem to be really afraid of being fooled by pretend bands with pretend music. I really can't imagine artists with such talent (e.g. the members of TMV and SGM) would need to pretend to make their music enjoyable. I think that kind of attitude towards writing would  be more commonplace among Art Punk bands like Angels & Airwaves (where the music and talent of the artist is obviously undeveloped), but that's just my opinion and my take on things.

heyitsthatguy wrote: Yes chamberry, he's completely serious, read his review for Spock's Beard's "V"

You actually think I was totally serious with that review? That review was sic, but I was in jest for alot of it.

Well I have to disagree with everyone saying that obscure bands play poor music.  The music is obscure only because the bands were over-shadowed by bigger names who appeal to bigger audiences.  The music is not obscure because it is bad.

All my favourite bands are not really well known (see this thread: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=43770 ) and I like them because their music is amazing!

I do have a degree of elitism with my music but not in context with prog-metal/neo prog (although I do believe most music in these genres generally have less progressive elements...).  I do feel that most mainstream music is below prog in terms of quality and composition although I feel that my opinion is well based and shared by many others.

I never over-state my feelings on prog a lot (since nobody I know listens to prog...) and I always try to keep an open mind with music but IMHO, prog is in it's own class as a musical genre and it does not receive the recognition it deserves.  (Thank you progarchives.com!)  It's difficult but I try not to classify music based on it's popularity.  Some really popular songs can be great although they usually lack progressive elements, which is what I look for in music.

Anyway, to the OP because I've been thinking about this sort of thing since I discovered prog!


Edited by dante.dio - November 25 2007 at 17:54

King Crimson776 are you serious about all of your posts on this thread? 

@ Topic:
I agree that elitism isn't a good thing and that there's too many of it in Prog, but elitism can be found everywhere and not necessarily in the "obscure music is better than mainstream music" context. I've seen it the other way around too. I really don't know why you mentioned RIO/Avant fans in the beginning of the thread since they're they nicest people I know in PA (at least the ones in the RIO drop in center thread and ZAR team) and I've never seen any act of elitism when talking to them.

I don't care about all of those things like I used to years ago. I'm not worried about what people think about my taste in music or how obscure (I hate that word) my music is because in the end it'll only affect me and my enjoyment when listening to music.

I do like to promote bands that aren't well known, but I do it because I enjoy seeing people expanding their musical horizons and not because I'm a show off or elitist.

khammer99 wrote:  Amazing, that this kind of nonsense still goes on. I have a good friend of mine who's brother was like this back in the 70's. If it became "popular" he disowned. I enjoyed that he would broadening my horizons, introducing me to stuff like Wishbone Ash, Les Dudek and the like. But when he would attack me for listening to mainstream, it got old very fast. I really don't see the point of it.  Great, you listen to some really obscure band. Tell me about them, show me where I can get them, or better, download some samples, and let's go from there! I'm too old to be worrying about if I listen to the newest No Name band from No Where. I'm just interested in hearing something that I've not heard before. If, I come across something different, I like to share it with my friends. I also enjoy someone else, turning me onto some newer stuff. I DON'T CARE IF IT'S MAINSTREAM OF NOT! Good music, is good music, period.  As another friend often says, "I just want to hear it all, before I die". Amen.

Oh, and damn straight to that

Edited by King Crimson776 - November 25 2007 at 16:08

 Amazing, that this kind of nonsense still goes on. I have a good friend of mine who's brother was like this back in the 70's. If it became "popular" he disowned. I enjoyed that he would broadening my horizons, introducing me to stuff like Wishbone Ash, Les Dudek and the like. But when he would attack me for listening to mainstream, it got old very fast. I really don't see the point of it.
 Great, you listen to some really obscure band. Tell me about them, show me where I can get them, or better, download some samples, and let's go from there! I'm too old to be worrying about if I listen to the newest No Name band from No Where. I'm just interested in hearing something that I've not heard before. If, I come across something different, I like to share it with my friends. I also enjoy someone else, turning me onto some newer stuff. I DON'T CARE IF IT'S MAINSTREAM OF NOT! Good music, is good music, period.
  As another friend often says, "I just want to hear it all, before I die".
Amen.
 

mr. Opeth Aren't Metal wrote: Wow how did you know I was about to post in this thread?

Criticism of the more well-known bands in any prog genre is never a bad thing. It's always good to try to understand why there are people who can't relate to what you listen to at all and choose to listen to other types of bands, usually the marginal and obscure ones.  

heyitsthatguy wrote: my band is waay too riff based  our latest song actually is surprisingly not "chugga chugga" as I tend to write towards, though I'm gonna kill the drummer because he made me change the first chord of the chorus to the EXACT chord and strumming pattern and tempo as "The Drapery Falls"

Change it back onstage without telling the rest of the band.