Neil Peart is?

Tony R wrote: BaldJean wrote: Tony R wrote: I love this "what I think is what I know" line of reasoning. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Also, to repeat, during the last year or so Neil Peart has been improvising parts of his drum solo, therefore any argument that states that Peart never does x, or always does y, fails. According to many drum sites Peart is the most popular drummer on the planet. He has also, apparently, influenced more people to take up the drums in N.America than anyone else over the last 30 years. That's a good thing isnt it? As for who's the best, well who cares? I'm all for the guy who has delighted and enthralled millions over 4 decades and propelled an unfashionable cult band from Canadian obscurity to 40 million plus album sales superstardom. Rush played to nearly 50,000 people in Santiago recently and the stadium was a sea of air drummers delighting in every beat - that's the true mark of Peart's legacy. How many of those people will take up or have already taken up the drums because of that one man? That's something that a Moerlan or a Vander could never do. And dont give me that "popularity does not equal quality" nonsense. This is a Canadian Heavy Prog band we are talking about, not Britny Spears... That's what 50,000 singing to an instrumental sounds like...   "on the planet" is a bit overdoing it. on the North American continent I will agree with. he is not especially popular in Europe, whatever you say, and definitely not in areas like India, where they have lots of drummers from their own country which are popular. I also doubt he is espcially popular in Africa, another region where there are a lot more local drummers which are popular. but I sincerely doubt these drum sites you mention ever cared to  research there. and don't give me that nonsense of sales; they don''t say anything about quality of a muscian. if they did we would have to consider Ringo Starr to be the best drummer Again incorrect. The simple fact is that Ringo Starr, despite his obvious lack of special skills, is probably the most influential drummer ever in terms of inspiring people to take up the drums. In terms of "on the planet" I was obviously referring to popular music and your pedantry implies, as usual, that you post based on what you think rather than what you know. At no point have I said that Peart is the best at anything other than in inspiring people to take up drumming over the last 30 odd years...

Tony, Jean is obviously refering to popular music too. In other countries other things are popular. Peart is a no-onne in, for example, Africa,  compared to other musicians. This is the simple truth. He is very popular in North America, no-one doubts that, but in Europe already his popularity is by far not as great; thhere are more popular drummers than Peart there. And Afirca,  Asia and Australia belong to the world too. Are you trying to tell me you know who is pöopular on these continents? That you rwally know Peart is the mostr popular drummer there? I sincerely doubrt you have any idea who is popular there. I don't claim to know who is popular there either, but there is one thing I am absolutely certain of: it will be people you  and I never even heard the names of.

Tony, I will give you a simple example: When I went to the USA for the first time to viosit Jean's family I had a real culture shock. There were people who were popular there which I had never heard of before. And I had always believed I knew something about the USA!
If this is true for the USA how much more true will it be for other countries?
This experience I had,m by the way, is probawblyy not one a toruist will have. A tourist  will usually go sightseeing, not for watching TV. I went to the USA as part of the family though, and I realized how very differnt Germany and the USA really are. This is true for popular music  too; names whicbh are extremely big in the USA are completely unknown here. So saying something like "Neil Peart is the most popular drummer on the planet" is simply idiotic. How mqany people know him in China? What musicians are popular there? And don't think tghere is no rock music in China; there actually is.
Or another example: Have yoou ever heard of a band named "Dä Bläck Fööss"? You probably haven't; they are a band from Cologne that sing in the local dialect, "Kölsch". But in Cologne and surrounding area they are megasellers and have had douzens, yes dozens of hits; I am certain I could come up with a full hundred even. Almostg everyone here in Cologne knows the lyrics to those hits. And they certainly play music in the Western cultrue popular style. Check out these videos:







Edited by BaldFriede - November 08 2010 at 09:20

Some interesting applications of the word "idiotic" in this thread...

Why do I argue? Tony himself indirectly admitted that Peart is not the most popular drummer on this planet. I personally believe this calim of his was nothing but fanboyism in the first place; Tony is a well-known fan of Rush, so it is not too unexpected.
As to Jim's comment: There are certainly more popularn drummers than Peart in Germany. Check German drum magazines and see how often his name pops up, and then check how often the names of other drummers come up. You can believe me when I say I had not heard of him before I came to this site. And I think most people will agree that I know a lot of prog music.


Edited by BaldFriede - November 08 2010 at 11:09

Oh, and by the way. let me quote  what the "Babylaue Seiten, a German prog rock archive, say about Rujsh:

"Diese kanadische Rockgröße erfreut sich weltweiter Beliebtheit, wobei seltsamer Weise Europa und dort v.a. Deutschland eine Ausnahme bildet. Haben Rush in Nord- und Südamerika, sowie Asien Gold- und Platin-Status, so kommt die Band 2004 zum ersten Mal nach 14 Jahren wieder auf große Europa-Tournee (was imho einiges aussagt)".

Translation:
"This Canadian prog biggie enjoys worldwide popularity, with Euurope and especiallly Germany being a strange exceptiion. While Rush have gold and platinum status in  North- and Southamericathe band went on a Europen tour in 2004 for the first time in 14 years, which tells lot IMHO".

So obiously I was by no means alone in not knowing them in Germany.

If you don't believe me look it up here:
http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?content=band&left=alpha&top=reviews&bandId=89&alpha=r

BaldFriede wrote: Why do I argue? Tony himself indirectly admitted that Peart is not the most popular drummer on this planet. I personally believe this calim of his was nothing but fanboyism in the first place; Tony is a well-known fan of Rush, so it is not too unexpected. As zol Jim's comment: There are certainly more popularn drummers than Peart in Germany. Cec k German drum magazines and see how often his name pops up, and then check how often the names of other drummers come up. You can believe me when I say I had not heard of him before I came to this site. And I think most people will agree that I know a lot of prog music.

Ah yes Tony, but:

German Drummerworld wrote: Neil Peart is not the most popular drummer today... Peart is completely unknown for his creative and intricate drum parts and extensive drum solos that delight both drummers and non-drummers alike, despite his never having been heard of here. He's won many reader's poll awards from Modern Drummer (although not from Modern German Drummer, where he came 109th, just behind Animal out of the Muppets), including 12 consecutive "best recorded performance" awards. In 1996, Peart became an Officer of The Order of Canada, the highest civilian decoration in Canada, but here in Germany, we wouldn't know him if he threw a paradiddle at us

Jim Garten wrote:   Incidentally - I suspect you're right - very few know of him in China; then again, very few Chinese rock bands are known outside of China... I think there could be a reason for that

Edited by The T - November 08 2010 at 11:24

Another thng I have often mentioned here before but which people have also scoffed at: Rush are regarded to be a hard rock band in Germany,not a prog rock band. That makes sense from the historical point of view even. The first album of Rush came out in 1974, and even big Rush fans usually agree that this was not the breakthrough for them. The next album came out in 1975. Now consider that it took some time before the news went over to Germany (Rush certainly did not go for the European market immediately), so when Rush finally were ready for the European market punk had already reared its ugly head, and it was certainly not the best marketing strategy to name them prog because nothing was as uncool as that at that time, so in Germany they were marketed as hard rock; branding them punk was of course impossible. And that was how they were perceived here.


Edited by BaldFriede - November 08 2010 at 11:28

BaldFriede wrote: It works both ways, of course. One might just as well argue that North-American magazines mention Peart  that often to make him the biggest.there.

and what would that achieve? Rush are the 75th best selling artist in US album chart history. Surely they would profit more by declaring someone from the top 50 selling artists, like Phil Collins (Genesis), for example or Barrie More Barlow/Doane Perry (Tull)