A simple way to answer this question is by trying to place an album like DSotM alongside other albums of it's time. Can it be placed alongside other hit albums like Hotel California, Frampton Comes Alive, Born To Run or Rumors? If it doesn't sit alongside those albums comfortably, why? My take is that there's too many experimental or avant garde elements mixed with it's standard rock song formats. Rendering the album outside of the standard rock format and placing only where it really could fit: progressive rock.

Edited by SteveG - September 14 2020 at 05:06

Boboulo wrote: SteveG wrote: A simple way to answer this question is by trying to place an album like DSotM alongside other albums of it's time. Can it be placed alongside other hit albums like Hotel California, Frampton Comes Alive, Born To Run or Rumors?If it doesn't sit alongside those albums confortably, why? Can a country-rock album such "Hotel California" be put down "comfortably" alongside those 'Rock' albums you mentioned? If one is a genre purist, no.

Boboulo wrote: Sacro_Porgo wrote: Boboulo wrote: SteveG wrote: A simple way to answer this question is by trying to place an album like DSotM alongside other albums of it's time. Can it be placed alongside other hit albums like Hotel California, Frampton Comes Alive, Born To Run or Rumors?If it doesn't sit alongside those albums confortably, why? Can a country-rock album such "Hotel California" be put down "comfortably" alongside those 'Rock' albums you mentioned? If one is a genre purist, no. In what world does Hotel California not sit comfortably next to Rumors and Born To Run? So it has a little country influence, so what? It also has the title track, Life In The Fast Lane, and Victim Of Love which are really about as far from country as the Eagles ever got. If you can "comfortably" to listening to a country-rock album such "Hotel California", you're not a 'Rock' purist, or vice versa. And If you are not a genre purist, you'll love "Hotel California" and "Born to Run" as well as "The Dark Side of the Moon" which is also, regardless its "psychedelic" nature, just another 70's commercial album that was created for the masses as a pleasant music to listen to.

Boboulo wrote: Cristi wrote: DSotM commercial? Of course, especially if you compare TDSotM with, for example, Fripp & Eno "(No Pussyfooting)" the album released the same year.

Boboulo wrote: Cristi wrote: Boboulo wrote: Cristi wrote: DSotM commercial? Of course, especially if you compare TDSotM with, for example, Fripp & Eno "(No Pussyfooting)" the album released the same year. Commercial is a derogatory term that Pink Floyd does not deserve.  Comparing DSotM with an inaccessible album like No Pussyfooting is just wrong. Apples and oranges.  SteveG already put "apples and oranges" (i.e. "Hotel California" and "Born to Run") in his post as an attempt to prove that TDSotM is an "experimental" album, which it is but just a little and strictly within the given framework of a commercial album such as TDSotM has been carefully created to be. I took "(No Pussyfooting)" as an example, maybe it's extreme, okay, here I replace it with "Larks' Tongues in Aspic", also released in 1973, and what? Can LTiA be as much a "comfortable" album for the masses as TDSotM? Of course not.

Cristi wrote: Maybe DSotM is not a difficult listen, but commercial it is not.

Of course it is. And not only that TDSotM is (great) commercial album, especially if you compare it to any "progressive rock" album released the same year or earlier, but it's also commercial compared to all Pink Floyd's previous and later albums; in fact, only "The Wall" is even more commercial than “The Dark Side of the Moon”.

Boboulo wrote: Cristi wrote: Boboulo wrote: Cristi wrote: DSotM commercial? Of course, especially if you compare TDSotM with, for example, Fripp & Eno "(No Pussyfooting)" the album released the same year. Commercial is a derogatory term that Pink Floyd does not deserve.  Comparing DSotM with an inaccessible album like No Pussyfooting is just wrong. Apples and oranges.  SteveG already put "apples and oranges" (i.e. "Hotel California" and "Born to Run") in his post as an attempt to prove that TDSotM is an "experimental" album, which it is but just a little and strictly within the given framework of a commercial album such as TDSotM has been carefully created to be. I took "(No Pussyfooting)" as an example, maybe it's extreme, okay, here I replace it with "Larks' Tongues in Aspic", also released in 1973, and what? Can LTiA be as much a "comfortable" album for the masses as TDSotM? Of course not.

And this type of reasoning is the crux of the problem. We as prog fans naturally compare DSotM with the more outre prog albums that we like, such as LTiA or Hot Rats, which puts DSotM into a very commercial view. But that doesn't detract from the fact that a bizarre instrumental like "On The Run" is experimental, or that the wordless "Great Gig In The Sky" is avant garde. Commerciality has nothing to do with genre.

Edited by SteveG - September 14 2020 at 05:13