Now that the dust has settled, and life is slowly getting back to normal for the ‘prog community’ after a lengthy wound-licking session, it is time to draw some conclusions, and see if there is any way forward for the whole scene after such a traumatic, unexpected event – or else, if we have to consider the possibility that NEARfest’s cancellation might spell the genre’s upcoming demise. The many thoughtful responses to my original article go to show that this unfortunate occurrence had a strong impact on the far-flung community of progressive rock fans. However, it is probably much too soon to gauge if this impact will have a destructive effect on the prog scene, or rather help people to understand that nothing can be taken for granted, and that the music which we all claim to love should be cherished and nurtured.
When the full import of the cancellation finally sank in, some long-time NEARfest attendees reacted as if they had experienced the loss of a loved one, or, at the very least, of something precious and unique. Some, believing that the festival (like the Titanic) was unsinkable, and would always break even, had been completely blindsided the situation. Others, conversely, stood by their conviction that the organizers had somehow ‘asked for it’ by assembling a weak line-up, and claimed their right to bail out if the programme was not attractive enough. All in all, it was not a particularly pretty sight.
Those outside the core group of stalwart festival-goers had rather different insights to provide. While the news made no one happy, most of the ‘outsiders’ contested the motivations that had led the organizers to their decision, and – almost unanimously – laid the blame on the lack of support on the part of the community. After a few days from the announcement, people’s façades of goodwill and equanimity began to slip. Instead of pulling together, the community showed that the cracks were deepening, and none more noticeably than the one between the two main ‘factions’ – those still steeped in nostalgia, and those who choose to look forward. It feels like, to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, the twain shall never meet, at least not for some time.
One of the biggest implications of the whole débacle is that the prog scene has been left with a metaphorical black eye – even if now, some two weeks after the fact, everything seems to be back to ‘business as usual’ in the extensive network of prog-related sites. With prog fans’ long-standing reputation for elitism and ‘living in the past’, this is not going to do them any favours with the rest of the underground music scene. In spite of the negative comments that had accompanied the announcement of their headliner status, the members of Umphrey’s McGee had been looking forward to performing for the NEARfest audience, and the statement posted on their own website after the cancellation made their disappointment quite obvious.
Unfortunately, in their stubborn close-mindedness, many prog fans do not realize that even a relatively successful band like Umphrey’s McGee might be glad to be involved in something that might expose them to a new audience and pose them a challenge of sorts. Caught up in endless, hair-splitting debates about the nature of prog, and obsessed with putting a label on everything they hear, they seem to forget that in their beloved Seventies the music scene was much more open and accepting. It was normal at the time to see bands as diverse as ELP, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, The Eagles and Earth, Wind and Fire share a stage at California Jam without people having hissy fits –a trend that seems to have made a comeback in recent years, as proved by last year’s High Voltage festival in London. Many festival-goers also seem to have forgotten about the “Art Rock” present in the NEARfest acronym in their cries of woe over the booking of anything that does not fit their own narrow definition of progressive rock.
Indeed, the adventurous spirit of the late Sixties and early Seventies seems to have deserted a large slice of the prog community, in spite of the almost idealized portrait painted by last year’s documentary Romantic Warriors. To paraphrase Genesis, far too many fans seem to know what they like, and like what they know – and, in times of severe economic crisis, this has made them even more suspicious of leaving their individual comfort zones. Therefore, the need for ‘big names’ (a musical equivalent of designer labels) in order to draw the crowds, even when they do not necessarily mean better quality. The 2010 edition of NEARfest was headlined by Eddie Jobson and his Ultimate Zero Project (an impressive collection of gifted musicians), which, against all expectations, left a good part of the audience cold, when not positively frustrated. Indeed, the complaining about the band coming on stage late (with accusations of ‘star behaviour’ liberally thrown around), or just not delivering from a musical point of view, went on for days – just like any discussion brimming with negative comments about Yes’ latest incarnation or Phil Collins’ alleged destruction of Genesis usually does.
Yet, it seems the lesson has not been learned. At least here in the US, any ‘vintage’ band will always have the edge over modern bands, no matter how good the latter may be. The comments that I have often come across about bands or artists not being as good live as they are on CD are quite revealing of this suspicious (for lack of a better word) attitude towards anything new. Moreover, bands or artists who try to publicize their activity on discussion boards may end up being accused of ‘spamming’ – not to mention the deplorable attitude that seems to consider ‘international’ acts the only ones worth spending money on. Apparently, for quite a few prog fans, so-called ‘obscure’ bands are interesting only as additions to their already extensive CD or vinyl collections.
At the time of writing, only three of the major US prog festivals are still standing. ROSfest (which mainly appeals to a more ‘conservative’ audience) will be taking place on the third weekend of May, and has indeed has taken advantage of NEARfest’s cancellation by attracting at least some of its ‘orphans’ (including myself and my husband), especially those living in the Northeast. The ProgDay lineup seems to have already been finalized, though only two bands have been announced so far; while the future of CalProg is still uncertain. In the meantime, Europe, in spite of the economic crisis, is teeming with prog and other music festivals, most of them featuring up-and-coming bands.
As I observed in my opening paragraph, my original essay received a lot of feedback, both from artists and fans. Interestingly (though not surprisingly), the points of view of these two groups often differ quite sharply. While the fans displayed a range of feelings that went from censure to disappointment and even outright sadness, the musicians’ attitude as a whole expressed worry about the future of the scene, especially as regards opportunities for live performances. Having met many of those people in the past few years, and knowing about the constant struggles they face in order to get their music to be heard, I have no qualms in stating that I am completely on their side – even if I have never played a note in my whole life. Here are a few of the points that have emerged from the discussion of the past two weeks.
- Promoters and independent label owners are growing disenchanted with the overall attitude of the fandom. Bringing international artists to the USA is neither cheap nor fast, and a snag in the visa process may cause a cancellation of a band or artist’s appearance (as it already did several times in the past). Moreover, those who work behind the scenes are quite likely to sustain financial losses in the event of a cancellation, as well as damage to their reputation of reliability – on top of the inevitable practical headaches. Promoters have already started wondering whether is worth going through all that hassle in order to bring bands to the US with the looming risk of seeing an event evaporate if their prospective audience do not find their names appealing enough.
- Home-grown acts are growing increasingly frustrated with being relegated to the status of stopgaps to fall back on when international names defect – ignoring the struggles they have to go through in order to find gigs outside the narrow borders of their home states or regions. Some of the comments about last year’s amazing ProgDay line-up being second-rate because of the lack of international bands were rather enlightening, as well as profoundly depressing. The US are currently home to a large number of exciting acts, ranging from the retro-oriented to those of a more avant-garde bent. Quite a few of them have also produced genuinely challenging music, which does not deserve being dismissed so offhandedly. It is not like any of those bands are able to perform every weekend somewhere around the country. Such a blinkered attitude is not only deeply unfair towards those talented, hard-working musicians, but unmotivated as well. The oversaturation of the market that I so often mention in my reviews does not help either, as it causes a staggering number of bands or solo artists to compete for a handful of live spots.
- A number of interesting suggestions have come from the ranks of the artists, who in some cases have had direct experience of organizing events. The almost unanimous advice was to stop catering solely to a niche audience, and consider the idea of multi-genre festivals, like the above-mentioned High Voltage, Reading Festival and other lower-profile events taking place in Europe and on the American continent. In spite of the jaded, world-weary attitude of many members of the community, who blithely foresee the death of live performances, people still enjoy live music quite a lot, and multi-genre events have the advantage of offering something to everyone. While most musicians would welcome the opportunity to perform at a festival covering a broader range of genres, they are also aware of the often unbending mindset of many fans. There is a clear disconnect between the two camps, with the fans standing their ground and claiming their right to support only the music they find worthwhile, and musicians feeling increasingly marginalized and taken for granted.
- The disconnect between the organizers and their prospective audience also played a large role in the festival’s demise. Having been able to rely for years on end on a core of regular attendees, the organizers put too much faith in them, and were caught off guard when support dropped as sharply as it did this year. Practically no efforts were made to reach outside this restricted group, and the tools offered by the Internet were not deployed to their full effect. Not only did the organizers neglect to advertise the event on other progressive sites than their privileged channel (a US-based forum), but they declined to use the three public Facebook pages dedicated to the event, or even their own board. The latter has been down for over a year, and their dedicated mailing list is only accessible to those who register from the event’s website – not as visible as the social networking sites of which other events make widespread use. Since patron sales were the festival’s cornerstone, no efforts should have been spared to gain new supporters – possibly among forward-thinking people who would have jumped at the opportunity of seeing the bands on the bill, instead of turning up their noses because they were not famous or not ‘prog’ enough.
- A number of NEARfest attendees (including myself and my husband) have often been left with the feeling of intruding on a private club meeting. Some have felt definitely rebuffed, and complained about a borderline hostile atmosphere – an impression that the core community has tried to refute in every way, even to the point of denying the evidence. In my humble opinion, when organizers rely so heavily on patrons’ donations in order to keep the festival going, they cannot afford to give part of the audience the impression of a high-school-style clique that keeps interlopers at bay. Last year’s incident with my review made me briefly consider not to attend in 2011, no matter how much I liked most other aspects of the festival. Other people had decided to stop attending altogether after one snub too many. Unfortunately, it seems that the members of the core group are either unaware of their attitude, or have decided not to care about other people’s opinions.
- Some people from both camps have also suggested alternative methods of funding events, such as using funding platforms like Kickstarter or CrowdFund – as well as scaling back the size of the events, at least until the economy recovers. Indeed, as illustrated by the previous paragraphs, it is not wise to rely too much on the goodwill of patrons, especially when such reliance implies damaging the prospects of younger bands in order to craft a more attractive line-up. This might be a viable option to pursue in a country like the US, where public funding for the arts is not as widespread as in Europe and other Western countries.
To be perfectly honest, many of the reactions I have come across in the past two weeks do not bode well for the future of the US progressive rock scene. Thanks to the Internet, bands and artists would still be able to get their material across to interested listeners – but the opportunities for live performances would get even more scarce than they currently are, which would favour those bands who are chiefly studio-based projects. The frustration may eventually put an end to the existence of many bands, and the competition for the very few remaining live slots may well become unsustainable. Even worse, many of the more cutting-edge bands that in the past few years have been welcomed under the prog umbrella might decide to seek greener pastures, and disassociate themselves from the scene. That would leave prog as the preserve of those bands that, with their conservative, even ‘regressive’ approach, are still capable of attracting crowds. The gap between ‘Prog’ and ‘progressive’ would inevitably widen, and become almost impossible to bridge – as a few enlightened people realize. Anyway, even if it is probably too soon to give in to pessimism, as long as the majority of the fans are unwilling to step out of their comfort zones, the future of the scene looks anything but bright.
Fire of Unknown Origin 
Great write up Raff! you summarized perfectly what has transpired and really given fair evaluation of all of the different attitudes and concerns.
As for me I was delighted to find a festival nearby in Southern California. It has given me the opportunity to see many new bands I would never have seen before. The line up has always been looked down on by a lot of the clique you mention because the lack of a strong headliner but I always take notice that the staff picks a very diverse lineup and it is not as closed as Rosfest. Because it is a one day festival it may same to outsiders that it is weak but it never is.
Alas like Nearfest it seems that I see the same faces at every fest and no new ones showing up and the promoter never reaching beyond the normal channels. Fortunately Calprog has a few “one off” shows during the year that usually do well that have kept the fest going but I can very much understand if Jim decides to shut it down. However in my mind his shows always take precedent over shows scheduled through the Live Nation and its ilk in competition for my dollar because that structure does not employ the kinds of bands Jim does. These bands are independent struggling to reach and find an audience outside of their locale. When Jim decides to retire from this business then we will never see any but local groups playing anything adventuresome unless it is a band like Umphrey’s that pass through.
So while I do not like everything I have heard come through Jim’s concerts I still buy at least one CD from every band and try to turn people on to the music. I can’t express strong enough the notion you have to put your money where your heart and ears are. If you like this music at least try supporting it while you have a chance. The whole thing is very fragile and needs to be nurtured if it is to survive and hopefully one day prosper. Cherry picking your likes and dislikes is your right but the chances our your likes will go ways just as easily as the dislikes so why not support the whole thing.
At the same time I wonder if my loyal support has become part of the problem? Should we try to branch out to allow other groups play at our festivals? I don’t know. I seem wishy washy but really prog isn’t growing the same way it is in Europe in my mind. So Cal used to be an area that supported this kind of music but when you cannot get 400 people to a festival of great music than something has got to change. Either in the labels we use, the way the fest is marketed and finally most importantly in the opening of our minds. The close minded meanness has got to stop or it will all go away.
Great take on it all Raff!!!! The same attitudes are killing the music scene in Austin as well. This is a city of not quite one million, over 150 live music venues, several large festivals a year and countless other mini fests but the main problem is a “good old boys club” who run or book most events in town. One the other end we have some young start up promoters but they have the same attitude of, it’s a better act if it’s from overseas or at least from another state and has to better if it’s on a major label. Meanwhile extreme talent resides here with some of the biggest names in the business who tour all over the world but can’t get a gig in town. It might be good if “their” scene dies a bit more to wake up others who should change their ways before it’s too late. I don’t see the economy ever coming back to what it once was but it will come back up and level off at some point but it will still take creative booking to make festivals work. The main point is their approach is no longer working well enough to sustain the downtown music scene which is slowly turning into shooter bars and dance clubs.
I’m old enough that I remember Bill Graham shows in ’70s in the San Francisco Bay Area and as far south as Monterey having at least three genres on the bill which always helped sell tickets. Bill would put Miles Davis on a bill with Steve Miller and a soul band for example because he new it would bring more people out. He continued doing shows like that until he died. It was a way that a lot of young people discovered Jazz, Soul and Funk. Few remember there were some pretty big recessions in California in those days but these shows still sold well regardless. Today a lot of the kids at those shows who seemed so open minded and who would take a chance on a band or album they never heard and listen long enough to enjoy are now the the stick in the muds you mentioned who enjoy their little elitist groups of not only music genres. Shit, some of them are the publishers of music magazines which are also dying because of such a narrow outlook on a genre.
It will be interesting to see if NF comes back assuming they want too and what creative ideas will come forward to make it work.
Willie, it is I who should thank you for the valuable insights…. I really hope people pull themselves together and realize that things have to change before it’s too late.
A lot of good points, Raffaella. There would certainly seem to be a definite disconnect between all parties involved.
From a marketing and promotional perspective, the effort put forth by the NEARfest organizers would seem at best lazy (and, at worst, disinterested). To not capitalize on social marketing in this era is criminal for such people: it is an easy-access arena for unlimited promotion, and can successfully be harnessed with minimal effort and virtually zero expense.
Rather than utilize these avenues, NEARfest just sits and waits for the interest and funding to show up. They give no apparent advance indications that there is a financial issue (at least none of which I am aware) — they just suddenly decide to cancel.
Why not use your Facebook and MySpace pages and say, ‘Hey, we’re having an issue with advanced ticket sales and are considering having to cancel the event.’ (Perhaps in doing so, some alternate sponsorships might have emerged.)
Why not offer some bulk ticket purchase discounts??
Try something — anything — just don’t DO NOTHING and then pull the plug on everyone (fans and bands, alike) at such a late hour.
In an economy such as this — nationally, and worldwide — business can never be taken for granted. In ANY economic climate, consumers do not appreciate being left with the impression that they are taken for granted.
The real downside in all of this is that bands who were undoubtedly very excited about appearing get dumped to the side, and many people who have made extensive plans — and advanced, non-reimbursable outlays for expenses — are left with nothing but frustration, disappointment and fury.
While this is not a good sign for the genre, I believe it is a death toll for NEARfest. That being said — although NEARfest is a great prog tradition — organizers who are so inconsiderate of their fan base, and lackadaisical and inept on the marketing end, deserve neither success or support.
With intelligent, aggressive marketing, prog events (and even multi-genre events which include progressive music) can continue to be successful; its’ fans are a loyal bunch, and they are still willing to part with money for the music they love.
No matter what the current “powers that be” behind NEARfest do, in the aftermath of this decision, they have burned a bridge with the core of their loyal supporters that can never be rebuilt.
“Even worse, many of the more cutting-edge bands that in the past few years have been welcomed under the prog umbrella might decide to seek greener pastures, and disassociate themselves from the scene. That would leave prog as the preserve of those bands that, with their conservative, even ‘regressive’ approach, are still capable of attracting crowds. The gap between ‘Prog’ and ‘progressive’ would inevitably widen, and become almost impossible to bridge – as a few enlightened people realize.”
highlighting that. In my opinion that is not a bad thing, but what is needed for progressive music to truly flourish. In the words of a wise progressive musican. The music has got too progressive for it’s audiences. Screw the ‘prog-heads’ then, let them have their Genesis albums, and the artists will be forced to take their music to audiences that might well be more receptive. Those outside the scene, who probably care little for tags, labels, and pre-conceived notions music. That is so 80’s and 90’s. Sticking round bands in square holes just so the industry can market them.
Welcome to the world of Jack Dupon. Not classic prog enough to satisfy the organizers of these events, and too out there to break into the normal club scene. While I try to build a legitimate tour for them here in the US, I am left dangling as to their acceptance into certain festivals/venues,despite the bands rave reviews of their performance here last year. Should I cancel the tour? Do I try to put something together, not knowing if they’ll be accepted to play at these festivals/venues? It’s a scheduling nightmare and not really fair. I go to Europe for two weeks in January, seeeing as many shows as possible, and their are shows with folk rockers, followed by performance artists/poetry readings folowed by metal and/or progressive music. Places are packed and everyone is appreciative. Whenever we build festivals, which is something that we do get involved with on occasion, we always try to make them somewhat multi-genre. And they have always been somewhat successful. I’ don’t see why progressive festivals couldn’t do the same. I am not a fan of all genres or sub-genres, but I must admit to being pleasantly surprised on more than one occasion by music from bands that I thought would never interest me. My company recently did sound and lights for a 3 day festival called the Drift Down/Get Down Festival. Not a single band I had ever heard of. All young, hard working bands, different genres witha focus on Dub and electronica and some free jazz and progressive. My crew and I were blown away. It was marketed solely through social networking. Over 600 people showed up, paid $60.00 for the three days, camped out, had a great time, punctuated by great music. No headliners.This summer, they’re expecting double the amount of people. I think the key is multi-genre and social networking. Time for prog to get into the 21st century. I like the old stuff as much as any other over 50 person that grew up with King Crimson as his night music, but I certainly understand that timemoves on, things change and if wedon’t change withthem,we are left to die the death of the dinosaur, a term so often used to describe our beloved late 60’s – early/mid 70’s progressive bands.
Well written Rafaella. I am pretty sure that the European festivals experience equal problems as the american. I remember all to well last years Night Of The Prog V festival at the beautiful site Lorelei.
We had some pretty big names on the bill with Marillion headlining everything. Also the “old” scene was present big time.
with bands as Pallas that have been around for 25 years or Galahad, Twelfth Night. And even the Three Friends, the modernday version of Old Gentle Giant, with three members of that band.
Still there were only a few hundred maybe 1000 people at best present to watch this great event. Myself I was present as a journalist/reviewer for the event and have had a wonderful time especially at the campsite between the show days. we had lots of fun.
Music was great, but as always we the fans need to keep attending concerts otherwise there will be no use for these events.
Here in the Netherlands we have the longest running festival around I believe with Pinkpop, this festival has been running since the 1970’s and still is held every year. Guess what tjis festival is Multi stream, not just one stream in music no all sorts and people keep attending the festival, numbers of attendance are quite large for dutch standards, growing in popularity yearly, the festival terrain can hold up to 50000 people.
The festival has seen big names attending. has gone from a one day event to 3 day event. and is sold out way before it starts.
This said, I think is a strong plea to look at yourself as organiser and go away from niche, and go with a multitude of styles among which the progressive stream.
Once again well done, just wanted add this
Brilliant article! It echoes many of my sentiments (and you know my feelings about the prog scene very well)…
I do find that it does not address two key points, however, which I have come to realize after letting the initial reactions settle:
1.) I, as you know, am on Facebook every single day, and “have my finger on the pulse” of progressive rock, so to speak. I did not even know that tickets for Nearfest had gone on sale. So, there was obviously a big failure from the perspective of promotion.
2.) Ticket prices: One of the things that many people pointed out, is that you can go see Umphrey’s for $25, and they play out frequently, so why spend $150-$300? It seems that the price of NF tickets is very much out of reach for most people. And, for those who can afford it, it seems senseless to buy tickets if they can see these bands cheaper on their own.
This creates a viscous catch-22. Bands cannot make money on CD sales any more, and depend on live show attendance to help offset their costs. But, of a band is VERY successful playing out on their own, they are no longer desirable to have play the festival. Also, prog festivals depend too heavily on bands from outside of the U.S., which drives up ticket prices.
The solution to this, I propose, is to have festivals that are structured in such a way that ticket prices can be cheap, and focus more on local talent.
Correction to my post above: these points were, indeed addressed in the article – I just wanted to point them out!
Oh well…. nice try…
But you can’t be really serious, can you?
This is Much Ado About Nothing!
There is no and there never was any American Prog in any sense…. no Artists, no Audience, no nothing. A few people are kidding themselves from time to time that something is happening, but in reality nothing is happening. Prog is dead and burried since the 1970s and the Necromantic efforts to make it rise again are both pathetic and ridiculous.
Considering the overall victory of nothingness in 21st Century Culture (or Non-Culture) there is truly no hope whatsoever, so let’s just drop it.
The few old farts left out there (present company included) might still get a numb kick out of Prog, but that is about all there is….
@Adam- “American Prog,” interesting … I cannot think of any Am. prog bands to really speak highly of either … But some American Bands have touched on the obscure/pop like The Doobie Brothers, The Bears; but the New Wave scene in America, along with punk was different–albeit rhubbish but fun!
But since prog is short for progressive, punk, alt rock and new wave were totally new–but I cannot think of many festivals with those groups …
Now there’s Indie, more rhubbish, Disco sucked!, techno and new age wasn’t much to write home about, either!
Yeah, prog in general is deteriorating here and abroud!
The last thing I’d call punk and new wave is “totally new”. It was, at least in spirit and largely in substance, a retrenchment of pre-classic-rock stances and attitudes (with extra added Postmodern Irony ).
Why anyone should listen to Adam Baruch is totally beyond me. Why he should want to spread his mopey attitude to others–especially in the absence of an alternative–beggars the imagination.
Yes has a new CD coming out in July–they are the only surviving prog band still around, touring east and west–and they were also the first ‘alternative’ band!
Who needs long and drawn out festivals anyway?
“We Can Fly From Here!”
Actually, Jethro Tull are also still around, and they will be touring the US soon… Curved Air and New Trolls, who were scheduled to play at NEARfest, also belong to the original prog movement of the Seventies. PFM are still touring too, and many others… By the way, I like festivals!
As a fellow contributor to Prog Sphere, I originally came across your article there, and a fine piece it is too. All I can say is I’m glad I live in the UK where there is no prog “scene” as such, and hence little of the elitism and snobbery that seems to prevail in the USA. “Prog” is a much overused and abused term imo, and should be restricted to any music that is truly innovative in whatever field. Most bands that go out of their way to define themselves as “Prog” are probably not progressive at all, and simply want to ape what has gone before.
Thank you for your kind words, Roger! I have read your ProgSphere reviews, and they are superb. Needless to say, I agree 100% with your thoughts… I just hope a lesson will have been learned after NEARfest’s cancellation, though I’m also afraid people are more set in their ways than anyone can realize.
Wow, ok…so… here we are in Seattle, the last bastion of garage grunge and bad cookie cutter metal bands.
And I front a “quasi-progressive” rock band…to be honest, there are very little opportunities for my band in this area if I only market to “prog fans”, and yet our music is too quirky and “proggy” to be considered mainstream. As a disenchanted “reverbnation” member, I find 99% of all shows listed are east of the Rocky Mountains, and what shows we do are imo entirely mis-booked….or are they? Marketing to the social network junkies doesn’t work on many levels for a band like mine, so now what? I had the opportunity to work with a musician lately, a tremendous talent who works side projects for Neil Morse and Mike Portnoy, in my band, who told me very candidly that my voice wasn’t up to par for a “prog” band….that got me thinking, while I was buzy firing the guy we thought would be the voice (problem…no soul, no spirit), that maybe the problem is an elitist attitude by “old school” prog musicians/fans who feel that todays take on prog is not “what it used to be” and is to be shunned…we live in a world that is so “niche market compartmentalized” (is that a word?), that even rising above the mundane usual that passes for music is a long struggle at best…is Radiohead a prog band? Maybe, from a certain point of view… Is Dream Theater the new “model” for modern prog? Again…I say it depends upon your own perspective… I’ve been doing massive research about how best to market this group, and I find it easier to avoid the prog label entirely, because to the average modern fan, there is no one marketing model that works…is prog dead in America? Was it ever alive? As soon as mass media corporations found it easier to market Kiss, they quit putting money into bands like Kansas… Kansas has one major hit, are asked to duplicate that hit, and voila, are dropped when they cannot…so goes the story of many Us “prog” bands marginalized by Rolling Stone…Kings X, a wonderful band from Texas, does not get label support until the lead singer is 40…. the problem is one of culture…the US is a young culture, started as a working-class paradise, due to the technological breakthroughs of the 80’s, has become a culture of instant gratification, and niche marketing… not so Europe, which is why “diversity” in musical tastes is so much more widely accepted… Europe has a 1000 years of musical history, and while influenced to some degree, is not beholden to US marketing trends…
I’m rambling somewhat, but I think these factors are leading causes as to why the prog scene is so stagnant in the US, and why many of us here wish for days gone by….
Just my thoughts…. a concerned workaholic guitarist…
Hi …Said I’d be back and here I am. Another splendid piece of writing and although I probably haven’t new things to say still feel the need to comment. the thing with all art, be it music,painting or literature it has to be subjective, not objective. Try as you may you can never force somone to love the music you do no matter how hard you try.
I can be considered an old fart and my prog leanings are definately for the older bands who I grew up loving. But this does not mean that I am cloth eared and not willing to try new and wonderful things. All throuth my life I have done my best to share my love of the music I love with as many people as I can and unfortunately there have been very few successes, the main problem being twofold.
Much of the music we love is “difficult” to hear for so many ears and therefor some semblance of familiarity is needed to appreciate all its glories. I Very rarely put in a disc and love it immediately. The ones I usually do soon end up hardly seeing the player tray again. With this in mind how hard must It be for non prog-heads to even try to approach this music. So festivals,costing large ammounts of our hard earned cash, do need something more accesible to draw the interested but not converted into our fold. (I was at High Voltage 1 spending most of my day between the Prog and MetalHammer stages untill ELP arrived)
Music is just another commodity to most people not a way of life like it is for me and my ilk. Our lives go by so quickly, we need to fill them with sounds and songs that make us FEEL if only for a short while and for me much of the prog I listen too does this.Yesterday on BBC Radio 2 Jules Holland said this.
“It Doesn’t matter if the music is five minutes or fiva hundred years old so long as it touches the heart”
I absolutely agree.
This should probably be commenting on some other posts as well but I just felt the need.
Thanks for the Big Block454 review.I’m listening for the first time even as I write.
Thanks also for your superb site. A real Oasis in such a musical dessert.
regards
Simon
Thank you for coming back! I am really looking forward to reading more of your comments. I also belong to the generation that grew up in the golden age of prog, and of course those bands are still very much part of my daily listening schedule (listening to Egg’s The Polite Force just now). However, if we want progressive rock (or even just progressive, non-mainstream music) to survive we have to make an effort to support new acts, especially those who are trying to do something different than just reproducing what was done in the Seventies.
The situation here in the US is also quite peculiar, due to a number of factors that in many cases have nothing to do with the music itself – like the sheer size of the country, the limited availability of days off and/or disposable income, and also a very odd (considering the general patriotic bent of the population) fascination with anything “exotic” (meaning not homegrown). All of those factors have contributed to the demise of quite a few festivals (NEARfest being the latest, though probably not the last), and are making life for US-based progressive rock artists very frustrating indeed. It is a vicious cycle, especially as the time is nearing when most of the old-timers will retire. Are we really sure we want to leave music in the hands of the “mainstream” music industry?